mcfester

For myself and I'm sure lots of others these coming months are going to be difficult for non US affiliates getting paid from sponsor programs.

Very few sponsors are now offering epass and I would expect by now very few affiliates wouldn't want to take the risk.

Checks are time comsuming and costly, and totally out of the question for some due to postage problems. The postal service in Asia is well known for its unreliability but on a whole international post sent unregistered is likely to get lost, whether its lost on US side or foreign its just a waste of time.
I'm still waiting for an epass ATM card sent twice to UK, and about 17 checks from ccbill also sent to UK before I realised they hadn't changed my minimum payout as requested, it cost me $20 deduction stop payment fee for each check even though they was all over six months so regarded as 'stale checks'. So no thanks for checks.

Wires are the safest and quickest option for most but also this has drawbacks. Firstly the fee most sponsors charge is expensive, and secondly the minimum payment is also way over acceptable from most sponsors.
Some sponsors are offering wires for $20, others for $50 with minimums of $250 up to $1000. I can understand sponsors wanting to cut down workload by increasing the minimum payout for wires but I haven't seen any banks that have a minimum amount for wire transfers. Most sponsors are making money on the transfer fee and with online banking transfers take very little time.
Affiliates used to regural Epass payments of around $100 month from many sponsors are now looking at waiting several months for payouts, obviously this void in receiving funds is going to be a major problem for some and the added cost of wire fees from each sponsor will reduce income further.

Looking at this realisticly, until a better option is available and used by the majority of sponsors the wire option is going to be first choice for most.
I'm hoping sponsors will understand we are all in this mess together, some deeper than others but we need to find solutions.

I'm no expert here but wire transfer costs can be reduced by sending the amount in the receivers own currency, whether its done direct from the sponsors bank via FX Global Transfer or through a reputable broker, fees can be reduced to half in some cases depending on the amount transfered.
Minimum payouts need to be lowered, if an affiliate needs funds desperately why should one have to wait months when the funds are there and just require a simple online transfer? If one chooses to lose some dollars because requesting lower transfers more often than others thats the affiliates choice, the money has been earned, the money is there and the money is needed. If the money wasn't needed one would wait until the next payout and save a transfer fee, obviously.

It would be appreciated if sponsors could add their thoughts and suggestions to this and also to any other options available for sponsors and affiliates as a whole.

Thanks.