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7 financial tips for being a successful digital nomad

Ngozi Enelamah

TABLE OF CONTENT

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Let’s start by answering the question of who a digital nomad is.

A digital nomad is a person who works remotely, is self-employed, or is a freelancer. They have the liberty of being on the move while earning an income working and staying connected with co-workers, employees, or clients via the help of the internet. An exciting lifestyle, I must say. 

If you work in this space, you’d understand that this excitement sometimes is what success means to some, while success might mean different things to others. 

However, one will agree that in the heat of the excitement, working while constantly traveling requires careful financial planning, as digital nomads might have an inconsistent income stream either by the number of clients they take on or project.

Financial Tips for Successful Digital Nomads

Here are seven strategies guaranteed to help you become more successful as a digital nomad.

1. Create a budget: It is essential to calculate your monthly expenses and create a budget around them. This helps you keep track of your spending and avoid overspending. It also allows you to see the need for multiple income streams. ‍

2. Save for emergencies: An emergency fund with at least three to six months’ worth of expenses is essential for unexpected events. We know and understand that digital nomads experience fluctuations in how much they earn. Still, it would help if you allocated a certain percentage towards emergency funds for every income you make. 

3. Get insurance: Certain life events take up the funds we must have set aside, but to ensure your funds are protected, It is essential to have health, travel, and equipment insurance. This saves you and your assets from unforeseen events. 

4. Invest in the right tools: Invest in the equipment necessary for your work, such as laptops and phones, to increase productivity. However, while investing in the right tools, ensure you are also investing in quality tools that reduce the need for repairs or replacement. 

5. Diversify your income streams: Sometimes, having multiple streams of income doesn’t necessarily mean picking up another skill that can earn you money; it sometimes means looking at the skills you have and finding out what other ways to generate more income from them; this can come from offering another service within your skill set or selling a product which can be the knowledge of the skill set. But note that having multiple sources of income provides financial stability and security. 

6. Utilize technology: Technology, such as mobile banking apps and budgeting software, can help you manage your finances effectively.

7. Seek professional advice: If you need clarification on financial planning, it is advisable to seek the advice of a financial advisor or accountant.

‍Conclusion

Being a digital nomad is one way to travel round the world while still maintaining a steady source of income. Being successful in it requires having a way to move money around the globe with easy. Start by getting a foreign bank account with Grey.

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Last updated:

October 2, 2026

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6 common banking fees (and why banks charge you these sneaky fees)

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2 min read

Banking fees might seem small when you get a debit. But over time, they can accumulate to a significant amount. If you use traditional banks, you’d be familiar with the monthly debits on your savings or checking accounts.

Not only do they mess up your account balance, but they can make you feel like you’re paying the bank for keeping your money with them. 

Perhaps the most aggravating part is that there’s no clear reason why you’re getting a debit for that purpose. You’d only see a reference note in the transaction. 

In this article, we’ll explain six popular banking fees and the real reasons why they charge you for them. You’d also find an alternative way to avoid paying all these fees. 

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1. Overdraft fees

This banking fee is particularly common with checking accounts. Once you withdraw below zero, you’re required to pay a mandatory fee.

This might happen when you try to pay for a transaction with your debit card. We often lose track of our account calculations to the point where you might be trying to pay for a $120 transaction without knowing that you only have about $97 left in your account.

Instead of declining the payment and showing an insufficient funds error, banks tend to allow these types of transactions to go through.

They’d cover the costs and make a reconciliation once you have sufficient funds in your account again. However, asides from having a negative account balance, you also pay a fee for this service. That’s what is called an overdraft fee.

Overdraft fees vary from bank to bank, but it usually borders around $25-$40. The best way to avoid this is by signing up for bank alerts and keeping track of all your transactions.

We also recommend linking your savings account to your checking accounts. That way, when you’re likely to overdraw, the funds can come from your savings account instead. 

2. Wire transfer fees

Wire transfers are a way to send money directly from your account to another account electronically. They are very effective because you can seamlessly send money locally or internationally - especially when you don’t have direct access to the recipient bank.

And while they are a quick and easy way to transfer money, the convenience comes at an extra cost. Depending on the bank, you can expect to pay anywhere between $15 - $40 on a wire transfer. 

We recommend that you only send Wire transfers when carrying out large transactions.

