If you have watched my 10 free training videos at Mass Outsource, then you will know that I recommend using Xoom as one of the payment methods. Unfortunately Xoom has restricted access from countries outside of the US and I know it’s stumbled a lot of people, which is why I’ve been receiving a lot of questions from viewers asking me to recommend another payment method.
The payment method I recommend in this video is Paypal, though you will soon find out that I don’t pay my virtual staff using the “normal” way. Watch this video below to see how I pay my virtual staff:
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Hi, it’s Tyrone from Tyroneshum.com. In today’s tutorial, I want to share with you the payment method that I currently use to pay virtual assistants or virtual staff. A question that I’ve been asked regularly is how come you don’t use Xoom anymore? And, the reason why is because Xoom is only restricted now to U.S. and I used to use Xoom because its fees are lower than Paypal but because has been restricted and I’m in Australia, and no doubt there are many people outside the States outsourcing to the Philippines, you need to find another method.
Yes, Paypal is a little bit more expensive but I found a quite good way to be able to pay at a lower rate in comparison to using Xoom. So what I’m going to be showing right now is how I use what we call the Mass Payment system in Paypal — not a normal way but Mass Payment system in Paypal. And, this method actually reduces your fees. It does require you to submit a text file and also do some extra little bit of clicking through but it will save you on the fees in comparison to paying $4 US or so per transaction, you might be paying up to a dollar at most. So it’s about four times less. All right, let’s just jump over and I’ll show you how to set it up inside your system.
Firstly, what I suggest you do is log in to your Paypal account by just simply going to Paypal.com. So I’m logged in right now. Once you’ve logged in, I’ll usually go to the “Send Money” to be able to send money to my virtual assistant and I usually do this on a monthly basis. Okay, so if you want to be able to send money, this is the normal way to do it. You just type in To: whoever, and you type in your amounts here and you can click Services, and click Continue right down here. That way, usually either your virtual assistant or your virtual staff will get charged a fee of $4 per transaction and also you probably might get charged as well depending on what country you’re in. Alternatively, I use this method called Make a Mass Payment and I’ve just clicked on it. To make a Mass Payment, this is what you do.
You can send up to 5,000 payments at once. Say you got 10 virtual staff in your company, you can actually post it all inside this little text file that I’ll show you how to create. Then, upload it once and you’ll do all the payments all at once. So reading it over here, it says here you can upload a payment pal on this page and you meet your information using the APIs. Those are two methods. What I recommend you do is using a payment file and it’s just a simple text file or CSV file. All right, all you have to do is simply select your file by clicking “Upload here” and look for your file. So I’ve uploaded a file called MassPayment.txt and you want to solve the payment receipts identified by the email address, and then in your email subject you can type something in like “This is your transaction” or “Your invoice payment” and you can type your receipt. I usually ignore those fields. The most important thing is to process your payment.
Once you’ve done that, just simply hit the Review button and what will happen is it will take you through the payment process. It’ll automatically pay to your virtual assistant the amounts that they require. So that’s how you setup the Mass Payment. What I’ll show you next is how to setup the text files that you’ve uploaded. We’ll go to the text file now. As you can see here, this is the MassPayment.txt file and all of these is you just have to type in three simple fields. The first field is the email address that you’re going to be sending the payment to, it’s the Paypal email. It could be anything, test@yahoo.com, or the name@yahoo.com then the amount without dollar sign or any currency sign, so 325.31 then USD or whatever payment currency it is. In between here, these are all tabs. If you click on Tab key, these are all tabs. Once you’ve done that, that’s the first payment that I want to make to the person. You can hit Entry button and then it will create a new line for you and it will do exactly the same thing. You can pay up to many, many different currencies that are available inside Paypal. If you do it in this method, you’ll save quite a lot of money on your transaction fees.
So this is just a little tip that I want to share with you today. I hope that you can also implement this into your system. It’s something that I know a lot of people have been struggling with regards to not having Xoom anymore to pay to the Philippines and there are other methods out there. But I think, in my opinion, Paypal using the Mass Pay method is probably the easiest and simplest method out there that will keep your fees down or quite low. If you have any more feedback and you find other really good payment systems that you can recommend, love to hear about it too. Just leave it down on the comments section here and I love to hear your feedback as well. Love you to also tweet this and get it out to FaceBook as well and just to share with people because I know that a lot of people who are running businesses with virtual assistants will probably find these tips quite handy and quite helpful too. All right, that’s it for me today. I hope you’ve enjoyed the video that I’ve presented for you today. My name is Tyrone from Tyroneshum.com. Have a great day and see you in the next video!
