Getting paid from abroad: Wise, Payoneer, banks

First, how are you hired?

How you get paid depends on how the company hires you. There are two common set-ups.

Employee through an employer of record (EOR). The company pays a provider that legally employs you in your country. Deel, one of these providers, describes an EOR as an organization that legally employs and pays workers on behalf of another company, and handles local contracts, payroll, tax filing and statutory benefits. You get a local payslip, usually in local currency.
Independent contractor. You send invoices and the company pays you by bank transfer or through a payment service. Tax is your job. Our guide to contractor vs employee roles explains the trade-offs.

Ask early, in writing: "Will I be an employee through an EOR, or a contractor? How, and in which currency, will you pay me?" The answer decides which of the options below matter to you.

Bank transfers by SWIFT

The most direct route is an international transfer into your own bank account. Many cross-border bank payments travel over the SWIFT network. To receive one, you give the payer:

your full name, exactly as your bank holds it
your account number, plus an IBAN if your bank uses one
your bank's name, branch and address
your bank's SWIFT or BIC code

The catch is fees. When the payer's bank and yours have no direct link, the money passes through correspondent banks, and each one can take a cut. Wise estimates these correspondent fees at roughly 15 to 50 US dollars, sometimes more, and says they can be taken at any stage. So an invoice for 1,000 dollars can arrive short, and you won't always know which bank took what.

Before your first payment, ask your bank four questions:

Can I keep US dollars or euros in a foreign currency account, or will incoming money be converted on arrival?
What do you charge for an incoming international transfer?
Which exchange rate do you use, and how far is it from the market rate that day?
How long does an incoming transfer usually take to show?

Then agree with the payer who covers transfer fees, and put it in your contract or on your invoice.

Wise: useful, but not available everywhere

Wise is a money transfer service that many companies use to pay people abroad. What it can do for you depends on where you live, so check before you plan around it.

Payouts into your local bank. Wise lists Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia among the countries it can send money to. Its currency list shows local transfers in Egyptian pounds, Ghanaian cedis, Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan shillings, Moroccan dirhams, naira and rand. So a client abroad who uses Wise can often pay straight into your bank account in your own currency.
Holding money with Wise. Wise's list of countries where you can hold money in a Wise account includes only one African country: South Africa. If you live elsewhere on the continent, don't count on a Wise balance.
Places Wise doesn't serve. Wise names Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, DR Congo, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan as unsupported locations, where you can't send or receive money with it.

For other countries, Wise says a transfer may still work if the receiving account is in US dollars, euros or pounds. These lists change, so read Wise's own help pages for your country on the day you need them.

Payoneer

Payoneer gives you receiving account details, so clients abroad can pay you by bank transfer the same way they'd pay a local supplier. Its site says you can collect payments with local account details in 11 currencies and withdraw to a local bank in more than 190 countries and territories. Freelance marketplaces such as Upwork and Fiverr can pay out to it too.

Two cautions. Payoneer says not all of its products are available in every jurisdiction in the same way, and that its fees may change. Before you rely on it, open its current fee schedule and check three numbers:

the fee, if any, for receiving a payment
the currency conversion fee
the fee to withdraw to a bank in your country

Add them up on a typical payment. That's your real cost, and it's the number to compare against a direct bank transfer.

Payroll through an employer of record

If you're hired as an employee through an EOR, you're paid like any local employee: a monthly salary into your bank account, with income tax and contributions handled under your country's rules. It's usually the least admin for you. It also means your salary is often fixed in local currency, so a weaker or stronger dollar won't change your payslip until the company reviews your pay.

Questions to ask before you sign:

Which company will be my legal employer in my country?
Is my salary fixed in local currency or in dollars, and how was it converted?
Which statutory benefits are included, and what does the company add on top, such as health cover or an equipment budget?
When are salaries reviewed?

Compare the options

Option	Works well for	Watch out for
Bank transfer by SWIFT	Almost any employer and any bank	Correspondent fees, your bank's exchange rate, slow first payments
Wise payout to your bank	Clients paying into the nine African countries Wise lists	Not offered everywhere; holding money only for people in South Africa
Payoneer	Freelancers, marketplace work, several clients	Receiving, conversion and withdrawal fees
EOR payroll	Full-time employees	Salary often fixed in local currency

Many people use more than one. For example, an EOR salary for a main job and Payoneer for side contracts.

Checklist before your first payment

Send your payment details in writing and check the name and account number twice. A small typo can bounce a transfer and cost a week.
If the employer has never paid anyone in your country, ask for a small test payment first.
Agree the currency, the payment date and who pays transfer fees before you start work.
Keep every invoice, payslip, payment confirmation and bank statement. You'll need them at tax time. See our guides for Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Egypt.
Check your bank's and central bank's rules on foreign currency accounts. They differ by country and change often.

Red flags

Never take money into your account to forward to someone else, and never pay a fee to receive your own pay. The US Federal Trade Commission warns that a check can bounce even after your bank seems to have cleared it, and you'll owe the bank the money. "Deposit this and send part of it back" is a classic job scam. Our guide to remote job scams in Africa covers the common ones.