BusyBee Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 What is the best (read "least expensive to me") way to receive payments from Alamy? I'm US-based, and my options are either bank transfer or PayPal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarsierspectral Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 (edited) I'm in US, use bank transfer and it costs me nothing to receive wire transfer from Alamy Edited December 5, 2013 by tarsierspectral Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 It depends on your bank. Mine will charge a flat $12 fee for all incoming wire transfers from outside the US. For me personally PayPal is more hassle than it is worth. I have a few clients (federal government agencies and departments) that will not pay by check, only by credit card and those payments I accept through PayPal. Then I leave the money in the PayPal account and use it for new equipment etc rather than transferring it to my bank and get dinged with fees for doing that.If you can find a bank that doesn't charge anything for incoming wires I'd say that would be the way to go. My Alamy payments go by wire transfer to my bank and since the payments originate in the United States there's no fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyBee Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 I didn't realize that Alamy payments originated in the US. I just assumed it was the UK. Will check with my bank tomorrow. If the payments are US-based, is Alamy able to simply send me a check to my home address? I have notice of a nice-sized payment as of two days ago, but my Alamy account does not have any bank or PayPal info listed. Thanks to both of you for responding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 They go through Citibank, I believe. We lose a couple of percent in the currency conversion to sterling. I don't think they do cheques, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Paypal. No charges in UK. Allan 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zigzagmtart Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 PayPal no charges within the US. No bank charges when transferring from PayPal to bank either. I use Bank of America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 I'm in the U.S. - Alamy doesn't pay via wire transfer - they pay via ACH transfer. There are no charges for incoming ACH transfers at my bank. I try not to use Paypal because over the years they have frozen my account for no reason at all for 120 days at a time. Any time I wanted to transfer money out during that period, I would have to log a ticket with their support team. That's not how I like to do business. If payments exceed a certain amount, they are also required to issue a 1099-K per IRS regulations. Reconciling what you receive in payments from one 1099 to what you received in the form of payments from Paypal on a 1099-K can be redundant and a pain when it comes to tax reporting. For me, ACH bank transfer is the best and easiest solution. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 PayPal no charges within the US. No bank charges when transferring from PayPal to bank either. I use Bank of America. Yes I omitted to say no charges in the UK when transferring form Paypal to my bank here either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Depends on where you're located, BusyBee. Here in Canada, banks charge hefty fees for incoming international wire transfers. My bank was deducting US$15 from each Alamy payment, so I switched to PayPal after the Alamy payment threshold was lowered to $75. There have been no charges so far, but the PayPal route is much, much slower. P.S. There is a minimal PP charge of $0.50 for transfers under $150 from PP to my bank account. Haven't had to pay that yet, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterjones Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 (edited) Bank Transfer for me, I am unsure why anyone in the UK would want to use Paypal if BACs is an option particularly because Paypal can play up occasionally. Edited December 6, 2013 by peterjones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I'm in the U.S. - Alamy doesn't pay via wire transfer - they pay via ACH transfer. There are no charges for incoming ACH transfers at my bank. Same here. I bank with Chase and receive payments via ACH Deposit with no bank fees. By comparison, Chase charges me about $20 to receive a Wire Transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I'm in the U.S. - Alamy doesn't pay via wire transfer - they pay via ACH transfer. There are no charges for incoming ACH transfers at my bank. Same here. I bank with Chase and receive payments via ACH Deposit with no bank fees. By comparison, Chase charges me about $20 to receive a Wire Transfer. International direct deposit doesn't work in Canada. Don't know why. Wish it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov makabaw Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 I am checking out Skrill. There are no charges on receipts and only a nominal joining fee. You get a credit card which is free of charge for the currency chosen. At the moment I have been told that they are blocking my card for a security check after the first payment! So not all plain sailing yet. .dov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semmick Photo Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Alamy as absorbed all charges for payout with PayPal and withdrawing money from a PayPal account shouldnt cost you anything either. So PayPal is free, whilst a