With a fast-growing world, people now prefer to work as freelancers instead of going to jobs. While the local freelancing jobs are rare and not that promising, the internet provides the opportunity for freelancers to convert the skills to maximize profit through online freelance job sites. Since most of the time, the clients of freelancers would be in another country or freelancers use the freelance marketplace like Fiverr, it is important to consider the best payment methods to receive payment as fast as possible.
In this article, let me help you find the best payment options for freelancers and online businesses to send & receive payments online fast and secure. These payment processors are very reliable that you can make use of those to fulfill your payment solutions from almost any part of the world.
Best Payment Methods For Freelancers and Online Businesses:
Find the list of best payment options to receive payments from clients and for the small online businesses to process payments.
1. PayPal Payments:
PayPal is the undisputed best payment processor in the world operating its services in over 200 countries. Besides the United States Dollar, they support over 25 major currencies, including CAD, GBP, AUD, JPY, NZD, SGD, INR.
PayPal is more than a payment option. It acts as an online wallet where you can directly send money on PayPal supported online services such as online shopping, booking movie tickets, getting services, etc.
Most of the Freelance sites support PayPal as the payment option apart from direct payments and card payments. So, it’s really easy to receive earnings within seconds to your PayPal wallet.
Also, PayPal has the option to withdraw the payments directly to the Bank account. All you need to do is set up the bank account and tax information to receive payments from PayPal.
PayPal services are free, which means you can receive payments without losing money as fees. And based on your account type, they might charge up to 2.5% for sending money to others.
Just give your PayPal email ID or the Personalized PayPal link https://paypal.me/uniqueusername to receive payments in an instant. From my point of view, PayPal is the best payment method for freelancers.
PayPal for Business:
PayPal offers exclusive services for the business, so if you’re doing online business, you can set up a PayPal Business account.
PayPal business accounts will have access to special features such as Mass payouts, PayPal API, linking to e-commerce business apps and other features that help to manage the business payments with ease.
Usually, PayPal may charge a fee for doing payments using a personal account. But, in the case of PayPal Business accounts, it’s free to send and receive payments. You can enable the Mass Payout feature by getting verified your account as a Premier PayPal account.
You can also convert PayPal personal account to PayPal business account by submitting required business documents. The PayPal requirements vary based on the country you reside in.
In the end, the PayPal personal account is more than enough for the Freelancers for sending and receiving the payments. But, in case you’re doing any online business, you can sign up for PayPal business account to enjoy additional benefits.
Transaction Fees – Low.
Sign up – PayPal.
2. Payoneer:
Payoneer is one of the biggest International online payment solutions which offers to send and receive business payments all around the world.
Some of the large companies work with Payoneer, including Upwork, Fiverr, Amazon, Google, Adobe, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, Shutterstock, etc.
It is a reliable payment option like PayPal, but we cannot use it for personal like PayPal. But, it’s much easier to use and faster to receive international payments.
As a freelancer, you can sign up for the Payoneer account for free and get verified by submitting the required documents and tax information. Payoneer usually get the account ready completely to receive payments within hours.
Unlike submitting an email ID for payments like you do it for PayPal, you will have to link your Payoneer account to the freelance site or the affiliate network to receive the payments. Once linked, the site will be listed under the loading option so whenever the site sends the payment, they will immediately load it into the wallet.
Based on your country, you can choose to withdraw the earnings to your bank account automatically.
Prepaid Payoneer MasterCard:
Few freelance networks and GPT sites offer a way to withdraw the earnings as Prepaid Payoneer MasterCard. This option will be very reliable to receive small payments.
Most of the Payoneer Prepaid card payments start from $25.
Related article – PayPal vs Payoneer.
Payoneer for Business:
Payoneer isn’t suitable for smaller businesses. Instead, it’s a great option for large online businesses to fulfill the online payment needs.
Make use of Payoneer Global Services to receive Wire Payments and ACH:
The greatest advantage of Payoneer is that you can use your Payoneer account to receive wire payments if your bank doesn’t support the wire transfer, SEPA, ACH.
Wire transfers are usually the foreign bank transfers suitable for large payments. Some of the foreign clients and sites support only bank wire, SEPA, and ACH. If you have trouble receiving wire transfers to your bank account or you do want to make use of wire transfers to prevent tax formalities, you can make use of Payoneer to receive the wire payments.
