Update on forms of payment available on our new payment system

We recently let you know about upcoming improvements to the Payments page in your account, designed to provide you with a better experience and address your feedback. These changes are part of an upgrade to our payment system, and over the coming months we’ll continue to roll out these upgrades to all publishers.

For publishers located in countries where we offer payments via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), we’ve made improvements to this form of payment to give you quicker access to your earnings. Once your account has been upgraded to our new system, EFT payments will appear in your bank account just days after posting to your Payments page. As always, EFT payments are free of charge, less error prone, more efficient and the most environmentally-friendly payment method.

With these changes, please note that the new system won’t support check payments in countries where we offer EFT as a form of payment. If you’re located in a country where we offer EFT payments and you currently receive check payments, please be advised that you’ll need to complete a few steps once your account is upgraded. However, no immediate action is required on your part at the moment. Once your account is transitioned to the new system, you’ll receive an email notification with detailed instructions on setting up EFT payments.                

For our readers who are located in countries where we don’t yet support EFT, please know that we’re working hard to improve the payments process and find ways to send you your payments as quickly and securely as possible. If you have any questions, please sign in to your AdSense account and visit the Payments section in our Help Center for the most relevant information.

Introducing redesigned Payments pages 

To make the payment process easier and more flexible, we’ll soon be introducing some changes to the “Payments” and “Account settings” pages in your AdSense account. At the moment, this new payments interface is available to a small set of AdSense accounts, but we’ll gradually roll it out to more publishers in the upcoming months. When the new Payments page is enabled for your account, it’ll look like this:

Here’s a summary of the changes and added benefits of the new payments interface:

1. Redesigned Payment summary and Payment settings pages
- Payment method is now called Form of payment.
- Unpaid finalized earnings is now called Current balance.
- Redesigned transaction history table shows you the latest activities at the top.
- New toolbar support allows you to filter, print, export, or download transaction information.

2. More flexibility with your payment settings
- New extended timeline allows you to change your payment information until the 20th of any month.
- You can choose any payment threshold greater than the default payment threshold based on your reporting currency.
- You can also hold your payments until a specified date.

3. Improved navigation of the payments interface
- Centralized locations to manage your Payment settings and Payee profile.
- Contextual help is displayed based on the pages you navigate to.

This is just a first step towards providing a better payment experience, and we’ll continue to add improvements over the coming months. For additional details, please sign in to your AdSense account and visit the Payments section in our Help Center.

Western Union option expands to more countries in Southeast Asia

 We understand that payment options are very important to you, so we continuously work to improve them. Today we’re happy to announce that we’ve expanded Western Union Quick Cash® as an AdSense payment method to three additional countries: Singapore, Cambodia and Laos.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this form of payment, Western Union Quick Cash payments are free and will reach you faster than checks. Payments follow our normal payment schedule and are available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

It’s important to note that at this time we can only send Western Union payments to publishers that have an individual account. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

For those of you who don’t yet have Western Union Quick Cash as a payment method in your country, we appreciate your patience as we work to make this available. Please continue reading our Inside AdSense blog to learn about future launches.

Turkeys and taxes 

The NBA season may be unusually absent at this time of year, but thankfully we can still count on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and oh yes... preparation for taxes. Before falling asleep next to a warm fireplace with a belly full of savory delicacies and sugary sweets, be sure to log in to your AdSense account to double-check your address. To ensure that your AdSense account reflects your current tax standing, you may even re-submit your tax information. We’ll soon be using the information in your AdSense account to generate your tax forms for 2011, so you’ll want to make sure that the information we have is correct.

Remember, you’ll only receive a tax form 1099-MISC from us if you're a U.S. publisher and you meet either of the following requirements:

• You submitted a Form W-9, are not a corporation, and were paid at least US $600 in 2011
• You indicated that you are subject to backup withholding and had taxes withheld

Enjoy the festivities!