PayPal account type to receive payments Thread poster: Eva Bolinder
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Hi everyone,
I perhaps a bit too eagerly accepted and completed a subtitling/translation job, and afterwards was told PayPal (and fiverr & Upwork) were payment methods available for international payments. And then about a week after my payment should have cleared (I thought since international payment, it could take time and had meant to contact them soon, either way), I was emailed and told they had not been able to transfer payment since it was not a seller/business account, and ... See more Hi everyone,
I perhaps a bit too eagerly accepted and completed a subtitling/translation job, and afterwards was told PayPal (and fiverr & Upwork) were payment methods available for international payments. And then about a week after my payment should have cleared (I thought since international payment, it could take time and had meant to contact them soon, either way), I was emailed and told they had not been able to transfer payment since it was not a seller/business account, and asking for that account info.
I had not seen any info indicating such a PayPal account was needed to accept payments. Given that I am a part-time freelancer, I find it especially odd. And I assume I will in fact be the one to pay the necessary taxes on the entire original sum I am paid, meaning probably at least 50%.
What are your experiences with this?
I have no experience with fiverr and Upwork, and they frankly seem to simply be new versions of PayPal, where one more or less have a company account? Based on a quick browse through here on the forums, it seems wise.com ie upwork is a popular choice though? But how is it for say translators working from Sweden? ▲ Collapse
| | | | ATIL KAYHAN 
Türkiye
Local time: 09:23
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
+ ...
| PayPal to Receive Payments | Jun 7, 2022 |
I think there is some misinformation there. As far as I know, you should be able to receive payment with any PayPal account you may have. PayPal encourages you to have a business account rather than a personal account because it is definitely to their advantage. I am not a frequent PayPal customer but I have had a PayPal personal account since 2004, and received payments from clients without any problems. You may have to inquire with PayPal about this issue but I will tell you again that Pay... See more I think there is some misinformation there. As far as I know, you should be able to receive payment with any PayPal account you may have. PayPal encourages you to have a business account rather than a personal account because it is definitely to their advantage. I am not a frequent PayPal customer but I have had a PayPal personal account since 2004, and received payments from clients without any problems. You may have to inquire with PayPal about this issue but I will tell you again that PayPal prefers that you have a business account, and therefore, they might give you reasons to justify that you switch to a business account immediately. I have had that experience with PayPal before. Also, I think their customer service is not the best in the world. Good luck! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Steve Robbie
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:23
Member (2017)
German to English
+ ...
| Upwork is not Wise | Jun 7, 2022 |
You wrote: wise.com ie upwork is a popular choice
But actually they're two separate companies. There is a section on the Wise website on how to transfer money from Upwork to Wise, but that's it.
Presumably your customer is outside the EU, because an EU (or UK) customer would have offered to pay you by bank transfer. Wise is a good choice for that. You can't use a Wise account to receive payments in SEK, but you can use it to collect payments in euros, GBP, US... See more You wrote: wise.com ie upwork is a popular choice
But actually they're two separate companies. There is a section on the Wise website on how to transfer money from Upwork to Wise, but that's it.
Presumably your customer is outside the EU, because an EU (or UK) customer would have offered to pay you by bank transfer. Wise is a good choice for that. You can't use a Wise account to receive payments in SEK, but you can use it to collect payments in euros, GBP, USD and some other major currencies and exchange them into SEK. The fees are very low.
Wise says you can use its account in the same way as a US bank account (i.e. a US customer wouldn't need to make an international payment to pay you). I've never tried this, because all my customers are in the UK & EU, so I'm not sure how well it works in practice. Someone else here may be able to tell you. If it works, it would probably be much cheaper than PayPal. ***
You would need a Wise business account - some translators here have encountered problems when using a Wise personal account to collect payments.
*** Just seen this recent thread, which may be helpful to you.
https://www.proz.com/forum/business_issues/357812-translatecom_and_cash_out_or_being_paid_via_payneercom.html
[Edited at 2022-06-07 17:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Some clarifications | Jun 7, 2022 |
Fiverr and Upwork are job outsourcing portals like Proz (but you may find it difficult to find decent clients and rates on the former two sites).
PayPal and Wise are payment services.
PayPal allows personal accounts to be used for business purposes to a certain extent:
'Personal accounts:
To use your PayPal account primarily to sell things, you must open a business account or convert your personal account to a business account.'
'Business... See more Fiverr and Upwork are job outsourcing portals like Proz (but you may find it difficult to find decent clients and rates on the former two sites).
PayPal and Wise are payment services.
PayPal allows personal accounts to be used for business purposes to a certain extent:
'Personal accounts:
To use your PayPal account primarily to sell things, you must open a business account or convert your personal account to a business account.'
'Business accounts:
By opening a business account or converting a personal account to a business account, you certify to us that you are using it primarily for a business or commercial purpose.'
Wise does not allow any business use of its personal accounts, but the fees are the same.
I receive regular payments from US clients into my USD Wise account, UK clients into my GBP Wise account and EU clients into my EUR Wise account without any fees being deducted or any other problems. It costs about 0.5% to change to another currency. With PayPal, you lose up to 8%, or perhaps more in some cases. Wise is the best service available for the moment, I believe.
Before you start working for a new client, it is wise to agree which payment methods to use.
