How to Accept International Payments

How to receive international payments as a freelancer

We all know that to run a successful business, we need to be able to accept payments. It sounds simple, but sometimes receiving money is easier said than done, especially when it comes to accepting international payments.

If you ask most freelancers and small business owners what methods they offer for clients to pay them, the most frequent answers you’ll get are bank transfer, PayPal, and possibly cheque. But today’s world is getting smaller, and the smaller it gets, the more options are available to us.

Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for freelancers to work with customers in other countries. Even for those who don’t work with languages, the countless opportunities provided by travel and the World Wide Web mean that people and companies are no longer restricted to working only with those in close physical proximity. And with more small businesses than ever before needing to be able to accept international payments, software companies are developing solutions and technologies to help us do just that.

How to receive payments is a topic that often comes up with my mentees, so I wanted to use this blog post to share some of the different options available to you that you might not have thought about… until now!

How to accept international payments

For the first couple of years of running my business, I was quite satisfied with offering just two payment methods: bank transfer in GBP and PayPal in any currency. But I soon became unsatisfied with PayPal’s high fees, and I had clients wanting to pay me by bank transfer in other currencies. I even had a client ask to pay me by credit card, and someone else wondered if they could pay in instalments.

All this prompted me to do some research into alternative payment methods, the results of which you can find below!

1) Multi-currency bank accounts

Multi-currency bank accounts are a great way of making sure you’re able to receive payments from abroad. For B2B service providers, this is perhaps the easiest way to invoice and accept money in other currencies.

That said, especially with some of the high-street banks, having a bank account with multiple currencies can be costly. I’ve heard from a number of my mentees that exorbitant fees, which have increased this year following Brexit, are often associated with these accounts.

Fortunately, this isn’t something I’ve experienced with my own bank account, which I set up a while ago and am now even an affiliate for because I love it that much! In order to receive bank transfers in multiple currencies, I have a Wise (formerly TransferWise) multi-currency account. It’s great in that it gives you bank details in major currencies such as GBP, USD and EUR, so you can receive and hold money in several currencies rather than being forced to convert it into your base currency at the time of transfer.

Plus, when/if you do decide to convert your money, Wise uses the real exchange rate and charges very low fees compared to traditional banks.

They also give you a debit card with your account which enables you to pay in any currency you have a balance in! What’s not to like?

2) Credit/debit card processors

Especially with the pandemic, paying by credit and debit card seems to have overtaken paying by cash. I know so many people nowadays, even from older generations, who have stopped withdrawing cash altogether and rarely have it on them. As a result, accepting payments via card is a must, particularly for B2C service providers.

I’ve already mentioned PayPal, which is perhaps the most well-known online payments system and allows businesses and individuals to make and receive money in different currencies. But personally, I do find PayPal’s fees a little bit too high.

To receive payments via credit/debit card, I use a payment processor called Stripe. Stripe’s fees are lower than PayPal’s, and clients can pay directly in almost any currency without needing an account if you integrate Stripe into your invoicing software or website. I do this with Zoho Invoice, and the majority of my clients now pay me by card.

3) Direct debit payment providers

Direct debit is an option that often gets overlooked by freelancers and small business owners. But it can remove a potential obstacle when it comes to onboarding new clients. It’s important to remember that sometimes people or companies just don’t have the spare cash lying around to be able to pay you in full.

I love being able to give people the option of paying in instalments. It fits right into my philosophy of creating a caring and nurturing community, and I feel happy knowing that offering this payment method makes my services more inclusive and accessible to a wider range of people.

To take payment in instalments as a direct debit, I use a platform called GoCardless. All you have to do is set up your payment plan on the platform (how many payments, how frequently, which currency, how much to be charged each time, etc.) and send the link to your client. By filling in their details, they are giving permission for GoCardless to take payment from their account by direct debit as specified in the plan.

Besides making your services more accessible to people, direct debit is a great solution if you’re working on a large and costly project for a client. You might prefer to break payment down into regular instalments without needing to invoice every time (and risk the client ghosting you!).

As things stand, I find these three methods the best ways to accept a variety of international payments. In fact, even if you don’t need to receive money in different currencies from abroad, you might want to consider offering payment by card and direct debit anyway, on top of the more traditional bank transfer. In my experience, these payment options help to break down both financial and practical barriers.

Whatever payment methods you decide to offer, I really hope you’ve found these suggestions useful. I’d love to hear from you if you try any of them out or if you’re already using some of them. If you’d like more tips like these relating to your business finances, I offer 1:1 custom mentoring calls where you can pick my brains about a topic of your choice. If there’s something specific you’d like to discuss about your financial admin, I’d be more than happy to help you get your business running as efficiently as possible.

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