New payment method - TransferWise**

[Andrei C]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone would like to have TransferWise** as a payment method option in Upwork?

Last week alone I lost $54 because of the transfer to my bank and the exchange rates they use, and I'm sure I'm not alone. So, in essense, every month I lose over $200 from my hard earned money on Upwork, just because the bank handles the currency exchange from USD to RON (I'm based in Romania), even though the banks boast in 0% charges per transfers.

Even if I set up a USD payment method in Upwork and create a USD account with my bank to receive USD in my bank account, I still have to exchange the money in my currency in order to use them. Not to mention that it makes my accounting more difficult.

I contrast, I went to TransferWise** and inserted the same amount of money I transferred last week and based on their reported exchange rate, I would save up to $49.23 for a transfer of $1500, their fee being only $14.85, which is a HUGE improvement. $200/month lost from using the bank, compare that with $60/month (estimated) the TransferWise** fee. Can you sense how angry I am?

I was able to actually test their system with a client from Holland (unrelated to Upwork, they found me through LinkedIn) and they would pay my invoice through TransferWise** monthly and the amounts that would enter in my bank account were close to the amount of dollars I had calculated beforehand. So, it wasn't lacking something like $200 from the amount, only a small percentage fee (0.5% - 1%).

So, it would really be beneficial for us, freelancers at least, to use the TransferWise payment system! Is there anyway that the TransferWise** payment method can be implemented at least at the start of 2016?

Has anyone else been experiencing this?

Andrei

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[Vladimir G]

Hi Andrei,

Thanks for the suggestion and feedback, I will share it with the team.

[Bruno L]

I think it would be an excellent idea!!!

[Francesco C]

Bumping this just to know if we should expect TransferWise to be added at some point in 2016, or if it's better to forget it and stick to the currently available payout methods.

[Ish B]

Must have this feature. Thanks for suggesting, Andrei.

[Iftikhar I]

It really make sense!Upwork must try it for the sake of freelancers. 

[Claudia S]

Have you tried Paypal? I think is the best option for RO now. The currency exchange is advantageous - much more than the bank one.

[Andrei C]

Yep, I tried PayPal. In fact, I use only PayPal. The process is like this: Upwork -> PayPal -> Bank, which in turn transforms USD into EUR which then transforms EUR into RON. In this transformation process I lose over $200 per month. Unfortunately, PayPal doesn't offer me currency exchange from USD to RON when I use the Withdraw functionality. PayPal simply transfers the money with no exchange involved.

[Andrei C]

From PayPal website:

"PayPal will always provide information on transactions that include a currency conversion. The currency conversion rate will be displayed each time you:

• Withdraw funds in a non-local currency to your local bank account"

"There is no currency conversion for transactions where you:

• Withdraw funds in local currency to your local bank account"

[Petra R]

Do you have your main currency on PayPal set to US §?

That way you only lose on one currency exchange between PayPal and your bank