How Businesses Accept International Payments: A Complete Guide

Selling internationally sounds profitable until unexpected fees, lengthy settlement times, and unclear regulations start cutting into your margins.

According to a World Bank report, transaction fees alone drain up to 4% from cross-border revenue. For an e-commerce business selling 10 million USD in products annually, this means losing 400,000 USD in fees alone, excluding taxes, logistics, and other costs.

There are, however, effective ways to make international payment processing less challenging and more profitable.

What are international payments?

Also known as cross-border transactions, international payments are money transfers between parties in different countries. They are used for various purposes, such as paying suppliers, sending wages to remote contractors, or purchasing goods or services from foreign merchants.

Unlike domestic payments, international transfers often require currency conversions. Here are a few other features that differentiate international from domestic payments.

Despite these differences, international payments are essential because they enable businesses to tap into opportunities beyond their local market, whether that is a broader consumer base or a highly skilled talent pool.

Businesses can accept cross-border payments through:

• Global bank transfers via SWIFT
• Local bank transfer through domestic rails like ACH, SEPA, Pix, UPI, etc. (Only if the merchant uses a global payment processor with local accounts/licenses.)
• International card networks like Visa, Mastercard, and AMEX
• Digital wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay, and WeChat Pay
• Alternative payment methods (APMs) such as Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) providers, cash vouchers, and QR-based options. (These are local but can be enabled globally through payment processors)
• Real-time payment systems specific to countries, like Pix in Brazil, UPI in India, and Faster Payments in the UK
• Crypto payment rails via payment service providers offering on- and off-ramping
• Account-to-account (A2A) payments via open banking.

How do businesses accept international payments?

Cross-border transfers involve money moving through multiple accounts in different countries before reaching the merchant’s bank account. There are two primary ways for businesses to accept international payments.

1. Using several local acquirers

An acquirer is a financial institution that processes payments on behalf of the merchant. For international payments, the acquirer is usually located in a different country from the cardholder.

One way businesses can bring that payment into their bank account is by partnering with local acquirers in each market they operate in.

Pros:

• Higher authorisation rates due to local acquiring
• Better customer experience as customers can pay in their local currency using familiar payment methods
• Lower compliance risk as local acquirers meet domestic regulatory standards.

Cons:

• Higher operational and processing costs
• Multiple contracts and onboarding processes that can be time-consuming and resource-intensive
• Unless unified, transaction data may remain fragmented across acquirers.

2. Using a single, global acquirer

Working with multiple local acquirers is challenging for businesses operating in several countries. For this reason, they prefer a global acquirer with local licenses across various markets, such as Unlimit.

Pros:

• A single contract and integration to start accepting payments from multiple countries
• Cost-effective to expand into markets with low volume rather than setting new acquisition contracts
• Unified reporting to view transaction data across markets on a single dashboard
• Centralised risk, fraud, and compliance management.

Cons:

• Some global acquirers may lack local licenses in certain regions, especially in newer markets like LATAM and Africa, and rely on partners or intermediaries
• Settlement times may be longer, depending on the acquirer and currencies
• May not provide local settlement options for all countries.

Challenges faced by businesses when accepting international payments

Financial challenges

#1 Fluctuating exchange rates

A customer in the UK might pay in GBP when purchasing a product/service from a US-based business. Before this payment reaches the business’s bank account, it is converted from GBP to USD.

The cost of this conversion isn’t fixed and depends on the prevailing rate at the moment the conversion happens. Since exchange rates fluctuate, the amount the business receives after conversion can change between invoicing and settlement. If the foreign currency weakens, the business ends up with less in its home currency than expected, which eats into profit margins.

#2 High transaction costs

Many banks and payment providers don’t use the mid-market or interbank exchange rate. Instead, they apply a markup (spread) on top of it. This means that a business may be paying more than the published exchange rates.

Additionally, the financial institutions involved in processing the international payment, such as correspondent banks and payment networks, may each charge a fee, further increasing the cost.

#3 Settlement delays

Cross-border payments often go through multiple intermediaries. Each intermediary may have its own cut-off times, batch-processing cycles, and internal reconciliation, which adds friction.

Non-overlapping banking hours across countries may also lead to money sitting idle in correspondent bank accounts, waiting for the next settlement window. These can contribute to settlement delays, which in turn lead to cash flow problems and disrupt business operations.

