Best Ways to Collect Recurring Revenue from International Customers

For most Indian service businesses, international recurring payments mean a recurring invoice the client pays by bank transfer each month, rather than a card charged automatically.

The main ways are 1. a receiving account paid by bank transfer, 2. PayPal, 3. a card subscription and 4. a merchant of record, while direct debit through GoCardless is not open to Indian businesses.

The phrase covers two different jobs. One is an Indian cardholder whose foreign subscription keeps failing because of bank card rules.

The other is yours if you run an Indian IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) firm or work as a freelancer, paid each month by international customers for a support retainer, a managed service or a design contract.

On the receiving side, your choice comes down to who starts each payment and what it costs over twelve months, with the paperwork for each receipt close behind.

Get those right and a monthly retainer runs with very little chasing, whether your client pays in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD or another currency.

When you are the one being paid, a recurring payment is any amount the same client sends on a fixed cycle, usually monthly. What changes between methods is who starts each payment.

On a bank transfer your client starts it, or sets a standing order once. A card or a direct debit lets the seller take the money instead.

• Via recurring invoice: You send the same invoice each month and your client pays it by bank transfer, either by hand or through a standing order set up once at their own bank.
• Via card subscription: The client saves a card with a billing tool, which charges it on each renewal date, so nobody has to act, but a card fee comes off every cycle.
• Via direct debit: The client signs a mandate that lets the seller pull money from their bank account, which is common billing in the UK, the EU and the US but rarely open to an Indian business.

Most retainers between businesses run on the first method, because clients abroad prefer to approve each payment and their finance teams already pay suppliers by bank transfer.

If you want the wider set of options first, the guide to methods of payment in international trade covers wires, letters of credit and open account terms.

For international recurring payments, the method decides who starts each payment, what each cycle costs and whether an Indian business can sign up at all.

Five routes are realistic for international customers paying an Indian firm or freelancer, and only one of them is built for service retainers, not software sales.

• Via a receiving account: We give you local account details in USD, EUR, GBP and CAD, so a client can pay by US bank transfer (ACH, RTP or Fedwire), SEPA in Europe, Faster Payments in the UK or EFT in Canada. AUD, SGD, AED and other currencies arrive by SWIFT. Our receiving accounts convert to INR at the mid-market rate, settle the next business day and come with a free FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) for each withdrawal. Your client still starts each payment, because we never pull money from their account. Skydo, Payoneer and Wise also offer receiving accounts in several currencies.
• Via PayPal: Your client pays from a PayPal balance or card, which is easy for small one-off amounts but costly on a monthly retainer, because the percentage fee and the conversion spread repeat every month.
• Via card subscription: A billing tool charges the card automatically, which removes chasing but adds a card fee to every cycle.
• Via a merchant of record: The platform sells your product in its own name and handles sales tax, which suits software, not services. The explainer on what is merchant of record covers the model.

Card subscriptions on Stripe Billing and Razorpay and where they stop

Stripe Billing can charge an international customer on a schedule and send invoices, with payouts in INR. In India, Stripe accepts new accounts on an invite-only basis, and only registered businesses, not individuals.

On a USD invoice you pay 4.3% on international cards, 2% more when currency is converted and 0.7% of Billing volume, plus INR 1,000 for each dispute.

Razorpay offers international card payments to eligible Indian-registered businesses, at up to 3% plus GST per successful payment. Both tools suit a software product with many small subscribers better than one ITES client on a monthly retainer.

Why GoCardless direct debit is closed to Indian businesses

GoCardless collects direct debits in GBP, EUR, USD, CAD and other currencies, but it is not available to businesses based in India.

Stripe lists only cards and wallets as payment methods for Indian accounts, so SEPA and ACH debit through Stripe are not among the listed options.

Payoneer is the one exception: it offers a US-only ACH bank debit at 1% when you send a payment request, which helps with a US client but not with clients in the UK or Europe.

For everyone else, a standing order at the client bank is the closest thing to automatic payment.

A fee that looks small on one invoice repeats twelve times a year, and the FX spread on conversion repeats with it.

The figures below are illustrative arithmetic from published fees on 23 October 2026, for one USD invoice a month over twelve months, showing how international recurring payments add up by route.

Assumptions behind these figures:

• Our plans: Starter charges USD 12 flat up to USD 2,000 and 0.6% above it. Growth charges USD 20 flat up to USD 5,000 and 0.4% above it. The fee is a percentage of the amount, and the money converts at the mid-market rate. Invoices above USD 10,000 sit on custom Scale pricing.
• Skydo and Payoneer: Skydo charges USD 19 up to USD 2,000 and USD 29 up to USD 10,000. The Payoneer bank row uses a 1% floor; withdrawing a different-currency balance to India can cost from 1% to 4%.
• Stripe and PayPal: Stripe adds 4.3%, 2% and 0.7% on a USD invoice. PayPal takes 4.40% plus USD 0.30 first, then applies its conversion spread, which is about 3-4%, so 3% is used here and your cost may be higher.
• Left out: GST on fees, dispute charges and fees taken by banks in the middle of a SWIFT transfer in AUD, SGD or AED are not included, so your own total may be higher.

