As a freelancer in Nigeria, “Grey Finance vs Payoneer” must have crossed your mind a few times.
How do I know this?
That’s because they’re the two most popular freelancer-centric payment solutions for receiving payments from international clients.
But which payment app will serve you better?
That’s the question this comprehensive review will cover. As a side dish, you’ll learn about another blockchain-powered solution for receiving payments from clients anywhere.
Grey Finance vs Payoneer: How the payment solutions compare
| Service/features | Grey Finance | Payoneer |
| Core offering | International money transfers, virtual foreign accounts, bill payments, invoicing expenses management and gift cards. | International money transfers, marketplace payments, invoicing, and multi-currency accounts. |
| Target audience | Freelancers, remote workers, digital nomads, and businesses. | Freelancers, businesses, and independent contractors. |
| Supported currencies for payment settlement | It supports seven currencies for receiving or sending money. | It supports five currencies for settlement into Payoneer accounts. |
| Withdrawal methods | Bank transfer and mobile money (Nigeria). | Bank transfer and ATM withdrawals (debit card). |
| Funding methods | Bank transfers and debit or credit cards (limited). | Bank transfers, credit cards, Payoneer accounts, ACH bank debits (US only), and PayPal (US only). |
| Fees | Charges fees for deposits, withdrawals, currency conversion, card creation, and cross-border transactions. | Demands sum for withdrawals, deposits, account registration (in selected countries), and various card usage fees like annual card fees for the first card, currency conversion fees, and balance enquiry dues. |
| Supported countries | Supports money transfer and inward payment collection in 80+ countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tanzania, and the UK. | Supports local payments in 190+ countries. |
| Card services | Provides a USD virtual card for payments only on platforms that support USD cards. | Issues virtual and physical debit cards. It works on channels that support Mastercard services. |
Summary of Grey Finance services
Grey Finance (or “Grey”) provides virtual foreign accounts for receiving and withdrawing money into local bank accounts. Grey lets you create an account in Nigerian naira, United States dollars, British pounds, and euros in minutes.
The platform is built for digital nomads, freelancers, remote workers, and businesses to swap currencies, collect payments, and spend cash with virtual cards.
Other services Grey Finance offers are listed below:
- Invoicing, which makes it easy for freelancers and independent contractors to automate payment collection from clients.
- Bill payments for electricity and cable TV (DSTV, GoTV, and Startimes) bills. You can also buy data bundles and airtime from Nigerian service providers (e.g., MTN, GLO, Airtel) and US networks (AT&T and T-Mobile).
- Gift card vouchers.
Grey supports seven currencies. The table below highlights the currencies you can use to send and receive money.
| Currencies | Sending | Receiving |
| Ghana Cedi (GHS) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Euro (EUR) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Great Britain Pounds (GBP) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Kenyan Shillings (KES) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Nigerian Naira (NGN) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tanzania Shillings (TZS) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Uganda Shillings (UGX) | ✅ | ❌ |
| US Dollar (USD) | ❌ | ✅ |
You can fund your naira account through Mono direct debit on Grey. Likewise, virtual cards are available for foreign currency (EUR, GBP, and USD) account top-ups.
Grey’s fees
Like every traditional financial institution, Grey’s banking services have numerous charges.
Here’s a list of Grey’s transaction charges:
1. Conversion and cross-border fees
The conversion fee is due for swapping one currency for another. The cost is 1% (capped at $6) of the currency you’re converting from for any transaction type or currency pair.
Similarly, cross-border dues apply when you use a USD virtual card on a non-US website. The rate is 2% of the given amount plus $0.50.
