How to Receive Foreign Payments Through Stripe in India?

Trying to understand how to accept international payments through Stripe in India? This blog provides you with all the relevant information you need.

How to Receive Foreign Payments Through Stripe in India?
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Stripe is a safe platform for processing payments. It is a popular choice amongst businesses in India. Knowing which nations you may receive payments from is crucial if you operate as a global business with 44 supported nations and 135 supported currencies. The presentment currency i.e. non-INR is used for charges.

How to Get Started with Stripe in India?

Using Stripe India accounts, you can accept payments from your clients abroad easily. However, you must be a registered business; individuals are not supported in collecting payments from abroad.
Here’s how you can get started on Stripe for International payments:
  • Make sure you have an active IEC (Importer/Exporter Code) before continuing. Through the website of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), you can verify the validity of your IEC or apply for a new IEC.
  • Open a new Stripe account and in the application, make sure to check the box under the “I am exporting products to customers located outside India” section to start accepting international payments.
  • You can check out this doc to view Stripe’s mandatory requirements set by regulators.
  • Once the complete setup is done, you can send payment requests to clients to accept international transactions.
  • You also have to mention the purpose code. The nature of a payment received in foreign currency is described by the transaction purpose code. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintains a list of valid transaction purpose codes. During Stripe’s account application, you must choose the code that is most closely related to your product or service from the drop-down menu.
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Note - Since they are not supported, individual users won't see a button to enable international payments from their accounts.

How to Receive Money through Stripe in India?

You can create a payment link from the Stripe dashboard. As per your service, set the currency and amount, enter your client details and send it to the customer.
Once the customer receives the request, they will click on it and pay it with their credit card, debit card or alternate payment methods like ACH Debit, PayNow, etc. Stripe converts this money into INR and then deposits it into your bank account.

How much is Stripe fee in India?

For cards used outside of India, a processing fee of 4.3% is charged in addition to a conversion fee of 2% for international transactions.
Also, 18% GST is charged on the 4.3% processing fee. So, 4.3 + 18% on 4.3 = 5%. Then there is a 2% currency conversion fee as well, giving a total of 7%.

Time Taken for Stripe Transfer in India

Even though Stripe in India settles payments instantly at the end of each day, it will take 5 business days for the completed payment to appear in your bank account.
You cannot manually specify the payout time with Stripe, unlike users in other countries, because it is automated. Payments made over the weekend or on a holiday will be processed in India the following business day.

Pros of Stripe

  • Trustworthy: One of the major key points of Stripe is that it is a safe platform that is trusted by the end user as the payment is made by a secured card payment gateway network.
  • High success rate: Stripe enjoys a high success rate due to the platform’s efficiency and partnerships all across the world.
  • Perfect for D2C and SaaS companies: Since Stripe allows a wide variety of payment methods used all around the world, it is a good method for accepting international payments for B2B and SaaS companies.

Cons of Stripe

  • Individuals not allowed: One of the major drawbacks of Stripe is that only registered businesses can accept cross-border payments and individuals cannot.
  • High fees: As mentioned above, Stripe has extremely high platform fees when it comes to accepting payments compared to its alternatives.

Want to accept payments from foreign clients as an individual? There is a solution.

Mulya is a platform with which you can accept your freelance or contract payments. Here is a complete Stripe vs Mulya comparison.
  • Transaction Fee: There is just a 1% flat fee (inclusive of everything) on Mulya Finance whereas on Stripe it's up to 4.3% + 2% conversion + 18% of GST.
  • Transparency: Mulya Finance provides proper transparency not only in terms of charges but also tracking payments. Mulya informs you about the date of receiving of payments, exchange rate, transaction fees and everything. Whereas Stripe doesn't provide you with much clarity.
  • Individuals Allowed: Stripe doesn't support individual accounts. However, Mulya provides support to individuals too.
  • Process: Stripe operates through a payment gateway. However, Mulya operates through virtual accounts.
  • Chargebacks and Issues: There are a lot of chargeback disputes on Stripe as well because of card payments. As Mulya operates on bank-to-bank transfer, there is no chance of chargebacks.
To learn more about how to use Mulya, click here to know more about how to get started on Mulya.
 
Samarth Srivastava

Samarth Srivastava has spent few years honing their skills and knowledge in the field of international payments. With a deep passion for finance and a keen eye for global business trends, the author has become a trusted authority on all things related to international payments.