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balazsdanku
Community Member

Paid in USD

Hi there,

 

 

I'm UK based and would like to get some help with the "getting paid" section.

 

1. Is there any way I could get paid NOT in GBP but in USD. The normal currency exchange rate Upwork uses is really bad and I lose money on their exchange rate. Hence, I'd like them to send my payment in USD to my British bank account. (The account has a USD section, so I can store dollars on my account and exchange them if I want to.)

 

2. I don't have a VAT number because I haven't started earning £85,000+/year. Do I just skip that part and let Upwork take 20%? Are they gonna send that 20% to HMRC or something? And I can claim it back next year?

 

Thanks so much for your help, everyone.

If you also know how I could get someone at Upwork on the phone or at least the email address of their support team (not just the bot), I'd be super grateful if you could comment it down below as well.

 

Have a great day, and stay safe guys.

 

Jazz-Balazs Danku

 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Balazs D wrote:

Thanks, Goran, for your answer, but that didn't answer my questions.

I referenced the exchange rate, which means I'd already checked out the payment options and the help article as well. But I'd like to know why I can't get my money transferred in USD, to a bank account that also uses USD, not GBP since we calculate in USD on Upwork?

And for my second question, I started out saying that I don't have a VAT number. I'm happy to hear how things work when someone has a VAT number, nothing wrong with that. But what do I do if I Do not have a VAT number? 

 

Thanks,

 


You can just withdraw your payments to PayPal and hold it in U.S. dollars there - I do it all the time. My British bank was charging £30 each time I did a wire transfer in U.S $, so I abandoned that idea pretty quickly. 

 

 

View solution in original post

27 REPLIES 27
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Balazs,

 

1. If you would like to withdraw your funds to your bank account in US dollars you will need to use our payment method Wire Transfer. To view, all of our available payment methods check out this Help Article

 

2. We won't charge VAT if a freelancer or agency has a valid VAT number. Freelancers and agencies with VAT numbers can add them by visiting the Accounts menu > Settings > Tax Information. If the tax ID that you submit isn't in the format provided by VIES, Upwork won't be able to validate it. To learn more about VAT check out this Help Article. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Thanks, Goran, for your answer, but that didn't answer my questions.

I referenced the exchange rate, which means I'd already checked out the payment options and the help article as well. But I'd like to know why I can't get my money transferred in USD, to a bank account that also uses USD, not GBP since we calculate in USD on Upwork?

And for my second question, I started out saying that I don't have a VAT number. I'm happy to hear how things work when someone has a VAT number, nothing wrong with that. But what do I do if I Do not have a VAT number? 

 

Thanks,

 


Balazs D wrote:

Thanks, Goran, for your answer, but that didn't answer my questions.

I referenced the exchange rate, which means I'd already checked out the payment options and the help article as well. But I'd like to know why I can't get my money transferred in USD, to a bank account that also uses USD, not GBP since we calculate in USD on Upwork?

And for my second question, I started out saying that I don't have a VAT number. I'm happy to hear how things work when someone has a VAT number, nothing wrong with that. But what do I do if I Do not have a VAT number? 

 

Thanks,

 


You can just withdraw your payments to PayPal and hold it in U.S. dollars there - I do it all the time. My British bank was charging £30 each time I did a wire transfer in U.S $, so I abandoned that idea pretty quickly. 

 

 

Hi Christine,

 

Thanks so much for your reply. That's very helpful!

I'm gonna change my bank transfer to PayPal then.

Does PayPal charge you with anything? Or, it's nothing major?

Also, do you usually exchange it to GBP after you transfer it to your bank account? I use Revolut and that's how I used to play around with exchange rates. I send the money in USD from PayPal to Revolut and then send exchange it to GBP.

 

Thanks again,

Best regards and stay safe in these crazy times! 🙂


Jazz


Balazs D wrote:

Hi Christine,

 

Thanks so much for your reply. That's very helpful!

I'm gonna change my bank transfer to PayPal then.

Does PayPal charge you with anything? Or, it's nothing major?

Also, do you usually exchange it to GBP after you transfer it to your bank account? I use Revolut and that's how I used to play around with exchange rates. I send the money in USD from PayPal to Revolut and then send exchange it to GBP.

