TABLE OF CONTENT
1. What is PIX and why should you use it?
2. How do I pay with PIX?
3. PIX keys and transfer limits
4. If you already have CPF: Banco Rendimento
1. What is PIX and why should you use it?
PIX is an instant payment platform created and managed by the Central Bank of Brazil.
It enables free instant transfers between individuals in Brazilian real 24 hours a day without interruption, even outside banking hours and during holidays or weekends.
Probably one of the biggest reasons to use PIX is speed, yes, that’s right, PIX is indeed an instant way of paying in Brazil and it will make your life easier while staying in Brazil.
However, something else really important about PIX is that it is available 24/7 with low-cost fees (or no fees for local accounts), and we all know that fees can make us bleed money in a foreign country.
PIX got canceled on Wise and most forms of PIX are locked behind heavy requirements like owning a bank account, being a naturalized Brazilian or being married to a Brazilian to get Brazilian residency. PIX is not canceled on Wise, they still offer PIX payments for Wise accounts that were made within Brazil, but you will need many more documents to open a PIX Wise account. I’m also using strikethrough above because I am updating the information from my 2024. blog post when we didn’t have many alternatives, we now have other apps that I will be testing in the future and making a blog post about, so stay tuned!
Well, this blog post will show you the way to pay by PIX as a foreigner with a fixed transaction fee as small as 1,5 EUR!
2. How do I pay with PIX?
The way to use PIX as a foreigner is by using Paysend app (referral).
You will need your phone number to set up an account and the whole process is so simple it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to be ready for payments!
After you confirm the code with your phone, make sure to link the card you will be using to make payments, it can be Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay and many more types of payment.
Paysend currently supports over 170 countries for receiving money and about 49 as of today for sending money, here’s a full list of supported countries.
3. PIX keys and transfer limits
PIX key (chave) is how one identifies themself in PIX payments, PIX key can be a CPF, e-mail address or phone number.
Make sure to confirm full name of the recipient before confirming the transaction and share the receipt with the recipient as a proof of payment.
Limits of PIX payments on Paysend are as following:
You can raise the limits by verifying your residential address.
Paysend uses bank name for payments and not your actual name, so I do not suggest making big payments over Paysend such as buying real estate, investments or other large transactions since it could be confusing for the recipient and might be difficult to prove who was the sender.
You can use Wise (refferal) as an alternative but do plan ahead 3 business days.
