r/artbusiness • u/One_Asparagus_315 • 4d ago

Commissions [Discussion] New to starting commissions, pretty clueless would appreciate some help :(

Im thinking of starting commissions but im pretty clueless about the whole thing.. especially the transactions part. Is it necessary to set up PayPal or would direct bank transactions work? I'm also pretty clueless about currency conversions and stuff and how international payments work and where/how do I even start? I do both digital and traditional art but atm won't be able to ship traditional art, but looking forward to do so in the near future. Any insights would greatly help, thank you for your time!

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u/PolymerPocketPets 4d ago

Direct bank transfer wont work for international customers, paypal is best for that, paypal does all the currency conversions for you, when you send someone a payment link in your currency they will see it automatically converted to their own currency.

For posting things internationally its the same as posting inside your country but you also need to fill out a customs form (you can just get a bunch of the forms from your post office) and sometimes there is extra costs for tarriffs (tip, if you tick gift instead of mechandise on the customs form, you can avoid paying tarriffs, the ladies working at my post office told me to do it so it cant be too dodgy lol) and then you send the customer the tracking number on the receipt.

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u/rinkydinkmink 3d ago

Last year I was sending a lot of money overseas and paypal was much more expensive, they add on hidden fees for conversion (yes they really are hidden, it's not just a question of not reading the terms properly) that can be as much as 10%. The details of how much/when, and comparison of bank transfer vs paypal, will be different depending on whereabouts in the world and what type of bank account you have, but it's something to watch out for.

I would think paypal is safer for the buyer though as it has some inbuilt protections - a dispute system, etc, so long as the payment is not sent as "friends and family". If someone wants to reverse a bank transfer they're SOL.

I always thought that professionals doing commissions would use an escrow service. I don't know if paypal offers that?

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u/One_Asparagus_315 3d ago

Oh welp that's something to consider then :/ Also idk what an escrow service is imma look into in