bank transfer may cost you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carole Lloyd Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Depends on where you're located, BusyBee. Here in Canada, banks charge hefty fees for incoming international wire transfers. My bank was deducting US$15 from each Alamy payment, so I switched to PayPal after the Alamy payment threshold was lowered to $75. There have been no charges so far, but the PayPal route is much, much slower. John, you mention that PayPal is much, much slower; could you give me some idea how much slower please? I used to use the bank transfer system and although they charged fees they were always deposited within a week. So far there's no sign of it in my PayPal account. Something is telling me I shouldn't have made the change! Carole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Depends on where you're located, BusyBee. Here in Canada, banks charge hefty fees for incoming international wire transfers. My bank was deducting US$15 from each Alamy payment, so I switched to PayPal after the Alamy payment threshold was lowered to $75. There have been no charges so far, but the PayPal route is much, much slower. John, you mention that PayPal is much, much slower; could you give me some idea how much slower please? I used to use the bank transfer system and although they charged fees they were always deposited within a week. So far there's no sign of it in my PayPal account. Something is telling me I shouldn't have made the change! Carole It took about nine days for the money to land in my PP account last month, and then another three days for it to be transferred into my personal bank account. Don't know if that is typical, though, since last month was my first one using the PP option. Wire transfers usually took less than 48 hours. My December 2nd payment hasn't shown up in my PP account yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carole Lloyd Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 OK, thanks John, I won't worry too much yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 OK, thanks John, I won't worry too much yet. No problem, one week here and still counting... (not that it isn't already spent) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 (edited) Still counting. Twelve days and still no sign of the Dec.1st payment in my PP account. I guess everything is being routed through the North Pole at this time of year. Update: Actually, the payment was made on the 2nd, so there's still hope. "On the 12th day of Christmas, my agency sent to me..." Edited December 12, 2013 by John Mitchell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiT Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Bank transfer: - announced on the 02/12/2013 by Alamy: nothing on my account on the 12/12/2013. But they assure me by email that the money has been transferred . - 18/12/2013: email from finance alamy: they send a payment to my bank on the 2nd Dec 2013, but it has been returned to them by my bank (impossibel since the 12/12/2013 they were saying something else). - 03/01/2014: Coming back from travel, I discover that alamy has: 1. Still hasn't paid me 2. Has made my bank details invalid without having received any answer from me. 3. Has cleared my balance account as if I was paid one month ago. - 03.01.2014: Called my bank, they never heard of Alamy, never saw any transfer attempt from them. By the way, transfers originating form the US for a UK company to contributors living in UK and Europe ? Who's paying bank charges and foreign exchange rates ? No further comment.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 By the way, transfers originating form the US for a UK company to contributors living in UK and Europe ? Who's paying bank charges and foreign exchange rates ? No further comment.... It's in the agreement you signed. The US is a major market for Alamy and they quote and bill in dolllars. so it make perfect sense to pay in them. The exchange rate is within a couple of percent of the interbank and as good as you could get anywhere. BTW it doesn't help to duplicate posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov makabaw Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I am checking out Skrill. There are no charges on receipts and only a nominal joining fee. You get a credit card which is free of charge for the currency chosen. At the moment I have been told that they are blocking my card for a security check after the first payment! So not all plain sailing yet. .dov My USD Skrill account now unblocked by security and everything seems to be working smoothly free of charge as long as I spend USD's on my Skrill card. dov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Happy to report that my December's Alamy payment showed up in my PayPal account today (Tuesday, Wed. Jan. 8th), which is within the "seven working days" stated in the initial e-mail that I received from Alamy on Jan. 2nd. So it seems that whatever problems were causing the long delays last month have been fixed. Hopefully, other contributors are noticing the same. Thanks very much, Alamy. Now if only the money wasn't already spent... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digi2ap Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) For those contributors in the UK whose payment option is to get paid via PayPal - may I ask if this is still a service that is free of charges? Edited November 12, 2015 by digi2ap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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