Do you receive payments from abroad? Find out how a financial platform can simplify your life

Getting paid by a client or a company in another country stopped being unusual. What is still common is that the payment gets held, that less arrives than expected, or that nobody explains why it is taking so long.

This article is about that: what happens along the way and which part is up to you.

Why payments from abroad get complicated

Four causes cover almost everything:

• The beneficiary name does not match. It is the number one cause and the most avoidable. It is developed in why an account goes under review.
• Incomplete details. An IBAN with one digit changed, or an international transfer without the correct SWIFT or BIC code.
• Intermediaries along the way. Outside the euro area the payment passes through correspondent institutions that process in their own hours and can deduct charges from the amount in transit.
• Destination country requirements. Each local rail has its hours, its holidays and its identification requirements.

What you need to get paid in euros

Less than it looks. Your full name exactly as it appears on your ID, and an IBAN in your name.

Nothing requires that IBAN to be from a specific country. Within the SEPA area, rejecting an IBAN over its country of issue is prohibited, and your client's admin department will still occasionally try. How to resolve it, with the argument in writing, is in getting paid in euros without a European bank account.

The real timings, by rail

The detail of why these three cases have nothing in common is in SEPA, SWIFT and how long a transfer really takes.

What you do with the money once it lands

If you are going to spend it in euros, there is no conversion and no exchange cost. If you are sending part home, that is where the exchange rate appears, and with it the real difference between providers.

There is only one honest way to compare: how much lands in the destination account. Each pair has its page with the detail, for example euro and Argentine peso. And the local leg is on the corridor page: Argentina works with CBU, CVU and alias, while Peru and Colombia ask for different details.

The mistake that ruins someone else's account

It comes up constantly: while their own account is in verification, someone asks to be paid into a relative's or a friend's account.

Do not do it. Receiving someone else's income is exactly the pattern prevention controls flag, and the one who ends up blocked is the holder of the account that received it. How that mechanism is used to recruit accounts is in the scams that hit Latinos hardest.

Keep three documents for every payment

The invoice or work order. The contract. And the transfer receipt with the date and the payer's full name.

This is not bureaucracy for its own sake: it is what gets asked for to evidence the source of an income, and also what you need for a lease, a loan or a residence renewal. One folder per year and one subfolder per client is enough.

The conditions and limits of each transaction are published in the FAQ, and the technical terms in the glossary.

Informational content. This does not constitute financial, legal, tax or investment advice.