Accept USD Payments: A Practical Stack for UK SMEs

A lot of UK SMEs treat “accepting US dollars” as a finance admin task. It isn’t. It’s a growth decision.

If you sell to US clients (or you want to), the payment experience is part of your marketing funnel. The moment you ask an American customer to “pay in GBP and let your bank figure it out”, you introduce friction, uncertainty, and abandoned checkouts. And once you start running paid campaigns, email sequences, or webinars aimed at US buyers, that friction shows up as worse conversion rates.

This post sits in our British Small Business Digital Marketing series for a reason: your payment system is a core part of your marketing automation ecosystem. Get USD collections right and you can run global offers, automate onboarding, and reconcile revenue faster—without your team living in spreadsheets.

Start with the two currency decisions that drive fees

You’ll save more money by choosing the right currency setup than by haggling over headline transaction fees. Most “surprise costs” come from how currencies are presented and settled.

Here are the two terms that matter:

• Presentment currency: what the customer sees and pays in (USD for US buyers).
• Settlement currency: what lands in your account (GBP, USD, or both depending on your setup).

If you present in USD but settle in GBP, a conversion happens somewhere. Your job is to control where it happens and what it costs.

A simple rule I use

If you’re marketing to the US, present in USD. It’s familiar, it reduces “mental maths”, and it lowers purchase hesitation.

Then decide settlement based on your reality:

• If you have US suppliers, ad spend, contractors, or SaaS bills, settling (or holding) in USD can cut conversion costs.
• If your costs are mostly UK-based, settling into GBP is fine—just choose a provider with transparent FX.

What to look for in a USD payment system (beyond the fee table)

The best payment system for accepting US dollars is the one that fits your funnel and your ops. Fees matter, but these five checks usually matter more:

1. Checkout and payment options (cards, wallets, ACH, PayPal-style flows)
2. FX transparency (mid-market vs bank rate vs marked-up rate)
3. Multi-currency balances (can you hold USD and convert later?)
4. Integrations with your stack (accounting, CRM, email, subscriptions)
5. Automation hooks (webhooks/Zapier/CRM triggers for post-payment journeys)

Here’s the hidden connection to marketing automation: payments are a high-intent event. When someone pays, you should automatically:

• tag them in your CRM,
• start the right onboarding email sequence,
• issue the invoice/receipt,
• notify delivery/ops,
• update dashboards and revenue attribution.

If your payment tool can’t support that, you’ll feel it when you scale.

Six strong options for accepting USD (and how UK SMEs actually use them)

Below are six widely-used providers featured in the source article, reframed for practical use in a UK SME marketing and automation context. Fees and FX notes reflect the source details and common setups.

1) GoCardless — best for recurring USD payments (and less churn)

Answer first: If you sell subscriptions, retainers, memberships, or staged payments, GoCardless is built for predictable collections.

GoCardless is strong when you want to reduce failed payments and automate collections. It also integrates with 350+ systems (including tools many SMEs already use, like Xero, Salesforce and Sage). A standout detail: GoCardless uses Wise for FX, so you’re not stuck with vague conversion pricing.

• Fees (as stated): 2% + 20p per transaction (conversion included); no monthly fee on Standard
• Ideal for: recurring payments

Where it fits in your marketing automation:

• Trigger a “payment received” event to start onboarding
• Automatically chase failed payments with a dunning sequence
• Segment customers by plan/renewal date for retention campaigns

2) Airwallex — best when you handle lots of multi-currency volume

Answer first: If you’re doing regular international sales and want local-style collections, Airwallex is designed for that workflow.

Airwallex’s Global Account lets you receive foreign currency payments using local clearing systems, then manage funds in a multi-currency wallet.

• Fees (as stated): none
• Conversion rate (as stated): 0.5%
• Ideal for: SMEs with a larger number of multi-currency transactions

Practical marketing angle: if you run US-targeted campaigns and you’re scaling spend, controlling FX becomes a real lever. A 0.5% conversion cost versus 2%+ adds up once you’re processing five-figure months.

3) Braintree (by PayPal) — best for offering more ways to pay

Answer first: If your buyers expect wallet options, Braintree is a straightforward way to increase payment choice without rebuilding your checkout.

Braintree supports payments through Venmo, Google Pay and Apple Pay (where available), plus typical card flows. You can run single- or multi-currency setups and choose whether to present or settle in multiple currencies.

• Fees (as stated): 1.9% + 20p + 1.5% multi-currency transaction fee
• Conversion rate (as stated): in line with your bank’s conversion rate
• Ideal for: businesses that want more payment options

Automation note: payment choice is marketing. If you’re running paid social in the US, wallets can lift conversion for mobile-heavy traffic. Don’t guess—A/B test checkout options the same way you test landing pages.