Taxes don't depend on which type of account you use or in which country they are. If a type of income is taxable in your country, you can't legally avoid tax simply by having it paid into a personal or foreign account. But if you find your country’s tax rates too high, you can emigrate to a lower-taxed country. ▲ Collapse
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Eva Bolinder
Local time: 08:23
English to Swedish
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TOPIC STARTER | What they said in their email.. | Jun 7, 2022 |
ATIL KAYHAN wrote:
I think there is some misinformation there. As far as I know, you should be able to receive payment with any PayPal account you may have. PayPal encourages you to have a business account rather than a personal account because it is definitely to their advantage. I am not a frequent PayPal customer but I have had a PayPal personal account since 2004, and received payments from clients without any problems. You may have to inquire with PayPal about this issue but I will tell you again that PayPal prefers that you have a business account, and therefore, they might give you reasons to justify that you switch to a business account immediately. I have had that experience with PayPal before. Also, I think their customer service is not the best in the world. Good luck!
I have yet to receive a reply back. And it's been 2 days now. I starting to think they are trying to avoid sending me a payment at all. I will try to contact them again tomorrow.
This is what they wrote in their initial email, so they do seem to mean the cannot transfer payment to a personal PayPal account:
"We are facing an issue while transferring your amount because your account is not seller/business accounts. Could you please share your other paypal account detail"
| | | | Eva Bolinder
Local time: 08:23
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | More research needed.. | Jun 7, 2022 |
Steve Robbie wrote: You wrote: wise.com ie upwork is a popular choice But actually they're two separate companies. There is a section on the Wise website on how to transfer money from Upwork to Wise, but that's it. Presumably your customer is outside the EU, because an EU (or UK) customer would have offered to pay you by bank transfer. Wise is a good choice for that. You can't use a Wise account to receive payments in SEK, but you can use it to collect payments in euros, GBP, USD and some other major currencies and exchange them into SEK. The fees are very low. Wise says you can use its account in the same way as a US bank account (i.e. a US customer wouldn't need to make an international payment to pay you). I've never tried this, because all my customers are in the UK & EU, so I'm not sure how well it works in practice. Someone else here may be able to tell you. If it works, it would probably be much cheaper than PayPal. *** You would need a Wise business account - some translators here have encountered problems when using a Wise personal account to collect payments. *** Just seen this recent thread, which may be helpful to you. https://www.proz.com/forum/business_issues/357812-translatecom_and_cash_out_or_being_paid_via_payneercom.html [Edited at 2022-06-07 17:19 GMT]
Yepp, outside of EU this company.
I see, thank you for correcting me! I suppose I too quickly viewed the beginning of a video about Upwork where they seemed to talk about wise.com as well.
Confusing to say the least. With PayPal it's just very smooth, which makes it so much easier to use, even if the fees are what they are. I best do more reading to determine what is the best option then, if PayPal is a no go, but that does indeed seem very strange.
| | | | Eva Bolinder
Local time: 08:23
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Lesson learnt.. | Jun 7, 2022 |
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
Fiverr and Upwork are job outsourcing portals like Proz (but you may find it difficult to find decent clients and rates on the former two sites).
PayPal and Wise are payment services.
PayPal allows personal accounts to be used for business purposes to a certain extent:
'Personal accounts:
To use your PayPal account primarily to sell things, you must open a business account or convert your personal account to a business account.'
'Business accounts:
By opening a business account or converting a personal account to a business account, you certify to us that you are using it primarily for a business or commercial purpose.'
Wise does not allow any business use of its personal accounts, but the fees are the same.
I receive regular payments from US clients into my USD Wise account, UK clients into my GBP Wise account and EU clients into my EUR Wise account without any fees being deducted or any other problems. It costs about 0.5% to change to another currency. With PayPal, you lose up to 8%, or perhaps more in some cases. Wise is the best service available for the moment, I believe.
Before you start working for a new client, it is wise to agree which payment methods to use.
Taxes don't depend on which type of account you use or in which country they are. If a type of income is taxable in your country, you can't legally avoid tax simply by having it paid into a personal or foreign account. But if you find your country’s tax rates too high, you can emigrate to a lower-taxed country.
Thank you for clarifying! But I am still a bit confused over the Wise combo with other sites, but guess it's back to going through guides..
Ah, I got the impression with a seller/business account they were going to withdraw more fees. I will definitely not use my PayPal account mainly for business or commercial purposes, so I do not at all see a reason for why to convert it to a seller/business account.
Isn't it very strange then to say they can send payment via other portals like fiverr and Upwork, since the job was not run through there? Or can one afterwards set up such a bill/payment?
And indeed, a lesson learnt for sure. Always make sure one has all info and get good vibes and gut feeling 
But worst case scenario, I try to contact them, and if still no word from them.. and then assuming they have a company profile here on Proz, I leave a negative review there? Or what else can be done if a company behaves like this?
| | | | | PayPal and more | Jun 8, 2022 |
Eva Bolinder wrote:
Isn't it very strange then to say they can send payment via other portals like fiverr and Upwork, since the job was not run through there? Or can one afterwards set up such a bill/payment?
I don't know. Maybe they have a payment interface to payment sites. I don't use such sites, which seem to be for beginners, amateurs, bottom feeders, etc.
In this concrete case, maybe you should just open a separate business PayPal account, which doesn't cost anything. Then this client doesn't have any excuse. You can always close it as soon as you have withdrawn your money and then be more careful with agreeing how to get paid in the future.
Eva Bolinder wrote:
But worst case scenario, I try to contact them, and if still no word from them.. and then assuming they have a company profile here on Proz, I leave a negative review there? Or what else can be done if a company behaves like this?
You can leave a Blue Board review at Proz. If the company doesn't already have a Blue Board profile, you can create one. If they haven't paid according to what was agreed, you can also file a non-payment report.
If they don't pay at all, you can also report them to http://www.translator-scammers.com/translator-scammers-directory.htm .
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