Note: This update affects Russian authors who currently use Payoneer as their preferred payment option for Elements earnings.
If you hold a Payoneer account you may be aware that the Russian Federation Prosecutor General’s Office has placed a ban on the Payoneer site.
This means that whilst your earnings sent to your Payoneer account are secure, you may have difficulties with some transactions through the website. However, Payoneer has informed us that the Payoneer mobile app is available and able to process bank transfers. If you need to process bank transfers we strongly encourage you to download their mobile app to do this.
We will process your March payment as usual, and all normal operations are in place if you wish to make changes to your payment options. If you would like to change your payment method please do this by the 11th March 2021 (AEDT).
We are monitoring this situation closely, and will contact you if we hear of any further changes.
That is the point. I think it is time that we get more than two unreliable expensive payout options for money that for some of us are a good portion of their monthly income.
There is a major project currently underway to upgrade our payout systems - one outcome of that work will be improving our ability to add new payment options for Elements.
When?
Due to the events with Payoneer in Russia, we really have the only way to withdraw money-PayPal.
But this method of withdrawing money has problems…
Mandatory unprofitable conversion of US dollars into Russian rubles.
Limit on daily incoming payment (PayPal in Russia).
If the monthly amount of income exceeds this limit, the payment will be rejected by PayPal (according to PayPal support in Russia).
If you exceed the limit, we will not receive your money.
Of course SWIFT!
I doubt that the solution to the Payoneer problem in Russia will be fast (if at all). Unfortunately, there are also problems with PayPal…
We all worry about the safety of our earned money.
SWIFT is a good option!
I don’t have an ETA yet, but we’ll be sharing details on the forums once we know more about the rollout
The first stage of that project is a major overhaul of how our systems process payments in general, removing some processes that currently add a lot of time and technical complexity. Once that’s done, it will prepare the way for adding new payment options. The early work will all take place in the backend though, so you’re unlikely to see anything changing in the author interface until the later stages are underway.
