If you aren't living in a country with a local Amazon store, then EFT isn't an option. The only way is to wait until your account has accumulated $100 in royalties, at which point Amazon will send you a cheque. You know those rectangular paper things that take forever to arrive, (if they don't get lost or end up in someone else's pocket on the way.) No, you definitely don't want to receive a cheque.
Fortunately, there is an international service that makes receiving funds a pleasure. It's called Payoneer.
(Something I discovered by accident is that every time you refer someone to the service, Payoneer will pay us each $25 as a thank you gift when your royalty payments reach $1000. The $25 offer is only valid if you use any refer-a-friend link, so that's the one I've included above.
The idea behind Payoneer is that they have opened virtual bank accounts with huge, reputable banks, like Barclays and Bank of America, in multiple countries.
When you sign up for their service, they will issue you with a US, EU and UK bank account. You can also apply for accounts in other regions like Japan, Canada and Australia.
All you have to do is enter that information into your Amazon KDP portal and you are good to go.
So let's look at this information in a little more detail:
What is a Payoneer account?
- A Payoneer account isn't a normal Bank Account.
It's a bank account for receiving company payments. They have a number of strange restrictions like:
"It is strictly forbidden to make or receive payments as consideration for or in connection with:
• Any illegal act;
• Drugs, alcohol, or drug paraphernalia, or items that may represent these uses;
Okay, That's not so strange... but then they go on to list things like:
• Crowdfunding;
• Esoteric services (ex: astrology, psychic reading etc.);
• Airlines;
• Vacation Services (for example - apartment rental/booking agencies/car rentals/tour guides).
• Health and beauty products, Cosmetics;
You can view the complete t&c here.
It appears that they don't want you to use this as a regular bank account, with debit orders coming off of it etc. There is an exception to this, which I will cover below.
So what can you do with your money?
There are two options:
- You can transfer money out of your Payoneer account into your local bank account.
Once you receive a payment, you can then transfer the money into your ABSA, standard bank etc. bank account.
- You can apply for a Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard, which they will mail to you. With that, you can keep your money in your Payoneer account, load funds onto your card and use it as you would any other debit card.
As I mentioned in the previous section, the account itself isn't treated like an ordinary bank account, but the Mastercard seems to be treated like any other Credit card with one exception: you have to load the funds into the card before you can use it. In that way, it is more like a debit card than a credit card, but otherwise, it's exactly the same.
What are the charges?
The information provided below was collected at the time of publishing, but please check the official page for confirmation and for any changes that may have occurred.
Opening a Payoneer account doesn't cost anything.
receiving funds in EUR, GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD, CNY is free.
Receiving funds in USD will cost you 1% of the transfer amount.
Transferring funds between your various Payoneer bank accounts (GBP Barkleys to USD First Century) carries a 0.5% fee.
Transferring your funds to a South African Bank carries a 2% fee.
Please Note that your local bank will also charge you a fee. You will need to contact your bank to find out how much it is likely to be.
If you decide you would like to keep your money in your Payoneer account and use their Credit Card facility, the fees are as follows:
Annual Card fee: $29.95. This is comparable to the cost of most other credit cards in South Africa.
You will pay a fee of $3.15 to withdraw funds from an ATM.
You will pay a 3.5% currency conversion fee per transaction.
Please note that the Credit card is entirely optional. You do not need to pay the $29.95 charge if you don't plan on using it.
What do you need to do in order to sign up with Payoneer?
When you sign up, they will ask you for your bank account details. They will need this information to transfer the funds into your local account.
Setting up your Amazon bank details:
You don't need separate bank accounts in the US, UK and EU to receive payments from the various Amazon stores. You can receive money from Amazon.co.uk into your US bank account.If you only have an account in the US, Amazon will convert your co.uk royalties into USD, and deposit it into that US bank account. In the same way, they will convert USD to GBP or EUR if you decide to use an EU bank.
If you decide to only use a US bank account, the currency will be converted at a slightly lower rate to cover all relevant bank charges. I haven't used this option, so I can't comment on what the exchange rate will be, but as far as I know, it is comparable to any other bank exchange service.
See Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers for more information.
The other option is to specify 3 bank accounts:
- a UK bank account for Amazon.co.uk payments.
- a EU account for Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it and Amazon.nl
- US bank account for Amazon.com and the rest of the world.
So how do we do this?
Open up Payoneer and click on Receive > Global Payment Service:
Sign into kdp.Amazon.com
Click on your account.
Select Getting Paid.
Select the option to Add a new bank account.
They will ask you where your bank is located.
- Select the United States
- copy the account details across from your USD Payoneer bank account.
EU asks for a BIC and IBAN number instead of an Account Number and ABA number.
You will also notice that Checking or Savings isn't specified. You can simply leave it at the "Checking" default.
Now when it comes to GBP, you will run into a problem. You will notice that your Barclays account has a Sort Code and Account Number, but Amazon wants an IBAN and BIC code.
Unfortunately, Payoneer doesn't provide an account with a BIC and IBAN number by default, so you will either have to use your US account for co.uk payments, or you will have to contact Payoneer support to request one.
The only way to contact customer support is to send them a private message via Facebook. Don't bother looking on the site; you will waste an hour like I did. Give them your Payoneer Account number. Explain your situation and they will get back to you with a new bank account loaded onto your profile.
I don't know if it's worth the hassle of setting up multiple accounts, especially since you will have to pay that 0.5% fee to transfer funds between them, but I will leave that up to you to decide.
That's it. Within a week or two, you can look forward to receiving your first payment from Amazon.
I hope you enjoyed the post.
If you enjoy Epic Fantasy, you can check out The King and Guardian: (Riftwalkers book 1) on Amazon
