So you finished your job, and now YOU NEED TO GET PAID! I think every freelancer has had problems with getting paid. There are a lot of services around, for me Paypal is the fastest way, but it so hard to get the money to Costa Rica is just not possible for me.
I have been using Payoneer for a couple of years, and is a great service. So lets dive into some details for you guys looking to move money to your country:
Speed
For me the speed is very important, because I need keep cash flowing to be able to always have a reserve and not having to be playing catch up on every project.
On this Payoneer is hit and miss. Their ACH service is great, I always get the money the same day it hits their account, never had a problem even do they say it could take up to 7 days, it usually hits same day.
For wires from they partners (Upwork, 2checkout, etc) they always hit on time and are on my account without any delays.
Billing service is another story, their service is pretty good but sometimes it takes forever for them to approve it. If a client pays you on Monday and its approved the same day the money will be on your account by the beginning of Wednesday, that is pretty good, but sometimes they take up to 2 business days to approve it; that means it will be approved on Thursday, so it won’t hit your account until the following Monday, not fun.
Also from time to time they decide to request “extra documents”, and you have to send them, call them , follow up and basically spend 24 hours making sure the process them to avoid falling into a support “black hole”.
Cost
Of course you expect prepaid cards to have a high cost, and yes Payoneer has a really high cost. Getting the money will cost you 1% to 4% depending on the service. And then if you pay with the card on stores you will have to pay around 3% exchange rate difference (at least happens for me in Costa Rica; so by this point you’re leaving 5% to Payoneer.
If you withdraw money you will pay a fee. For example I can only get $700 per withdraw here in Costa Rica, and I pay around $15 to get them. So withdrawing the money has a cost of around 2%, this cost will go up if you withdraw less money.
So is almost the same thing paying with the card and withdrawing the money; I usually get the money and move it to a local bank account, that allows me to pay and also have access to cash.
Support
Again hit and miss. Sometimes they are great, sometimes they say “yeah you need to wait 7 days for this to be processed”, and then 7 days later you still need to contact them “ok we are working on this” and still have to way other 2 days for an email asking you for some info.
Their chat is usually down, but their phone support is pretty good. The problem is they are always escalating to departments you can’t talk with. You call and they say they are sending the case to the right department, but then you cannot call that department, you can just keep calling support and they will tell you “still no update, we are waiting for department X”.
Last Words
My feeling is Payoneer is a great service, you just need to make sure you have a money reserve, and from time to time the patience to deal with support.
