Payoneer

Payoneer exists for a situation the others do not really handle: you live somewhere Wise or the app banks will not serve, and you need a client or a marketplace in another country to pay you without a forty-dollar wire fee. It operates from more than 150 countries and does not require you to be resident in Europe or the UK, and it gives you genuine local account details in around ten currencies. If that is your problem, this is the answer.

Do not use it as a card. Conversion on the card runs to 3.5%, cash withdrawals are $3.15 each with no free allowance, and there is a $29.95 annual fee unless more than $6,000 comes through the account in a year. The sensible pattern is to receive into Payoneer and move the money out to Wise or a local bank for spending.

Two warnings we would rather give you now. Trustpilot has removed Payoneer’s rating altogether, displaying a notice that it breached their guidelines and that fake reviews were taken down — that is unusual and it is worth knowing. And the most common serious complaint, on the Better Business Bureau and elsewhere, is funds frozen during a review with no stated end date. Like Wise, Payoneer safeguards money rather than insuring it, so there is no compensation scheme behind your balance. Do not let it become the only place your money lives.