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simon-j-williams
Community Member

Exchanging USD for GBP in payment

Hey, I'm new to Upwork and have a contract from someone in America, however I live in the UK. I saw that a wire transfer for international banks charges a £30 fee. Are there any cheaper options in order to exchange the dollars into pounds once I complete the work? Would paypal be the best option? Thanks

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petra_r
Community Member


Simon W wrote:

Hey, I'm new to Upwork and have a contract from someone in America, however I live in the UK. I saw that a wire transfer for international banks charges a £30 fee. Are there any cheaper options in order to exchange the dollars into pounds once I complete the work? Would paypal be the best option? Thanks


It doesn't matter where your client lives, the client always pays for your work in Dollars. You then withdraw using one of the available withdrawal methods.

 

You will lose money in currency exchange either way, unless you use wire transfer, which can (only) be into a USDollar account, but it's not worth it for withdrawals of about $ 700 or more at a time, because the $ 30 fee is more than you save by withdrawing Dollars into a Dollar account.

 

When I still lived in the UK I withdrew partly into a UJ bank account via "to local bank account" - where the money arrives in Pounds, but the exchange rate is poor, partly into a US Dollar balance in PayPal and partly into a Payoneer account I already had for my book royalties.

 

What is best depends on your personal circumstances? 

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3 REPLIES 3
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Simon,

 

To learn more about our available payment method and how to add one check out this Help Article. Feel free to go over the details and chose the one that best fits your needs. If you have any additional questions let me know, thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Simon W wrote:

Hey, I'm new to Upwork and have a contract from someone in America, however I live in the UK. I saw that a wire transfer for international banks charges a £30 fee. Are there any cheaper options in order to exchange the dollars into pounds once I complete the work? Would paypal be the best option? Thanks


It doesn't matter where your client lives, the client always pays for your work in Dollars. You then withdraw using one of the available withdrawal methods.

 

You will lose money in currency exchange either way, unless you use wire transfer, which can (only) be into a USDollar account, but it's not worth it for withdrawals of about $ 700 or more at a time, because the $ 30 fee is more than you save by withdrawing Dollars into a Dollar account.

 

When I still lived in the UK I withdrew partly into a UJ bank account via "to local bank account" - where the money arrives in Pounds, but the exchange rate is poor, partly into a US Dollar balance in PayPal and partly into a Payoneer account I already had for my book royalties.

 

What is best depends on your personal circumstances? 

Hey,

 

Thanks for the advice 🙂 I might just have it sent direct to my local bank in that case I was just worried that I had to do expesnive wire transfers for foreign banks.

 

Many thanks, Simon

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