Google Adsense India Started Rolling Out Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) Beta

The most convenient way of getting paid for Google Adsense earnings is the wire transfer payment option. Most of the online publishers using Google’s advertisement program (Adsense) opt for this payment method. In India, Google is having only one payment method which is standard check payment. In this case, it takes 10 – 30 days to reach the check through national courier services and in some cases, the check may replace or faces delay in delivery. But as Standard Check is the only option, Indian publishers can’t do much about the same. Finally Google India has started rolling out the EFT beta program to let the publishers get paid through wire transfer. Here is how you can enroll for the beta program.

Google India EFT Story

Google is already paying Android developers (Google Play) using Wire Transfer since 2012. That’s why it should not be very difficult for them to allow the same payment method for Adsense users. After so many requests and concerns, finally a Google employee’s reply in this thread showed a ray of hope. Here is what he replied,

We actually just sent our first test payment for this process yesterday in order to verify our banking integrations.   We have a few other prerequisites to implement in our payments system which will take some additional time before it’s ready, but be assured that we’re indeed actively working on it.

After few days, he again replied as below,

@Mishrakolkata: I’m certainly hoping that we’ll be able to start making this option available before the end of the year.  We’re very eager to get electronic payments available in India, and we’re working to make this available as quickly as possible.

After waiting for a month and so, users again started asking about the status of the development. After December, January came and went but there was no update on this thread. Finally the same employee replied stating that there is some delay because of the EFT payment fee charges by different banks and saying that they are working on this project.

Finally, he replied on Feb 14 asking to enrol forum members to EFT beta program. Here is his reply,

Hi everyone,

I wanted to provide you an update on the status of our wire transfer payment efforts.  We’re hoping to begin making this available soon, but we want to make sure that there are no surprises with regards to fees or other issues that may impact a smooth delivery of your payment.

For publishers located in India, one of the major changes that we’re hoping to accomplish with this upgrade is replacing check payments with wire transfer electronic payments.  We believe that this change will result in a much quicker and more-reliable delivery of your payment when compared to the current check payment offering.  We’re also hoping to minimize or eliminate costs that this might involve.  We have been testing this on a limited scale in recent months, and we want to now expand this beta program to include additional publishers in India to verify that it’s the right solution.

As you are all active participants in this discussion thread, I’d like to extend a limited invitation to be included in this beta for the upcoming February payment.  To be eligible, your account will need to meet the following criteria:

• AdSense account with payment address located in India
• Minimum $100 outstanding balance shown on the Payments page of your account
• No current payment holds on the account (self-hold is OK)
• Signed in to this AdSense forum using the same Google Account that you use to sign in to Adsense
• A bank account located in India with an Indian SWIFT code (8- or 11-characters, example: ABCDIN99 or ABCDIN99XYZ) and Indian Financial System Code (IFSC)
• INR bank accounts should be OK, but you may want to check with your bank regarding the process to receive a US Dollar international wire transfer payment and how the exchange rate will be determined on your payment.

If your situation meets the above criteria, then I would be happy to include your account in this beta program.  As much as we’d like to accept any interested publishers, I need to limit this to the first 15 respondents.  (Please check the number of responses to this thread before posting so that everyone’s inbox doesn’t get overwhelmed!)

 

Please indicate your interest within the next 24 hours, prior to Saturday, 15 February, 06:00 (AM) IST.  If your account meets the above criteria, then we’ll upgrade it to the new payments system shortly thereafter and you’ll receive an email when this is complete.

A few additional important points:

• Post ONLY your interest to be included, e.g. “Please include my account in the wire transfer beta.”  (We can look up your AdSense account if you signed in to the forum with the same Google Account, so your post is the only info we need.)  It is NOT necessary for you to post your publisher code, email address.
• Please DO NOT post any sensitive personal information, especially your bank account info.

Thanks for your interest and continued patience while we work to improve our payments processes.

After getting few replies on support forum, the same employee replied that he had added most of the accounts in beta program and people can setup the Wire Transfer options on Adsense Payment Settings Page.

How to Enroll in Adsense EFT beta

I think the beta program is still open and probably for the March payment. You need to reply in this thread asking to enroll your Adsense account into EFT beta program. DO NOT share any sensitive information in this thread e.g. bank account number and other details. Using your forum login ID, the Google employee can verify your Adsense account and enrol or enable EFT beta on your Adsense account.

How to Setup EFT Wire Transfer – Adsense India

Once the EFT beta is available for your Google Adsense account, go to the Payment Settings page on Adsense dashboard. Select “Wire Transfer” option. Enter the following details over there to include or attach your bank account.

• Bank Account Number
• SWIFT Code (ask your bank)
• IFSC Code (find it on your checkbook or ask your bank’s local branch)

In beta program, there is no test deposit so you need to wait till the payment cycle date to receive the payment.

EFT Payment Cycle

The payment cycle and threshold is same in EFT as standard check i.e. $100. EFT payment for February for those who enrolled by Feb 15 is expected to reach on Feb 24, 2014.

What’s Next

If everything goes fine with the beta program and EFT payment for limited users, I think Adsense EFT option should be ready for everyone by April 2014 payment cycle. I know the pain of standard check option as I am using Google Adsense program for more than 5 years. With EFT, Google Adsense India users will rejoice as there will be no delay or loss of Adsense payments. Crossing my finger to get the beta approval for my account.

Update 1 – One of the Adsense forum user and beta program active member ‘Ankit Tripathi’ replied with the details about receiving the very first EFT payment under beta program. His bank account is with SBI (State Bank of India) and he received the payment within 24 hours after release from Google. For the standard check payments, Google released the payment at the exchange rate of 1 USD = 61.61 INR, whereas his bank SBI gave exchange rate of 1 USD = 61.55 INR. I don’t think this much difference should be an issue with Adsense users in India. He also replied that the bank charged Rs. 56 as Forex service charge and commission out of the total Adsense payment in wire. Here is what he replied in the thread,

Well, I recently got the payment in my bank account through the wire transfer. I am having a bank account with the State Bank of India.

1. The payment was issued on 25th and i got it today on 26th in my Bank account. That is pretty fast. I love this way of payment transfer. It took less than 24 hrs, great.
2. Well, I am highly satisfied with the exchange rate my bank provided. The exchange rate was 1 USD = INR 61.55
3. About the bank charges. My bank charged INR 25 as Forex Commission and Rs. 31 as Forex Service. So, in total they deducted INR 56 from my Account. No problems here at all.
4. Well, personally I am highly satisfied with this mode of transfer. I would like to continue this till we get Local EFT activated.
5. Well, the transfer happened automatically. I didn’t contact my bank for any thing. They didn’t ask me any questions. The transfer was hassle free.

Thanks to Adsense Pro for introducing this fantastic payment method. I would like to see how it goes for other publishers.

Keep checking this page or the forum thread to know more about the Adsense India EFT updates.