The Payoneer account will have to activate the Global services to receive the payments from the company directly to your local bank account through Payoneer. Payoneer Global services support USD, AUD, JPY, GBP, and CAD using individual accounts.
Transaction Fees – Low.
Sign up – Payoneer.
3. CoinPayments:
If you’re a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, then you’re going to love CoinPayments.
CoinPayments is a multi-featured cryptocurrency payment processor that accepts over 1800 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin(BTC), Litecoin(LTC), Ethereum(ETH), BitcoinCash(BCH), etc.
While not every freelance marketplace accepts and sends the cryptocurrency payments because of the market fluctuations, there are freelance sites that pay the users in Bitcoin.
You can choose to receive Bitcoin payments and other cryptocurrencies using CoinPayments with no fees.
Remember that the crypto transactions are instant, irreversible, and safe.
If you can handle Bitcoin based on the market price fluctuations, you can even double the Bitcoin through Bitcoin trading.
Cryptocurrency holders can choose to use CoinPayments as an online wallet for multiple cryptocurrencies and convert it to other coins too.
Transaction fees – Low.
Sign up – CoinPayments.
4. Wire Transfer:
The Wire Transfers are the best when it comes to receiving the international payments directly to the bank account without any intermediate payment processors like PayPal, Payoneer, etc.
People who are looking forward to large international payments can go for the Wire Transfer for faster, secure, and directly deposited in your account without the help of any mediator company.
Based on the preferences of your local bank account, you may choose to automatically convert the foreign currency to local currency or hold the currency and sell it when the market price relevant to your home currency is high.
The major disadvantage of a wire transfer is that you might be charged $10 to $50 by the bank to process the payment and some fee by the local bank if the payment exceeds a certain value. Check with your local bank to know more about the wire fee structure.
To receive the wire payments, your bank must support the wire transfers. Usually, your local bank will have Swift-BIC code to receive the Wire payments.
If you prefer not to disclose your payment info to third party payment services, or your client only supports bank deposits, you can choose to go for Wire Transfer functions.
Transaction fees – High but fixed.
5. Skrill:
Skrill is an online payment solution that offers services to send and receive money worldwide. It acts as a wallet to load money and spend it on the supported sites.
While Skrill is supported in more countries than PayPal, its functions are limited to payments transfer solution, which means you can send and receive money, but it cannot be directly used to make purchases.
Skrill offers ways to load money using your debit card, credit card, bank account, unified payment interface, NETELLER, etc.
To receive payments, all you need is to give an email ID to the client or the website to receive payments and withdraw it to your bank account.
They charge transaction fees to send payments to another Skrill customer or bank account. The fees for receiving funds are free sometimes and in a few sites they might charge you a transaction fee.
Unlike PayPal, Skrill payments are available only in established affiliate networks, paid to click companies, etc.
You will have to complete the 5 step verification process to unlock your account completely, secure your account, and remove limitations.
The Skrill money mobile app for Android and IOS will be very helpful to access your fund 24/7 from anywhere.
You can even buy and sell cryptocurrency using skrill.
Transaction fees – Medium.
Sign up – Skrill.
6. NETELLER:
The NETELLER is owned by the same company that owns Skrill, Paysafe Financial Services Limited™.
Like Skrill, NETELLER has features to send, receive money from the freelancer hiring clients, making it one of the reliable online payment methods.
While you know NETELLER features resemble Skrill’s, the NETELLER has some of the significant features compared to payment methods like PayPal, Payoneer, etc.
You can avail the NETELLER prepaid Mastercard® to get instant access to your fund loaded in the account. It allows making online purchases and paying in person.
The best thing about the NETELLER prepaid Mastercard® is that you can use the card in the ATM to directly withdraw the money without the need to transfer to the bank account.
While I recommend using the ATM debit card or credit card provided by the bank to enjoy the transactions for free cost, the NETELLER prepaid Mastercard® will be helpful in emergencies. Also, it will be useful in the case if you aren’t going for local currency. Make sure to check the NETELLER prepaid Mastercard® details regarding the card availability in your country.
Get instant access to your NETELLER account using their mobile app.
Transaction fees – Medium.
