Any Ukrainians here? Sending money abroad

[Upsilon]

Hello everyone!

To make a long story short, my sister in law fled Ukraine with the start of the war. She relocated and works for the same multinational company, however she is being paid in her Ukrainian bank account.

This would not be an issue normally but starting October 2022 the National Bank of Ukraine decided that they will no longer allow P2P money transfers abroad, because people were taking advantage of the situation (i.e. purchasing foreign currency and selling it for more, messing up the economy).

Much to my dismay, every quarter (or however often she needs the money) she HAS TO GO TO UKRAINE to withdraw her salary, only to return to our country. This is less than ideal to put it lightly, especially since there are no direct flights to Ukraine anymore.

She cannot send money via Revolut or Wise - they don't allow it due to the new regulations, and Payoneer only accepts payments from businesses.

I want to help her with a solution because this is such a silly situation.

So, do you guys know a way where she can send money from her Ukrainian bank account to some service or whatever, to then withdraw it to a local bank account? I'm not necessarily talking about a P2P transfer; even an idea like opening a seller's account on some platform so she can buy her own service and then get paid via Payoneer would work.

Ideally the taxes would be lower than the actual hassle.

P.S. Hope this will not be seen as a political thread or whatever. We all know the situation and we all have our views on it. The topic is only related to the logistics of getting her salary without traveling to her own country, nothing more.

 

[DanielS]

Can she not open a PayPal account and link her bank account to it? Then, she can link a second account to it and deposit the money into that account. So, Ukraine account -> PayPal -> New account.

 

[Prentzz]

Why can't her company pay directly to her new local bank account? There is no way that they can only pay into her Ukrainian bank, when they are multinational.

 

[Upsilon]

Can she not open a PayPal account and link her bank account to it? Then, she can link a second account to it and deposit the money into that account. So, Ukraine account -> PayPal -> New account.

I will suggest that to her but we have to see what fees she should be expecting.

It is quite a large sum of money so I think PayPal may want a nice chunk of that, especially given the circumstances. Meaning that, perhaps different rules may apply to Ukraine in terms of PayPal transfers, given the situation.

Why can't her company pay directly to her new local bank account? There is no way that they can only pay into her Ukrainian bank, when they are multinational.

I will have to ask her why she hasn't already done that.

To be honest, I think she tried. It would be a no-brainer to try this thing first, so maybe she has a good reason for which she hasn't already done it. Maybe it's not possible, given that she is not a citizen of this country but only a "temporary stay" (as far as her papers are concerned)?

 

[Prentzz]

I will suggest that to her but we have to see what fees she should be expecting.

It is quite a large sum of money so I think PayPal may want a nice chunk of that, especially given the circumstances. Meaning that, perhaps different rules may apply to Ukraine in terms of PayPal transfers, given the situation.



I will have to ask her why she hasn't already done that.

To be honest, I think she tried. It would be a no-brainer to try this thing first, so maybe she has a good reason for which she hasn't already done it. Maybe it's not possible, given that she is not a citizen of this country but only a "temporary stay" (as far as her papers are concerned)?

If she can get a bank account she can get paid into it. Her company are probably just being assholes about it because it causes some headache for them. Which is extremely shitty given the situation.

Regarding tangible solutions, if she can't use mainstream solutions she should just try run it through a crypto exchange. Send money from Ukraine bank to x exchange, then withdraw from that exchange to foreign bank. If the exchange won't let her, on board with one exchange with Ukraine bank, buy stable coins, transfer to other echcnage with you register with foreign bank, offboard there.

This is literally the usecase that you could argue makes crypto have some value.

 

[Upsilon]

If she can get a bank account she can get paid into it. Her company are probably just being assholes about it because it causes some headache for them. Which is extremely shitty given the situation.

Regarding tangible solutions, if she can't use mainstream solutions she should just try run it through a crypto exchange. Send money from Ukraine bank to x exchange, then withdraw from that exchange to foreign bank. If the exchange won't let her, on board with one exchange with Ukraine bank, buy stable coins, transfer to other echcnage with you register with foreign bank, offboard there.

This is literally the usecase that you could argue makes crypto have some value.

I thought about this but also the possibility of things going south (i.e. the very small probability that the coin will just drop in value from one minute to the other - highly unlikely but also a bet she wouldn't take I believe)

But what I get from what you are saying is that you can deposit funds into an exchange without actually purchasing any coins? That would be great!

 

[Prentzz]

I thought about this but also the possibility of things going south (i.e. the very small probability that the coin will just drop in value from one minute to the other - highly unlikely but also a bet she wouldn't take I believe)

But what I get from what you are saying is that you can deposit funds into an exchange without actually purchasing any coins? That would be great!

Even major exchanges like binance will likely allow a bank to bank at least once. Not sustainable. Cross exchange approach likely is.

Still see no real reason she can't get paid to her foreign account tbh...

 

[Upsilon]

Even major exchanges like binance will likely allow a bank to bank at least once. Not sustainable. Cross exchange approach likely is.

Still see no real reason she can't get paid to her foreign account tbh...

I will talk to her about the thing with her company.

Thanks a lot for the solution!

One last question: what do you mean by cross exchange approach? Deposit the money in one exchange (say Binance) then transfer it to and withdraw from another one (say Coinbase)?

 

[Golan]

Why can't she just withdraw with her bank card? The National Bank is lifting the limits for foreign withdrawal time to time. Or is her salary is still too high for this? Or USDT or something via Binance. Frankly never heard of such a problem yet that someone would need to go to Ukraine to withdraw their salary.