Pay affiliates straight to their bank in 90+ countries
When it comes time to pay our affiliates with AffiliateWP, there are always some I can’t pay with Stripe. An affiliate in Japan, for instance.
That’s fine since I can pay them with PayPal instead, but what they receive is US dollars into their PayPal account, not yen into their bank. Withdrawing it to their bank is on them, at PayPal’s exchange rate. Plus, not everyone has a PayPal account.
Now it’s remarkably simple. With our new updates to international affiliate payouts, that same affiliate in Japan can be paid straight to their bank, in yen, and they don’t even need a Stripe account to receive it.
Let me show you how frictionless the setup is for your affiliates, what paying them looks like afterwards, and which countries it covers.
In This Article
- How the money reaches your affiliates
- All your affiliates do is hand Stripe their bank details
- What your affiliate receives, and what it cost you
- Pay all your affiliates at once
- Which countries you can pay affiliates in
- Turning on bank payouts
- Reach the affiliates you couldn't pay before
- Bank payout FAQs
- Do I need to upgrade my plan for this?
- Does my affiliate need a Stripe account?
- What is a Stripe Financial Account, and why do I have to fund it?
- Who pays the currency conversion fee?
- Can I still use my existing Stripe payouts?
- My Stripe account isn't in the US or the UK. Can I still pay affiliates abroad?
- What happens if my affiliate's country isn't covered?
- Can I test it before paying anyone real money?
How the money reaches your affiliates
The beauty here is that Stripe sends it straight to their bank and converts it on the way, so all it needs from them is their name and their bank details. It’s built on top of Stripe Global Payouts, which reaches 90+ countries.
There’s one thing to keep in mind though. At the time of writing, Global Payouts is Public preview and only available for US and UK Stripe accounts.
All your affiliates do is hand Stripe their bank details
Inside the affiliate dashboard on your site, your affiliate picks their payout country and clicks Set up payouts. If you let them choose their own payout method, they pick Stripe first.
That takes them straight to a page hosted by Stripe, where they give their legal name and their bank details, and they’re done. Some countries ask for a little more, like a date of birth, and Stripe decides what it needs based on where they are.
All of that happens on Stripe’s side, so you don’t collect any of it and their bank details never touch your site. They never get a Stripe login either, so there’s nothing to sign into and nothing to reconnect a year from now. If their bank changes, they go back to the same place in their dashboard and Stripe gives them a fresh secure page to update it on.
What your affiliate receives, and what it cost you
Your affiliate receives their commission, in their own currency, and all of it.
That last part is worth slowing down on. Stripe has to convert the payout into their currency, and it takes the conversion fee from your Stripe Financial Account rather than out of their payment. Stripe takes nothing out of their payment, so the amount it sends is the number you recorded.
We don’t add a fee of our own, so every charge is Stripe’s. Their pricing page lists what each one costs.
Here’s what that looks like in AffiliateWP on a real payout. Stripe converted the commission to 5,418 yen, and the rate it used is right underneath.
Open the payout in AffiliateWP and the first thing it shows you is what your affiliate receives, in their currency, and the rate Stripe used to get there. Beside that sits a receipt showing what the payout cost you, and a link through to the payment in Stripe where every fee is itemised.
In the timeline you’ll see when the payout left for Stripe, when Stripe sent it on to the bank, and the date Stripe expects it to arrive.
The details carry the rest of the record: the amount debited in your own currency, whether Stripe sent it by local bank transfer or by wire, and the bank trace ID, which is the reference an affiliate’s own bank can look the payment up by.
Pay all your affiliates at once
Nothing changes about how you pay. You still pay them all at once, and AffiliateWP picks the right method for each affiliate, whether that is their bank, PayPal, store credit or a manual payment. Paying your affiliates walks through paying them.
One thing can still go wrong after a payout leaves, and it is handled. If a bank returns a payout days later, AffiliateWP marks it failed and puts those referrals back to unpaid, so the commission is owed again rather than lost.
Which countries you can pay affiliates in
Bank payouts reach 90+ countries, in two sets you turn on separately. Stripe reaches one set by local bank transfer and the other only by wire, and it decides which set an affiliate falls into from the country they declare.
Local bank transfers, 50+ countries
Region Supported countries Americas Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United States Europe Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia/Hrvatska, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom Asia-Pacific Australia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore Middle East Israel Africa Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia
Wire transfers, 40+ countries
Region Supported countries Americas Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Panama, Saint Lucia Europe Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldova, Republic of, Serbia, Turkey Asia-Pacific Bhutan, Brunei Darrussalam, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam Middle East Armenia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates Africa Algeria, Botswana, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania
If an affiliate’s country is in neither set, AffiliateWP tells you before you run a payout rather than failing halfway through one.
Turning on bank payouts
It’s available on all AffiliateWP plans, and three steps get you paying.
- Activate Global Payouts in your Stripe Dashboard, so a Financial Account exists.
- Top up that Financial Account. A bank transfer into it can take a few days, so do this before you pay anyone.
- In AffiliateWP, go to Settings > Payouts and turn on Bank payouts (direct).
Reach the affiliates you couldn’t pay before
I’ve been playing with bank payouts for a while now and I’m blown away by how much simpler it makes paying affiliates.
Bank payouts are in every AffiliateWP plan, so all you need is a plugin update.
What it costs, and which countries each option reaches, are both in paying affiliates internationally with Stripe. If you don’t run AffiliateWP yet, the affiliate payouts page covers what else it does.
Next step: turn bank payouts on at AffiliateWP > Settings > Payouts, and pay the affiliates Stripe couldn’t reach for you before. Who knows? Maybe you’ll start accepting more international affiliates into your program.
Bank payout FAQs
No. Bank payouts are in every AffiliateWP plan. What you need is a Stripe account based in the US or the UK, with Global Payouts active on it.
No, and that’s the point. They enter their bank details on a page hosted by Stripe and they’re done. There’s nothing for them to sign into later and nothing to reconnect a year from now.
It’s a separate balance inside Stripe, and bank payouts are sent from it rather than from the money your customers’ payments land in. You fill it by transferring from your own bank, which can take a few days, so do that before you pay anyone. If it’s short, AffiliateWP creates no payments at all rather than paying some affiliates and not others, and it picks up where it left off once you add funds.
You do. Stripe collects every fee from your Stripe Financial Account rather than the affiliate’s payment, so the amount it sends them is the number you recorded.
Yes. Both options sit side by side, and AffiliateWP picks the right one for each affiliate from the country they declare. Turning bank payouts on changes nothing for the affiliates you already pay.
Yes. Stripe cross-border payouts works from a Stripe account in any of 34 countries, and pays through a Stripe Express account rather than straight to their bank. We’ll support more sender countries for Global Payouts as Stripe adds them.
AffiliateWP tells you before you run a payout rather than failing halfway through one, and pays them through whichever other method you have enabled.
Yes. Everything works in Stripe’s sandbox, including the affiliate’s setup and a full payout, so you can see the whole flow before any real money moves.
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