 

Thanks again,

Best regards and stay safe in these crazy times! 🙂


Jazz


PayPal doesn't charge if the payment comes via Upwork, and you can then get the money transferred to your UK bank account without any problems, pretty much instantly (I'm not sure if there's any benefit in transferring to Revolut first - I don't know anything about that). To be honest, though, I haven't looked into the best payment and exchange rates for many years – because I just can't be bothered – so if you find out any interesting new ways of transferring your money, please share. 😉

That's awesome! Thank you 🙂 I thought PayPal would charge me for the payments, but I'm so glad you clarified this for me. 🙂

Revolut's exchange rate is the best I've found so far. I'll give you an example. Yesterday when I was looking at the exchange rates I checked 2 of my bank accounts. Lloyds was working on the regular exchange rate: £0.7878, whilst Revolut was offering £0.8010 for $1. To put this into perspective

Lloyds: $10,000 = £7,878

Revolut: $10,000 = £8,010

On a $10,000 transaction, you'd lose out on £132 if you go with Lloyds. I'd rather send the amount to Revolut first, exchange it to GBP, then send it to Lloyds 🙂 

 

Thanks again,

Kind regards

 

Jazz


Balazs D wrote:

That's awesome! Thank you 🙂 I thought PayPal would charge me for the payments, but I'm so glad you clarified this for me. 🙂

Revolut's exchange rate is the best I've found so far. I'll give you an example. Yesterday when I was looking at the exchange rates I checked 2 of my bank accounts. Lloyds was working on the regular exchange rate: £0.7878, whilst Revolut was offering £0.8010 for $1. To put this into perspective

Lloyds: $10,000 = £7,878

Revolut: $10,000 = £8,010

On a $10,000 transaction, you'd lose out on £132 if you go with Lloyds. I'd rather send the amount to Revolut first, exchange it to GBP, then send it to Lloyds 🙂 

 

Thanks again,

Kind regards

 

Jazz


Interesting. Let me know if it works out as planned.

Hi Christine/Balasz,

 

I was about to ask the same thing as Balasz asked and glad to find this post already there.

 

You mentioned sending the money to PayPal. I had looked into this option BUT under the payment method for PayPal ("adding a payment method") it says "$2 USD Upwork withdrawal fee". Our local bank in UK charges £0.99 per transaction, which seems to be the cheapest option amongst all the ones given to us under 'Add a payment method'. But this is still not the best option.

 

Secondly, I can't see how to add a REVOLUT option of payment under the same section either? 

 

I have both REVOLUT and PAYPAL and would REALLY like to avoid anymore charges. 

 

See the image attached which shows the options I can see on my side...out of all, it looks to me like the local bank transfer is the cheapest option. BUT if im wrong PLEASE help!! 🙂  Thanks so much and apologies to bother you guys.

 

Balazs, I too do not have a VAT number and am wondering how that works?! Did you manage to get a response to this part of your question?

Beez

Hi Beez,

 

Feel free to add the method that is a best fit for you. To clarify, the available payment methods for your locations are the ones listed on the screenshot you`ve shared.
Regarding VAT, Upwork charges the country-specific Value Added Tax (VAT) to freelancers and agencies in the European Union (EU), unless you provide a valid VAT number. VAT will be assessed on services provided by us, not on services you provide your clients. To learn more about VAT check out this Help Article. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Hi Beez,

 

Sorry for the late reply. 

Yes, it's very tragic. I hate all these fees too. My plan currently is to send it to my PayPal (which is set to USD currently) and just hope it won't charge me anything, and then send it to Revolut from there, where I get to make the most out of the exchange rate game.

 

I haven't yet transferred any money from Upwork, as I'm in the process of building up an amazing portfolio and learning more and more about my craft. So I can start charging a lot more money in the future for my services.

 

I started about 2-3 weeks ago and am currently on project No.7.

Check out **Edited for Community Guidelines** YouTube channel. I'm following his advice on how to be awesome on Upwork. When you start charging $1,000+ client, you'll forget about those small fees. Until I get there I'm gonna keep my eyes closed 🙂

 

Sorry I couldn't help.

Stay safe

 

Jess-Balazs Danku

Hi Balazs,

 

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it.

 

Aww thank you for the heads up about **Edited for Community Guidelines**, I will definately check it out over the weekend.

 

Thats so true isn't it, once we start getting clients to pay us more, we won't have to worry about those small fees. Well done on starting and being on project 7 already - keep it up! Smiley Very Happy

 

Have a lovely Friday and weekend ahead,

 

Thanks again,

Beez

I use TransferWise (or just Wise now I suppose) because with their borderless account you get a free US bank account so it's easy to make withdrawls directly into that. It also makes life so much easier when dealing with US clients because I found the PayPal fees abhorrent. This way they can just send me the money in USD hassle free. Definitely the best method I've found.