4) Wise for Business — best for freelancers and micro businesses getting paid in USD

Answer first: If you mainly need to receive USD and convert cheaply, Wise for Business is often the simplest path.

Wise is popular for transparent FX and practical multi-currency handling. The source article states Wise claims to be 19x cheaper than PayPal and gives an example: receiving $2,000 in GBP costs £0 with Wise vs £66.88 with PayPal (example cited in the source).

• Fees (as stated): £50 to open; USD wire payments incur a 6.11 USD charge
• Conversion rate (as stated): USD free to receive, holding limits apply
• Ideal for: freelancers and micro businesses

How it supports marketing ops: Wise is less about the front-end checkout and more about the back-office reality—getting paid from US clients, keeping fees sane, and improving cashflow predictability.

5) Stripe — best for online businesses wanting control and clean automation

Answer first: If you want a strong online checkout plus tight integration with the rest of your marketing stack, Stripe is usually the most flexible.

Stripe supports 135+ currencies, can display local currencies, and converts when charge currency differs from settlement currency. Stripe also supports multi-currency balances so your USD can land in a separate balance.

• Fees (as stated): 1.4% + 20p (UK cards); 1.1% + 20p (EEA); 3.25% + 20p (international)
• Conversion rate (as stated): 2%
• Ideal for: online businesses who want to limit fees (especially with the right setup)

My take: Stripe isn’t “cheap” if you ignore FX and settlement. Stripe is cost-effective when you set up multiple settlement accounts or hold USD where it makes sense.

Automation wins: Stripe events can drive your whole customer lifecycle:

• purchase → welcome sequence
• failed payment → recovery emails
• upgrade → account provisioning
• refund → win-back campaign

6) Payoneer — best for marketplaces, international networks, and service providers

Answer first: If you’re getting paid from platforms or international networks (or you need local receiving accounts), Payoneer is a strong candidate.

Payoneer provides local receiving accounts so customers can pay you as if you’re local. It can also receive funds from marketplaces and networks (Amazon and more are mentioned in the source).

• Fees (as stated):
  • free from other Payoneer customers and via receiving accounts (in some cases)
  • USD payments directly from customers: 3% (credit card) or 1% (ACH bank debit)
  • marketplace/network fees vary
• Conversion (as stated): ranges from free to small fee depending on origin
• Ideal for: freelancers, service providers, online sellers, digital marketers, holiday rental hosts

Marketing angle: Payoneer is less about your on-site checkout and more about how you collect money across channels—useful if your “funnel” includes marketplaces or partner platforms.

How to connect USD payments to your marketing automation (the bit most SMEs skip)

Answer first: Treat payment confirmation as the trigger for the next 30 days of automated customer experience.

Here’s a practical workflow UK SMEs use when selling to US customers—whether it’s a service package, a digital product, or an online course.

The “paid → onboarded” automation blueprint

1. Payment received (USD)
2. Create/update contact in CRM
3. Apply tags: Customer, USD buyer, product name, acquisition channel
4. Send receipt + “what happens next” email (immediately)
5. Start onboarding sequence (days 1–14)
6. Route internal notifications (Slack/Teams/email) based on product/service
7. Update attribution: revenue by campaign/ad group/landing page
8. Schedule review request / referral prompt (day 21–30)

Snippet-worthy truth: A smooth payment is marketing, but a smooth post-payment journey is retention.

If you’re already investing in SEO for UK small business, email marketing, or paid social, this is where you protect your CAC.

Quick picks: which USD payment system should you choose?

Answer first: Choose based on your revenue model, not your gut.

• Recurring retainers/subscriptions: GoCardless
• Multi-currency volume and FX control: Airwallex
• More payment methods and wallet options: Braintree
• Freelancers/micro businesses receiving USD: Wise for Business
• Online checkout + strong automation potential: Stripe
• Marketplace/network and local receiving accounts: Payoneer

If you’re stuck between two, decide with these tie-breakers:

• Do you need ACH for US customers?
• Do you want to hold USD (and when will you convert)?
• What’s your refund and dispute process like?
• Which tool connects cleanly to your CRM/accounting without manual workarounds?

Your next step: fix the payment friction before you scale US marketing

Accepting US dollars isn’t just “nice to have” if you’re serious about international growth. It directly affects conversion rate, refund rates, customer confidence, and the quality of your automated lifecycle campaigns.

If you’re planning US-facing campaigns in Q1 2026—new-year budget releases, fresh procurement cycles, and the usual “start of year” buying momentum—now is the time to tighten up your payment flow and automation triggers. Your future self will thank you when reporting is clean and your onboarding runs without chasing.

What part of your funnel is currently the slowest: getting the click, getting the payment, or getting the customer successfully onboarded after they’ve paid?