For petty transfers, you can either directly deposit the money to their bank account (if you have access to their banking information) or use virtual banking apps like Grey that charge lesser rates.

Read also: How to Open a Pounds Account as a Non-UK Resident

3. Bank statement fees

If you receive monthly bank statements in your mail inbox, they are unfortunately not free. While you can get your statement for a particular period via banking apps or websites to your email, you pay a certain amount for the number of pages incurred. 

It’s important to note that not all banks charge you for requesting an e-statement. And even those that don’t charge at a fixed price.

It costs even more for customers who prefer to get a hard copy of their transaction history. This is because banks have to pay for paper and the costs incurred from mailing it.

Unfortunately, you cannot completely avoid this type of banking fee. However, you can reduce the amount that’ll be debited by requesting e-statements instead of physical ones.

We recommend that you generate e-statements only when needed and focus on the specific transaction dates you’d want to review to limit the statement’s pages.  

4. Dormant account fees

A bank account can become dormant if it has been inactive for an extended period. Once it gets to this stage, the government controls the account based on the laws they have concerning such matters.

Due to the administrative work and regulations around managing such accounts, banks introduced dormant account fees to nudge customers into keeping active accounts. 

So if you have any funds in an account tagged as dormant, you might start getting direct debits - most times, without prior notice. This monthly deduction will continue until the account is liquidated and closed. 

Since the intent of these account fees is clear, you can avoid them by either choosing to maintain an active account or officially closing it. For the former, you can make regular transfers to ensure that your account doesn’t meet the criteria for dormant accounts. 

If you’d prefer not to keep the account, migrate your funds (if any) to a preferred account and kindly contact your bank to close it officially. 

5. Account closing fees

Before panicking, you’d only be charged an account closing fee when you attempt to close an account too early.

If you open a new account within three to six months or less, you cannot immediately request that it be closed without paying an account closure fee. Although the fees are not exorbitant, they can mess up your final account balance. 

So make inquiries from your bank’s customer service to find out the ideal window for closing accounts before closing yours. 

6. Maintenance fees

When you keep your money, especially in a traditional bank, you pay a monthly maintenance fee, which is usually directly debited from your account. On checking accounts with low-interest rates, banks don’t make a lot from loans, so they need a way to ensure their revenue is balanced. 

This is why maintenance fees are becoming increasingly popular. These charges vary, especially since accounts with more extensive perks pay higher maintenance fees when compared to regular accounts. 

While almost every bank charges a maintenance fee, there are account exceptions. Usually, there has to be a minimum daily account balance, deposits, and debit card use.

This varies from bank to bank, so to meet these criteria, you must first find out what it is by asking your bank representative. 

Why banking with Grey is a cheaper alternative

You might be lucky enough only to be susceptible to about two or three of these bank charges.

However, the best way to entirely avoid paying so much in banking fees is by opening a bank account that doesn’t charge so much in fees and offers cheaper withdrawal rates. 

Grey is an online banking app that provides Africans with foreign bank accounts.

With a Grey foreign account, you can avoid some of the banking fees associated with traditional and domiciliary accounts. Some of the perks you stand to gain include;

  • Open an account for free - no minimum account opening balance is required
  • Zero account maintenance fees
  • Low withdrawal rates compared to conventional banks
  • Zero dormant account fees

And so much more. Enjoy low banking fees when you bank with Grey. Start by opening a Grey foreign account for free.

All you need is a smart device, reliable internet connection, a valid ID, and a recent utility bill. Sign up for free here.

Five ways to better manage your finances as a freelancer

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2 min read

Managing your finances as a freelancer might seem arduous, especially when there’s no clear cash inflow and outflow trail. However, like every other small business, you need to pick up your accounting skills to sustain your business for long-term growth. In this post, we’ll share five top methods to help you improve your finances as a freelancer. 

How to Manage Your Finances as a Freelancer

While saving and investing are the most popular ways to help you manage your finances and be better prepared for the rainy days, you need to start from the basics.

 Some of the finance management methods you can start out with include; 

1. Understand Your Income and Expenses

The first step is to conduct an overhaul of your current financial situation. That’s because you can only improve when you have an existing knowledge of what’s wrong. It’ll also help you see improvements and other changes when you start managing your finances. So, to effectively understand your income and expenses, you need to;

Calculate your freelance income- How much do you earn from your freelance jobs? Create a spreadsheet to help you track income from your one-off clients and regular ones. Make a column and project the monthly payments you’d receive from your regulars. 