Balazs D wrote:

That's awesome! Thank you 🙂 I thought PayPal would charge me for the payments, but I'm so glad you clarified this for me. 🙂

Revolut's exchange rate is the best I've found so far. I'll give you an example. Yesterday when I was looking at the exchange rates I checked 2 of my bank accounts. Lloyds was working on the regular exchange rate: £0.7878, whilst Revolut was offering £0.8010 for $1. To put this into perspective

Lloyds: $10,000 = £7,878

Revolut: $10,000 = £8,010

On a $10,000 transaction, you'd lose out on £132 if you go with Lloyds. I'd rather send the amount to Revolut first, exchange it to GBP, then send it to Lloyds 🙂 

 

Thanks again,

Kind regards

 

Jazz


You could also try Transferwise. Paypal keeps charging me because I have a business and the credit card linked to the PP is for my NOK account.

Hi Jennifer. Thanks for recommending it 🙂

I will look into it too. 

Hi Balazs,

 

A very good topic in here, thanks a lot! 🙂

 

I know you have posted you found a better way to pay out, but I'm really interested in how to transfer from Paypal to Revolut that it would stay in USD? Paypal automatically wants to rip off and transfer from USD to EUR with a very bad exchange rate... My Revolut account is in EUR, but I added an extra accound in USD.

 

I would appreciate yours or anyone's advise?

 

Would be so amazing to have an option to payout directly to Revolut! 🙂

 

BR,

Indre

Hi Goran
If you would like to withdraw your funds to your bank account in US dollars you will need to use our payment method Wire Transfer. To view, all of our available payment methods check out this Help Article

 

I'm getting paid in Rubles. I want to get paid in USD, can I do it in the settings, correct?

petra_r
Community Member


Balazs D wrote:

 

2. I don't have a VAT number because I haven't started earning £85,000+/year. Do I just skip that part and let Upwork take 20%? Are they gonna send that 20% to HMRC or something? And I can claim it back next year?

 


Upwork takes 20% as a fee (10% on relationships over $ 500 and 5% on relationships in excess of $ 10 000). Upwork then takes VAT on the fee and any connects or memberships. That gets sent to Britain, yes, and no, you can't claim it back next year. You can only claim back VAT you paid after registering for it, if I remember correctly.

Hi Petra,

 

Thanks so much! Right, it makes sense 🙂
Appreciate you going the extra mile and explaining it to me!

Have a great day and keep safe!

Thanks,

 

Jazz-Balazs Danku

idk how it works in your cuntry but here it's not possible to directly transfer usd from paypal to my bank, it will just use it's horrible exchange rate to local currency.

Would love to see Revolut being added as payement/whithdrawal method on Upwork.

cheers.

Since then I found a better way...

Basically go to your bank and ask them to give you a visa card, that's default currency is in USD. Not every bank does this, so go to as many as necessary.

Once you have the card, add it to your PayPal. Contact PayPal that now you have a USD card so they don't need to steal your money anymore. Transfer the money to your new VISA card and exchange it in any way you wish to your currency.

Thats Interesting, Balazs D

 

Thanks for the heads up about the VISA card... Perhaps once everything opens up (Banks...) I'll check it out.

 

Appreciated :)x

 

B

beezybee
Community Member

Thank for the reply Lukasz K,

 

Yes TOTALLY AGREE about REVOLUT!!

 

Would love it if UPWORK adds this as a payment method.

 

Cheers!

B

I have the same issue with the bank, the exchange is so low in my bank, also we don't have a PayPal in turkey

how can I get my pay by dollar?  

petra_r
Community Member


Radwan A wrote:

how can I get my pay by dollar?  


Wire transfer to a Dollar account (only). It costs $30 per withdrawal and worth in for withdrawals around $750 or more.

2a05aa63
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Radwan A wrote:

how can I get my pay by dollar?  


Wire transfer to a Dollar account (only). It costs $30 per withdrawal and worth in for withdrawals around $750 or more.


Why $750? Payoneer takes 2% for bank withdrawal making it cheaper at $1500+

petra_r
Community Member


Viacheslav K wrote:

Wire transfer to a Dollar account (only). It costs $30 per withdrawal and worth in for withdrawals around $750 or more.

Why $750? Payoneer takes 2% for bank withdrawal making it cheaper at $1500+


I wasn't talking about Payoneer. I was talking about  wire transfer v direct to local bank at a poor exchange rate. 

2a05aa63
Community Member


Petra R wrote:


I wasn't talking about Payoneer. I was talking about  wire transfer v direct to local bank at a poor exchange rate. 


I see. I don't have that option in Ukraine.

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