My first received revenue from Google AdSense was actually generated in April, 2006, that was 8 years ago and now I finally cashed it into my bank account. It’s not like I hadn’t get past the minimum threshold of US$100, if there is any on AdSense, just not a good method to receive payment for me.

In late March, I noticed there was a change in AdSense, a notification told me about some changes in payment system. That’s when I knew a new payment method is available to me, which is Wire Transfer. Before that became available, I only had West Union Quick Cash or Check.

Other people might prefer West Union since it’s released without fees, at least “not at this moment.” But not me, because I don’t want to go to their offices. Same reason for Check, and I believe check would cost more fee for checks from oversea banks. I had tried to cash some checks around two decades ago, I vaguely remembered the fee wasn’t cheap.

Anyway, I tried to set up the Wire Transfer, but it turned out the form was flawed for the first bank account I wanted to use, the account number field was too short. I asked on their support forums, still haven’t got any updates.

Last month, I thought about bumping the thread, but I switched to another bank account, which has shorter account number. Today, I finally received the payment.

Although it took me 7 days to receive, but I don’t think it actually takes that long. My country has quite strict regulation for fund transfer in and out of country, well, even inside the country. About 12 hours ago, I received an email from my bank asking about what that money is. The bank has to put it on record, probably reporting to government.

I replied that the payment was from AdSense revenue, an hour later I got a reply, a few hours later, I saw the money in my account. There was a date noting the same day or at least one day after—because of timezones—of when AdSense issued the payment, so I believed because my bank probably wasn’t able to contact me, and they finally tried to use email. That’s why I believe it wouldn’t actually take 7 days if I turned on my phone.

From the information I saw, my bank charged fixed fee of US$10 regardless the amount transfer fund. So, I certainly would make the threshold a bit higher. 10 dollars without needing going any offices, I could accept that.

More than a decade ago, I was trying to buy an electronic device, went to a bank and made my first wire transfer to a foreign bank account. I had to add a bit more money to make sure it would have enough money to be received from the other end. The bank couldn’t tell me how much it would be actually received, no one could be sure how much fee would be charged. Fees plus exchange rates, kind of headaches. I am pretty sure, it was more than 10 dollars.

A couple of years ago or even before, I made a withdraw from my PayPal account, I remembered it was only cost me about one or two dollars for the fee. Unfortunately, just a few months ago, an email saying that PayPal couldn’t make the transfer without me having me to have an account in a specific bank, because the tightened regulation or some kind.

I was hoping EFT would be available, but after the PayPal, I wasn’t sure I would be having that option anytime soon since it would be directly deposited into bank account. It looks like to me, government wouldn’t like that for not having some kind of verification of confirmation by the financial institution.

It really doesn’t matter much to me at this moment, because I know I can receive the payment.