Make another list for one-off clients and divide your expected income from this section into two. This will be your average income for both slow and good months. We recommend tracking the changes in your sheet over the next three months if you’d want a more accurate average. 

Calculate your expenses - As a freelancer, you’d settle personal and business expenses. It’s important to know what these costs are so that you can budget better. Start by looking through your past financial statements to have an accurate ballpark figure when estimating.  

Once you have a clear idea of how much you earn compared to how much you spend, you’re ready for step two. 

2. Create a Budget for Everything

While this might seem like common advice, budgeting is an effective way to manage your finances. It helps ensure you don’t spend too much during the good months and fail to compensate for it during the not-so-good months. Budgeting also enables you to track where you’re overspending and underspending. 

Contrary to what most people think, your monthly budget shouldn’t just consist of your expenses. They should also involve your savings, investments, taxes, and miscellaneous expenses. This is why we recommend using the Zero-budget technique. 

The zero budget technique means that your balance should be equal to zero at the end of your monthly budget and expenditures. It’s a very flexible budgeting style that allows you to restart a budget every month and assign expenditure categories based on the income you receive. So you can budget for emergency funds, savings, taxes, your investments, and other types of expense categories you need. 

3. Separate Your Personal Account from Your Business Accounts

When you constantly mix up your personal finances and business expenses, it becomes harder to track business growth. So during a tax audit, you’d have to sort through endless amounts of blurred transactions to find what is what. 

When you separate these accounts, it makes tracking your financial statements easier. You can easily see patterns in your freelance jobs and the income they individually bring in. 

When opening a bank account for your business, we recommend opting for a foreign bank account. This is because, as a freelancer, you’re free to travel or quickly move around countries. And so you’d need a bank account that doesn’t require you physically visit a branch to authorize transactions. 

Some things to look out for when opening a business account include;

  • Seamless sign-up and verification process
  • Instant withdrawals
  • Flexibility in opening foreign accounts if you’d need to work with foreign clients
  • Ability to open multiple accounts for different businesses

Fortunately, with Grey, you can access all this and more. Open a foreign bank account today to get started.

4. Schedule Your Invoices Ahead to Get Paid on Time

Since your pay is closely tied to your project completion and client invoicing, it’s essential to sort both out on time. So spend time curating and scheduling your invoices on time so you can get paid early too. It’ll also ensure that you’re paying your taxes on time. Another great way to influence this is to reduce your invoice due time from 30 to 10 days. 

Since you set the rules for projects and payments, ensure you clearly state your terms in the freelance or independent contractor agreement. You can even add a clause that tells your existing and potential clients they’d incur extra costs for late payments.

However, you should be professional about it. So give them a heads up before you start working on the project. Also, follow up with late payments sooner than later. 

5. Automate Your Processes

While all these tips are great ideas, they can seem daunting, especially when you’re doing them manually. Automating your budgeting and invoicing will help you stay on track while you can focus on actually getting the job done. 

Tools like Quickbooks allow you to keep an eye on your bank accounts, track expenses and send out customized monthly invoicing. For savings and investments, we recommend setting up auto-save so that a certain percentage is deducted into your savings account. That’ll help you save money more consistently. You can also explore other tools that’ll be more suitable for your specific needs. 

Bonus Point - Conduct regular monthly audits of your finances. The longer you leave your bookkeeping, the more the pile increases. Set some time to go through your payments, figures, and investments. They’d help you make better decisions in your next budgeting. 

Next Steps

Asides from creating a virtual business account to help you manage your finances better, you should also consider keeping some of your long-term savings in a stable currency. The first step is by creating a foreign bank account. You can easily do this by opening an account with Grey. Start by downloading the Grey Mobile App. It’s available on both Google Play and the iOS App Store.

Tips for building a personal brand

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2 min read

If you followed our recent updates, we launched in Kenya and partnered with Moringa school, where we had a panel session speaking on personal branding.  

Personal branding has become more critical than ever for freelancers, content creators, and entrepreneurs. Like popular brands such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and others, you can think about who has built brands that differentiate them from the crowd; personal branding helps you differentiate yourself and your service from the rest. 

