If a Big Business wants to pay you via Payoneer, RUN AWAY!

Here is how Payoneer, by deliberate choice of policy, get you

The above story from Arse Technica story is a cautionary tale for those who are considering whether to use Payoneer. Although the story is focused on Google, this article will shift the focus on Payoneer.

Minimum withdrawal limit

First, if you have less than US$50 in your Payoneer account, you cannot withdraw it to your bank account. Good luck trying to find information about this minimum withdrawal limit in their support documentation. I only found out about it when I tried to withdraw my cash and failed with an error message from Payoneer. The error message did not mention what the minimum withdrawal limit was. It only inform me of the existence of a limit. I had to waste a lot of time searching high and low on their support documentation to find out what it was.

This is a red flag about Payoneer. It seems that they trying to hide something.

So, I had to wait many months for my account to accrue $50 before I can withdraw it to my bank account. Then I hit another gotcha condition from them.

Annual fee

In this story, Google wants to pay the journalist $50. But to do that, he needs to

… create an account with something called "Payoneer."

But here is the catch:

And though Google promised "no transaction fees," Payoneer appears to charge an "annual account fee"of $29.95... but only to accounts that receive less than $2,000 through Payoneer in any consecutive 12-month period.

Now, he is in a quandary:

If the fee does apply to me, do I need to sign up for a Payoneer account, give them all of my most personal financial information, wait the "10 to 18 business days" that Google says it will take to get my money, and then return to Payoneer so that I can cancel my account before racking up some $30 charge a year from now? And I'm supposed to do all this just to get.... fifty bucks? One time?

In my case, by the time I accrued $50 to be able to withdraw my money, I was hit with a $30 annual fee! That brought my balance to $20, which I will then have to wait again for many months to accrue again.

Closed my Payoneer account

This is precisely the reason why I closed my Payoneer account.

Originally, they had no annual fee. Then one day, they decided to change their policy to charge an annual fee on customers who receive less than $2000 per year.

Their policy DELIBERATELY screw small occasional users

Payoneer has made the deliberate policy choices to screw their occasional small users. Their policy change is designed to take money away from them.

Also, their lack of transparency about their minimum withdrawal limit is a red flag about their integrity.

Which other Big Tech are also using Payoneer?

As far as I am aware, if you are a non-US contributor to Adobe Stock images, they choose to pay you via Payoneer. For some reason, US contributors can be paid via PayPal.

Alternatives to Payoneer

Payoneer does not have a monopoly. They have competitors. If they choose to screw their customers, their customers have a choice.

That’s why I have switched to Wise.

What you need to do?

Whenever you are offered money from Big Business, find out in advanced how they choose to pay you. If they choose Payoneer, run away! If a Big Business does not offer alternatives to Payoneer, you know for sure it is better not to engage with them.