So, I’ve been wrestling with international contractor payments for a while now. It’s always a headache, right? Exchange rates, fees popping up out of nowhere, slow transfers. I finally decided to really dig into a couple of popular options: Airwallex and Veem. I needed to nail down which one was actually better for paying my remote crew.
The Dive-In: Setting up Accounts and Initial Tests
First thing I did was sign up for both. Airwallex was pretty smooth. Took maybe 15 minutes to get the basic business account set up and verified. They wanted all the usual docs—business registration, ID proof. Veem was similar, maybe a tad slower on the verification side, felt a bit more old-school with their interface initially. But eventually, I got both green-lighted.
My first test was a small payment to a developer in India and a designer in Poland. I wanted to check speed and, crucially, the all-in cost.
Airwallex Trial Run:
- I loaded up some USD and initiated the transfers.
- Airwallex’s FX rates looked really competitive right off the bat. They show you the spread clearly, which I appreciated.
- The transfer to India (INR) hit the bank account in less than a day. The Poland transfer (EUR) was also quick, about 24 hours.
- The fee structure was pretty clear: very low or zero transfer fees, they make their money on the spread.
Veem Trial Run:
- Veem offered a few payment speed options. I went with the standard one, which was supposed to be free for standard transfers.
- Their FX rates were a bit harder to track in real-time before hitting send. They seemed competitive but felt less transparent than Airwallex during the initiation phase.
- Speed was the main issue here. The India payment took three days, and the Poland one stretched to four. Not ideal when contractors are waiting.
- The “free” transfers were nice, but I suspected they were baking more into the exchange rate than Airwallex was.
Scaling Up and Handling Multiple Currencies
Once I saw the initial results, I started using both for larger, routine payments across five different countries: Philippines, Brazil, UK, Germany, and Canada. This is where I really saw the differences in platform robustness.
Airwallex really shines when you’re dealing with multiple currencies. I opened several currency wallets—CAD, GBP, EUR—and held funds there. This was a game-changer. I could convert a big chunk of USD when the rate looked good and then just pay people from the localized wallets without worrying about daily FX fluctuations or conversion fees on every single outgoing payment.
Veem, on the other hand, felt more like a direct payment processor for each transaction. I wasn’t really holding multi-currency balances easily like I could with Airwallex. It was always USD in, local currency out, with the conversion happening right then and there. It was functional, but less strategic for managing cash flow.
The Nitty-Gritty: Integrations and Support
I rely heavily on QuickBooks for accounting, so integration was key. Veem integrates directly with QuickBooks, which was seamless for reconciliation. Every payment automatically flowed into the right categories. Super helpful.
Airwallex also has QuickBooks integration, but I found I had to tweak it a bit more initially to get the bank feeds mapping correctly because of the multiple currency wallets I was using. Once set up, it was fine, but Veem’s native integration felt simpler for standard contractor payments.
Support-wise, I hit a snag with a failed payment on Veem to a new contractor in Brazil. It took almost two full days to get a clear answer via email support. Airwallex, when I had a simple question about bulk payment uploading, got me a chat response within an hour and it was actually a person, not a bot. That quick response time is huge when payroll deadlines are looming.
The Verdict After a Few Months
After running my contractor payments through both services for about three months, I consolidated everything onto Airwallex, especially for high-volume, quick payments across many different currencies.
Why Airwallex won:
- Superior speed and reliability. Almost all payments were processed within 24 hours.
- Better, more transparent FX rates and the ability to hold multiple currencies strategically.
- Better customer support when things went wrong (or when I was just asking basic questions).
Veem isn’t bad, especially if you prioritize straightforward QuickBooks integration and are fine with standard speeds and perhaps slightly less favorable—though still acceptable—exchange rates. If my needs were super simple—just a couple of contractors in neighboring countries and speed wasn’t mission-critical—Veem would be fine and the “free” transfers appealing.
But for me, managing a global team where speed, holding currency, and getting the best rate are crucial, Airwallex just provided a much more robust and modern experience. It streamlined my payroll process way more than I expected it could.