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is very much similar to corporate branding. Think about it this way. You’re the first point of your business as a freelancer, entrepreneur, solopreneur, or even content creator. As a result, you are the face of your business, and how others perceive you impacts your freelance, entrepreneurial career success. Do they think highly of you? Do they regard you as resourceful, capable, and experienced? This is what personal branding helps you achieve. 

Personal branding is the story you tell that creates a perception of what people know about you – how they perceive you and your product or service. That is to say; personal branding is the intentional effort to position yourself in an industry as unique and valuable.

Examples of personal brands:

Let’s give a few examples of people that have built personal brands

  1. Gary Vee
  2. Vusi Thembekwayo
  3. Debola Williams
  4. Davido
  5. Diamond Platnumz
  6. Cristiano Ronaldo
  7. Thisthingcalledfashion. 
  8. Kim Kardashian 
  9. Jackie Aina

These people have successfully built a personal brand such that when you think of them, something unique comes to mind – either the way they speak, dress, show, or present themselves in public.

The benefits of personal branding as a freelancer

We’ve defined personal branding; now, let’s talk about the benefit or importance of personal branding.

  • You attract opportunities: Building relationships and attracting opportunities can be complex. However, this becomes easier when you’ve built a personal brand because people recognise you as an expert; it’s also more accessible for people to refer clients to you.
  • You gain trust and authority: When you are clear about your brand and have communicated this to your community in a way they understand, it helps you gain their confidence and positions you as an authority and thought leader in your industry.
  • You build confidence: Confidence is maybe the most critical outcome of developing your brand. After a while and seeing the results that come from your brand paying off in the form of opportunities, power brokers, recognition, and accolades, this, in turn, results in confidence, and you grow more at ease in your skin.
  • Your market value increases: Having a solid personal brand that people trust gives you room to charge premium prices that increase your market value. 

Read also: How to get your first remote job.

Tips for building a personal brand

Know yourself: The first step to building a personal brand is a solid foundation that is authentic to you. Personal branding doesn’t mean crafting a personality that isn’t you but rather showcasing yourself in your true nature. You first need to ask a few questions about yourself to start, and this is because it helps you understand yourself more. Here is a list of the questions to ask yourself. 

  • What are you passionate about?
  • What drives you?
  • What are your strengths and weakness?
  • What are you most talented at?
  • What’s your unique selling point?

After that, the next question to answer is in knowing yourself is 

  • What’s your brand vision?
  • What is your brand mission? 
  • What’s your brand messaging?
  • What’s your brand personality?

These and many more are a few of the questions you need to ask to understand yourself while building a personal brand. 

You can also read A case study on how people can develop themselves as a personal brand 

Know and Understand your audience: There’s no personal branding without an audience, as your audience is the receiver of whatever product or service you’d like to sell. In knowing and understanding your audience, here are a few questions to ask and give answers to. 

  • Is my audience gender-specific or a mixed gender
  • How old are they?
  • Where do they live? 
  • What’s their earning capacity? 
  • What interests them?
  • What keeps them going? 
  • Where can I meet and connect with them?
  • How do they love to be communicated with? 

When you have given answers to this question, you are on a better part of knowing how to keep your audience glued to you. 

Know your competitors or industry players: This doesn’t mean looking at what your competitors are into and doing precisely like them. It involves you doing the following. 

  • Know who your competitor is
  • What makes them your competitor 
  • What are they offering, and how are they offering it 
  • Who is their target audience
  • What makes them better than you
  • What makes you better than them

Consistency: Now you’ve done the right thing by asking yourself questions about your audience and competitors, the next step is staying consistent by 

  1. Show up and show out
  2. Be educative and informative 
  3. Deliver more than expected 
  4. Be accessible 
  5.  Be available to help your audience 
  6. Build and cultivate relationships
  7. Be fun and engaging 
  8. Connect and build relationships with people 
  9. Be consistent in the brand story, style, and colour
  10. Keep your words. 

Other things to put in place while building a personal brand are

  1. A professional logo
  2. A professional website 
  3. A brand colour
  4. A brand theme 
  5. A social media channel
  6. A professional picture 
  7. Social proof
  8. Content strategy

Now that you’ve gotten this information, the next step is to take them, use them and build strategies that help you build a strong brand, as you’re probably aware of people who have great brands, and you’ve seen them reap many of the benefits of personal branding. It’s time to step up your branding efforts so you can reap these benefits too.

