13 articles
A salaried employee’s bank account tells one story, twelve times a year: same employer, same amount, same date. Yours tells a different one — four clients, three platforms, two currencies, amounts that double in a good month and halve in a slow one, and a wire from a country your bank’s risk model has opinions […]
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You invoice a US client for $5,000. They pay promptly. You check your local bank account three days later and find $4,780. Where did $220 go? Nobody stole it. No single fee explains it. The money was carved up by a stack of intermediaries, each taking a small cut that feels invisible until you add […]
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If you work internationally, you deal with multiple currencies. A client in New York pays in USD. A project in Berlin pays in EUR. You live in Mexico City and spend in MXN. Managing three currencies across three platforms with three fee structures is a mess. Multi-currency accounts consolidate this. One platform, multiple currency balances, […]
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Receiving US dollars when you are based in Latin America should not be complicated. You did the work, the client wants to pay, and the only question is: where do they send the money? The answer depends on your situation – how much you receive, how often, whether you want to hold USD or convert […]
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PayPal dominates online payments, but for freelancers in Latin America, the relationship is often adversarial. Fund holds lasting 21 days on new accounts. FX markups of 3-4% above mid-market rates. Limited ability to withdraw to local banks in some countries. And the ever-present risk of account limitations that freeze your funds with vague explanations and […]
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Skrill has been around since 2001 (originally as Moneybookers). It built its reputation in online gambling payments, expanded into general e-commerce, and is now owned by Paysafe Group. Skrill serves 40+ million customers and operates in 200+ countries. But Skrill’s age shows in its fee structure. What was once competitive has become a maze of […]
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If you have spent any time in online communities for non-US founders, you have seen this advice: “Use Stripe Atlas to form a Delaware LLC, then open Mercury for banking.” It is repeated so often it sounds like the only path. And for some people, it is the right path. But for many others, it […]
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Airwallex is a serious platform. They serve companies like Brex, Shein, and Navan. Their infrastructure handles multi-currency accounts, batch payments, card issuing, treasury management, and API-driven financial operations at scale. They have raised over $900 million in funding and operate across 150+ countries. That pedigree is exactly why Airwallex might not be the right fit […]
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Revolut is one of the most feature-rich fintech apps in the world. 40+ million customers, 30+ currencies, crypto trading, stock investing, insurance, travel perks – it is a financial super-app. For users in the UK and EU, Revolut offers an incredible breadth of services. But breadth and depth are different things. If you are a […]
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Western Union has moved money across borders for over 170 years. They have 500,000+ agent locations in 200+ countries. If you need to send cash to a village with no bank but a Western Union kiosk, nothing else comes close. But for digital workers receiving regular payments from international clients, Western Union’s model – built […]
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