The payment applies when:
- You buy a currency other than USD
- You receive a refund for a purchase made on a non-USD website
2. The withdrawal fee
It’s the sum for taking money from your Grey account. The rate depends on the currency. Here’s a table of the withdrawal fees for supported currencies on Grey, as of July 2024.
| Currency | Fee | Payment channel/network | Estimated withdrawal time |
| EUR | 0.5% with a minimum of €5 | EU bank accounts that support the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). | Within 1–3 working days. |
| GBP | 0.5% with a minimum of £5 | Bank accounts that support FPS, CHAPS, or BACS payment transfers only. | Within 1–3 working days. |
| KES | $0.5 equivalent per transaction when you use mobile money (Mpesa). $0.65 equivalent in KES per transaction when you use a bank account | Mobile money (Mpesa) and bank accounts. | It’s instant, irrespective of the medium (mobile money or bank account) for withdrawals. |
| NGN | ₦35 per transaction | Any naira bank account. | Instantly |
| UGX | $0.5 equivalent in UGX per transaction | Mobile money is the only supported payment channel. You can use Airtel and MTN only for UGX withdrawals. | Instantly |
| TZS | $0.5 equivalent in TZS per transaction | Mobile money. Airtel and Tigo are the only supported mobile networks for withdrawals. | Instantly |
3. Deposit fees
It’s the sum you pay for incoming transfers. Like withdrawal, the rate depends on the currency. Here is the deposit rate for eligible currencies on Grey, as of July 2024.
| Currency | Fee | Payment channel |
| EUR | 1% per transaction | Euro virtual account (SEPA transfer payment scheme) |
| GBP | 1% per transaction | GBP virtual account (FPS, CHAPS, and BACS payment schemes) |
| NGN | 0.50% + ₦60 per transaction for Mono direct debit Deposits into NGN virtual accounts are free | Mono direct debit NGN virtual account |
| USD | 1% per transaction | USD virtual account (ACH) |
4. Card fees
You’ll not incur card maintenance, transaction, or card funding fees. However, Grey charges $5 ($4 for the card, while $1 is credited as the minimum opening balance on your account) as a one-time creation fee.
$2 is the minimum deposit per transaction, while $2,500 is the maximum amount you can top up per transaction with your virtual card. The withdrawal limits per transaction are $1 (minimum) and $1,000 (maximum).
Grey Finance integration
Grey natively connects with other payment apps. It also integrates with freelance and e-commerce websites. The table below highlights the business Grey links with for collecting payment.
| Business industry | Platform |
| Payment | Skrill Neteller PayPal Stripe Wise Payoneer |
| Freelance website | Upwork |
| HR/payroll | Deel |
| E-commerce website | Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) |
Overview of Payoneer’s features
Payoneer facilitates cross-border payment. It’s ideal for freelancers and businesses without a business account suited for sending or receiving money from international clients.
It provides batch payments for convenient money transfers. The feature lets you make individual payments to multiple recipients, multiple payments to a single recipient, or both within the same batch.
Like Grey, Payoneer offers invoicing. The company also integrates with 2,000+ platforms, including freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, for quick payment settlement across 190+ countries. It supports five settlement currencies (the USD, Euro, GBP, Hong Kong Dollar, and the Japanese Yen) for payouts to your Payoneer account.
Clients have three money transfer options on Payoneer:
- Credit card
- Local bank transfer
- Payoneer account
Payoneer provides a debit card like Grey. Unlike Grey, users can request physical cards. Here’s how both cards from the payment platform compare:
| Features | Grey virtual card | Payoneer debit card |
| Currency support | USD | It can be associated with a CAD, EUR, GBP, or USD balance on Payoneer. |
| Spend limits | $10,000 per transaction. | High as $200,000. You can manually set daily and monthly spending limits to track expenses. |
| Eligibility | Completion of Know Your Customer (KYC) verification. | Users must have received at least $100 in payments in the last 6 months, excluding inflows from e-wallets like PayPal or Skrill. The minimum threshold depends on the country of residence (for individual accounts) or country of business (for company accounts). |
| Platform integration | It can be used only for payments on platforms supporting US cards like Apple, Udemy, Spotify, etc. However, the card doesn’t support the following industries: adult entertainment, cryptocurrency, gambling and sports betting, drug paraphernalia, and fortune tellers. | It can be used by every vendor that accepts payment via Mastercard. |
| ATM compatibility | Can’t be used on ATMs. | The physical card can be used on ATMs. |
Payoneer fees
Here’s a summary of the fees you’ll pay when you use Payoneer’s services.
