, 6 min read
How Razorpay's MoneySaver Export Account works, with dos and don'ts
How Razorpay's MoneySaver Export Account takes bank transfers from clients abroad and pays you in rupees: the steps, the fees, and the dos and don'ts I learned using it.
If you're in India and you bill clients abroad, getting paid is often the slowest, costliest part of the job. Wire transfers lose money to bank fees and exchange rates, and international card payments cost more and often fail fraud checks.
I get paid through Razorpay's MoneySaver Export Account. It gives you local bank accounts in your clients' currencies, so they pay you like they'd pay anyone at home, and Razorpay pays you out in rupees. I use it every month, and I built an open-source tool that does the invoicing for it.
This is how it works, what it costs, and what I'd tell anyone starting out.
What it is
Razorpay opens virtual bank accounts for you in other countries. A client in the US sees a US account number, a client in the UK sees a UK one, and so on. They send a normal local transfer, and the money reaches you in India.
- USD comes in by ACH, GBP by Faster Payments and EUR by SEPA. Razorpay's docs list more, like CAD and AUD, though some show as coming soon in the dashboard.
- A SWIFT account takes many other currencies.
- You're paid in rupees, into your Indian current account, after Razorpay's fee. If you have an EEFC account, Razorpay can settle foreign currency there instead.
- It's not a wallet. You can't hold money in the foreign accounts. It all gets paid out.
For the client, it's no different from paying a local supplier. That alone makes it easier to get paid on time.
How a payment moves
From your client's bank to yours
Share your account details
Copy them from the dashboard, or email them to the client. Put them on every invoice, with the invoice number as the payment reference.
The client sends a local transferUsually a few hours
It shows up in your Razorpay dashboard once it lands.
The payment waits for youNot Initiated
It sits under Transactions, Pending Actions, with a + Add Details button. Nothing moves until you act.
You add the invoice and buyer addressWithin 60 minutes
Upload the invoice (and an airway bill if you ship goods), fill in the buyer's name and address, and submit. Razorpay captures the payment.
Money reaches your bank in rupeesNext day
Settlement is T+1, counted from capture or from when you submit the invoice, whichever is later.
You get proof of the remittanceWithin 24 hours
Razorpay emails a Foreign Inward Remittance Statement (FIRS) after settlement, and you can download it from the dashboard. Keep it with your records.
The step people miss is the fourth one. Razorpay needs an invoice and the buyer's address for every export payment, because the RBI and its banking partners require them. Until you upload them, the money just waits. Payouts from Upwork, Freelancer and Amazon are the exception: those don't need an invoice.
What it costs
On the Standard plan, Razorpay's pricing page lists:
- A 1% fee on each bank transfer, plus GST.
- No markup on the exchange rate. It converts at the live rate.
- No setup or yearly fee.
- A flat ₹1,000 fee on transfers under ₹1 lakh. This works like a minimum fee, and it's the number to plan around.
With 18% GST on top of the fee, here's what you really pay as a share of each transfer:
Fee with GST, as a share of the transfer
Razorpay Standard plan pricing, as listed in October 2026.
| Transfer, in rupees | Fee with GST |
|---|---|
| ₹25k | 4.72% |
| ₹50k | 2.36% |
| ₹75k | 1.57% |
| ₹1L | 1.18% |
| ₹2L | 1.18% |
| ₹5L | 1.18% |
So the account is cheapest for invoices of ₹1 lakh or more. If you bill a client small amounts often, sending one invoice a month instead of four saves real money. Pricing changes, so check Razorpay's pricing page before you rely on these numbers.
Before you start
To turn it on, you need:
- A Razorpay account with KYC done and your business PAN.
- International payments switched on.
- An export purpose code. It tells the RBI what you're being paid for, such as P0802 for software consultancy. Razorpay needs it to issue your FIRS, so pick the one that matches your work.
- An answer about your IEC. Enter your Import Export Code, mark it as not needed, or apply for one.
- A short video KYC, about 3 to 4 minutes, with your Aadhaar and PAN.
Existing users turn it on from Account & Settings, under International payments. Some business types aren't allowed, such as betting, pawn shops, bars, tobacco shops and outbound telemarketing.
New to Razorpay? You can sign up with my referral link.
Dos and don'ts
Do
- Put the invoice number on every invoice as the payment reference, and ask clients to use it.
- Upload the invoice and buyer address the day a transfer lands. That's what starts the settlement.
- Put the client's full address on the invoice, so it's ready when Razorpay asks.
- Bill ₹1 lakh or more at a time when you can, to stay out of the flat ₹1,000 fee.
- Pick the purpose code that matches your work before your first payment.
- Add your LUT wording to export invoices if you export services without paying IGST.
- Keep every FIRS. It's your proof that the money came from abroad.
Don't
- Don't expect money to settle on its own. Without an invoice, it waits.
- Don't treat it as a foreign-currency wallet. You can't hold money in the foreign accounts.
- Don't count on Razorpay for refunds. Bank transfers can't be refunded or disputed through it, so sort out mistakes with the client.
- Don't send account details without a reference to use. A transfer with no reference is hard to match.
- Don't pick a purpose code that doesn't fit. A wrong code can cause reporting errors and trouble under foreign exchange (FEMA) rules.
- Don't send lots of small invoices to the same client. Each transfer under ₹1 lakh costs at least ₹1,000 plus GST.
The part I automated
Most of this is a monthly routine: make the invoices, put the right bank details on each one, email them, and when the money lands, find the right PDF and upload it. I did it by hand for a while, then wrote a small tool that does it for me.
It sends the invoices on the 1st, checks for transfers every day, tells me which invoice each one pays, and emails me the PDF to upload. The upload itself stays manual, because Razorpay has no API for it. The case study has the details, and the code is free on GitHub.
Sources
- International bank transfers, Razorpay docs
- Transactions and invoices, Razorpay docs
- Purpose codes, Razorpay docs
- Bank transfer pricing, Razorpay
The sign-up link above is my Razorpay referral link. This post isn't sponsored, and it isn't tax advice. For GST, LUT and export paperwork, ask your accountant.