Creators and affiliates
How do you pay a creator in a country with no bank account?
Nine payout rails including African mobile money, what each actually costs, and the tax question nobody answers: what happens when somebody's country issues no individual tax reference.
How MarketWar handles it
Mobile-money rails carry a £2 minimum against the £5–£20 of the bank rails, because small frequent withdrawals are normal where those rails are used and a high floor excludes exactly the people they exist for. Our administration fee is 3% of the provider's processing fee — not of the withdrawal — so on a £2 PayPal fee it is 6p.
An affiliate programme that can only pay into a UK bank account can only recruit people with UK bank accounts. For a business selling into Africa, or to a diaspora audience, that removes most of the people who would actually sell for you.
The nine rails, and what they are for
Bank transfer and instant-to-card for anybody with an account. PayPal and Wise for cross-border where a bank is slow. And mobile money — M-Pesa, Orange, Airtel, Africell — for the very large number of people who are paid, and pay, by phone.
The mobile rails are not a courtesy addition. In Kinshasa or Nairobi they are the primary rail, and a platform that treats them as an afterthought has decided who it will do business with.
The minimum is the tell
Bank rails here carry a £5–£20 minimum withdrawal. Mobile rails carry £2.
That is deliberate. Where mobile money is the normal rail, small frequent withdrawals are the normal behaviour, and a £20 floor copied across from a European bank product silently excludes the people the rail exists for.
The fee, stated the way it should be
Two lines, always shown before confirming:
- The provider's processing fee, passed through at cost. Theirs, not ours.
- Our administration fee: 3% of that processing fee — not of the withdrawal. On a £2 fee that is six pence.
If a different rail would leave the creator with more money, the quote says so without being asked.
The question nobody answers
A creator in a country that issues no individual tax reference. Most platforms have a mandatory tax-ID field, so those people simply cannot be onboarded.
Under the OECD model rules and DAC7 the correct handling is to report that the jurisdiction issues none, rather than to demand a number that does not exist. That is what happens here, and the creator is never asked for something they cannot have.
What actually has to happen before money moves
Three things, in this order, and each one exists for a reason worth knowing.
Identity, once. Before a first withdrawal, not before a first sale — somebody should be able to earn without handing over documents to find out whether the programme works. The reference is encrypted at rest and never shown back on any screen.
The hold. Earnings settle after the refund window closes. Paying at the moment a sale is recorded is how affiliate programmes get drained by people who buy through their own link and refund a fortnight later.
The quote. Every fee shown before the creator confirms, with the total they will actually receive. Not an estimate, not a range.
Why the fee is charged on the fee
Most platforms take a percentage of the withdrawal, which means a creator withdrawing £500 pays ten times what one withdrawing £50 pays for identical work. The work is not ten times harder.
Charging 3% of the provider's processing fee ties what we take to what the transaction actually cost to run. On a £2 fee that is six pence whether the withdrawal is £20 or £2,000.
What this does not do
The rails are priced and quoted in full, and money only moves once the provider keys are connected on your deployment. Until then every fee is shown honestly and no payout is claimed to have happened.
Common questions
How do I pay an affiliate who has no bank account?
Mobile money, which is how most of East and Central Africa is paid — M-Pesa, Orange Money, Airtel Money and Africell. These need a phone number and nothing else, and settle in minutes.
Who pays the transfer fee?
In this platform the provider's processing fee is passed through at cost and the administration fee is 3% of that fee rather than of the amount. Every line is itemised before the creator confirms, and if another rail would leave them with more, the quote says so unprompted.
Is a payout taxed at source?
Not here. Creators are not employees, so they are paid gross with no income tax, National Insurance or PAYE withheld. Annual earnings are reported to the tax authority and the creator gets a copy of the same figure.
Related
What should you pay a creator who has no followers?
Most programmes turn away anyone under 10,000 followers and lose the person who was about to be big. The two-door model: 0.5% with no gate at all, 0.75% and 1% for a verified audience.
Do you have to withhold tax when you pay an affiliate?
Affiliates are not employees, so they are paid gross — but the platform still has reporting duties. What gets reported, what the creator sees, and why identity is checked before the first payout rather than the tenth.
How much can you afford to pay an affiliate?
The arithmetic that decides an affiliate rate: contribution, the margin you protect, and the ceiling above which a sale costs you money. With the numbers worked through on a £100 product.