| Feature | Fees |
| Get paid | From Payoneer customers: free Directly by clients: 3% credit card fee and 1% ACH bank debit fee Directly by networks and marketplaces: Fees determined by networks and marketplaces. Using Payoneer as a receiving account: free with EUR, GBP, and others, although fees may apply for payments below a minimum amount. |
| Pay others | To Payoneer customers: free To non-Payoneer customers: Up to 2% of transaction sum. A fixed fee of 1.50 applies (USD, EUR, and GBP) when sending funds to a bank account that: a) uses the same currency as your account b) is located in a country where the payment currency is the same as the local currency. c) is located in the same country as your Payoneer profile. |
| Use funds | Card registration and delivery: $0 Annual card fee for the first card: $29 Transactions in the same country and other supported countries: $0 Transactions with currency conversion: up to 3.5% Transactions with cross-border fees: up to 1.8% ATM withdrawal: $3.15 ATM balance inquiry: $1 Funds Withdrawal: Withdrawal to the local currency from Payoneer balance with different currency: up to 2% of transaction sum Withdraws to the local currency from the same Payoneer balance currency: $1.50 Withdrawals to non-local currency: Up to 2% of transaction sum |
| Other fees | Currency management: 0.5% of the amount for moving funds between currencies. Annual account fee: $29.95. It applies to accounts open for 12 months without making a transaction. Escheatment fee: It’s the permitted processing fee after a state claims ownership of an account. The fee varies by the state involved. Registration fees: it depends on specific countries. |
Grey Finance vs Payoneer: which should Nigerian freelancers use for international payment remittance?
Transaction fees, turnaround time, acceptance level, and withdrawal options are the main factors Nigerian influencers consider before choosing a payment service.
In this sense, Grey Finance is best for you if:
- you want favourable exchange and withdrawal rates for foreign currency conversions.
- easy access to a USD virtual card for expenses.
- your clientele resides in selected African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana.
- you want an all-in-one financial platform to receive payments from clients, settle utility bills (e.g., airtime recharge, data top-up, and cable subscriptions), and access personalized gift cards.
In contrast, Payoneer fits freelancers and businesses that:
- want seamless integration with freelance websites.
- want a physical debit card issued in a foreign currency compatible with ATMs with a high spending limit for personal expenses.
- collect bulk payments from clients.
- have clients in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Payoneer supports payments in 190+ countries, unlike Grey, which supports only 88.
Crane: The Grey Finance and Payoneer alternative for cross-border payments
Payoneer and Grey Finance are built on the traditional banking system. However, their protracted processing time and excessive transaction fees are restrictive.
Crane, a blockchain-powered solution for receiving payments in cryptocurrency and converting them to your local currency, is an alternative platform freelancers in Nigeria can use for payment settlement. The decentralised principles of the blockchain let you collect money from anyone, anywhere, at near-instant speeds without paying account-shattering transaction fees as you’d do with traditional fintech institutions.
Other benefits of using Crane for receiving payments from international clients include:
- Optimum security
- Access to global clients
- Account-opening ease
- Adherence to relevant financial regulations
Here’s how Grey Finance, Payoneer, and Crane services compare:
| Service/Feature | Crane | Grey | Payoneer |
| Transaction fees | It doesn’t charge deposit fees because receiving crypto is free. You’ll only pay 2% of the transaction amount to move crypto to your digital wallet. | Charges withdrawal, conversion, cross-border, deposit, and debit card creation fees. | Charges for deposits, withdrawals, and multiple card-related fees. |
| Transaction speed | Near instant, depending on the cryptocurrency. | Transactions usually take multiple business days to complete. It depends on the currency involved. | Usually several business days. Processing time depends on the currency, location, and transaction type. |
| Acceptance level | You can receive money in crypto from anywhere. | supports 88 countries. | Processes settlement from 190+ countries. |
| Currency support | Naira | Supports seven currencies. | Supports five currencies. |
| Card services and ATM support | ❌ | Provides virtual USD cards but no ATM support | Provides virtual and physical debit cards that can be used on ATMs. |
| Invoicing | Unavailable | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Freelance marketplace integration | No direct connection with freelancer platforms, but users can still collect payment from clients on freelance platforms using crypto. | ✔️ | ✔️ |
To get started on Crane, download the app on the Play Store or App Store and follow the instructions here to create an account in five minutes.
