Ask HN: Paypal sucks! Should I start a LLC in the US to be able to use Stripe?
I have a predicament and would like to hear what you think about it.
I'm a freelance frontend developer based in a third world country and the only ways I have to get paid by my clients are Paypal, Transferwise or Wire Transfer.
Here are my issues with those 3:
- Paypal withdrawals take 4-5 days to arrive in my bank account and they charge $10/witdhrawal. Their fees are also 5.4% for my country and, as you most know, their support sucks.
- Transferwise is awesome but I have gotten some pushback from my clients with this method since a lot of them want to use their credit card/PayPal to pay me.
- Wire transfers are too expensive for me and my customers.
After some research, the only solution I see is to open an LLC in the US and travel there to open a bank account (which I can do) and use the new company info to open the Stripe account.
I tried Stripe Atlas but they rejected me because it looks like I posed a financial risk to their banking partners (that's what they said).
What do you guys think about it? Would it be worth it to go through all this hassle just to use Stripe? I keep fearing the day when PayPal freezes my account for no apparent reason (I have heard stories...) and I lose my only way of getting paid.
2 comments
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