Waiting for payouts via Payoneer

[Sue340]

We have not been paid by Airbnb or Payoneer for three bookings, two have been completed and a longer one is in progress.   We have contacted Payoneer who have lied to us - said two payments for two separate bookings were combined in one payment and paid despite their information and information from Airbnb stating that separate payments were paid.  

We have NOT received either payment and Airbnb refuse to do anything saying it is not their problem and Payoneer lying to us and saying it must be our bank's problem - its not because we have checked.   Payoneer have paid us earlier this month for other bookings so they have our correct bank account details.

Does anyone have any advice for how we solve this?   We are now owed $1050 and our guests have paid Airbnb but Airbnb or their contracted payer Payoneer have not paid us.   We view this as theft - but Airbnb despite saying they offer support for hosts refuse to do a thing.

Sue & Evan **

*title updated

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Ria16 - right so you need to understand what Payoneer needs to be able to send your payments to your bank.  If they are telling you that the information must be entered at the Airbnb site, then we can work on that problem.  Otherwise it is a private matter between you and Payoneer.  If another Kiwi is reading this thread to provide some insight, they might be able to chime in.  

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Ria16 - just read this on Wikipedia - does this help? 

Account number suffix

The table below shows the account number suffixes as introduced by Databank Systems Limited from 1969.[1]

Type of account Suffix

Cheque Account	00
Number 2 Account	02
Fixed Account	03
Savings Account	30
Credit Card Account	40
Thrift Club Account	50
Term Deposit Account	81

Some banks (such as BNZ) include three digits of the suffix in their presentation of the number to the end customer. Other banks only show the last two digits of the suffix to the end customer. Technically, all banks have three digit suffixes, it's just that the first digit of the suffix is always 0 so it's usually ignored.

[Ria16]

Thank you @Alice-and-Jeff0. Sorry am just home so I can sit down  have a cuppa and work something out. Email from Air saying I need to set up a new payment system so I am not sure whether to use the one I have been happily using for the last five months and include just the 2 digit suffix  or have a PayPal. This is our only two options . My bank was insistent that payoneer entered the wrong suffix .

My question is if I did set up a PayPal account do payoneer then pay into PayPal? Or are they a completely different entity?

i do appreciate the help and I am sure all the Air staff are very nice and most probably work to a set of scenarios but when it’s outside the box then i really don’t know

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Ria16 - They are completely different companies.

https://itstillworks.com/difference-between-payoneer-paypal-3598.html

https://blog.hubstaff.com/paypal-vs-payoneer-vs-transferwise/

[Ria16]

@Alice-and-Jeff0

Thank you. I did set up a PayPal account but then when I went to add it as my payout acc on Air I saw that it was only in US dollars. So I reentered my kiwi account which had been variefied by Payoneer and am now just waiting on the 4 business days from Air . Here’s hoping ;)fingers crossed. But nobody could tell me why the suffix had been changed in the first place. Very weird ;);

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Ria16 - Payoneer didn't provide a reason that the suffix was changed?  What exactly did they say about the missing transaction? 

[Ria16]

@Alice-and-Jeff0

Strange email this morning from Payoneer. It seems that they have been manually changing the suffix since I first started here on AirBnB and now they are no longer prepared to do this any longer. They tell me my suffix is incorrect but I have a 3 digit suffix that won’t fit in Airs bnb payment box. I know this but just didn’t include the first zero.

i have asked this morning was it a generic approval yesterday that I got to say my new submission method had been verified. I can see this will now be another week of waiting. 😉 oh well....

[Sue340]

Ria

We have just been paid the two outstanding payments that were due on 23 November and yesterday.   All we can say is we think if you keep complaining to both Payoneer and to Airbnb and respond to every one of their emails you'll eventually get some action.  The last alternative is to lodge a claim in the Disputes Tribunal but for that you'll need a NZ address for Airbnb - you may have to go to the media for that but there have been several articles in the press recently about Airbnb so a journalist somewhere will have their contact details.

We also told Airbnb direct that if it wasn't resolved we would be going to the media and I think they may in turn have actually done what they said they couldn't do and contacted Payoneer.   

Despite what you have been advised by Airbnb they do have a contract with Payoneer and Payoneer advertise Airbnb as one of their large clients.

Hope that helps and just keep on complaining - I'm sure it works.

If you need any help lodging a claim in the Disputes Tribunal let me know; I was a Referee in the Disputes Tribunal for 10 years.

Regards

Sue **

[Ria16]

I’m glad the problem was resolved. Yes I’ve phoned, emailed, twittered and wah wahed all over. 😉 fingers crossed I’m sorted now.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Sue340 - I wish you had read the link I provided about "when you will get paid" because  Airbnb works on an American calendar.  Let me see if I can explain this holiday delay and bank processing: 

November 22 --- the banks stop processing payments at 3pm because of the pending holiday the following day (If the Fed closes down, the banks can't process anything).  Airbnb typically seems to process the day's transactions after 3pm. 

