How money from a foreign client actually reaches you
There are two completely different ways money gets from a foreign client to you, and the difference between them is most of what you pay.
Almost nobody explains this, so people compare providers on the headline percentage and miss the thing that actually decides the cost.
Route 1: the international wire
Your client tells their bank to send money abroad. The bank pushes it through the SWIFT network, where it hops between correspondent banks until it reaches yours.
Each hop is a bank that can take a cut. Your client's bank charges a fee. Intermediary banks may deduct their own. Your bank charges to receive it, and converts to local currency at whatever rate it feels like that day.
Two things make this genuinely bad:
- Nobody can tell you the total in advance. Not your client, not their bank, not yours. You find out when it lands.
- The exchange rate is the biggest charge and it is invisible, because it is quoted as a rate rather than billed as a fee.
It is also slow - days, not hours - and if a detail is wrong somewhere in the chain, the money can sit in limbo while banks email each other about it.
Route 2: local account details
This is the one worth understanding.
A provider issues you real bank account details in the sender's own country. A US routing and account number. A UK sort code and account number. A euro IBAN.
Your client in the US sends a normal domestic US bank transfer to a US account number. As far as their bank is concerned, nothing crossed a border. No SWIFT, no correspondent banks, no chain of fees - because there was no international payment to price.
The money lands in your balance in the original currency. You convert it when you choose, at a rate you can see before you press the button, and withdraw to your local bank.
The trick is not a cheaper international transfer. It is not making an international transfer at all.
What it costs
From Wise's receiving page, checked 29 August 2026:
Note what this table is really saying: the same money costs nothing or 6.11 USD depending entirely on which route your client's bank uses. If your client sends a domestic ACH transfer to your US account details, it is free. If they insist on a wire, it is not.
That is worth one sentence in your invoice: "Please send this as a normal domestic transfer, not a wire."
Conversion is charged separately when you convert - a percentage shown to you before you confirm, against the mid-market rate. That transparency is the actual product. Compare it with PayPal's 3-4% markup buried inside the rate.
Who cannot get USD account details
This part matters, and most comparison articles skip it.
Wise's help page on USD account details lists 28 countries and regions where USD account details are unavailable, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria.
Vietnam does not appear on that exclusion list. Bangladesh does - so if you are reading this from Dhaka, this specific route is closed to you at Wise and you need to check what your alternatives offer before you spend an afternoon on signup.
This is the single most useful thing to check before choosing any provider: not the fee table, but whether the feature exists in your country at all. Every provider has a list like this. They are rarely on the marketing pages.
What to check before you sign up anywhere
In this order. The first three questions kill most options faster than any fee comparison:
- Can someone resident in my country open this account at all?
- Can I get account details in the currency my clients pay in? USD details are useless if your clients pay in euros.
- Can I withdraw to a bank in my country, in my currency?
- What does receiving cost - domestic, and by wire?
- What is the conversion markup over mid-market?
- What does the withdrawal cost?
Only questions 4 to 6 are about money. Questions 1 to 3 are about whether the thing works for you, and they are the ones people skip.
Where this leaves you
If your income arrives from clients, affiliate networks, marketplaces or platforms, this route is almost always the right answer, and the setup is an afternoon.
If you need to take card payments from strangers at checkout on your own store, this does not solve that - see Stripe and Shopify Payments do not work in Vietnam for why that is a separate problem.
All figures from the linked provider pages, checked 29 August 2026. Fees and country lists change - open the sources before acting.
Common questions
What are account details in a payment app?
Local bank account numbers issued to you in another country - a US routing and account number, a UK sort code, an IBAN. Money sent to them travels as a domestic payment inside that country, then appears in your balance.
Why is a SWIFT wire more expensive?
A SWIFT wire passes through correspondent banks, each of which can take a fee and apply its own exchange rate. Nobody in the chain tells you in advance what the total will be.
Can everyone get USD account details?
No. Wise's help page lists 28 countries and regions where USD account details are unavailable, including Bangladesh, Afghanistan and China. Vietnam does not appear on that exclusion list.
Does receiving money always cost something?
Not always. Wise lists receiving domestic payments in AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, NZD, PHP, SGD and USD as free. Wire and SWIFT payments carry fixed fees - 6.11 USD for a USD wire, for example.
This is general information based on personal experience, not financial, tax or legal advice. Rules and fees differ by country and change often - verify with the provider and your own bank before you move money.
TamI run online stores and take affiliate income from Vietnam. Every method on this site is one I have used with my own money - including the ones that cost me more than they should have.