Foreign payments

[Mike Resnick]

I'm currently editing a series of reprint anthologies for the Chinese, and of course their contracts for the
stories they're buying ask for payment information. Now, it happens that a number of the writers I'm
buying from -- including a batch of WotF alumni -- are pretty new and pretty clueless in this area. The
most frequently-asked question I get is: "Do I give them my checking account number and the bank's
routing number?"

Answer: Only if you want to make it easy for someone thousands of miles away to rob you at some
unspecified future date.

Almost all journeyman writers, who are used to making foreign sales, use PayPal, which is nearing
its one hundred millionth client. More to the point, PayPal will use the posted exchange rates, rather
than the usurious ones most banks use. And still more to the point, it'll charge you a maximum of
3% for the transaction, whereas most banks will be happy to charge you in the neighborhood of $35.00
for the privilege of cashing a 50-Euro or 50-pound check. Finally, payment is instantaneous, which
is a word that is not in the post office's lexicon.

Anyway, I think anyone expecting to be paid in foreign currencies, now or in the future, would do well
to consider this.

-- Mike Resnick

[Rebecca Birch]

I'm currently editing a series of reprint anthologies for the Chinese, and of course their contracts for the
stories they're buying ask for payment information. Now, it happens that a number of the writers I'm
buying from -- including a batch of WotF alumni -- are pretty new and pretty clueless in this area. The
most frequently-asked question I get is: "Do I give them my checking account number and the bank's
routing number?"

Answer: Only if you want to make it easy for someone thousands of miles away to rob you at some
unspecified future date.

Almost all journeyman writers, who are used to making foreign sales, use PayPal, which is nearing
its one hundred millionth client. More to the point, PayPal will use the posted exchange rates, rather
than the usurious ones most banks use. And still more to the point, it'll charge you a maximum of
3% for the transaction, whereas most banks will be happy to charge you in the neighborhood of $35.00
for the privilege of cashing a 50-Euro or 50-pound check. Finally, payment is instantaneous, which
is a word that is not in the post office's lexicon.

Anyway, I think anyone expecting to be paid in foreign currencies, now or in the future, would do well
to consider this.

-- Mike Resnick

Thank you for the advice, Mike. I hope to have to think about this in the future.

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Thank you, Mike! I have heard of markets paying by PayPal, but I never thought about all the benefits.

[Mike Resnick]

Martin> Most of them will use PayPal if you ask them to. Indeed, most of them much prefer it.

-- Mike

[Elen Tel'Ithil]

Thanks for the heads up and all the info!

[Ishmael]

And it also works for us foreigners when we sell to you. That's how AE paid me. Now if anyone else over there would care to send me some money, I have one or two nice stories available!

[ThomasKCarpenter]

Pro tip from the Pro. Thanks!

[E.CaimanSands]

Thanks, Mike, a very useful post for me especially considering so far *every* one of my sales has been foreign. Three of them--from the US and Canada--were paid by Paypal I think but I believe my Australian one was by bank transfer. Of course, I'm sure Cat Sparks wasn't out to rob me! But it's certainly something to consider for the future.

[Ember]

All of my sales (so far) have been foreign too! I set up a paypal account after I made my very first sale. Now that I think of it, all payment has been via paypal, with the exception of WotF (which was a very pretty cheque.)

[Nick_T]

Like Ember, Paypal has been a godsend for me in Australia. Furthermore, cashing foreign checks always loses me a fortune in bank fees… My writers of the future check differently didn't look as impressive after I got it back home (though it was still pretty impressive)

[Davian Aw]

I learnt this the hard way. I'm in Singapore and usually getting payments from the US, and for the last one I requested wire transfer thinking (wrongly) that it would cost less than Paypal. I lost about $50 after the bank's fees and horrible exchange rate. I'm still sad about it.