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Receiving foreign currency? Here’s what you need to know

Last update: July 2, 2025

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For most modern e-commerce businesses, international expansion is a central part of profitable growth. But doing business across borders means having to receive multiple currencies from all over the world – and this brings its challenges.

For instance, you might need to get paid in euros, send payments in USD or expand into new markets in a different currency entirely. With high exchange fees, regularly shifting exchange rates and an unpredictable economy, these cross-border transactions can be costly, slow and difficult to manage.

In this article, we’ll show you what you need to do to more easily receive foreign currency. We’ll cover:

4 common challenges when receiving foreign currency
How to make and receive payment in foreign currency much more easily
How WorldFirst makes it easier to get paid in a foreign currency

Ready to get paid in a foreign currency, without the hassle? Collect, hold and pay in foreign currency and lock in the most competitive exchange rates when you join WorldFirst. Open a World Account today.

4 common challenges when getting paid in a foreign currency

If you’ve tried to receive payments in a foreign currency before, you may be familiar with some of the potential difficulties:

Opening receiving accounts in a foreign currency often requires a physical presence in the respective country: Your regular business bank account may not be able to receive a given currency, so you may have to open a separate account in order to make transactions in that foreign currency.But if you’re dealing in multiple currencies, this means adding multiple accounts, each of which can require extensive documentation, long waiting periods, setup and maintenance fees and having a business entity in the country. If you’re based in the United Kingdom and want to do business in, say, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Romania, this obviously isn’t practical.
You don’t have the time or resources to constantly monitor the market for the best exchange rates: Unpredictable or unfavourable exchange rates can hurt your margins, and high currency conversion fees increase those costs further. Unexpected geopolitical events, trade policies or new regulations – such as changing US tariffs – can destabilise currencies and cause significant shifts. If you’re trying to budget for the future, you have to keep a close eye on the market – and even then, you can’t always protect your earnings.
Paying cross-border suppliers takes too long, impacting your deals and affecting your inventory: Slow international money transfers and cross-border payments can obstruct your cash flow and make it harder to pay suppliers on time. This can lead to difficulties managing inventory, which can hurt your sales. Exchange rate fluctuations can also impact your deals, and you could end up paying suppliers much more for materials and products.
Reconciliation and risk are hard to manage when you have siloed data and different logins and formats for different accounts: Conversion rates and fees mean numbers don’t always match up, and sometimes there isn’t even a record of the conversion if it happens before a deposit is made. The more accounts you have, the more challenging this becomes, since you have to reconcile across different currency accounts with different fields and formats. These mismatches can complicate accounting, compliance and risk management.

How to make and receive payment in foreign currency much more easily with a World Account

Rather than opening separate accounts with separate banks for different currencies, the best way to get paid in a foreign currency is to set up an account that can receive funds from international customers, converting funds as quickly and cheaply as possible. However, very few providers offer this service without charging high fees.

At WorldFirst, we’re one of the few that do. We make it cheaper and easier for global businesses to handle multiple currencies, take advantage of the best exchange rates and perform critical cross-border business functions.

Read on to discover how you’ll benefit from opening a World Account:

Get paid like a local with local currency account details

A multi-currency account like WorldFirst lets you get paid in foreign currencies without the work of setting up multiple local bank accounts. It only takes a few minutes to open your account online and start receiving and holding foreign currency.

With just one World Account, you can get paid in up to 20+ foreign currencies, including US dollar, euro, CNH, JPY, CAD, GBP, HKD, AUD, NZD, SGD and more. Plus, you can receive and hold funds in all these currencies without paying any surcharges or account maintenance fees.

For each of your foreign currency accounts, you also get local account details, so you can take advantage of domestic payment rails instead of relying on international bank transfers. That means you can receive foreign currency payments much faster, and keep cash flowing to your suppliers.

WorldFirst also makes it faster and easier to get paid with connections to 130+ marketplaces and payment gateways. You can link your World Account to these platforms to withdraw your sales proceeds directly into your receiving accounts.

Even if there isn’t a direct integration to your desired marketplace, WorldFirst still helps you start selling by giving you local account details for all the currency accounts you hold with us.

Leverage – and lock in – competitive foreign currency exchange rates

With FX rates often changing, businesses need to ensure they’re not overpaying when paying and receiving money in foreign currency.

Luckily, with WorldFirst, there are a couple of ways that e-commerce businesses can shore themselves up against some of these risks:

Set target FX rates with a firm order

If you know what foreign exchange rate you’re looking for, but don’t want to keep an eye on the market yourself, you can use firm orders to target the exact rates you want.

With a firm order, you let us know how much you want to transfer, and at what rate, and set an expiry date for your transaction. Then, you give us the power to act the moment the market hits your target rate.

When you place a firm order with our relationship management team, we watch the market 24/7. Once your transfer is complete, we get the funds to you that same day or on the next working day.

