Suppose you are an Indian designer working with clients in the US or a writer in Mumbai who is collaborating with agencies in Europe. When it comes to receiving international payments, a freelancer would always want a hassle-free payment process to focus more on their career paths. In today's economy, while opprtunities are becoming borderless, payments often aren't. That is where a multi-currency account becomes a freelancer's bestfriend.

What is a multi-currency account?

An account that allows you to send, receive and hold money in multi currencies from one account, is known as multi-currency account. Consider a multi-currency account as a payment mailbox. Receive payments in whatever currency you wish to like USD, EUR, AUD etc, and instead of converting these money as soon as they land into your account, you can hold them, and convert them whenever it makes sense to you.

Why do freelancers need a multi-currency account?

Here are a few reasons that explain why a freelancer would need a multi-currency account-

Save a Big Amount on Conversion Fees

Your money often passes through multiple intermediaries when you receive it through banks or any other traditional channels. Each intermediary charges their own fees, and the banks often convert the foreign currency into INR at a less favourable exchange rate. A freelancer can solve all these problems with a multi-currency account.

With a multi-currency account:

• You can directly receive the money into your account without any intermediaries.

• Hold your funds until the rate is favourable to you.

• Avoid excessive conversion fees.

• This means that more of your earnings are in your pocket.

Get Paid Faster

Using a multi-currency account gives you the benefit of receiving your international payment at a blazingly fast speed. Many freelancers face the issue of delayed SWIFT, slow bank processing times or verification steps. By using a multi-currency account, payments from international clients and platforms like Upwork, Fiverr or Toptal can be received directly into your multi-currency account without any delay.

Multi-currency accounts also gives you the benefits of linking your account to invoicing tools or payment gateways for speeding up the workflow.

Build Trust and Look Professional

Freelancing is a business and business needs credibility and professionalism. Having a dedicated account in your client's currency (suppose USD or GBP) builds credibility and trust amongst your clients. Your clients will see you as a professional freelancer who understands the importance of cross-border payment norms. It also makes the whole process of international payments easier for both parties, with no international wires and no confusion.

Convert at Your Own Wish

Imagine you get paid in USD this week, and INR is weak. Instead of converting it immediately, you can wait and hold your funds. A multi-currency account gives you the benefit of holding your international payments until it strengthens, and converting it later, when the rates benefit you.

Better Financial Planning

Imagine managing multiple currencies from various clients through different apps, banks or platforms. This all can be a very messy process. A multi-currency account gives you a centralised hold of your income and expenses. It provides you with the liberty of:

• Tracking down payments from various clients.

• Reconciles invoices more precisely.

Stay Transparent and Compliant

As a freelancer in India you need to maintain proper records of all your foreign inward remittances and follow RBI guidelines under FEMA. A multi-currency account provides you with various features like downloading invoice, generating FIRA after every transaction and maintaing records of all you clients. Such tools make the life of a freelancer easy as you dont have to do every process manually.