Using Odesk/Elance abroad, paypal and offshore banking?

Greetings Black Hats,

Long time lurker here...I'm an American freelancer with accounts on both sites and I'm in the process of moving abroad. I'd like to offshore my financial accounts(bank accounts,paypal,etc..) but I want to keep my 'U.S location' on Odesk and Elance for obvious reasons. (Many clients are weary about hiring foreigner contractors, especially for English writing jobs..) Neither Odesk or Elance allow non-US bank accounts but what abut paypal? Would elance/odesk care if I have for example a Hong Kong paypal account? Can they even tell where it originates? I could then link this to a HK bank account. It seems like an easy way to flout the rules.

If anyone has some 1st hand experience with this, I'd really appreciate it!


Many Thanks,

Exiled Princeling

PayPal's fees can change depending on the receiver's country so I'm guessing they can find out. You could try maintaining a US VPN (will PayPal catch that?) or ask odesk/elance if they're willing to make an exception for you.

I registered to oDesk while still living in Sweden, currently have my oDesk address set to Thailand and I'm using Philippine-registered Payoneer MasterCard to pay my hires. Also used the same setup before to withdraw funds from oDesk. I also have my Philippine PayPal account associated with my oDesk account, and before used to have my Swedish PayPal account there for withdrawals.

So shouldn't be a problem.

It seems Odesk doesn't care about how you withdrawal.

Have you had any problems with Odesk wanting to verify your identity because you're logging in from different countries?

Exiled Princeling said:

Have you had any problems with Odesk wanting to verify your identity because you're logging in from different countries?

Click to expand...

Never had this happen. Just need to occasionally answer my "secret question" when logging in if from new IP.

Elance allows non us accounts. Though you may need to set your location to where your identity proof verification ties with.

paypal have standard in terms of location.. but there should be no problem.. I am in Canada, working for a US client, I have a Philippine Paypal. and my pay is sent to my Philippine paypal account.. transferred to my Philippine bank, then withdraw money in Canada... Just that it has a high conversion rate..