How do you get paid if you join international affiliate programs? Part 1.

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byewo
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Hi. Everybody. I am here to offer you a guide on how to have your income deposited fast and relatively cheap to your local bank account.

My story start

I have joined WA about a month ago and I am following the third module of online entrepreneur certification. If you are following that too, you may have joined the Amazon.com affiliate program. As a non-US resident, I am now living in Canada, I joined Amazon.ca affiliate program as well. What really frustrated me is what the cover image of this post shows. If you join Amazon.ca and you are living in Canada, you can get paid by direct deposit. That being said, you can't choose direct deposit from Amazon.com if you don't have a US bank account in the states.

Choices from Amazon

Having a US account opened in a bank located in the states is difficult and expensive for non-US resident; so 2 more choices left which are paid by gift certificate/card or paid by cheque. Most people don't choose the option of to gift certificate/card since we have to spend our income at Amazon only instead of at our savings and utility bills. At the end, in most cases, we end up with choosing paid by cheque.

Chequing issues

Cheque usually takes a couple weeks to be delivered to the international destination. On of the top of that, 2 more business day for the cheque to be deposited to the bank before we can withdraw for the spending we like. Sending by cheque is a slow process, not to mention there is a chance of losing mail in some countries. In that case, Amazon will void the old cheque and issue a new cheque, and that will prolong the delivery process.

Because Amazon.com send you in US dollars, international residents will face the unfavorable exchange rate of currency, lousy international banking fees and delays.

Alternative options

Life sucks sometimes. It takes a long time to cultivate our websites before we get our own first income; and we still have to wait for three weeks for our own cheque before we can withdraw. It's ridiculous that Amazon being a huge international enterprise couldn't manage to pay us international direct deposit.

We love to blame. However, is there any fast but not so expensive way for us to choose? Yep, there are few options that let you direct deposit !!! I am here to show you what I have researched from my last couple days.

BMO Harris

The traditional way for Canadian

If you are a Canadian, you are familiar with BMO, the Bank of Montreal. BMO is one the six biggest banks in Canada. The six biggest are BMO, TD, Royal banks, Nova Scotia Bank, CIBC, and HSBC. Only TD, Royal banks, and HSBC allows Canadian to open a US account in the states. According to livingoffcloud.com, the best offer is from the BMO. BMO Harris is the physical bank of BMO operated in the US.

Plans

The plan mentioned from livingoffcloud.com is not up-to-date. Now, in 2018, BMO Harris offers 3 US personal checking plans to Canadian. They are BMO Harris Smart Advantage, BMO Harris Smart money, and BMO Harris Premier account. You can look for further details at https://www.bmoharris.com/main/personal/checking-accounts/?i.... In essence, the smart advantage account is the plan you will likely pick as there is no monthly maintenance fee on it. The smart money plan is better for young people under age of 25, while the premier requires you to keep $25000 each month in your account to waive maintenance fee. BMO Harris is now fully integrated with BMO on the internet, so you can open account and manage your money online. Funds availability is much faster than funding from cheque mails. You can wire transfer to deposit your local BMO account on the same day. Cheque deposit will take one business day.

Fees

Here is the list of catches. You can see all fees involved in the smart advantage account from the pdf: https://www.bmoharris.com/pdf/Smart_Advantage_C_Reg_DD.pdf

  • The biggest catch is that you need $25 US as a hard deposit. You may exchange about $32-$35 Canadian to $25 US at a good currency exchange office first if you want to save money. After that, you put it into your US account at BMO Canada and then you make a money order to yourself before you open your BMO Harris account. Notice that you will pay $5 for each money order to BMO except you join the premier account.
  • The second catch is that you cannot withdraw money for the first 90 days after you have opened the account. You will be charged for $50 US if you cancel the account at the first 90 days.
  • There is overdraft fees if your smart advantage account is $5 below zero, while the smart money account doesn't allow you to withdraw to below zero. The premier account can have overdraft fees waived.
  • International wire transfer fees from BMO Harris can be up to $50 US for outgoing and $0 for incoming. I am not sure yet of the in-house transfer fee between BMO and BMO Harris.
  • 3% markup on the top of mid-market exchange rate.
  • You won't receive interest from BMO Harris account except the premier.

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Recent Comments

5

it would be interesting to research how you can promote programs in other parts of the world (Europe, Australia, South America) when we don't have a checking account in those countries... Why doesn't Amazon use PayPal?

Very helpful info thanks. I'm in Canada and I was a bit bummed out that Amazon.com couldn't do direct deposit. I'll def look into this.

The biggest 5 banks should be biggest 6 banks. Nova Scotia bank should be included in the biggest 6 banks.

You can edit the post to include that.

Thanks. I didn't realized that function before.

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Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
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4-Steps to Success Class
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One Profit Ready Website
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Market Research & Analysis Tools
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Millionaire Mentorship
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Core “Business Start Up” Training