Also, banks don’t judge as long as you comply with local and state laws.
2 Likes
Stripe is perfect for SWAPD’s volume… There are SMM businesses pushing two million+ a year through Stripe with no issues.
They do not restrict SMM businesses, they restrict social media panels selling botted followers as these types of businesses have a ridiculous chargeback rate.
I have two different businesses both with ‘Social’ in the name, our business categories are ‘Social Media Publishing’ Both registered on stripe doing a fair volume each month.
I don’t see escrow anywhere on the restricted list either
Are these SMM businesses that you are referring to, selling accounts, verifications, PR, unbans, growth, and similar services?
Or are these legitimate marketing agencies doing ads, marketing, graphics, management and so on?
There is a huge difference between the both.
3 Likes
There must be some “Bank” with faster times and lower fees than regular banks
My mission next week will be to find a bank branch and an appropriate account level to dish out wires as fast and as cheap as we can. If we can cut the transit time even by 1/2, that would be a huge success. Bank wires were used (still are) on SWAPD just as much as BTC, so it’s not like things will drastically change. Just the inconvenience factor of losing a fast way of moving funds like with TransferWise is what actually sucks.
3 Likes
Payoneer/USDT should be good for transactions. 
Consider switching to (or adding) Euros for bank transactions. If you open a bank account at a bank that is in the SEPA instant credit network (there are many banks), then, any transaction from or to a transferwise account will be instant 24/7 (up too 100K, depending on the bank) because they are part of that network.
Here is more info and a list of banks: https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-instant-credit-transfer
Also, these instant transfers between banks are 9/10 completely free; if there are any fees, it’s not any higher than 2 euro.
If you want more info on how to set this up, dont hesitate to contact me; Im happy to help
Stay away from payoneer, just months ago they froze all accounts. Major fuckup
Id suggest stripe, also people need to be patient and wait for the damn wires.
Edit. Fastspring is also good
2 Likes
Cashapp from balance.
Stay away from payoneer.
Crypto is the best
I have good knowledge about crypto, and I would advise to ignore coinbase at all costs. Anything US based sucks and they suck big time.
USDT is good but they have a small issue: ERC20 and TRC20; 2 different networks of payments same coin, if the user and reciver exchange their address and payment lets say
Person A, uses erc20 but person B provides TRC20, money is gone and non-refundable.
If looking into crypto-currency payments as a checkout: www.bitpay.com ; however I think they are US based, not sure didn’t check long time
You can chose if you want USD, you can chose if you hold Crypto… idk about their payment and hold system. But they are the most trusted crypto payments processor.
1 Like
100k in 2 years and still work - lots of transactions, never an issues
I use stripe but not sure how it would be for two way transfers. It is not an escrow service. If I am buying and pay you on stripe, 3% would go to stripe. If you pay out the seller via stripe, they would lose 3% as well. Net loss will be high.
@Goofy after the first few transactions, money clears in one day.
@rockstard112 is right. Stripe doesn’t like smm services. Beyond a point you will get flagged. 3-4 chargebacks and your account is gone.
2 Likes
I got banned from Stripe for our subscription based service (virtual)
Emailed loads, ignored, even spoke to some of their staff on LinkedIn, all fine and replying until I ask.
Crazy how uneducated some people are here.
@SWAPD your options are limited because you don’t have an ITIN or a US business presence and this marketplace is unknown to the masses.
However, limited does not mean not possible. I would try Adyen, they work with European companies.
Furthermore, if you choose to overcome those obstacles (ITIN/US business) I have many connections for merchant accounts for marketplace style businesses.
Lastly, I have a connection that can get you an ITIN and set you up a US business at the same time. The ITIN will take 2-4 months though.
Good luck.
SWAPD is probably looking at 200k a month. 
As I said … for the volume and frequency Stripe is not the correct option.
3 Likes
Regulations are virtually the same for every institution, what is probably holding you the most is GLBA (Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act) since most of your customers I assume are “online” and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) from the OCC & FED since you don’t really know from where that money is coming from.
You are acting as a financial middle-man and that niche is highly regulated, keep in mind that most of the money laundering fraud is made from models similar to this one — see Liberty Reserve for example. If I understood correctly, 200k a month isn’t that much to gain enough attention, more than that 850k in a fiscal quarter and Transferwise would have been fined by the OCC or the FED most likely after their annual audit.
Many of our clients are US-based banks and the Financial Industry is probably the most regulated there is compared to any other country. Leaving problems aside, I can suggest two things:
- Move your operations to a more “flexible” country
- Don’t go to big well-established entities, get in contact with new FinTech companies like (Azlo, Novo, etc.), since you are offering some clear revenue you might land an agreement with them and payments are in most cases realtime as well since they have a middle man bank. Last time I checked Azlo had a deal with Transferwise, which probably means if you are approved by Azlo you will be able to enable Transferwise again but using your own bank instead of a Business Account with Transferwise.
Everything in the financial industry is about risk, get a clear agreement from the beginning with a small entity by providing everything they will need to ensure they comply with all regulations and you will be good.
7 Likes
Very well written @jaime123, and you make solid points.
Been trying to push for this for a while, many members have too. Unfortunately for us, in the EU there’s something called exit tax. Meaning, if we try to move our operations to a different country, the government will tax us harder. Although I am fairly sure that a move like that would be super beneficial in the long run, I’m sure it’s a headache to actually set up and get comfortable with.
2 Likes
I was born and raised in the US, I could set up a company there but I don’t see a point. We’re getting fully certified in the EU this month as a financial institution, I flew under the radar as a company buying/selling things, but the volumes now are getting too big so this need to change, as much as I don’t want to. We will actually be regulated now by the same institution that controls banks (Home - Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego) 
This will be painful.
3 Likes
I have been exploring options, it looks like a few banks in our country may support instant or overnight wires in USD, EUR, and GBP (SWIFT GPI). This would cut transaction times by 2-4 days, so most likely we will solve this problem and just abandon third-party processors which add nothing but unnecessary hassle and additional fees.
4 Likes