The average time for international transfers is from one to three working days.

Regulatory and security challenges

#4 Different regional regulations

The regulatory regimes vary greatly from country to country. In fact, the anti-money laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC) and data protection and privacy laws aren’t standardised. When operating across borders, businesses must pay close attention to ensure compliance with each jurisdiction’s unique requirements.

On top of that, each country may impose strict rules for receiving and sending cross-border transactions, such as limits, supporting documentation, and other requirements. These rules not only increase compliance costs but also increase complexity and slow down operations.

#5 Higher risk of fraud and chargebacks

International transactions often involve many intermediaries, multiple currencies, and rely heavily on “card-not-present” (CNP) payments, making them more vulnerable to cyberattacks, identity theft, and payment scams.

Additionally, limited data sharing between regions’ fraud-monitoring systems gives attackers more room to operate undetected. For businesses, that means a higher baseline risk of fraudulent payments, which can lead to costly disputes like payment reversals, which are more problematic to navigate in cross-border scenarios.

Operational and customer experience challenges

#6 Preference for local payment methods

According to PYMNTS, 99% of cross-border shoppers expect to use payment methods they use in their local market, such as UPI in India or Pix in Brazil.

If a merchant only offers global payment options, potential customers will abandon their carts because they don’t see their preferred payment methods. Not only does this lead to decreased conversion rates, but it also prevents a business from fully engaging key consumer segments in a new market.

#7 Complex technology integration

When a business accepts payments from abroad, it often needs to connect its systems to multiple payment networks, banking systems, currencies, and even local rails, all of which may use very different technology stacks. Sometimes, these systems may lack common data formats, interoperable APIs, or shared messaging standards, creating a costly, error-prone integration process.

This means businesses face significant operational risk and cost when trying to roll out truly global payment acceptance. Integration delays are also common since each new country or currency may require unique local partner UI, testing regimes, and compliance workflows.

How can businesses overcome the challenges of accepting international payments?

One way businesses can overcome the financial challenges of cross-border payments is by setting up local entities. This allows them to use local acquiring and domestic payment processing to reduce transaction costs. However, it is complex and time-consuming because:

• Regulatory and legal requirements differ by country, and determining the right corporate structure requires a thorough understanding of these rules
• Most official documents of a foreign origin must be translated, apostilled, or consularized before they can be used
• Foreign-owned companies face additional reporting requirements, such as foreign-investment filings and beneficial-owner disclosures
• Opening local corporate bank accounts requires strict KYC procedures and sometimes in-person verification
• The entire setup and compliance process needs to be repeated when expanding into each new country
• Once the entity is set up, ongoing operations entail recurring responsibilities such as tax filings, accounting, payroll, and local compliance.

A simple alternative is to work with a trusted global payment processor with local licenses. They provide businesses with direct access to local payment methods, eliminating the need for intermediaries. This means businesses get higher authorisation rates, lower costs, and local-currency settlement without having to manage separate acquirers.

Look for a third-party payment processor that: 

• Supports a mix of global and local payment methods
• Offers strong compliance and fraud prevention
• Provides transparent multi-currency and FX management
• Has local licenses across all major markets
• Provides unified reporting and reconciliation tools
• Allows for easy scalability

Unlimit checks all these boxes, which is why global businesses trust us with their international payments. Our clients get to:

• Operate confidently in regulated markets, leveraging our local licenses in more than 200 locations across the EU, India, Africa, LATAM, and APAC
• Reach more customers and improve sales by accepting payments in over 150 currencies through more than 1000 payment methods, including highly local ones, such as UPI in India, Pix in Brazil, and SPEI in Mexico
• Expand smoothly into new markets by simply adding payment methods and currencies without multiple integrations
• Control their costs as we don’t lock them into a fixed fee structure, but rather adjust it to their volume and needs
• Save time on reconciliation by monitoring and analysing transaction data across markets and methods in one unified dashboard
• Solve local challenges faster with the help of our regional support teams that understand local regulations and payment practices
• Protect the business and customer trust with top-tier security–PCI DSS compliance, encryption, tokenisation, and advanced fraud detection.

Learn how we help businesses grow across borders with our payment processing solution, or watch a demo.

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