The banking system in Pakistan has always been messed up, especially for freelancers. There is no proper system in place for freelancers receiving their payments as remittance from aboard. Recently, I faced trouble with receiving my Google AdSense payment to my Meezan Bank Limited account.
My Google AdSense payment was released on 21 October 2021 and it should have been reflected in my Meezan Bank Limited account by 27th October 2021, which accounts for the five (5) working days required by the bank to process the transaction. However, I did not receive any amount in my bank account by 28th October 2021, which was the 6th working day.
I called Meezan Bank Limited and I was told you provide a receipt regarding the transaction so I sent them the payment receipt I received from Google AdSense. However, I was told by the person that they don’t know about the issue and the matter will be investigated, which will take seven (7) working days.
Most people will think I should wait those seven days without making a fuss about the matter but it is more than just waiting the seven days for their investigation to be complete. It is about people relying on these remittances to pay for necessities, especially in the case of freelancers, who have no proper banking system in place.
A seven (7) working days complaint resolution means that it will take at least 9 to 11 days for the complaint to be resolved demanding on when it was initiated, which means a person relying on this payment to pay his bills and put food on the table is going to suffer for at least half a month before he can have access to his hard earned money.
In my case, if the payment is reversed by the bank due to technical or any other reasons then it will be reverted back to my Google AdSense account and issued the next month during the next payment cycle. In such a case, who will be responsible to provide assistance that person? Meezan Bank?. Cases like this make you think how you can trust the banking system in Pakistan.
Has anyone else faced this issue with AdSense payments? Let us know in the comments below. I will be responding in the comments personally and updates will be provided in the post.
UPDATE (1 November 2021): I tried calling Meezan Bank for an update related to my Global Remittance Complaint, however, their helpline wasn’t working (around 5:00PM) and when I finally got connected I was told by the person that their system isn’t working and he can’t help me right now.
UPDATE 2: The matter was resolved after a couple of days but I was highly disappointed in the slow service and approval of remittance in an account which was regularly receiving them from Google.
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All banks now offer Freelancer digital account with a simple process. Thanks to IK led government.
only those who work on six specific sites not to all, still Meezan does not approve Google Adsense as a Proof of Income.
Receiving payments from abroad is still a challenge. I even went for opening a foreign currency account once at Meezan. They refused to open up the foreign currency account as i was not associated with a local organization. Like how am i supposed to open a US dollar account as a freelancer without being affiliated with any local company?
Basically Pakistani Banking system is outdated and mentally they are all retards so do not expect any miracles from them, use Payoneer as USD account and for local currency use Pakistani account, whatever you provide them they will have an issue with it.
Same issue, today received payment after 32 days.
They resolved by issue after a few days of my complaint.
Same issue. Cant get the payment from overseas customers. Now even Payoneer has stopped allowing Pakistani businesses to get payments from overseas customers for their services. There is not a single easy method to get payments from international customers. Even UAE has over 20 international payment gateways where as we cannot invite any proper payment gateway .
I am also using meezan bank account to receive AdSense payments. Yea, I do have to wait a little longer to see the payments in my account but I didn’t face any other issue. Usually, after 5-7 workings days, I received the payments.
How much charges does Meezan bank cut on $100 payment from AdSense?
You can check remittance rates for that date on Meezan Bank’s website. However, you may ask the bank for the total amount of USD transferred as sending bank for Google does deduct some charges for wire transfer.