Paying suppliers abroad — card, or just send the USDT?

Had a supplier in Shenzhen for about three years - never an issue, wire once a month, done. Bank started asking questions about the pattern in March and I've been paying him off a card since, which he tolerates but doesn't love because his processor takes a cut he didn't used to pay.

There are four of them now. Two in China, one in Turkey, one in Vietnam. Between $800 and $6,000 a month each depending on the order. Every one of them will take USDT if I ask, and two have asked.

So the actual question: is anyone still paying suppliers on a card deliberately, or has everyone moved to just sending the stablecoin? I keep going back and forth. The card gives me a record and a dispute route. The transfer is cheaper and he prefers it.

What are you doing?

you answered it in your own post. two of them asked.

you're paying a card network 2-3% plus his processor's cut plus your top-up fee to get money to someone who is standing there with a wallet address asking you to skip all three. that's not a trade-off, that's a habit.

the dispute route you think you're buying doesn't exist for this. try raising a chargeback against a shenzhen supplier for a partial shipment and tell me how the card network helps.

The chargeback point is fair and I hadn't tested it. I assumed a route existed because one always has done with domestic stuff.

The record is worth more than the dispute route, and I would not give it up as casually as the reply above suggests.

A card statement gives you a dated line with a merchant name attached, which is a document a third party will accept. A stablecoin transfer gives you a hash. Both are records; only one of them is a record in the sense that matters if anyone ever asks you what the £48,000 that left your business last year was for.

This is not a tax-avoidance point, it is a bookkeeping one. If your supplier will issue a proper invoice against the transfer then the hash is fine and I withdraw the objection entirely. If he will not — and in my experience the ones who prefer stablecoin frequently will not — then you are trading a small fee for a gap in your records that costs considerably more to fill later.

nobody here has records. that's the point of here

The accountant is right and everybody hates it.

He has a bank that asked him questions in March. That is a person with records and a business, whatever the rest of this board is doing.

Both, and split by supplier rather than by principle.

The two who asked for USDT get USDT — you're not going to persuade them back and there's no reason to. The other two stay on card until they ask.

For the card side at $6,000 a month per supplier you're above the per-transaction ceiling on most of the no-KYC options, so you'd be looking at something like RedotPay with full verification, which is a different decision entirely. Worth checking whether your $6,000 months are one order or several before you go down that route.

APAC suppliers in my experience quote a better price for stablecoin than they'll admit to. Ask for the number both ways before deciding.

Asked the Vietnam one both ways this morning - 4% cheaper for USDT. Which he has never mentioned in two years.

of course he hasn't. he's been eating the processor fee and pricing it in and you've been paying it without knowing

Turkey one will definitely prefer USDT, is basically second currency there now. Anyway ask him, he will say yes.

Late update. Three of four are on USDT now and the Turkey one was indeed a yes within about ninety seconds of asking. Saving is somewhere around £340 a month against what I was paying, which is more than I expected and entirely because of the price difference rather than the fees.

The accountant was right about the paperwork though. Two of them issue a proper invoice, one issues something that is technically a screenshot, and I've had to start keeping a spreadsheet next to the hashes like it's 2013. Worth it, but it's a real cost and nobody in this thread priced it except him.

Card stays for the fourth one and for anything under about $500 where the hassle isn't worth it.

4% cheaper just for asking. Asking mine tomorrow!