Hi.. I am a very small time programmer and earn between $400-$600 per month through my spare time online work. I am currently using 2CO for credit card payments as most of the clients are unable to find "Pay with Credit Card" link on PayPal page. I am OK with both Plimus and 2CO as they both charge $1 for my $10 product. But I am totally confused on what is the best and cost efficient way to withdraw funds from these services. I had been using PayPal for years and its very convinient that they deposit directly to my Indian bank account for free (although their US->INR rates are always Rs 1.50-2.00 less than the market rate). 2CO also has the option of INR wire to my bank but I don't know whether their conversion rates are better or worse than PayPal. But they have a limit of minimun 100000 INR wire accoring to Indian Govt. restrictions as they say. As an alternative one can receive a USD wire to Indian bank for $15 fee instead of $6 for INR wire. Now I don't know how much banks take away in forex conversions during a wire and can anyone enlighten me on the fees involved to recieve a USD wire in India? Do banks like HDFC/ICICI charge any fee for that? 2CO has a Prepaid Debit Card option also. But I have heard upto 3% conversion loss is also there while withdrawing through an ATM in India besides the ATM itself charges a fee for using forgien card. Plimus on the other hand gives me the option to recieve payouts to my PayPal account. And through PayPal I can withdraw the money fast and conviniently to my bank account (although with 1-2 Rs. per dollar loss). Although one drawback of Plimus is that unlike PayPal & 2CO they charge VAT to european customers which are about 40-50% of my client base. If I choose to bear this VAT, thats again a loss as it is upto 22.5% is some countries. As far as Payout is concerned Pliums also provide INR wire for $15 fee but again I don't know their conversion rates in comparison to PayPal. Is receiving a USD check from these service for small fee of $2.50-$5.00, depositing it in local bank and waiting for about a month for it to get credited any better option? I just don't want to lose too much in Payout fees and forex conversions. I am all for Plimus but this VAT thing is pulling my back. I will be really glad if someone can help me out with this confusion. -Regards, Akash
The most cost efficient way to withdrew funds from those two are through paper checks, but that method takes time probably about one month.
Probably not as Indian banks charge around Rs. 300 = $6 for depositing a USD check apart from the time it takes to get credited.
Akash , it is not easy to take payments from European customers as most of the payment processors will add VAT to their payments. The best way would be using a website payment template , that is incorporated in Paypal under your profile. Withdrawing from Paypal or any other payment process is up to Rs100000 or $2500 each month only , this is due to banking regulations in India. Probably you can PM me your Payment page and I can see whether your clients can pay you via Credit card or not using paypal.