Which withdrawal method is right for me?

For providers with a US bank account, oDesk recommends ACH.

What about everyone else?!

Lowest Fees: oDesk Debit Mastercard / PayPal

If PayPal supports bank withdrawals in your country, it is usually an inexpensive way to get your earnings into your bank account. The oDesk Debit MasterCard is another low cost way to receive your oDesk earnings.

Let's look at an example of a provider outside the US, in a country where PayPal supports bank withdrawals. She receives $2,000 on oDesk and wants to withdraw her money. 

 
With Moneybookers, you pay just $1.00 for the initial transfer, which means $1,999.00 is deposited into your Moneybookers account. Once you withdraw your money to your local bank, however, the fees start piling on. Moneybookers charges $2.40 as a withdrawal fee, plus 1.3% to convert from USD to your local currency: only $1,970.60 is sent to your local bank. The local bank then charges fees to accept the incoming transfer. These fees vary widely across countries and banks, so they are hard to estimate, but they usually include some sort of incoming wire fee, and sometimes a percentage of assets transferred, especially if your bank uses a correspondent or intermediary bank. All told, the fees for a $2,000 withdrawal are typically between $50 and $100, sometimes more.

Note: if your Moneybookers account is in a currency other than USD, you will get hit with a second 1.3% currency conversion fee at the time you transfer funds from oDesk to your Moneybookers account. oDesk recommends holding your Moneybookers account in USD to minimize currency conversion fees.

With Paypal, you pay just $1.00 to transfer the money to your PayPal account (as long as the account is in USD). Once the money is in your PayPal account you can use it to pay directly at stores that support PayPal. Otherwise, if PayPal supports this in your country, you can transfer your money to your local bank account. This costs a nominal fee for small amounts and is free for larger amounts. If your bank account is in a currency other than USD, then PayPal converts the money with a 2.5% spread. 

Note: if your PayPal account is in a currency other than USD, like Moneybookers, you will get hit with a currency conversion fee. However, if your PayPal account and your bank account are in the same currency then there will be no currency conversion at that point.

With the oDesk Debit MasterCard, the fees look very different. There is a $2.00 fee to load your card. Using the card to make retail or online purchases is free. ATM withdrawals are $2.15, in addition to whatever fees your local ATM charges. If you have a no-fee ATM in your area, then $2.15 is all you pay. The other main fee is the monthly maintenance fee, which is taken from your card balance on the last day of the month. The fee is $3 unless you have used your card three times in the month (ATM withdrawals or purchases), in which case it goes down to $1. Also note: your balance cannot go negative, so if your balance is $0.50, your maintenance fee will be $0.50. So in this case , if it takes you six withdrawals over the course of two months to withdraw all $2,000, you will pay a total of $16.90 in fees ($2.00 load) + (6 x $2.15 per ATM) + (2 x $1.00 maintenance).

What about Convenience?

For pure speed and convenience, it's hard to beat Wire Transfer. When you request a wire transfer from oDesk, you will have your funds in most cases in 1-2 business days.

So what does oDesk recommend?

For freelancers in the US, we recommend ACH. For most other freelancers, the oDesk Debit MasterCard is an inexpensive and easy way to get paid by oDesk. If you need the ability to write checks, or if you want your earnings to be deposited into a local bank account, then PayPal is the way to go if it is supported, otherwise Moneybookers is an option. If you have problems making Moneybookers work with your bank, then you can always use Wire Transfer, which is fast and reliable, but pricey.

What about Provider Companies?

Provider Companies can receive very large sums of money from oDesk if they have a high number of employees.

If you have a good internal payroll system, we recommend PayPal, Moneybookers or Wire Transfer. If Moneybookers works for you, it can be cheaper than sending a wire. Either way, the funds can be deposited directly into your corporate account, from which you can execute your payroll (if you use Moneybookers, be sure to sign up for a company account).

If you are a smaller provider company without a complex payroll system, you can use the oDesk MasterCard to manage your payroll. Here's how:

1. Sign up for an oDesk Debit MasterCard, powered by Payoneer
2. Ask your ACs to sign up for an oDesk Debit MasterCard. Note: their cards will be in their own name, not corporate cards
3. Withdraw your oDesk balance onto your card
4. You can then do a card-to-card transfer to load your ACs cards. Each load costs $2.00, no matter how little or how much you transfer