How to open and use a domiciliary account

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2 min read

Have you been trying to receive foreign currencies like USD? As a business owner, do you need to make frequent transactions in foreign currencies? Getting domiciliary or foreign accounts will make your transactions a lot more seamless.

A domiciliary account is probably one of the top recommendations you’d already be familiar with. Popularly referred to as a ‘Dom account,’ domiciliary accounts are a common way to receive USD, EUR, and GBP payments in your local country. 

In this post, we’ll explore the types of dom accounts available, what you need to open one and share answers to some frequently asked questions about these accounts.

What is a Domiciliary Account?

A domiciliary account is an account that allows you to receive, send, and transfer foreign payments from your local country. You can receive any type of foreign payment on your dom account. However, sticking to widely accepted currencies like USD, EUR, and GBP is advisable because you can only receive funds based on your bank’s available currencies. 

One limitation of this account type is that you must open accounts based on the currencies you want to receive. This means that to receive Dollar payments, you have to create a USD dom account. And for Pounds, you have to create a GBP domiciliary account.

Unfortunately, you cannot transfer from your local currency to your dom account. You can only receive a currency based on the account you’ve created.

Types of Domiciliary Accounts

Before heading over to the bank to open yours, there are two types of domiciliary accounts you’d have to choose from. 

1. Current Dom Account: This is like a typical current account. It’s mostly suitable for business people who need to carry out many transactions. For example, you can issue checks to third parties on this account. The downside is that it attracts more usage fees compared to the other type of domiciliary accounts.

2. Savings Dom Account: With this account, you can save in foreign currencies and withdraw with a bank teller whenever you want. This is more convenient for individuals who carry out little transactions. 

Both accounts are eligible to receive interests. However, the rates are not fixed. To withdraw funds from any dom account, you need to visit the nearest bank branch and fill out a bank teller. Once you receive the withdrawn sum in cash, you can change that sum to your local currency at any bureau de change office. 

How to Open a Domiciliary Account

The process for opening a dom account in Nigeria, Kenya or Tanzania is pretty much the same. Any individual or business can open a domiciliary account as long as they have the requirements listed below;

  • A completed account opening form given by the bank
  • Recent passport photographs
  • Proof of address such as a utility bill
  • Referee letters
  • A minimum opening balance (varies from bank to bank)
  • A government-issued ID

Please note that the documents required primarily depend on the bank you’re applying to. The entire process is free, so once the checklist you need is confirmed, visit the nearest branch and apply in person. 

Benefits of a Dom Account

Some of the advantages of opening a domiciliary account is that you can;

  1. Open foreign accounts and receive payments in foreign currencies
  2. You can receive interests on your domiciliary savings account

Drawbacks of a Dom Account

While domiciliary accounts are a great option for carrying out foreign transactions, they have several limitations. Some of the disadvantages of a domiciliary account is that;

  1. You cannot process withdrawals from anywhere or directly fund your account with your local currency
  2. Dom accounts have high withdrawal commissions 
  3. Opening an account requires referees and guarantors which can be inconvenient
  4.  You have to physically visit a branch to open an account

A Better Alternative for Receiving Foreign Payments

You need a domiciliary account alternative that allows you to transfer and receive foreign payments conveniently. With a Grey virtual foreign account, you can

  • Create accounts in multiple currencies from the comfort of your home
  • Get instant access to your foreign accounts
  • Enjoy zero to low fees on transfers and international payments
  • Seamless withdrawals to your local accounts
  • Get lower withdrawal costs and great conversion rates
  • Save time by avoiding endless bank queues

And so much more. Ready to explore? Create a foreign account for free and start receiving foreign payments today

IBAN vs SWIFT codes: how are they different?

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2 min read

International bank transactions are different from local transactions in several ways. The first time carrying out these international transfers can be daunting. Even those who occasionally make international transactions for business purposes or send money to friends and family are often confused by some terms.

Two popular terms that confuse most people are IBAN and SWIFT code. In this post, we will explain each concept and how they differ. But first, why is this important, and how do people use IBAN or SWIFT codes?

