How do I Receive Payments from Webcam Sites

The other day a cam model from Asia asked how do I receive payment from Chaturbate.  This is a typical problem for performers outside the U.S. or Europe when cashing a check that needs to be clear in a foreign country.  It costs a awful lot!

1.  Cash Checks with Banks

Bank Charges

I have done quite a bit of shopping around local banks about foreign currency bank check deposit charges and they range from USD13 to USD40 per check.  If you work for 3 webcam sites and receive a check from each site each month, it can cost up to USD120 a month!  On top of that, some bank may not even handle your checks unless you have an account with them for at least 6 months.  This really drives me mad.

Money is on Hold

Even though you have deposited the checks with your bank the money is not available immediately.  As the banks have to clear the checks overseas, typically the deposited amount will be on hold for 4 weeks to one month which means you still don’t have the money in hand!

Quota for Depositing Check

On top of that, some banks have a quota per person about how much one can deposit in one month.  If you are doing very well and got big fat checks to deposit, sorry, please wait till your previous batch of checks are cleared before you can deposit more.  So you are not welcome to deposit more money into the bank, huh?!

Questioning from Banks

When you deposit a foreign currency check into the bank you may be asked many questions:

  • What are these checks for? Is it stock dividend?
  • How often do you receive these checks?
  • Are these business purposes?  If so, would you like to open a business account with us?
  • blah…  repeat every month

Having fed up with all these, I started to look around for other payment options.

2. Wired Transfer

Some webcam sites do offer wired transfer as a payment method and the charges are varied.  It depends how much their banks charge them too.  A typical fee from your webcam site is around USD45 plus your local bank may charge you for receiving overseas deposit.  We may be talking about at least USD50 for one payment each time.

3. Paypal

Many people have paypal accounts though Paypal states specifically that adult related topics are not allowed.  Therefore I will give it a miss because I am using Paypal to do my other online shopping I would rather not to mess it up and avoid the hassle of opening and verifying a new account.

4. Payoneer

Payoneer is an online payment system.  Many webcam sites do offer Payoneer as a payment option.  And the most convenient way to get the money out from Payoneer is by getting their MasterCard. Opening an account with Payoneer is free and it’s the various charges and maintenance costs that you have to be aware of.  Here is the cost involved:

  • Activate the Master Card: (first time one-off payment) USD12.95 or USD24.95 if you are from certain less flavourable countries
  • Loading payment into your account each time: USD2.0
  • Immediate Load: for extra USD3.0 each time, you can have the payment available in 2 hours; otherwise, you have to wait for 2 days before it’s available for withdrawal.
  • Monthly maintenance fee: USD3.0/month if 0-3 transactions/month. USD1.0 if 4 transactions or more 
  • ATM withdrawal: USD3.15 each time

TOP TIPS:

  1. Check your balance online before you do the ATM withdrawal because it will cost you USD1.0 to do an ATM balance inquiry.
  2. Use the MasterCard to pay the bill then you don’t have to pay the ATM withdrawal fee, although credit card horrible exchange rates applied if USD is not your local currency.
  3. If you overdraw at the ATM machine and the withdrawal is declined then you will be charged USD1.0 too.
  4. Hunt around to see which bank’s ATM machine let you withdraw the most amount so as to reduce number of withdrawals.

To summarize: e.g. if you receive payment from Chaturbate once a month, it will cost you: USD2.0 (to load) + USD3.0 monthly maintenance fee = USD5.0

plus

the way you withdraw money:

  • Free – if withdraw with credit card payment
  • 1 withdrawal: USD3.15
  • 2 withdrawals: USD6.30
  • 3 withdrawals: USD9.45

That means:

  • minimum USD5.0 or
  • USD5.0 + USD3.15 = USD8.15 (one payment load + one ATM withdrawal)
  • USD5.0 + (USD3.15 x 2) = USD11.30 (one payment load + two ATM withdrawal)
  • USD5.0 + (USD3.15 x 3) = USD14.45 (one payment load + three ATM withdrawal)

It seems to me that Payoneer is  a better deal in terms of costs and availability of the money. You can stay economical and spend as little as USD5.0 and exchange rate loss (if withdraw using credit card) to receive one payment.  There is this flexibility that motivate me to use Payoneer.

 

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