which pakistani bank provides best exchange rate

[d277beaa]

Hi there, hope all of you are fine.

Today I just did an analysis, and came to know that I am losing almost 25000 rupees monthly due to lower exchange rate. By reading different threads, I came to know that this is due to banking partners, and have nothing to do with upwork. One person told me that payoneer provides better exchange rate, but their service is very poor. So, can anyone suggest me that which bank provides best rate. Right now I am using HBL, and there they are providing me almost 6-8 rupees lower rate. When I pay to upwork, then I am charged 6-8 rupees more.

Thanks for any help.
Regards

[petra_r]

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Muhammad A wrote: When I pay to upwork, then I am charged 6-8 rupees more.

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That is how banks earn money... It's the same as going into a shop and buying a can of coke. You don't pas the same prive the shop bought it for...

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Muhammad A wrote:

Today I just did an analysis, and came to know that I am losing almost 25000 rupees monthly due to lower exchange rate.

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Whichever bank you use is irrelevant because "direct to local bank" is always in local currency, so the money has already been converted into rupees before it hits your bank account by the intemediary banks.

On withdrawals over $700 or so at a time it's worth doing wire transfer (cost of $30) into a Dollar account.

It also looks like what you think you lose is calculated on the difference between what you pay for Dollars and what you receive when withdrawing. You need to remember that there is a mid-market rate, which is what those currency converting sites use. That is NOT a transactional rate and you can't use it to calculate what you'll receive and what you have to pay.

[d277beaa]

Thanks, Petra.
You always help me out, at first 🙂

But definitely, there can be options where I am having a bit better rates. As to me, it seems to be too much.
For wire transfer, I don't know what's the process...
I also came across Wise, but don't know, whether it can be used in Pakistan or not...

Thanks

[bilal1983]

I think Payoneer is a better option than Direct to Bank for freelancers from Pakistan.

I've been using Payoneer to withdraw money to my bank account. I have a Meezan Bank Freelancer account.

Transferring from Upwork to Payoneer and from Payoneer to local bank takes only a few hours.

The mid-market rate is still considerably lower than actual exchange rate but I guess thats the best possible option.

I have to wait until I'm able to withdraw at least $500 from Payoneer to avoid a $10 fee.

So total fee is:

$2 for transferring from Upwork to Payoneer and then just the exchange rate being offered by Payoneer (which is better than the exchange rate transferring directly from UW to local bank)

[abbas_tauseef]

I definitely can't say anything about your personal experiences with Payoneer but I'm flabbergasted to see you said that their service  isn't up-to the level. 

I'd opine it's the best service in Pakistan at the moment. 

Money withdrawal process is completed within two to five minutes. You can then use jazz cash with Payoneer to get the premium rate. 

I withdraw my earnings from Upwork to Payoneer, then withdraw dollars from Payoneer to jazz and then send the converted rupees to my bank account. The whole process doesn't take more than 10 minutes and I get the premium conversion rates. 

[bilal1983]

Tauseef, have you ever had any issues with Jazzcash? I was advised not to use it as they have system outages and sometimes their server is not responding and requests are not being processed. And they also have a  Rs. 15K transfer limit.

[abbas_tauseef]

Yes. I have had some problems with jazz cash at times when their server was down. 

However, the receiving and sending limit isn't 15k. It's 50k per day and 200k per month. However, when you update your account through bio-metric verification, the limit can be increased to 200k per day and 500k a month.  

[ecc94534]

Tauseef, would you like to let me know if we can instantly get paid via payoneer on weekend? Like Sunday? 

[d277beaa]

Thanks Tauseef, and Bilal.
I was also thinking of TransferWise, do you have experience with that?

Thanks for all your help.

[abbas_tauseef]

Transferwise is a better option; however you need a dollar account for that but you can make one with the help of wise. 

While NayaPay can't be used for international remittance at the moment related to Upwork. 

[d277beaa]

Also can we use NayaPay for it?

[d277beaa]

And recently there was news, that now freelancers would be able to keep funds in their local bank accounts in USD.
So is that option available? If so, is it beneficial?

Thanks

[ecc94534]

Wise (formerly Transferwise) is the best option for withdrawal with best exchange rates. But the problem is it takes 36-48 hours to receive money from Upwork to Wise. 

[misbahkhan95]

Hello,

Plz guide me a bit about wise. Somebody told me recently that its better to tranfer amount directly to your bank account. I want to know about your experience with example plz. I am finding ways through which I can get better exchange rates and less amount is deducted while transfering into pakistani bank account. This is going to be my first transaction so kindly guide me which bank account should I prefer. I was planning to have current account in meezan bank, is it a good option? 

[58fc8a53]

Salam, I'm a newbie here n didn't know abt the transaction thing. Later I found that jazzcash is good for that. Since it offers zero deductions. Try your luck.

[e9bf4c63]

I would like recommend you to create a piyoneer account and connect your piyooner to jazzcash from JazzCash app. Very simple at best rate and whenever you need where you need you can use that amount. 

[45911839]

pls help me as well how to activate payoneer account in pakistan?