Is there any other payment method for South Africa?

[Sabine3]

Please can someone hosting in South Africa advise me on what is the most cost effective payment method to choose now that direct payments are no longer allowed. At the moment I am being charged R100 per transaction which is almost half of the room rental for one night.

Thank you Sabine

[Sabine3]

Hi. Does noone have any insight ti share with me on this topic?

[Nicolene0]

Hi Sabine

I just investigated the options with my local bank - ABSA - and had to re-read the email from airbnb re. incoming funds a few times.....

It seems that international wiring (which is what I used before anyway) is still an option and has worked seemlessly until now.  The way that email is written I get the feeling that they would like to get many of us to opt for Payoneer Bank - read your email again and let me know what you think.

So while I was still a bit unsure what it is they would like me to change, I logged on and went to Payout options and loaded international wiring as payout option, just to afterwards find out that this is my default option anyway. So now my default and my 2nd option is international wiring - which is basically an internet transfer between my bank and airbnb's bank. My bank advised that it is best to have only these 2 banks involved as more inbetween banks mean more fees.

Hope this is helpful.

Let me know how you interpret that email.

Sunny greetings

Nicolene

[Lizzie]

@Nicolene0, great to see you came back to Sabine's post. I'm just copying @Sabine3 (using the @-name function) so that she receives a notification about your reply. 

It would be great to form more of a discussion with hosts from South Africa, so please do invite other hosts you know to get involved in the Community Center, if you can. 

Thanks so much both of you.  🙂

[Gaye1]

Hi Lizzie I have someone wanting to do an EFT or debit card payment but there is no option for that on the SA site. Please advise. Many thanks Gaye Pieterse

[Jeanette2]

Hi Nicolene,

I agree with you, that is exactly how I interpreted the email.  Do you still forfeit +/- R100 on bank charges with international wiring?  I'm dispondent as I seem to work hard at being a good host but am not being compensated for it.  Between Airbnb, their bank and the foreign exchange bank in SA,  seem to be benefiting and not the host.  

How do the other SA hosts feel about working hard for half the quoted price?  Airbnb send mails informing one of the payouts but the amount one charges for the room and the amount Airbnb state is not the same, then along comes foreign exchange and quotes a different lower amount every time a payout is made.  I just don't understand what is happening between Airbnb and the host - too many are benefiting. 

[Shayne0]

Hi Jeanette,

The whole payment system for South Africa needs to be re-addressed by Aibnb.

Using the wire transfer system offered by Worldpay, I incurred a charge of R100 each time.  For people who stay only one night meant that I was being charged 21% rather than 3% quoted by Airbnb!  

So then at Airbnb's suggestion, I switched to wire transfer via Payoneer who told me that ALL charges would be absorbed by Airbnb.  This turns out not to be true.  Airbnb elected to "SHARE" the SWIFT charges with their clients, which means that we get charged R140 per transfer.  This means that I get charged 28% now!

The other two options are USD based Payoneer card or PayPay, both of which I assume will attract forex fees as well as wire transfer fees. Airbnb are unable to confirm the exact charges!

All of which are really expensive, especially considering most of my clients are South African to begin with.  A simple interbank transfer attracts no fees at all.  

So what I am wondering is if anyone else out there has had a better experience or can shed some light on the forex charges of the remaining options?

Thanks,
Shayne 

[David62]

Hi all,

We are not only concerned about the transfer fees that has increased but also the time it is taking to get to our bank account. 

We normally get an email from Airbnb the day after the people moved in, but have to wait until our bank contact us to clear the international payment before we receive the money. It takes from a minimum 3 days to over a week before we receive a message from our bank (ABSA), after which we have to phone in, confirm the source of payment, Passport numbers etc and then receive the payment.

Is anyone else having the same time delay in receiving your payment? Or does the problem lie with our specific bank?

Thanks in advance.

[Sarah31]

@David62, @Sabine3, @Shayne0, @Jeanette2

HI,

I am with Capitec and pay R80 + a percentage of the amount being deposited into my account. On my last payment that was R148 so I paid a total of R228 bank fees.

All the payment methods seem to result in huge fees in one place or another - unless someone here has discovered any better ways around the fees?

I have submitted a complaint to AirBnB but perhaps you can all do the same?

Thanks

[Jonny---Celeste0]

Sounds fishy. Wire transfers have been working seamlessly for two years. But on some technicality Airbnb withholding R20k from me, saying they cannot do transfers in ZAR anymore. So its either Paypal or Payoneer.  And then you have to manually transfer into your account with more charges,.

[Denise-And-Carlton0]

Hi 

I am also a new host and have an with Capitec Bank. Apparently they are the cheapest with their bank Charges. But I also had to pay R80 International deposit fee plus the R148.00. I do not know what the R148.00 is for or is Payoneer taking it?

Sarah I will also submit a complaint to Airbnb. What email address are you using for airbnb?

[Sarah31]

Hi,

I asked Capitec about that and they said that the R148 is taken by Standard Bank whom the money comes through. Only the big four banks can accept foreign transfers so they take a cut and then Capitec (!).

I have since started having the money transfered into a Nedbank account. They have a minimum fee of R148 for incoming foreign transfers AND I have set the minimum amount to 500 dollars so I have to wait until Airbnb owes me that and then a big transfer is done. It cuts down on the finance charge but it does mean fewer payments.

My email address is [Personal Information Hidden] but Airbnb usually remove any email addresses from correspondence.

[Carina1]

I have just started hosting and the only payout option available to me when setting up my account was PayPal. This is a total pain in the butt as they only way to withdraw funds from PayPal seems to be through FNB as they have a 'relationship' - check out the new rules here - http://thetechieguy.com/3-mandatory-rules-for-south-african-paypal-users/ 

I'm over it before I've even begun, and the payment from my first guest is stuck in a PayPal account.  Now I need to open an FNB account for in order to access it.

Aaarggg!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

[Karen40]

We also just started. This seems not to be worth it after all. We tried to set up payment into a USD account, but the tax related form complicates things. 

Has anyone been successfull in doing it that way?

[Karen40]

Has anyone filled in the IRS Substitute Form W-8BEN? It seems they might withold a percentage of the payout if this is not done. This being required by the US IR.

Our problem lies with filling in Part II - Claim of tax treaty benefits.

Any information will be appreciated!