Payouts

Getting Support From Abroad: Where Your Money Goes Before It Reaches Your Bank

Ten $5 supporters left a creator in Brazil with R$199 to about R$224, depending on the route. The fees on Patreon, PayPal and Ko-fi, and what to fix first.

By The Pennygood team · Sep 2026 · 4 min read

Getting Support From Abroad: Where Your Money Goes Before It Reaches Your Bank

You live outside the US, and people in other countries want to send you a few dollars a month. You open a calculator, look up the exchange rate, and wonder why the number that lands in your bank is so much smaller. The exchange rate is rarely the reason.

The short answer: money leaks in four places, and currency conversion is usually the third-largest. The bigger ones are the platform's cut and a fixed fee charged on every single payment. Then there's whatever your own country takes. We ran the numbers for ten supporters at $5 a month ($50) for a creator in Brazil, with notes on Mexico, using platform fee tables as published in September 2026.

Why does a $5 pledge arrive so much smaller?

Because every payment pays a toll. On Patreon, pages published after August 4, 2025 pay a 10% platform fee, and each card payment pays another 2.9% + $0.30 in processing. On $5, that fixed $0.30 alone is 6%. Altogether about $0.95 of every $5 is gone before the money leaves Patreon, leaving $4.05.

A pipe runs from a globe to a piggy bank, with four taps along the way dripping coins into cups; the middle tap is the largest — Four tolls between a supporter and your bank. The currency one isn't the biggest.

The fixed part is what punishes small amounts. A $20 pledge pays the same $0.30 and loses only 1.5% to it. If a supporter abroad is flexible, a slightly larger monthly amount, or an annual membership, which Patreon also offers, loses far less on the way than $5 charged twelve times.

Should I cash out through PayPal or straight to my bank?

For creators in countries like Brazil, Mexico or Colombia, Patreon keeps your balance in dollars and converts at payout. A bank transfer (handled by Payoneer) costs 1.55% + $0.25 per payout, with no extra conversion fee. PayPal costs 1% (minimum $0.25), but then PayPal does the conversion: its Brazil and Mexico fee tables both list 3.5% above the base exchange rate when you receive a payment in another currency. The minimum payout is $10 either way.

On the $40.55 left from ten pledges, the bank route delivers about $39.67, roughly R$203. PayPal delivers about $38.74, near R$199. There's a trap, too: leave the money sitting in USD in PayPal and convert later, and PayPal Brazil charges 4.5% instead of 3.5%. Convert on arrival, or use the bank route.

Can supporters pay straight into my own account?

Yes, and it cuts a layer. Ko-fi takes nothing on one-off tips and 5% on monthly ones, and the money goes straight into your own Stripe or PayPal account. A Brazilian Stripe account charges 3.99% + R$0.39 per card, plus 2% for foreign cards. On R$25.65 (the same $5), about R$22.44 is left, so ten pledges come to about R$224, the best result here.

One honest caveat: if your page charges in dollars, Stripe still converts to reais, and its Brazilian pricing page doesn't say what that costs. Your first statement is the only reliable number, so ask a friend abroad for a test payment before you commit.

A person at a fork: one long winding road with several toll gates leads to a house by a globe; the other is shorter with a single gate — What matters most is how many gates the money passes through.

What does my own country take?

It depends on where you live, and it can outweigh everything above. In Brazil it's small: incoming foreign exchange that isn't otherwise classified pays 0.38% IOF under the decree as amended in June 2025, about R$0.77 on R$203. In Mexico it's large: since October 1, 2025, Patreon withholds income tax from Mexico-based creators, 20% without a tax ID (RFC) and 2.5% with one, calculated before its own fees. On a $5 pledge that's $1.00 versus about 13 cents.

Also consider supporters in your own country. If they pay in dollars on a foreign card, their bank adds its own charges; in Brazil that's 3.5% IOF on every international card payment. For them, a local-currency option is usually cheaper.

So which route should I pick?

Check your country's tax line first. In Mexico, handing Patreon your RFC matters more than any platform switch.
Pay out to a bank rather than PayPal, and pay out less often: the $0.25 is charged per payout, not per pledge.
With small pledges, ask for a slightly larger amount or an annual one. The fixed per-payment fee is the biggest leak.
Split a mixed audience: local currency for supporters at home, a dollar platform for everyone abroad.

Pennygood is another dollar-based route: supporters pay in US dollars, the fee is 8%, and payouts land in your local currency through Stripe Connect. Two limits to know up front: the minimum payout is $50, so with only a few supporters the money waits, and supporters in your own country see a dollar charge.

Whatever you choose, the thing that eats a small pledge isn't the exchange rate. It's how many times it gets charged, and, depending on where you live, a tax setting you haven't filled in yet. Fix those before you switch platforms.