How to pay Indian contractors from the UK without sending ten wires a month

It is the last working day of the month and your inbox holds ten invoices from India: two developers, a designer, a bookkeeper, a handful of writers and researchers. None of them is large. Each one still needs its own payment, its own bank details and its own check that the money arrived.

Most guides to paying Indian contractors start with tax and employment law. This one starts with the payment itself, because that is the part you repeat every month. It covers what to collect, three ways to pay, what ten payments really cost, and where the questions that need an adviser begin.

Why ten small payments cost more than one big one

A payment to India usually carries two kinds of cost: a fixed charge for sending it, and a percentage on the amount converted. The percentage grows with the money. The fixed charge grows with the number of payments. Pay one agency a large invoice and the percentage dominates. Pay ten individuals $2,000 each and the fixed charge is added ten times.

Time repeats too. Each payment is its own transfer, with its own route, its own cut-off and its own chance of a hold, as we explained in how long does a payment to India actually take. Ten payments means ten places for something to go wrong, and ten contractors asking where their money is.

Before you pay anyone: what to collect

Short payments and delays often trace back to details that were collected badly, or not at all. Ask every contractor for the same short set, once, and keep it in one place. Agree the currency and who bears transfer charges in writing before the first invoice, a point we cover in why your Indian vendor received less than you sent.

• A numbered invoice for each payment, in the currency you agreed.
• The account holder's name exactly as their bank holds it, plus the account number and the bank's branch code (IFSC). A mismatch between the name you send and the name on the account can hold a payment up, so check it when you onboard someone, not every month.
• Written agreement on the payment currency and on who pays transfer charges.

Three ways to pay a team in India

A bank wire to each person. Your bank sends each payment over SWIFT. It is familiar and leaves a paper trail, but every payment carries your bank's fee, correspondent banks can take a share on the way, and the conversion happens at a rate your bank sets. Bank tariffs vary and many set the rate at the moment you send, so ask yours for the fixed fee and the FX margin on a payment of your usual size.

A transfer platform for each payment. Specialist platforms publish their pricing, which makes them easier to compare than most bank tariffs. You still make one payment per person, so the fixed fee repeats. The next section shows what that does across a month.

One payment split across your contractors. You send a single transfer and the provider divides it among your payees. Ten payments become one, so the fixed fee and the paperwork stop multiplying. This is how Winvesta works. Some other providers offer bulk payouts too: compare them the same way, on what each contractor receives.

What ten payments really cost

To make it concrete, take a UK business that pays ten contractors $2,000 each in one month, $20,000 in all. The table uses the pricing data behind the calculator on our homepage for payments sent from the UK, and adds up the sender-side cost of ten separate payments. The numbers are illustrative: your amounts, your plan and your provider's rate on the day will differ.

Sources: Wise, Revolut Business plans, Payoneer pricing and Airwallex pricing. Pricing varies by plan and payment details.

The point is not that one platform wins. Both the fixed fee and the percentage repeat every month, and across a year the sender-side cost on all four plans runs to four figures. These are sender-side fees only, and the exchange-rate margin comes on top of them, which we covered in the hidden FX markup on your payments to India. On our side the Winvesta row is zero, but your own bank may still charge you to send the USD transfer, so check its tariff.

Contractor or employee? A question for your adviser

Paying a person is not the same as deciding what they are to you. GOV.UK's employment status overview lists the categories (worker, employee, self-employed and contractor, director, office holder) and says that tax law may give someone a different status from employment law. That decision affects what you owe and what paperwork you need, and a payment provider cannot make it for you. If you are unsure of anyone's status, or whether anything must be withheld, ask your accountant before the first payment, not after the third.

A monthly routine that keeps it dull

1. Set a cut-off date for invoices a few days before you pay.
2. Check each invoice against the agreed rate or scope, and against the bank details you hold, before anything is queued.
3. Pay on a fixed day early in the week, so a hold has working days to clear.
4. Log the amount sent, the date and, if the currency changed, the rate applied. Ask each contractor to confirm what their bank credited: their bank's advice is the only view of a conversion that happens in India. Ask your provider what record each contractor gets too, because their own accountant may want one. Winvesta's homepage says vendors receive an e-FIRA and remittance advice for their tax and export-compliance records.

Where Winvesta fits

Winvesta lets you pay Indian vendors, contractors and teams in US dollars with no sender fee and no markup on your side. You send one USD transfer from your business account with the invoices attached, and we split it across your payees, with no limit on how many. Your business is verified once, which our homepage says takes the same day in most cases. Your contractors then withdraw to their Indian bank accounts, and INR lands in one to two days. Every cost is shown before you confirm.

Three limits to be clear about. We are live on USD to INR today, so if your business account holds sterling, your own bank's conversion from pounds to dollars still applies. Winvesta is not a UK bank account. And we do not give tax advice, so the status and withholding questions above stay with your adviser. If you pay several people in India every month, you can tell us about your payments and see the costs for your own volumes.