I know Paypal can charge quite a high fee for just one transaction, which is why I’ve recommended the Mass payment method inside of Paypal. If you have found this helpful, please leave your comments and feedback below and feel free to share this on Twitter and Facebook.
I also recently had to change from using XOOM due to the new minimum amount. The new $50.00 minimum payment means that a lot of my transactions have to be bundled to meet the minimum.
I had success with the Paypal method, but don’t currently use the mass payment option. I will keep your information in mind for future payments.
Hey Tyrone,
Thanks for this information.
I’ve seen this option in PayPal, but I only have two staff members so no need as yet for this option. It is definitely a cool feature to use as well.
BTW, when you pay singly, you have the option of paying the fee that is charged so it does not get charged to your assistant.
I just tried making a mass payment using a file formatted the same way that you describe, but I’m getting an error message from Paypal:
–
There are error(s) that occur on the following lines and fields of your payment file.
* Line 1 : Payment amount
Click How to upload for more information on formatting payment files.
–
Also, the Paypal docs say “Please note that payments in different currencies must have separate Mass Payment files” so is your sample file simply for demonstration purposes?
My fiance and I were arguing about this! Now I know that I was right. lol! Thanks for making me sure!
Sent via Blackberry
Maria
Hello Tyrone,
I was watching your video to pay to Philippines but I think my account in Paypal is Personal because there was an error message that I exceeded on the limit.
Through the PayPal’s guide for Mass Pay, Mass Pay needs Premier or Business account. I am opening a Premier account now & try to pay again.
[..YouTube..] @GideonShalwick Thanks Gids for finding it useful. I’ve used Xoom previously as well because it has lower rates but since it restricted only to the US, I’ve found this way out to automate although yeah, it’s a long process. When started though, all becomes easy. You’re welcome mate!
Charges would depend upon every country you’re sending money in. Since I’m sending over to my staff to the Philippines, I only get charged of $1. I’m paying my team through the mass payment and sending around $300-$500 and have got no problems with that. So paying 2 persons at the same time via Mass Payment would be possible.
Seriously, I would definitely receive them directly via my bank account or Paypal. The fees are much lower. From memory when I last got a cheque and deposited it to my account it cost me $10 per cheque and also took 30 days to clear. It’s definitely not worth the wait!
Wow, I looked into what the fees actually are, and it’s amazing how much cheaper this method is even if you are only sending one person money. Great tip!
Thanks for stopping by. Yes Mass Payment could be a pain, but with this method it’s actually quicker as you just repeat the same process and use the same file everytime.
Awesome video Tyrone! I’ve been using Paypal and had not realized that option was available. I actually am not using a VA at the moment although I hoping to VERY soon so this information will be very useful.
I think the Union Bank idea is a great one too – I guess whatever works for you and your VA
Thanks for your comment. I will definitely be creating other videos to share another payment option such as Union Bank as I’ve noticed everyone has found this tutorial to be quite helpful.
Hi Flipp, in my country (curacao) I cannot setup a paypal account to receive money. I have a moneybookers account though, and I am very content with it. The only thing is that the person sending money to you, need such an account, and it takes about 10 days to verify the account (creditcard statement etc..)
Thanks still for the suggestion. I might also take a look at this resource for few of the other tutorials coming up.
Cheers.
Norena
Awesome tip, Tyrone. I think YOU are the gem!
A question from me too:
I currently just have one person in the PH that I pay. Can I still use this method and save on the fee? Couldn’t find any info on this inside PP but I found this info:
“We charge the sender 2.0% of each payment amount, with a cap of $1.00 USD (or equivalent in another currency). Mass Payment recipients pay no fee, no matter what kind of account they have.”
So it seems the recipients are not charged a fee?
It also says that payments in different currencies must have a different mass payment file for each currency.
Thanks for your comment. Yes you can use this method to save on the fees. As you see it’s only $1 cap for your transaction.
Also the recipients are the ones who usually get charged the fees. Just simply add your extra $1 or 2% of the total on top before you send the payment and that way you’ve covered for their fees.
