2025 Update: A Comparison of 7 Payment Methods for International Trade

The most important thing that foreign trade cross-border practitioners need to pay attention to is the payment tool. From rates to withdrawals, from applicable platforms to account risk control, choosing the most appropriate payment tool can ensure a good cash flow and business status. This article introduces 7 popular mainstream payment tools from different aspects for your reference.

Ⅰ. 7 major payment tools

1. PayPal

A world-renowned payment tool with a wide geographical coverage. It is especially popular in the cross-border e-commerce independent station business. It supports multiple independent station platforms, such as Shoplazza, ueeshop, shopyy, shoppaas, bigcommerce, shopify, opencart, woocommerce, etc. It can also be integrated with Apple Pay and Google Pay.

When using PayPal for commercial payments, whether it is a personal account or a corporate account, a transaction fee of 4.40% will be deducted, plus a fixed fee determined by the currency, such as 0.3 USD, 0.35 EUR, 0.2 GBP, etc.

The speed of PayPal withdrawals depends on the region where the account is located. For US accounts, the fastest withdrawal time is 1 business day, while for accounts in mainland China and Hong Kong, China, it usually takes 3 business days or more.

2. Stripe

A well-known payment processing platform that supports more than 135 currencies, has a clear API and rich documentation, suitable for companies with technical expertise.

Stripe adopts a simple, pay-as-you-go standard billing plan: 2.9% + US$0.30, with no hidden fees such as setup fees and monthly fees. It also supports customized billing plans such as large transaction volume discounts and specific regional rates, which are suitable for merchants with large transaction volumes and special business models.

3. Payoneer

Payoneer is mainly used for B2B payment collection, such as collecting payments from e-commerce platforms, alliance networks, and B2B customers. It generally does not support collection by personal credit cards.

If you receive payments from other Payoneer users' balances or use the Global Payment Service, you do not need to pay any fees. If you use websites such as Wish, Airbnb, or affiliate marketing networks, the fees will depend on the platform. In terms of withdrawals, Payoneer supports withdrawals from USD to RMB, with a fee of 1.2%.

4. Wise (TransferWise)

Wise (formerly TransferWise) supports the exchange of more than 40 currencies and transfers to more than 80 countries. Compared with traditional banks, Wise is more cost-effective and easier to use. When withdrawing cash, you can choose to withdraw to a designated bank account or apply for a Wise debit card, which supports cash withdrawals from ATMs in more than 160 countries around the world.

5. PingPong

It is very popular among domestic cross-border e-commerce sellers, and even has a balance inquiry function on the official account. The fee rate is relatively low, 1% of the withdrawal amount, calculated in US dollars. It usually takes 1-3 working days to withdraw money from a PingPong account to a bank account. If Amazon sellers withdraw money before 14:00, the money can be credited to their account in as fast as 2 hours.

6. WorldFirst Wanlihui

Supports payment collection from more than 120 cross-border e-commerce companies and payment gateways such as Amazon, AliExpress, Lazada, Shopify, etc. If an independent store is using a payment gateway that supports payment collection, you can complete the payment collection of the independent store by binding the Wanlihui payment account to the backend of the payment gateway. In addition, the payment fee for foreign trade B2B accounts is capped at 0.4%.

7. Worldpay

WorldPay is a payment service provider with its own gateway, supporting 300+ payment methods and multiple currencies, without the need for some monthly subscription fees. The most prominent advantage is that it is connected to many global banks, which can help merchants better handle international payments. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes, and the rate for international transactions is usually 1.75% + 0.2 pounds.

Ⅱ. Notes on cross-border payments

Different payment methods have different characteristics and service plans. In addition to choosing the most suitable platform based on your actual situation, you must also pay attention to the security risks when using payment tools, especially for merchants using multiple platforms or multiple accounts. If multiple payment accounts are linked, it is easy to cause funds or accounts to be blocked.

For merchants who have anti-association needs or have different target market sites, they can use IPFoxy's clean IP to provide a safe and independently isolated network environment for the account, and configure it on independent devices or multiple browsers to greatly reduce the risk of association and suspension.