Before IBAN and SWIFT codes were standardised, international money transfers through banks were prone to errors and often took time to be completed. These errors are because international transfers require that the right bank, location and account number be employed to process the transaction. In the absence of a globally accepted method, money sent between countries often ended up in the wrong location and took extra time and money to be discovered and corrected.

The introduction of IBAN and SWIFT codes solved that problem and made international money transfer easier.

Let’s get into it.

What is IBAN?

There are chances that you have come across this several times already, but what does it mean? IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number. It is one of the generally accepted numbering systems used for identifying bank accounts during international transfers.

An IBAN is a two-digit country code, then two numbers, followed by alphanumeric characters that help the bank process customer transactions faster. It is, however, worth noting that an IBAN does not replace the individual’s account number. It simply ensures that the transaction is routed correctly and that the transaction details are correct.

What does an IBAN look like?

Let us break down an IBAN:

The first two letters represent the country code.

This is followed by 2 digits referred to as the check digits, used to provide a primary integrity check for the IBAN standard.

The check digits are then followed by a series of alphanumeric characters which can be up to 35 characters.

These characters are called the basic bank account number (BBAN) and its length depends on the country. Usually, the BBAN will consist of a bank identifier, the sort code or routing number (used to identify the specific bank and branch where an account is held), and the individual’s domestic account number.

Every country uses different algorithms to verify the BBAN when you initiate a transaction.

Overall, the total length of the IBAN will also signify which country the IBAN belongs to.

Here’s a hypothetical example of what an IBAN would look like:

GB35GTHY40317012345678

GB - Country code (Great Britain, in this case)

35 - Check digits

GTHY - Bank identifier

403170 - Sort code

12345678 - Individual’s domestic account number.

Why are IBANs important?

International Bank Account Numbers serve very specific and important purposes in overseas transactions. They:

  • Help financial institutions to easily and swiftly identify the bank you’re sending money to.
  • Ensure that the details of overseas transactions are accurate before payment is processed.
  • Reduces payment processing time due to faster processes.

What countries use IBAN?

The IBAN system is widely used in Europe and is being adopted in other parts of the world. All countries in the European Union use IBAN. However, the US and Canada specifically don’t use IBAN. The US uses ABA (American Bankers Association) routing numbers for domestic transfers and SWIFT codes for international transfers.

Now, let us talk about SWIFT codes.

What are SWIFT Codes?

First of all, SWIFT doesn’t just mean the codes help process international transactions faster 🙂, SWIFT here actually stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

A notable difference between IBAN and SWIFT codes is that SWIFT codes are shorter. The SWIFT code is a unique alphanumeric code consisting of 8 to 11 characters assigned to banks and other financial institutions to identify a specific bank during international money transfers.

You should note that: “SWIFT code” is often used interchangeably with BIC (Business Identifier Code) as they mean the same thing.

What does a SWIFT code look like?

A typical SWIFT code would consist of:

Bank Code (4 letters), Country Code (2 letters), Location Code (2 letters or digits), Branch Code (3 digits).

Here’s a hypothetical SWIFT code: DETHUS23XXX

DETH - represents a bank code.

US - represents the country code, in this case, the United States.

23 - represents the bank location code.

XXX - represents the branch code; XXX represents a bank’s head office.

What’s the major difference between SWIFT codes and IBANs?

The difference between them is in what they are used to identify. An IBAN is used to identify a specific account in a specific bank while a SWIFT code is used to identify just a specific bank.

Read also: SWIFT Codes for Kenyans Banks

How can you get an IBAN or SWIFT code?

Usually, you can get an IBAN or SWIFT code from your bank. This depends on the type of bank account you open, but it is often a long process for many. Thankfully, with Grey, you can open virtual foreign GBP, EUR and USD accounts.

The best part is that when you open any of these accounts, you also get your SWIFT code and IBAN which you can easily use to complete international money transfers. USD and GBP accounts on Grey are easy and free to open. Once you sign up for an account, you can request your virtual account and start using it once your request is approved.

Get Started with Grey Virtual Accounts

7 top sites to get international remote jobs in Kenya

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2 min read

There are many reasons why people may wish to seek international remote employment in Kenya. Perhaps they are looking for a change of pace or want to further their careers. However the case may be, here are a few top sites that can help you find international remote jobs in Kenya.