Also, yes that is true if you are sending to different countries you much have different mass payment files for each currency. (I’m usually only sending US dollars, so I don’t think too much)
Thanks for your comment. I don’t have other method than Paypal at the moment and Mass Payment is I think the easiest way to go. Once I send them the money, my VAs use Union Bank to withdraw their money and it seems to be much affordable as they only have to apply for a debit account and pay an annual fee of 350Php. Once that’s done, they have to link that account up to their Paypal and straightaway receive the salary.
Let me know if you still need help on this?
I’ll also let you know of alternatives soon if this doesn’t fit you.
you might wanna look into http://www.odesk.com . You pay 10% charge to odesk on whatever you pay your employees. However i have no idea which requirements the employees need to fulfill in order to receive odesk money back home.
There are workers who are “affiliated” with bigger companies. The company takes 1-3% afaik, and gives the money in cash locally to the people.
Other than that, i guess you have to bite the bullet. There seems to be no real alternative…
Andy Iskandar
Hey Tyrone,
What about Western Union? That’s what I use to pay my team. Reason why I didn’t use Paypal is because some have trouble transferring from paypal to their bank account.
Thanks for your comment. Western Union I heard can be expensive but this might be a good suggestion as well.
How about having them to use Union Bank? They only have to apply for a debit account and pay an annual fee to do that. Once they linked that up, there’ll be no problems withdrawing the money. Also, please let them know that it takes around 2 days before the cash will reflect onto their debit accounts so they’ll just have to wait and check.
I hope this helps.
Maria
Thanks for your tip, Tyrone.
I actually read your special report, watched the videos & used your forms to start my outsourcing projects in Phils. I am originally from Phils but now lives in OZ. I hired my brother full time in Phils. for $200. But, sometimes, I feel that my money is wasted in outsourcing because I am learning myself (I am new on Internet Mktg.) & teaching him as well. There are times that I can’t monitor what he does, times that I can’t teach something to him.
This month my plan is to hire 3 people including my bro only all part time work. Being a busy mother & homemaker, I just feel I need people to help me because I don’t have much time to sit on computer.
Nicole Charles
Hey Tyrone
Another great video here, just what I was after. A quick question – do the virtual staff receive all the payment or are are they still charged some fees aswell?
Yes that’s a good question. The virtual staff does get charged a fee, though it’s not as high as the $4 mark. I think it’s only $1 per transaction if I remember correctly.
Thanks.
Mikael Rieck
That was actually what I was wondering as well. I though you did the video to show how to reduce the PayPal fees and then it turned out to be a mass payment video
Anyway, I normally pay the fees for my VAs just like I did with Xoom. My question is whether it is possible to make a mass payment via PayPal and thereby reducing the fees, but without having the VAs pay any of the fees?
Yes it is possible to make a payment via Paypal using the method above and for your VA to not pay the fees. Just simply add the extra cost on top before you transfer which will cover the fees for them.
My name is Tyrone Shum and I'm on a journey to outsource and automate my business to allow me to work only 12 hours a week. On this website I share with you my outsourcing strategies to achieve this goal and I have a passion to teach others about what I do. Read more 
[..YouTube..] @jaketrobinson I have created a video located here on Youtube: watch?v=ey8I1bPkfwY
Just paste that to the end of youtube dot com.
Thanks,
[..YouTube..] Great idea, thanks for sharing… will definitely use it!
also, how do you put your ‘video’ inside the video? I will be making videos and this is a great way to connect but ‘stay out of the way’… cheers,
Jake
[..YouTube..] @GideonShalwick Glad it works for you and you can pay all at once which will save you LOTS of time.
[..YouTube..] have just used it for the first time now – simply genius Tyrone! Thanks again!
Just used the mass pay method today..worked like a charm
Thanks mate
I also recently had to change from using XOOM due to the new minimum amount. The new $50.00 minimum payment means that a lot of my transactions have to be bundled to meet the minimum.
I had success with the Paypal method, but don’t currently use the mass payment option. I will keep your information in mind for future payments.
Another great training video. Got a question. Should you send US currency or Philippines currency to my Philippines outsource team?
Thanks Tyrone
Hey Tyrone,
Thanks for this information.
I’ve seen this option in PayPal, but I only have two staff members so no need as yet for this option. It is definitely a cool feature to use as well.
BTW, when you pay singly, you have the option of paying the fee that is charged so it does not get charged to your assistant.
A friend of mine told me about a Canadian company called AlertPay at https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx. I’ve not tried them though.
Has anyone tried them?