Sign up – NETELLER.
7. Tipalti:
Tipalti is one of the largest global payment solutions that enable the option to transfer money using various money transfer modes.
Most of the Tipalti customers include Ad Networks, eCommerce sites, Monetization Networks, Affiliate Networks, Online Marketplaces, etc.
Tipalti reduces the stress of companies related to payments, making it easier and secure to address the payouts through automation.
Usually, when companies partner with Tipalti, the publishers or customers of the companies will be asked to sign up on Tipalti and select payment mode of their desire which includes PayPal, eCheck, Bank transfer, Card payments, Wire transfer, etc. based on the user preferences.
While Tipalti is not a direct payment option for the freelancers, it sure helps the freelancers indirectly through online businesses and networks.
Transaction fees – Low.
Learn more – Tipalti.
8. Western Union:
Western Union is undoubtedly the best international money transfer company in the world for the freelancers.
It enables the feature to collect the cash directly in one of its outlets or partner companies in the local currency. Also, you can choose to deposit in your bank account.
The client or the company will send the Money order through Western Union. They will provide the MTCN number to the receiver. The receiver should use the MTCN number and one of the Government ID proof to collect the cash in the WU outlet. Remember that the cash can be collected only in the location where the client has mentioned.
The reason WU is at the bottom of the list is that their services have become a little outdated and also they are a bit expensive compared to other payment options. Also, online businesses and companies have moved to more reliable payment options.
Still, Western Union remains the best payment option for people from developing and underdeveloped countries.
Transaction fees – High.
Learn more – Western Union.
9. GooglePay(GPay):
Unlike the payment options listed above, the GooglePay is the well-known payment app available for the Android and IOS users.
It enables the feature to send and receive money for free of cost in the countries where it is supported. Currently, GooglePay is available in a limited number of countries.
Like PayPal, GooglePay is not an option for the freelancers to receive money from foreign countries. Mostly, GPay can be used for only domestic money transfers.
We can expect more from GooglePay as it is owned by Google, which is the leader of innovation.
Transaction fees – No.
Learn more – GPay.
10. Moneygram:
The Moneygram is a money transfer company similar to the Western Union money transfer.
Through Moneygram, you can send and receive money online and in their outlet. They support home delivery in some regions.
Moneygram remains one of the best payment methods for small businesses.
If you’ve got specific intent and if you don’t have the options to use the payment options listed above, you can make use of Moneygram to fulfill your financial transactions.
Transaction fees – High.
Learn more – Moneygram.
Factors to determine the Best Payment Methods:
These are some factors to consider that make the payment processor reliable or unreliable. Before selecting the payment processor or payment method, you can analyze the reliability of a payment processor by comparing these factors.
Availability around the world:
The first factor to consider about a payment processor is that the availability of the payment processor in the number of countries.
While most of the payment processors support the tier-1 country and tier-2 country, they might lack support to some of the tier-3 countries. Hence, it is important to analyze if the payment processor supports the host country and the foreign countries where you need to send or receive payments.
Choose the payment options based on the availability of support in your country.
Transaction fees:
The transaction fee is the second most important factor to consider selecting a reliable payment method.
Higher transaction fees may lead to losing a significant part of money if you’re going to transfer a lower amount.
Similarly, the payment processors with the fixed fee should be good while comparing to the payment processors with the percentage-based fee structure.
Make sure to check the transaction fee structure of the payment processor before choosing it for your business or freelancing career.
You might like to read – Ways to earn money online.
The time frame for processing payments:
For any business, time is one of the most prime factors. So, it is important to consider the timing factor while choosing the payment.
Usually, payment processors like PayPal complete the payment almost instantly while compared to the foreign wire payments, which usually take few days to complete.
Check out for the payment processing time frame while choosing the payment options.
Limitations in the transactions:
Get the information about various limitations applied to the transactions by the payment processors.
Based on the account type, they might have a transaction limit per day, which might eventually affect the online businesses.
Usually, the freelancers don’t get affected by the transaction limit applied by the payment processors. However, the large online businesses need to address this issue.
The payment processors companies usually have such limitations while the direct transfers do not have any such limitations.
However, the limitations can be removed from the payment processors by letting them know about business operations and requirements.
You might also like to read – PayPal review.