Lock in your preferred exchange rate with a forward contract

Forward contracts let you lock in exchange rates for a set period of time, on a volume of currency that you agree on in advance. E-commerce businesses can use forward contracts to make payments to international suppliers more predictable.

There are three main types of forward contracts you can get with WorldFirst:

Fixed forward contract: You agree to an exchange rate, a fixed amount and specific maturity date in the future, and the funds are exchanged on that date.

Flexible forward contract: You agree to a fixed exchange rate, which you can use at any time until the contract reaches its end date.

Window forward: You buy a set amount of foreign currency at a certain rate, but must exchange your funds during a certain date range or “window.”

Forward contracts make it easier to plan with more certainty, ensuring you have the funds you need to pay suppliers, protect your revenue or keep your prices steady. They should, however, be used with some caution, as they can be risky if the market shifts dramatically.

Act quickly on an opportunity with a spot contract

Another tool that e-commerce sellers can use with WorldFirst is a spot contract. Unlike forward contracts, spot contracts take advantage of real-time rates, for transactions that need to take place right away.

With a spot contract, when you need to make a payment immediately (or with very little notice), simply log in to your account and select your currency exchange pair. You’ll see the live rate displayed; it’s refreshed every 10 seconds. We’ll also display all the fees upfront so you know exactly what you’re paying before you accept.

Spot contracts allow you to make payments and transfer your funds very quickly – usually on the same day or the next working day. They’re not necessarily the best way to get the lowest rate, but they save you money when you need to exchange currency fast.

Even without using any of the above options, WorldFirst gives you access to competitive foreign exchange rates. We use the mid-market rate to calculate conversions and charge only a low percentage-based markup, with no hidden or monthly fees.

Pay your suppliers faster using domestic payment networks

While you can’t always control how fast you get paid, WorldFirst can help you keep your cash flow moving, making it easier to pay your suppliers and partners on time and keep inventory in stock.

With a World Account, you can send money in 100+ currencies to 210+ regions, using local networks or SWIFT, depending on the transaction. Or, pay other WorldFirst customers in seconds, with free instant payments between World Accounts.

80% of payments land on the same day, with the rest usually landing by the following day. You can also set up automatic scheduled payments, or make up to 200 payments at once with mass payments.

You can check out our pricing here.

With WorldFirst, you also get direct access to 1688.com, which lets you source from over 10 million suppliers across 1,700 categories. You can pay suppliers instantly in CNH by selecting “World Pay” as your payment method during checkout.

Simplify reconciliation with complete visibility over all your accounts

Holding funds in different local accounts can make reconciliation complicated, especially when you factor in multiple logins and fluctuating exchange rates. A WorldFirst account simplifies the reconciliation process by letting you view all your currencies and transactions from a single login.

WorldFirst also makes bookkeeping and accounting easier with direct connections to Xero and NetSuite. Xero easily reconciles transactions in 10+ currencies, including EUR, USD and AUD, while NetSuite supports accurate accounting, financial planning and regulatory compliance.

How WorldFirst makes it easier to get paid in a foreign currency

Getting paid in a foreign currency as an e-commerce seller doesn’t need to be complex and time-consuming. With modern fintech and finance providers, such as WorldFirst, e-commerce sellers can minimise the risk of doing international business across borders.

In the 20+ years since our founding, WorldFirst has helped over a million businesses achieve easy, cross-border business growth. Open a World Account now to simplify your international payments.

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Receiving foreign currency? Here’s what you need to know

4 common challenges when getting paid in a foreign currency

How to make and receive payment in foreign currency much more easily with a World Account

Get paid like a local with local currency account details

Leverage – and lock in – competitive foreign currency exchange rates

Set target FX rates with a firm order

Lock in your preferred exchange rate with a forward contract

Act quickly on an opportunity with a spot contract

Pay your suppliers faster using domestic payment networks

Simplify reconciliation with complete visibility over all your accounts

How WorldFirst makes it easier to get paid in a foreign currency

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The simpler way to pay and get paid

Receiving foreign currency? Here’s what you need to know

4 common challenges when getting paid in a foreign currency

How to make and receive payment in foreign currency much more easily with a World Account

Get paid like a local with local currency account details

Leverage – and lock in – competitive foreign currency exchange rates

Set target FX rates with a firm order

Lock in your preferred exchange rate with a forward contract

Act quickly on an opportunity with a spot contract

Pay your suppliers faster using domestic payment networks

Simplify reconciliation with complete visibility over all your accounts

How WorldFirst makes it easier to get paid in a foreign currency

Continue reading

Top 7 Payoneer alternatives for global payments [2026]

7 best Monzo alternatives for UK businesses in 2026

Is Dropshipping Legal in the UK? Rules, Tax and VAT Explained

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Citibank Multi Currency Account review: is it right for UK businesses?

Monzo review: is it right for UK businesses?

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