I just tried making a mass payment using a file formatted the same way that you describe, but I’m getting an error message from Paypal:
–
There are error(s) that occur on the following lines and fields of your payment file.
* Line 1 : Payment amount
Click How to upload for more information on formatting payment files.
–
Also, the Paypal docs say “Please note that payments in different currencies must have separate Mass Payment files” so is your sample file simply for demonstration purposes?
Hi Jacob,
You might need to insert the currency. E.g. USD, AUD, PHP, etc. Perhaps show me what you’ve written in your txt file and I can recommend what to do.
Yes the sample file I’ve shown is for demo purposes.
Thanks.
My fiance and I were arguing about this! Now I know that I was right. lol! Thanks for making me sure!
Sent via Blackberry
Hello Tyrone,
I was watching your video to pay to Philippines but I think my account in Paypal is Personal because there was an error message that I exceeded on the limit.
Through the PayPal’s guide for Mass Pay, Mass Pay needs Premier or Business account. I am opening a Premier account now & try to pay again.
Thanks for your tip.
Maria
Hi Maria,
Thanks for your comment and no worries. Just let me know how you go then after applying for a new account.
Cheers.
[..YouTube..] @GideonShalwick Thanks Gids for finding it useful. I’ve used Xoom previously as well because it has lower rates but since it restricted only to the US, I’ve found this way out to automate although yeah, it’s a long process. When started though, all becomes easy. You’re welcome mate!
Hey Tyrone,
what about the conversion charges. I loose around 5-10% on paypal due to currency conversion + fees.
(for payments of around 75$).
Can you “masspay” 2 perons as well ?
Hey Nate,
Charges would depend upon every country you’re sending money in. Since I’m sending over to my staff to the Philippines, I only get charged of $1. I’m paying my team through the mass payment and sending around $300-$500 and have got no problems with that. So paying 2 persons at the same time via Mass Payment would be possible.
I hope this helps.
[..YouTube..] Wow! Very useful video Tyrone – I will definitely be using this in the future!
I’ve just been using Western Union ever since Xoom stopped working. Works well except that it’s a bit tedious!
Thanks again!
Gideon Shalwick
Excellent tip and video instructions! I’m going to send it to the manager of one of my affiliate programs. Still getting paper checks ;-(
Thanks again!
Hi Monique,
Wow.. I forgot cheques still existed.. haha
Seriously, I would definitely receive them directly via my bank account or Paypal. The fees are much lower. From memory when I last got a cheque and deposited it to my account it cost me $10 per cheque and also took 30 days to clear. It’s definitely not worth the wait!
Wow, I looked into what the fees actually are, and it’s amazing how much cheaper this method is even if you are only sending one person money. Great tip!
Hi Blaine,
Yes you are right. This is why I use this method instead. I have to give credit to my VA who recommended this.
Thanks for sharing this Tyrone! Sending mass payment is really a pain and time consuming, so this was really a great tip.
Awesome job as well on your latest post, I really like your style on putting videos within your post.
Keep it up!
Kind regards,
Gary
Hi Gary,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes Mass Payment could be a pain, but with this method it’s actually quicker as you just repeat the same process and use the same file everytime.
Talk with you soon!
Awesome video Tyrone! I’ve been using Paypal and had not realized that option was available. I actually am not using a VA at the moment although I hoping to VERY soon so this information will be very useful.
I think the Union Bank idea is a great one too – I guess whatever works for you and your VA
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your comment. I will definitely be creating other videos to share another payment option such as Union Bank as I’ve noticed everyone has found this tutorial to be quite helpful.
Thank you for the tip. Will try it next time I send money.
Have you tried – or can you evaluate the moneybookers option for sending money? ( http://www.moneybookers.com )
It’s a UK-based operation competing with PayPal and having the option of sending from email to email, with lower fee than PayPal.
And they have (as they state on their website) a better acceptance and coverage in many countries that PayPal does not send to.
I really learned a lot from your videos. Keep up the good work!
Flipp
Hi Flipp, in my country (curacao) I cannot setup a paypal account to receive money. I have a moneybookers account though, and I am very content with it. The only thing is that the person sending money to you, need such an account, and it takes about 10 days to verify the account (creditcard statement etc..)
Remco
Hi Flipp,
No I haven’t tried this. Will take a look and add this to another tutorial for the future. Thanks for the recommendation.
As a professional poker player, i have used moneybookers almost on a daily basis.
