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Changed my payment setup after a mess with a Brazil client last week
I used to always wait for clients to wire transfer me and it was fine until last Tuesday with this guy from Sao Paulo. The bank held his payment for 12 days and then took $45 in fees. My buddy told me to try Wise on a whim and I got the full amount in 2 hours flat. Has anyone else had a bank eat their payment like that?
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thomasb414mo ago
Yeah man I feel your pain, I got hit with almost the same thing from a client in Argentina last year. The bank sat on it for 10 days and then tacked on a $38 fee for "international processing." Switched to Wise after that and never looked back, the transfer speed is legit. For Brazil specifically make sure they use the PIX option on their end too, that cuts out any bank hold nonsense entirely. Also check if your bank has a fee schedule hidden in your account terms, I found out mine charges extra for any wire from South America and that's some bull.
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robin8964mo ago
That part about "international processing" fees is actually something I’ve been looking into too. But I gotta say, @thomasb41, I think you might be mixing up PIX with something else. PIX is instant for transfers between Brazilian banks, but it can still get held up on the sending side, especially if your US bank doesn’t support it directly. I’ve had clients in Brazil try PIX and the money still sat for a day because my bank didn’t recognize the system. You’re right about fee schedules being hidden though, that’s a real trap. Most people don’t find out until they get hit with that nasty surprise.
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samreed4mo ago
You're right about the sending side being the bottleneck. Even if PIX itself is instant, the whole thing still depends on whether your bank wants to play nice with it. I've seen banks just hold the money for a day or two while they "verify" the system, which kind of defeats the purpose. It's not really PIX's fault, it's more that a lot of US banks are slow to adapt to anything new. The hidden fees thing is the real killer though, nobody reads that fine print until it's too late.
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