Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I still can't see AdSense paying through PayPal.And don't forget the kind of fees PayPal charges for using their service. If your check is $2000, you will be hit with a PayPal fee of nearly $50, depending on the kind of account you have. Ouch.
OK, let's take the hypothetical $2000/month cheque. From the date the payment is sent to receiving is about 6-9 days. That's $1.41 to $2.12 in lost interest to us foreign publishers while the cheque is in the post. My bank would charge £14 to pay this cheque in (about $25.58). So that's $27-$28 to start with!
Even then - my bank wouldn't use the interbank exchange rate - but a rate favourable to them (eg they'll skim a percentage for themselves out of my cheque to pay to their shareholders in dividends by changing the exchange rate slightly). Add to that the charge (on top of the foreign currency cheque negotiation charge) for paying in cheques on a business account - and for foreign publishers there is very little (in terms of actual amount and percentage) difference between Paypal fees and bank fees.
If you are in the UK you will have the money more quickly in your bank account if you are paid by Paypal and withdraw it to your bank account (and save a trip to the bank) than if you are posted a cheque. Paypal even transfer payments to UK bank accounts above £50 (about $91) for free (albeit at their exchange rate). In fact I prefer Paypal as it saves me a trip to the bank as it can all be done from home (saves on labour and is more convenient). I know I could post the Google cheque to the bank or have it sent straight there but as they fill out a form in triplicate for foreign currency cheques and always give me a copy (and request a pre paid paying in slip) so I've always gone to the bank in person.
The only way to cut down on these overheads would be to open a US bank account (and to have the Google cheques sent to the bank). To be perfectly honest - the site pays for itself without the Google Adsense earnings. In this day and age though (unless it was a joint one with a US citizen) opening a US bank account is fraught with pointless bureaucracy and paperwork (although it may be easier for a business). I could open a US dollar account in my own country (UK) which would actually be based in the US in a hundredth of the time it'd take to open a purely US one. This is why I would really prefer the option of direct bank transfer. I don't really mind if it takes 5-7 days (like Paypal does) as cheques usually take that long to arrive to here from America.
Personally I wish that America that these measures do not affect terrorism. Fingerprinting and photographing foreigners will not reduce terrorism as most terrorists would be using fake passports or fake ids. Making it harder for foreigners to open US bank accounts too I doubt will make any difference as now people have debit/credit cards - accepted pretty much everywhere there is no need to have a bank account in the country you are spending money. Anyway I'll be going off topic from Google Adsense and onto a rant about American foreign policy if I'm not careful. ;)
W.
Note that if you have a PayPal debit card (which is free and they don't do credit check to qualify) you get 1.5% back when you use it with a signature. So that $50 fee on $2000 could be almost half that if you widthdraw wisely.
Last poster was Brett:
I think the topic is done? Lets move on.
