It is the trend now; many people are selling their services online, for example, in freelancer.com (the buyer of written articles is in Norway and you – the service provider is in Guam or in the Philippines). A few are putting up websites and are selling their furniture’s worldwide. Another is selling their beautiful hand made bases and porcelains to a world wide market through their website.
So how do we/they get paid by a foreign customer?
There are three possible options for you to get paid:
1. Paypal or Credit Card. You open a Paypal account at paypal.com; have it verified using your VISA or Master Card. Nowadays, you can easily get a VISA or Mastercard through your bank. Once it is verified – you are good to go. You can accept and send payments to anyone in the world. You can easily set that up through your website by getting a paypal payment button. You can ask for help from the webmaster of your website or you can do it yourself as it is not really complicated. Remember that your customer can charge you back if they do not receive your product or services.
Without a credit card, or paypal – how do you get paid by a foreign customer?
2. You can use the old traditional way how exporters are being paid. Through the use of 30-60 day letter of credit or L/C, or you can just ask your buyer to pay you via a direct deposit or bank transfer. The letter of credit is good for bulk and big exporters, however, if you are a website retailer selling to a worldwide market – Paypal is the most advisable as many of your customers would refuse to go the tedious process of getting a 30-60 day letter of credit or L/C.
How the 30-60 day letter of credit or L/C works?
* Via a 30-60 day letter of credit or L/C, where the minimum amount is US$1,000. Payment time depends on your ability as an exporter to ship your goods to your foreign buyer on or before the expiry date of the L/C. The pertinent steps are as follows:
o You prepare and send a pro-forma invoice (indicating your quantity and price) to your buyer abroad.
o Your foreign buyer, upon receipt of and based on your pro-forma invoice, opens an L/C, through his bank, say Saudi National Bank (SNB).
o SNB, through its local correspondent bank, say PNB, requests that the exporter, which is you, be advised of the L/C that was opened in your favor.
o Based on the L/C advised by PNB, you prepare and ship the goods to your buyer. Be sure you follow what?s written on the L/C.
o You present the L/C prior to its expiry, along with your shipping documents, to PNB and claim payment.
o PNB, based on the documents that you presented, claims reimbursement from SNB.
Local banks normally charge a commission for this service.
3. Another possibility is to be paid by bank draft. In this case, your buyer abroad goes to his bank and purchases a bank draft payable to you. However, the purchase of a bank draft is subject to local banking regulations (e.g. there must be an underlying transaction with supporting documents, such as pro-forma invoice, etc.)
Your buyer sends the bank draft to you, the exporter—but takes the risk of not receiving the goods if you do not follow through on the shipment.
We hope you find these points useful to start from.
Reference: Philstar.com
It seems after the President arrived from the US where he informed the media that there is big bucks in coconut water, sales of buko all over the country have gone up. Reportedly there is an increasing demand for coco water in the US and Europe as an alternative to Gatorade. Drinking coco water is a growing trend in the US and Europe.