Its not possible to use them in philippines though. As a big customer there i would have no charges at all to face, but sigh – its not possible.
I have asked and tried everything so far. Hope i didnt miss something, but although moneybookers is a great service, you can´t use it for this task.
Hi Nate,
Thanks still for the suggestion. I might also take a look at this resource for few of the other tutorials coming up.
Cheers.
Awesome tip, Tyrone. I think YOU are the gem!
A question from me too:
I currently just have one person in the PH that I pay. Can I still use this method and save on the fee? Couldn’t find any info on this inside PP but I found this info:
“We charge the sender 2.0% of each payment amount, with a cap of $1.00 USD (or equivalent in another currency). Mass Payment recipients pay no fee, no matter what kind of account they have.”
So it seems the recipients are not charged a fee?
It also says that payments in different currencies must have a different mass payment file for each currency.
Best,
Norena
Hi Norena,
Thanks for your comment. Yes you can use this method to save on the fees. As you see it’s only $1 cap for your transaction.
Also the recipients are the ones who usually get charged the fees. Just simply add your extra $1 or 2% of the total on top before you send the payment and that way you’ve covered for their fees.
Also, yes that is true if you are sending to different countries you much have different mass payment files for each currency. (I’m usually only sending US dollars, so I don’t think too much)
Thanks
I’ve struggled with one VA who doesn’t seem to have Paypal. Do you have a non-Paypal method you recommend? Western Union is so expensive.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment. I don’t have other method than Paypal at the moment and Mass Payment is I think the easiest way to go. Once I send them the money, my VAs use Union Bank to withdraw their money and it seems to be much affordable as they only have to apply for a debit account and pay an annual fee of 350Php. Once that’s done, they have to link that account up to their Paypal and straightaway receive the salary.
Let me know if you still need help on this?
I’ll also let you know of alternatives soon if this doesn’t fit you.
Cheers.
Hey Chris,
you might wanna look into http://www.odesk.com . You pay 10% charge to odesk on whatever you pay your employees. However i have no idea which requirements the employees need to fulfill in order to receive odesk money back home.
There are workers who are “affiliated” with bigger companies. The company takes 1-3% afaik, and gives the money in cash locally to the people.
Other than that, i guess you have to bite the bullet. There seems to be no real alternative…
Hey Tyrone,
What about Western Union? That’s what I use to pay my team. Reason why I didn’t use Paypal is because some have trouble transferring from paypal to their bank account.
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thanks for your comment. Western Union I heard can be expensive but this might be a good suggestion as well.
How about having them to use Union Bank? They only have to apply for a debit account and pay an annual fee to do that. Once they linked that up, there’ll be no problems withdrawing the money. Also, please let them know that it takes around 2 days before the cash will reflect onto their debit accounts so they’ll just have to wait and check.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for your tip, Tyrone.
I actually read your special report, watched the videos & used your forms to start my outsourcing projects in Phils. I am originally from Phils but now lives in OZ. I hired my brother full time in Phils. for $200. But, sometimes, I feel that my money is wasted in outsourcing because I am learning myself (I am new on Internet Mktg.) & teaching him as well. There are times that I can’t monitor what he does, times that I can’t teach something to him.
This month my plan is to hire 3 people including my bro only all part time work. Being a busy mother & homemaker, I just feel I need people to help me because I don’t have much time to sit on computer.
Hey Tyrone
Another great video here, just what I was after. A quick question – do the virtual staff receive all the payment or are are they still charged some fees aswell?
Many thanks
Hi Nicole,
Yes that’s a good question. The virtual staff does get charged a fee, though it’s not as high as the $4 mark. I think it’s only $1 per transaction if I remember correctly.
Thanks.
That was actually what I was wondering as well. I though you did the video to show how to reduce the PayPal fees and then it turned out to be a mass payment video
Anyway, I normally pay the fees for my VAs just like I did with Xoom. My question is whether it is possible to make a mass payment via PayPal and thereby reducing the fees, but without having the VAs pay any of the fees?
Thanks,
Mikael
Hi Mikael,
Yes it is possible to make a payment via Paypal using the method above and for your VA to not pay the fees. Just simply add the extra cost on top before you transfer which will cover the fees for them.
Another gem here Tyrone.
Sending out payments to so many people was always a pain so this is a good little tip.
Cya on the warriorforum
-Irnes Jakupovic
Thanks Irnes. Yes this method should speed up your process. See you on the Warrior Forum!