Adding a payment method from outside the US

Payouts are handled by Tipalti, our payments provider. When you add a payment method you are taken into a form that belongs to them, not to us. This article explains what that form is going to ask for and why, so that you can have it ready before you start.

Nothing on this page is specific to any one country. What changes outside the United States is that more of the form applies to you, and that the tax section asks a different question.

Have these ready before you begin

• A legal name and address that match your bank. Not a trading name, not a former address. A mismatch here is the single most common reason a payout is held.
• Full bank details in your country's own format. This is usually an IBAN and a SWIFT or BIC code, and in some countries a national bank or branch code as well. Tipalti asks for whatever your country actually uses.
• A tax form. If you are not a US person you will be given a W-8 rather than a W-9. It is completed in the same flow, and it asks whether your country has a tax treaty with the United States.
• Proof of identity, if you are asked for it. Not everyone is.

The parts that surprise people

Your payout currency and your bank's currency are separate questions. You can be paid in one and receive in another, with a conversion in between. If you would rather avoid the conversion, choose the currency your account actually holds.

A payout route is not always instant to set up. Some routes are available immediately and some require a verification step first. If the route you want is not offered, it is usually because something earlier in the form is incomplete rather than because your country is unsupported.

The tax form is not optional and not a formality. An unsigned or expired one stops payouts even when everything else is correct, and it expires on a schedule of its own.

What "under review" means

Submitting the form does not finish the job. Tipalti validates what you entered, and until that validation passes the method exists but cannot pay anyone. This is normal and usually short. If it stays unresolved, the reason is almost always one of the mismatches above rather than anything to do with your account here.

Two separate things

Completing this form makes a method capable of sending money. It does not decide who that money can go to — that is a separate matter, and a method with perfect payout details still reaches nobody until it is allowed to pay someone.