You can check every tier on our published pricing plans before you pick a route for a retainer.

A recurring invoice works best when nothing about it changes from month to month except the date and number. Agree the cycle with the client once, then make it easy for their finance team to pay without asking questions.

These steps apply whichever receiving route you choose.

1. Fix the date: Invoice on the same day each month, and agree a payment term such as 15 days, so the client can plan the transfer.
2. Fix the currency: Bill in the currency your client will send, so the amount you receive matches the invoice and no conversion happens on their side.
3. Ask for a standing order: In the UK a standing order pays a fixed amount on set dates over Faster Payments, in Europe a SEPA credit transfer can recur, and some US banks let a business schedule a recurring ACH payment through bill pay.
4. Send reminders early: A short payment reminder a few days before the due date helps avoid late payments.

The client owns a standing order and can change or cancel it, so it helps them but does not guarantee payment to you.

Retrying failed card charges is a separate problem that billing tools solve with dunning management, and it does not arise when the client pushes a bank transfer.

Where our receiving account fits

: Your client points the standing order at your local account details, so they can pay in USD, EUR, GBP or CAD, and each payment lands in your dashboard.

You can send invoices from our free invoicing tool, track which invoices are still unpaid and send reminders to the client without leaving the dashboard.

What to put on a retainer invoice and agree before the first one

If you are GST-registered, a retainer invoice for an overseas client is still a GST tax invoice, so it carries the export fields from CGST Rule 46 as well as the commercial terms that keep the arrangement collectible.

Settle these before the first invoice goes out:

• Export endorsement: Write "SUPPLY MEANT FOR EXPORT UNDER BOND OR LETTER OF UNDERTAKING WITHOUT PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX" when you work under a LUT.
• Recipient details: Name and address of the client and the country of destination, in place of a GSTIN.
• Serial number and date: A consecutive number of up to 16 characters, unique in the financial year, and the date of issue.
• Service code and description: The SAC (Services Accounting Code) and a plain description of the month of work.
• Currency and amount: The value in the currency the client will pay, since receipt in foreign currency is a condition for zero-rating.
• Terms in the contract: Who pays bank charges, a late-payment clause, how either side pauses or ends the retainer, and when the price is reviewed.

Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) export rules in force from 1 October 2026, each month of a recurring invoice counts as its own export.

Each one needs a FIRA, the bank proof that foreign currency reached you, and an EDF (Export Declaration Form), the services declaration that took over from the SOFTEX form.

Your bank also uses a purpose code, an RBI code for your service, and the realisation period is the time allowed to receive the money.

• FIRA: With our receiving accounts, a free FIRA issued by an RBI-authorised bank comes with each withdrawal.
• SOFTEX: The older SOFTEX process that the EDF replaced, with its forms and deadlines, is explained in the guide to the SOFTEX form.
• Holding foreign currency: If you want to keep part of each payment in dollars for overseas costs, an EEFC account lets an exporter hold foreign currency earnings.

Zero-rated export of services and the LUT for monthly invoices

Export of services is a zero-rated supply under the IGST Act, as long as the payment arrives in foreign currency such as USD or EUR, or in INR where RBI permits it.

That condition is why the receiving route matters for every month of a retainer, not only the first. Read the full conditions in the guide to export of services under GST.

The right route for recurring revenue depends on how many international customers you bill, how large each invoice is and whether you sell a service or a product.

For ITES firms and freelancers alike, the receiving route is the same.

Xflow Payments India Private Limited holds final Payment Aggregator Cross Border (PA-CB) authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is final authorisation, not just in-principle approval, as of February 2026.

• ITES firms on several retainers: A firm billing many clients each month needs low fees on large invoices, one EDF a month and proof of realisation for every receipt, and local account details in USD, EUR, GBP and CAD keep each client paying as a domestic transfer.
• Freelancers with one to three clients: On invoices up to USD 2,000, our Starter plan charges USD 12 flat, each withdrawal comes with a free FIRA, INR lands the next business day, and a standing order the client sets once reduces the monthly chase. The guide on ways for freelancers to receive international payments compares the wider set of options.
• Subscription sellers with many small buyers: If you sell software, automatic card billing or a merchant of record is worth the higher fee.

If you are new to being paid from overseas, start with how to receive money from abroad, then set up the monthly cycle above.