November 23 --- was a US National Holiday  - Thanksgiving - no bank ACH transactions. 

November 24 --- US banks reopen process ACH transactions. Airbnb processes their payment to Payoneer, however, because NZ is 18 hours ahead of the US,  your banks already went into the weekend (unlikely that any payments get processed in NZ on the weekend either).  Payoneer uses a US bank account to process your payment. 

November 25, 26 --- US weekend - payments get processed only on Business Days 

November 27 --- Payoneer likely processes your transaction to your bank.  However, again, you are 18 hours ahead so you are already going into Tuesday. 

November 28 (today) --- you receive your money at the bank (assuming your bank doesn't hold it).  

Hopefully this sheds some light on why payments are delayed - especially around the US holidays!  

For more information about how Payoneer works: 

 https://techcrunch.com/2008/07/09/payoneers-virtual-us-bank-accounts-make-international-cash-out-eas...

https://blog.payoneer.com/news/partners/airbnb-hosts-can-now-withdraw-earnings-with-payoneer/

From Airbnb help:   Weekend or holiday delays

Many banking systems don't process transactions on weekends or holidays. If your payout from Airbnb is completed between Friday and Sunday, it might not be processed until the next week.

If you have any questions about processing time after your Airbnb transaction history shows a payout as completed, contact your payment processor directly (That would be Payoneer!) 

[Sue340]

Unfortunately that was not the case nor does it explain all the other delays in payments earlier this month.  The matter has now been resolved because Airbnb chased up Payoneer which is exactly what they should have done in the first place.  You need to be really careful about giving advice to people in NZ because what applies in the States does not necessarily apply in NZ.  For instance in NZ there are currency exchange fees plus transfer fees for both direct credit to NZ bank accounts and using PayPal and those fees are significant. Thank you for your interest but we did our own research on this and got the matter sorted by pointing out the obvious to Airbnb and Payoneer.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Sue340 - Yikes - you assume that an American cannot possibly provide any banking advice about banking laws in the US? Well, if you didn't want knowledge or advice, why did you come to the Community Forums?  BTW, I'm a former Bank Vice President and Branch Manager here in the US (please feel free to look at my LinkedIn Profile) for 3 major banks here, but you're right, I couldn't possibly understand or be capable of discussing this with you because I've never, in my life, dealt with payments to NZ. (#sarcasm) 

Good luck to you. 

[Ria16]

@Sue340

Would you mind disclosing what NZ bank you are using, currently I don’t get any charges with Westpac but I see Kiwi bank charge $12 for every overseas transaction.

obviously my case is different from yours and I am glad yours is all sorted. But if I’m not allowed to use Westpac anymore I wonder what the best NZ bank is for getting Air payments 

Cheers

[Sue340]

Our NZ bank is ANZ.  Money goes into our account less the small percentage taken off by Airbnb.  There are no fees taken off when it comes through Payoneer which is why we chose it.

If Westpac had been receiving money from Payoneer without a problem for some time and then passing it onto your account then suddenly started sending it back without you changing any account number then your problem is with Westpac.  Being an Australian owned bank they are not wonderful on service - in fact I think they were one of the worst performing banks in the recent survey.

However they do have an on-line complaint form and I suggest you use that and complain loud and long about how money was going into your account quite satisfactorily for x months and then all of a sudden without contacting you they decided to send it back to Payoneer.  Threaten to go to the NZ Banking Ombudsman unless the matter is resolved quickly - they should give you another account number which would be the easiest way around it.  Ask for compensation too for your time and the time you have had to spend chasing up their error and trying to get it resolved.  And if they don't resolve the matter - state you are giving them 48 hours in which to do it - then do lodge a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman - it costs nothing to do it and you can do it online.  You can always cancel it later if Westpac get the matter sorted.

Using Payoneer there are no charges or fees but what Airbnb suggested to us was for Airbnb to pay us directly from the States ie Airbnb pay us and not use either Paypal or Payoneer.  When I investigated it that method would cost quite a heavy fee every payment.    Paypal is also very expensive to get money from another country to NZ.

We only resolved our complaint becausae I kept at it - multiple emails per day and eventually Airbnb must have contacted Payoneer because as soon as the money showed in our account both stopped answering my emails.  We didn't advise Airbnb we had been paid so obviously Airbnb chased up Payoneer.  Airbnb is one of the biggest customers of Payoneer - if you look at Payoneer's website it boasts as such.

Get back to me and let me know how you get on and probably best to ignore advice from well meaning people in the States - the rules and fees are very different there.

[Ria16]

@Sue340 You are hard case! I like Westpac because I get a better mortgage rate with the DHB! and I’m partial to the Westpac chopper.

It wasn’t Westpacs fault it was Payoneer or maybe mine for tweaking the suffix code and dropping a zero But thanks for the advice. At least when I do get paid I can have a good spend up.