Getting paid in Egypt

[Paula S]

Hello!

I am about to make my first withdrawal from my account using Wire Transfer.

I am from Egypt and will be doing the transaction into a CIB bank account with USD currency.

I was wondering how much time does it approximately takes excluding the 1 working day listed in the article about timing of payments?

Hoping to hear back from a freelancer from Egypt with similar experience.

Thanks!

[Mohamed H · Accepted solution]

This post should be helpful.
Wire-Transfer-to-Egypt

Don't forget to share your experience when you withdraw.

[Paula S]

Thanks!

I will start the withdrawal now and post my experience as soon as I have news.

[Youssef S]

Hey Paula,

Could you please provide more details whenever your transaction is over? 

I would also like to know how much does CIB take beside the Upwork $30 fee for a Wire Transfer because I'm comparing between CIB and NBE.

Thank you so much for your time writing a response.

[Asmaa G]

waiting for your Experience results . also I want to compare it with Payoneer which is making a good offer.  

[Paula S]

So I just came back from CIB and found that the transaction has been completed on the date 4/4.

That means that it took less than expected to reach the bank account here in Egypt (about 4 days)

Besides the 30$ Upwork fee, the bank deducted a fee of 2$ exactly for the transaction.

So I can tell that there is no intermidiate bank betwen Upwork and CIB which means less fees.

Also, I was not required to provide a statement of earnings or any other paperwork.

Just my ID and account number like any other withdrawal process.

Goodluck to everyone else!

[Youssef S]

Thank you so much for answering. I'm glad to hear they only take $2. I have two more questions though:

1- Can you withdraw USD in cash from the bank itself or do they give you Egyptian Pounds instead?

2- Is it a saving account(The USD saving account bundle mentioned on their website)?

Thank you so much again!

[Paula S]

Hey! Sorry for my late reply, been out lately.

For bank withdrawal, you have to open a USD bank account. That way you can deposite and withdraw by USD currency making you free to exchange them for EGP at anytime you want by simply withdrawing them and exchanging them on the spot in your bank.

I am not sure about this but I have been told that if you try to withdraw your money to an EGP bank account instead of a USD one, the bank will convert them directly into EGP without notifying you. Just thought you should know.

As for the saving account, I didn't read much about it but since I am 20 years old, I still can't open a personal bank account so I had a Youth Account opened in CIB with a Debit Card and everything.

Hope that I helped!

[Youssef S]

That's perfect, thank you so much for replying!