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Ask HN: How to pay freelancers abroad?

7 points by GruppeC956 ↗ HN
We oftentimes work with foreign freelancers on design projects. Usually we pay them via PayPal, but that has become very costly.

We have considered setting up foreign bank accounts for our company, but that is 1. a pain in the neck and 2. generates hefty fees once again (we somehow would have to "fuel" these accounts, but both the US bank and the foreign bank charge significant fees for international wire transfers).

Any suggestions? Thanks guys!

11 comments

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embro
How does xoom.com compares with Paypal?
GruppeC956
Will definitely check it out. Thanks!
yanivf
I warmly recommend Payoneer.com, this is how we've been doing it for the last few months and its working great. There are a few fees but they are minor in comparison to PayPal and banks...
GruppeC956
Thanks a lot!

Just checked them out, and it looks exactly like what we need, but the sign-up unfortunately site reads "Currently we can support applications only from companies paying at least $5,000 Per Month." While we will process more than this in January, it will only be a couple of hundred in February and March, and it's my understanding that they would want us to sign up for a plan.

BWStearns
I used Western Union a lot when I was working with a remote team. Depending on the country (and level of corruption) though that can give them trouble with their local 'friendly' government employees. At that point I started sending it through a third country.
bks
I don't want to state the obvious but just use a site like odesk or elance and have your freelancers join your team. Not only do you get protection for the work that gets done and a tremendous amount of reporting / accountability tools but they get the protection that if they do the work, they'll get paid.

It really cuts down the hassles and and questions that prevent most people from outsourcing and if you think about the 10% fee on oDesk you'll calculate it to be a minor surcharge on excellent productivity and accountability tools.

To give you an example, before India changed their payment rules about 4 years ago my vendors would tack on a 4% surcharge to paypal payments...and then India prevented payments over $500 so I switched to wire transfers that ended up costing me $40 per wire and about an hour per month per vendor to coordinate and verify.

I manage eleven outsourcers in six countries and I am the cheapest person that I know...and I still find a huge amount of value and protection by using these sites.

AjJi
why not a wire transfer to their bank account?
GruppeC956
Because that is way more expensive than PayPal (the sending and receiving bank charge you).