International remote jobs in Kenya - top sites

Below is a list of sites where you can get international remote jobs in Kenya:

Upwork

Upwork stands out as the leading platform for international remote jobs in Kenya, offering a wide range of opportunities and access to professional clients. It’s a reliable source of well-paying gigs, with writers earning anywhere from $5 per 500 words to over $100, depending on the project.

Upwork ensures secure payment through its Upwork Desktop App for hourly jobs or by requiring the client to set up milestone payments. Remember to confirm that the client has a validated payment method before starting a project.

Also read: How to become a registered freelancer on Upwork

Freelancer

Another great site to get international gigs from Kenya is Freelancer. While the market is highly competitive and pay rates are relatively low—averaging $2 per 500 words, with the potential to earn up to $4—it offers a variety of opportunities, including writing, accounting, and web design.

The key advantage of Freelancer is the ease of landing your first project, making it a great starting point for new freelancers.

Fiverr

Fiverr is a popular platform for freelancers in Kenya to get global remote jobs. You can easily showcase a range of skills, from writing to graphic designs, video editing, and voiceovers. You can easily set your prices, starting at $5 per gig, but more experienced freelancers often charge more.

Fiverr is a great place to monetise your skills and build your profile and portfolio.

Also read: Upwork vs. Fiverr: which freelancing platform is the best?

Guru

Guru is another excellent platform for finding international remote jobs in Kenya. As one of the most popular freelancing websites, Guru connects over 500,000 freelancers with 30,000+ businesses worldwide.

The platform is well-organized, offering categorized job listings to help you easily find opportunities that match your skills. Whether you're a writer, designer, or developer, Guru provides a global marketplace to showcase your talent

Elance

Elance is another significant player in Kenya’s remote employment market. It includes a variety of international remote employment opportunities in Kenya. Jobs on Elance include writing, graphic design, web development, programming, and many more. Jobs are categorised, just like on Guru and the other websites, making it simple to uncover opportunities for those with various skill sets.

PeoplePerHour

PeoplePerHour connects freelancers with international clients for jobs like writing, design, and programming. Freelancers can set their own rates or offer fixed-price projects. The platform also has a ranking system to help skilled freelancers get noticed. It’s a good option for those looking to build their reputation and find steady work.

Toptal

Toptal is a platform for highly skilled professionals in fields like software development, design, and finance. It has a strict screening process, so only the best freelancers are accepted. While it’s harder to join, Toptal offers access to high-paying clients and top companies. It’s a great choice for experienced Kenyan freelancers looking for top-tier projects.

Also read: How to receive payments from freelance platforms easily in 2025

Online jobs in Kenya 

Here are a few other popular online jobs, whether local or global.

Digital marketing

Digital Marketing is one of our online jobs in Kenya that pay through M-Pesa.

Digital marketing promotes a product or service using digital technologies, mainly on the internet. As more and more people use the internet, businesses have found that they need to use digital marketing to reach their target customers and what this means that jobs in this field will continue to increase.

Blogging

Blogging is a simple way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world. Blogs often appear as websites, where individuals or businesses post content on topics they’re passionate about or want to share with an audience.

Make money blogging either on someone else’s blog or your blog. Sell ad space through Adsense or affiliate marketing. You can then receive your foreign payments through Grey and withdraw them conveniently from your M-pesa.

Article writing

Arguably one of the most popular online jobs in Kenya. Many people who are looking for freelance writing jobs choose to write articles.

Many articles writing jobs are available, and you can usually find one that suits your skills and interests. Several opportunities await you on the websites listed above in this field

Academic Writing

Academic writing is another of the top internet jobs in Kenya. As more and more students seek assistance with their assignments, academic writers are in high demand. Academic writing and article writing are vastly dissimilar. 

Academic writing jobs typically require more advanced writing abilities than other writing careers. This is so that it can adhere to various educational citation standards and be more structured like academic writing. 

Whatever your motivation for looking for remote international jobs in Kenya, you now have a fantastic location to start.

While several sites might offer global remote employment in Kenya, the issue of receiving payments and withdrawing them directly into your M-Pesa is crucial, and that’s where Grey comes in. Grey allows you to quickly and conveniently create foreign bank accounts that will enable you to receive your payments in USD, GBP, or euros and withdraw directly. Create your Grey account to get started today!

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