Guides for companies that earn, hold and pay in more than one currency: what each payment rail costs, how verification works, how to pay people abroad, and where stablecoins fit.
Four payment networks move most of the business money between the US, Europe and the UK. They differ by an order of magnitude on cost, and the one your client uses is usually decided by the account details you send them.
StablecoinsStablecoins settle in minutes, on weekends, across borders. Since July 2025 the US has a federal law for them. Here is where they fit in a company's payments, and where they don't.
Cards and spendA declined ad payment pauses delivery, and a paused campaign can lose the learning it spent a week's budget building. Most declines are preventable with how the cards are set up.
AccountsWise is cheap for one-off conversions. Companies outgrow it when they need stablecoins, controlled card spend, approvals or African corridors. Here is how the main alternatives compare, using each provider's published prices.
OperationsPaying a team spread across ten countries is mostly a fees problem and a paperwork problem. Both are easier to solve once than every month.
PaymentsPayoneer was built for marketplace payouts. If your clients pay you directly, its percentage fees on receiving and withdrawing can cost more than the work of switching. Here is the arithmetic.
AccountsUS clients pay most easily, and most cheaply, by ACH to a US account. Here is how a company based elsewhere gets one, which paperwork the client will ask for, and what to put on the invoice.
AccountsMercury is built for US companies, and its rules say so. If your company is registered in London, Dubai, Singapore or Lagos, you can still get US account details in its own name, without a Delaware filing.
AccountsA multi-currency account lets a company receive, hold and pay in several currencies from one place. They are not all built the same way, and the differences decide what you pay on every payment.
ComplianceEvery business account starts with verification. Knowing what the reviewer needs, and why, is the difference between a decision in days and a month of follow-up emails.
StablecoinsBoth are dollar stablecoins, and both settle in seconds. They differ in who issues them, how reserves are reported and where regulators accept them. For most companies the answer is to hold one and accept both.
PaymentsThe fee printed on a transfer is usually the smaller part of its cost. The bigger part is inside the exchange rate. Here is how to find it, and how to compare providers on one number.
Every article is researched against primary sources: the regulation, the scheme rulebook or the provider’s own documentation. Each one lists them at the end.
Subscribe via RSSRashidatou writes Rivet's guides to how money moves between countries: the payment rails, what each one costs, and the account details a company needs to get paid in another currency. Every figure in Rashidatou's articles is traced to the scheme rulebook, the regulator or the provider's published price list, and those sources are listed at the end.
William covers what happens once a company starts moving money: getting the business verified, paying contractors and suppliers abroad, and keeping card spend under control. William writes for the founder or finance lead who has to make it work this week, and links every rule cited to the text it comes from.
Named accounts in USD, EUR and GBP, cards with a limit on each, and payouts on local rails. Starter is free.
