Can a Canadian business avoid international payout fees with a US bank account?

[DOM18]

This question is similar to a previously asked one in this thread. We are a Canadian business using Shopify Payments Canada. As the majority of our market is in the US, we have set up a US-based bank account and we currently accept USD. However, we notice that our payouts get deducted an additional international payout fee and we understand this is happening because our business is registered in Canada and not in the US AND we accept USD. Is there any way to bypass this additional fee? Would we be charged unless we open a US-based entity and change our address to the US?

[sampymishra]

Hi @DOM18 

You can avoid international payout fees by having your store in the US in their local currency, which means you can use a currency converter for your store and have your Canadian store and steel out of it. 

Please let me know if you have any queries about the setup process or multicurrency store.

[DOM18]

Hi @sampymishra , I am interested in knowing the best way to set this up, but I'm not confident that what you wrote can work. In speaking with Shopify, having a store in each currency does not solve the problem. They will continue to charge the higher fees because we are not US based and have no US affiliation (no EIN or LLC registration).

Please confirm what you mean as we would be very intrigued if it could work.

What's most difficult for us is that we moved to Shopify on the recommendation of many, but the platform we left (Wix) has zero additional charges so long as the bank account is inside the US and the currency is in USD.

Also, in speaking with Shopify, you can be on Shopify Payments US only if you have US presence (e.g. an LLC in the US). Thats appears to be the only way any US transactions will not be hit with additional fees. It doesn't matter where your account is... it matters where the store itself is, and because we are a Canadian merchant with a USD store, that is where we are having issues. Curious what other Canadian merchants are doing.

Looking forward to your response.

[SamShuter]

Hey DOM18, curious if you ever sorted this out? I am in the same boat, now looking into Incorporating in the US (currently beyond my means) and I am completely overwhelmed with the options via Wise/other Merchant options or having a Canadian-US Rbc account vs a US/US Rbc Account (that is allowed - apparently without requiring a US address...).

I'd love to know how you've been hanging in there/moving forward without losing your shirt/or customers for that matter!

Kindly,

[DOM18]

Hey,

We actually left Shopify and are now with WooCommerce. No headaches there.

[SamShuter]

Thanks for responding, maybe that's something I'll have to look into.