How to Receive International Payments as a Freelancer in Nepal?

It sounds foolish to ask such a question but in reality it’s one of the major challenges to the freelancers in Nepal who want to receive payments from international clients.

Why? Because in Nepal there is no legal international payment option like PayPal or Stripe.

But don't worry, I have found a way that's working for me and I'm sharing everything in this article.

Table of Contents

Challenges on Receiving Payments from International Clients in Nepal

Getting an International Mastercard

Setting Up a System to Receive Payments

Challenges on Receiving Payments from International Clients in Nepal

Though freelancing is one of the better opportunities to earn good income especially when you can earn in dollars, freelancers face challenges in receiving payment.

If the amount is big, senders don’t hesitate to send directly to the bank account via SWIFT or Western Union but when the payment is small like $10-$50 then they hesitate to send it via bank.

Also it’s almost impossible to sell digital products like ebooks, pdfs, presets, LUT, source code, Photos, etc.

How Do I Know It?

Because I’ve personally faced this problem.

I have a small YouTube channel where I share programming courses for FREE. And it’s in the English language, so there are lots of international students accessing these courses.

Some find it very helpful (many completed assignments, some got jobs, started freelancing, changed careers, etc.) and when they’re happy they want to send me donations.

And in the past, since I did not have any international payment options to accept the donation, I just used to tell them that I couldn’t accept it due to such an issue.

Some of you will say that you should tell them to send it to a Bank Account.

So, A Question For You?

Would you send $5-$10 to a bank account just because you liked a YouTube video?

No one would hesitate if they could just simply transfer it via PayPal, Stripe, Venmo, etc. but to a bank account, I really doubt it.

And some of you will say that you should have asked your family/friends living abroad to make a PayPal account and use it?

Do you really think I didn’t ask when more than 90% of my friends from School and Bachelors are abroad?

Some did not give a shit, some said there could be tax issues to them and some didn’t even reply.

This is how I was losing FREE Money (not expected income).

Later as my courses started getting attention, I wanted to explore more audiences and decided to publish them on Udemy as well.

When I tried to submit the courses for FREE, I found out that if the course is longer than 2 hours then they need to be a paid course.

And to make a paid course, I needed a payment method that’s accepted by Udemy.

Getting an International Mastercard

Here, I found out that they accepted Payoneer which I had heard about in Nepal.

So I decided to make a Payoneer Account.

By the way I already had a Payoneer account that I created back in 2013. At that time I just had to submit a scanned copy of Citizenship and they would create an account and send Payoneer Mastercard for FREE.

But at that time, I did not have any international income source. Also my wallet got stolen at Ason bazaar during the Dashain crowd.

Since I was not getting any benefits from Payoneer Card, I did not care about it.

Now I decided to create a new Payoneer account. And found out that, now along with the national ID you need to submit address verification.

For address verification I need to submit either an electricity bill or water bill or bank statement with my name on it and current address.

Since I was just renting a room in Kathmandu, there was no chance of getting an electricity bill or water bill on my name.

The remaining options were an internet bill or bank statement.

First I tried with an internet bill (worldlink) and it got rejected as it did not have a full address.

Then I went to the bank to get a statement and applied with it.

Even it got rejected since it did not have a full address.

Now, I do not have any options left, I do not have any reliable source of income.

Only if I could earn in dollars from Udemy would it be a life saver.

So, with a last hope I contacted their help center via Live Chat and finally my Payoneer address verification got approved.

Here’s the full article on "How I Used Payoneer Live Chat to Verify My Location/Address".

And Payoneer has been a life saver for me since then.

Now with the Payoneer account I can receive money from organizations all around the world and even pay for services like domain, hosting, themes, Netflix, etc.

Setting Up A System To Receive International Payments 

Apart from Udemy, I wanted to diversify my income.

So first I searched for a platform to accept donations since I was contacted by the students via email or social media to express their gratitude and wanted to send some donations.

And later I found out most of the platforms only accepted Paypal or Stripe.

Fortunately I found Buy Me A Coffee which accepted Payoneer. Then I created an account and connected with Payoneer.

Note: From 1st November, 2024 Buy Me A Coffee has stopped accepting Payoneer for payouts. So I'm planning to use Patreon instead.

Now I’m accepting donations from students all around the world via the Buy Me A Coffee page.

One problem was solved (accepting donations).

Later I wanted to sell digital products along with the courses. So when I researched on the platforms to sell, I found platforms like Gumroad and Sellfy.

But same as earlier most of them accepted Paypal and Stripe, and some had monthly fees.

And since I was just experimenting they did not meet my requirements.

Finally, after sometime Buy Me A Coffee introduced Extras/Shop features where we could sell digital products.

And as I was already using it, I created a shop and added a few products to try.

Now, students from all around the world are my digital buying products.

My Buy Me A Coffee Shop to Sell Source Codes

Along with donations and Shop on Buy Me a Coffee, Now I’ve created a Membership to accept monthly payments from my Supporters.

And I’m getting some attention on it and even successfully got one member who paid for a whole year.

Now I’m planning to extensively use these features (Donations, Shops and Memberships) to generate sustainable income as an Educator and Freelancer using Buy Me A Coffee and Payoneer.

Best Solution To Receive Payment As A Freelancer in Nepal

This is based on my personal experience and it may vary depending on others.

And if you know other methods, then please SHARE. It’ll be helpful to all of us (freelancers).

Buy Me A Coffee + Payoneer is the best combo so far best in my experience.

Step-By-Step Guide to Receive Payments from International Clients in Nepal

This is the easy best way to receive payment from international clients in Nepal.

1. Create a Free Payoneer Account and Verify.
2. Create a Free Buy Me A Coffee Account.
3. Create Products or Services with Receiving Amount on Buy Me A Coffee Shop (Extras).
4. Share Product/Service Link to the Client to receive Payment.
5. Connect Payoneer on Buy Me a Coffee as a Withdrawal Option.
6. Withdraw Money (Either transfer to local Nepali Bank Account from Payoneer or Use Payoneer Mastercard to Withdraw from any ATM in Nepal).

Who Can Use This Method?

Anyone who has an international audience/clients/customers can use this method to receive international payment.

How To Use This Method To Receive Payment From International Clients in Nepal?

This method can be used in following ways to receive payment from international Clients in Nepal

1. Sell digital products like eBooks, PDFs, LUTs or Presets, Source Code, Photos, etc.
2. Offer services like  Photo/Video Editing, Web Designing, Graphic Design, Animation, etc.
3. Sell Virtual Counseling/Consulting via Zoom/Skype.
4. Accept donations from your loyal audience.
5. Run an exclusive membership.
6. Or Sell Physical products.

Products and Services You Can Sell using Buy Me A Coffee Extra (Shop) Feature

Use Buy Me A Coffee to receive payment and then withdraw using Payoneer.

Hope this method helps you and wish you great success as a Freelancer in Nepal.

Also let me know if it's helpful to you or you know any other better ways to receive international payments as a freelancer in Nepal.