International contractors

How to pay international contractors, five ways, with the fees written down

How to pay a contractor abroad has five honest answers. Here they are with the numbers from each provider's own page on 26 September 2026, and what each costs the contractor at their end.

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What changes abroad

Four things change, and the fee is the smallest of them

Two currencies: Somebody converts, and the conversion is priced twice: as a fee you can see and as a rate you have to check. A bank that charges no fee for a foreign-currency wire says on the same page that exchange rate markups apply.
Two banks: A wire passes through the sender's bank, sometimes an intermediary, and the receiver's bank. Each may take something, and only the first one tells you in advance.
Two ends of the paperwork: A US business paying a foreign individual asks for Form W-8BEN, which the IRS describes as the form a foreign person gives to the payer; a foreign company gives W-8BEN-E. The contractor's country has its own rules about receiving money from abroad. None of that is tax advice; it is the shape of the problem.
Their cost to make it money: A transfer that costs you nothing and costs the contractor 4% to withdraw is not cheap. Every way below is judged on both ends.

Five ways

Each way: what it costs, where it fits, and how it sits in Orla

Fees as each provider's own page stated them on 26 September 2026.

1. A bank wire (SWIFT)

Bank of America charges $45 to send an international wire in US dollars; in a foreign currency there is no wire fee, but exchange rate markups apply. An incoming international wire may cost $15 at that bank, and funds typically arrive in 1 to 5 business days.

It is right for one-off larger payments and for contractors whose bank nothing else reaches; for a monthly payment of 300 it is the most expensive line on this page.

In Orla a bank payment is proposed, passes the rule, and is made in your bank: from a connected Mercury account the payment is requested into Mercury's approval queue and non-US payees go by international wire; from a connected Slash account a person presses Send via Slash.

2. Wise

Sending money abroad costs from 0.23% at the mid-market rate, and Wise Business pays up to 1,000 contractors at once. The percentage varies by currency, so check the pair you pay in. It is right for many small payments in many currencies, and for contractors who want their own currency in their own bank.

In Orla the payout is proposed and signed in Orla and made in Wise, and the Wise statement for the month is filed against the account; Orla does not send through Wise.

3. Payoneer

On your side, up to 4.00 USD, EUR or GBP into a Payoneer account in the same country, and 1% plus up to 4.00 USD to a bank account in another country. On the contractor's side, withdrawing to a local bank costs 1.2% to 4% in Payoneer's own range, with a minimum of up to 20.00 USD in some countries.

It fits contractors who already hold a Payoneer account because a marketplace pays them there; the fee lands mostly on their side, so say so when you agree the rate. In Orla it is a bank payment, made in Payoneer, with the statement filed for the month.

4. A contractor platform

Deel's page lists $49 per contractor per month for contractor management, with payments in 120+ currencies, automated invoicing and tax form guidance. Ten contractors are $490 a month before the payments themselves, whether you paid each of them 200 or 20,000.

It is right when you want a vendor to own classification, forms and local rules. In Orla the platform's payouts arrive as the bank rows that funded them, with the platform's invoice as the bill; Orla does not replace the compliance part, it keeps the money and the paper.

5. Stablecoins (USDC, USDT)

The network fee, in the chain's own coin: a USDT transfer on Ethereum showed $0.013 at 0.092 gwei on Etherscan's gas tracker (26 September 2026, 16:04 UTC); Solana's base fee is 5,000 lamports per signature, plus about 0.002 SOL once for a recipient who has never held the token, shown in Orla's preview; on TRON a transfer spends bandwidth and energy, and TRX is burned when stake and the free quota do not cover it.

The real cost is on the contractor's side, turning tokens into money through an exchange, a withdrawal and their bank. A stablecoin transfer cannot be recalled, and the issuer can freeze an address: Circle's USDC terms say it may be required to freeze USDC on a legal order from a valid government authority.

Whether you may pay a contractor in a given country in USDT is a question for a local adviser. In Orla the run sends every approved payment of one wallet in one sitting, screens addresses before paying them, and puts the transaction id on the payment.

