Whether you are an affiliate (a member of a multi-level marketing scheme [MLM]), an online forex or hyip investor, or you run an online store or make make money online somewhat, you need to get paid. There are several ways of getting paid but which one you choose will depend on your country of residence, and then what’s more convenient for you.
Cheque: Good old paper cheque. This is the worst way of getting paid online even if you live in the same country as the company behind the website you’re dealing with. First there are currency issues, then postage, and then deposit into your bank account.
If you an affiliate, chances are your parent MLM company is US-based and they issue cheques denominated in US Dollars. If you’re based outside the western world, hard-luck. First, you need to wait for a few weeks for your cheque to be prepared and mailed out. Regular mailing is probably free, but the cheque could take between 1 and 3 weeks to get to you or might never get to you at all because it can get stolen or “lost-in-transit”. Sending via services like DHL, UPS or Fedex could attract an additional fee of about $30 but you’d get the cheque in about a week.
So you got the cheque? Now what? You need to deposit it into your bank account. Your local bank would usually require that you have a US dollar denominated account to be able to deposit such cheques and you need to wait for between 3 and 6 weeks for the cheque to clear! What your bank actually does is to send the cheque back to the USA and clear it through their corresponding bank. This takes time.
Now wait for the worst part: your bank will charge you a fee, for clearing the cheque. Depending on your country, this could be anywhere between $15 and $50! (I’ve had a bank charge me $50 to clear a cheque with a face value of $75 here in Ghana before).
Way out?
A way out of this is to open a US checking account (that’s what current accounts are called in the US & Canada) but then the cheque has to come to you first for endorsement and then you need to mail it back to the USA. Your US bank is not likely to charge you any fee for clearing the cheque. The major hurdle is how to open the US bank account. Since 9/11 terrorist attack, the USA Patriot Act requires that all financial institutions obtain, verify and keep the identity information of any individual or organization that opens a new US bank account.
Opening a US Bank Account
Now, most of the banks require the Social Security Number (SSN) of account applicants, as well as Passport, state ID or driver’s license. The SSN angle makes it virtually impossible for a non-US resident but a few banks accommodate none-US residents, through very stringent means.
In my opinion, paper cheques should be scrapped as a means of making payments less than $1,000 for all the reasons I have stated above. There are other means of receiving payments online. I’d deal with these in the 2nd part of this post.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Related posts:
- Making Money Online: Getting Paid via Paypal
- How Do I Make Money Online?
- How to make money online. Useful tips.
- Is it really possible to make a living online?
- ValueClick Media now supports Direct Deposit
- How do I make more money as a Web Developer?
- Exchange Alertpay to Paypal
- Is a common African e-commerce platform possible?
- Why is e-gold popular in Nigeria?
- Any prospects for e-commerce in Africa?
You have said it all. This issue of payment is the greatest headache many Nigerian Entreprenuers are having as far as online business is concerned. I sure will return to read the update to this post.
By the way, I have visited this blog severally when researching via google. But today’s visit is as a result of your post on Nairaland http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-122398.0.html#msg2109535
Keep up the good work. Cheers
Please, kindly let me know if you know any online/offline data entry job which I can be doing at home and being paid in Nigeria.
Thanks
Nice Article! If Paypal was truly a global solution, things will be a lot easier.
[...] to more African countriesJERRY OSARODION ESEIWI on Central Bank of Nigeria revalues NairaKayode on Making Money Online: Getting paid by chequetwinstaiye on Nollywood movie: Anini (2005)Martins on Making Money Online: Getting paid by [...]
Please I’ll like to know your own solution on opening a US bank account.
how can make some money tell me cos life is realy becoming challenging
You’re correct Cheque is the worst payment method. I wish Paypal is available to Nigerians.
I hope to read the second part and the solution you’re going to provide. Some people now asks us to pay some amount to open a US Account – how far is this true?
hello,please,kindly let me know which site is the best on making money online,that is which really original.
Please, kindly let me know if you know any online/offline data entry job which I can be doing at home and being paid in Nigeria.
Thanks
Nice post. The issue still remains that we profer solution to this problem. I wish you could spill the beans by making it as simple as ABC how a nigerian resident can open a US bank account. A lot of people are ripping desperate nigerians trying to survive by demanding fees for such information. Well, it is ok for the persons who give in. However, i still believ this information could be made relatively free to access. Why can’t we be our brother’s helper.
I look forward to your next article on this issue.
Do not forget to profer sound and realistic and verifiable solutions. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
God bless.
I will keep this in mind and post about it in future. Thanks for the suggestion.