When we first started online works many peoples could not believe that money can be earned online, although PayPal was present since the year 2002. Technically, PayPal is one of the first digital wallets. Coca Cola was the very company to introduce a digital payment system back in 1997. I guess even today a newbie had not much idea around the ways to receive money from a company or a person from a different country. The biggest concern of digitally transferring money still today is a loss of money.
Via a known person
The most secured way to get the money in hand is via a known person. This can be arranged in different ways – via peer group, a business partner, or by employing a freelancer to do the job for a fee. This procedure makes sure that the person paying does not need to take much risk. This method is suitable in special cases. This method of transaction is not common.
Via paper cheque
Most bank cheque internationally works. If I issue a cheque from Axis Bank, Kolkata to John Doe residing in Little Rock and mail it to him, he can encash the cheque from the local main branch of the bank. This system requires a core banking system. This method prevents the chance of money loss. However, this is a time-taking procedure (can take 4 days to 2 months) and also costly. Google AdSense used to issue cheques to the bloggers still recent past. It is suitable for the sum of over $100.
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Bank transfer
We can transfer money using SWIFT bit via the banks which support this system (most banks do support). Presently, many companies including Google AdSense apply this method for their payments. It is quite a safe method as the procedure involves 3 banks. However, the procedure can take 4 days to 2 months. This method is as good as sending cheque without the trouble of involving the postal system.
Wire transfer
Western Union and Moneygram charge around $22 per average transaction and you will get the cash in your city within some hours. This is the fastest method of getting cash in hand from a different country.
Escrow transfer
Escrow is involving a third party via a company, which holds the money before they are transferred from one party to another. This kind of money transaction is for meeting contractual requirements and shielding who is paying. Except purchasing domain and websites, this costly service is not required for common works.
Stripe and RazorPay
These two services are suitable for some countries, but you can not use them in all the countries across the globe.
PayPal
PayPal is the gold standard for the bloggers and freelancers. The biggest advantage of PayPal is the invoicing service for free. However, the charges of PayPal for an international payment is quite higher. PayPal is barely suitable for the transactions over $500.
e-Transfer (Interac)
e-Transfer is yet not available in all the countries. e-Transfer is an excellent alternative to receive payments via local banks.
Conclusion
Among the various solutions, PayPal remained the most popular and reliable service over 1.5 decades for receiving international payments. PayPal is convenient but at a cost of extra charges for conversion of foreign currency. Bank transfer and wire transfer are a robust alternative to PayPal payments. Unfortunately, I can not discover any method which never delivers any headache.