Side by side

The five ways on one table

Checked on 26 September 2026, on each provider's own page.

Way	Your fee	Their fee	Arrival	Reversible
Bank wireSWIFT	$45 in US dollars at Bank of America; no fee but a rate markup in a foreign currency	The receiving bank may charge; Bank of America charges $15 on an incoming wire	1 to 5 business days	A recall is a request, not a right
Wise	From 0.23% at the mid-market rate	Usually none to their bank	Varies by currency	As a bank transfer
Payoneer	Up to 4.00 to a Payoneer account; 1% plus up to 4.00 to a bank abroad	1.2% to 4% to withdraw to a local bank	Varies	As a bank transfer
Contractor platformDeel	$49 per contractor per month, plus the payment	Depends on how they withdraw	Varies	Depends on the rail underneath
USDC or USDT	Cents on the network, paid in the chain's coin	Their exchange, withdrawal and bank	Minutes	No

Where Orla sits

One book, one rule and one record across every rail

Orla is not a rail for fiat money. It is where each of these payments is written, checked and kept.

One contact, several rails: A contractor keeps an IBAN, a US ACH rail, a SWIFT rail, a PayPal email and a wallet address per network on one card, with one default per network. Bank details are fields, not a note, and a mistyped IBAN or routing number is refused as it is typed. The W-8BEN sits on the same card under Documents.
One rule across rails: Payments above a threshold need the number of signatures the rule asks for; the person who proposed a payment cannot sign it; address-book only forces signatures for any destination that is not a trusted contact. A batch is checked on its total.
One batch per account and asset: A batch draws from one account, so a USD batch from Mercury, a EUR batch from your Revolut Business pocket and a USDT batch from a TRON wallet are three batches under the same rule, up to 200 rows each.
The send stays where the money is: Revolut Business and Airwallex get a draft your team sends in the bank; Mercury gets a request into its own approval queue; Slash and PayPal Payouts send on a press; a wallet sends from the run screen. Orla asks Revolut only for permission to read and to prepare, never to send.
One record: Each payment carries who proposed, who signed, the bank's reference or the chain's hash, and what the network charged. The month leaves as one archive: the journal for Xero or QuickBooks, a statement per account, and the payments with their signers.

How to pick, in one line: count the contractors, the countries and the size of a typical payment, then keep one book, one rule and one archive whatever the mix, or the mix is what you will be untangling in January.

Questions

The questions that come with a contractor abroad

What is the best way to pay international contractors?

The one that leaves the contractor with the most after their own fees and arrives when they need it. For small monthly amounts in their own currency that is usually Wise or a similar transfer service; for a contractor who asks for USDC or USDT, a stablecoin transfer costs cents on the network; for a one-off large payment to a bank nothing else reaches, a wire. The fees on this page are as of 26 September 2026 and change.

Do I need a W-8BEN from a foreign contractor?

If you are a US payer, the IRS describes Form W-8BEN as what a foreign person who is the beneficial owner gives to the payer; a foreign company gives W-8BEN-E. Whether it applies to your case and what to do with it is your accountant's call. Keep the form on the contractor's card so it is there when the question comes.

Who pays the transfer fees?

Whoever the agreement says. Write it down before the first payment: on a wire the sender's fee, an intermediary's and the receiver's are three different charges; on a stablecoin transfer the sender pays the network and the recipient pays to cash out.

Can I pay a foreign contractor in their own currency?

Yes, through a service that converts (Wise, Payoneer, your bank) or from a currency pocket you already hold. In Orla each pocket of a connected Revolut Business or Airwallex account is its own account, so a batch from a GBP pocket is a GBP batch and needs no conversion decision.

Is it legal to pay a contractor abroad in USDT?

That depends on your country, theirs and the agreement, and this page cannot answer it. What it can say: the transfer itself costs cents, cannot be recalled, and is recorded in Orla with the hash, the fee and the signers like any other payment.

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