8 Signs You’re Losing Money on International Logistics Payments

In logistics, margins are thin, timelines are tight, and inefficiencies are expensive. Yet many businesses still treat cross-border payments as an afterthought, assuming delays, errors, and hidden costs are simply part of doing business internationally.

But that approach comes at a cost: a quiet, consistent drain on your bottom line.

If you're handling freight, clearing, or shipping operations across Africa or other emerging markets, here are nine signs your payment process could be quietly bleeding money and what modern businesses are doing differently to take control.

A. You’re Still Relying on Traditional Bank Transfers for Global Invoice Settlement

Wire transfers and SWIFT payments are notoriously slow and expensive, especially in Africa, where correspondent banking relationships are limited and expensive to maintain. On average, a single international wire transfer can cost up to $15 - 50 per transaction, not including hidden FX spreads and intermediary fees. Worse still, it can take 3–7 days to clear. Businesses that rely on these traditional methods for global invoice settlement are increasingly falling behind in both speed and cost-efficiency. 

B. You Have No Real-Time Visibility Into Payment Progress

The international logistics industry runs 24/7, but most banks don’t. If your payment approval or remittance process is paused over a weekend or delayed due to time zone differences, that’s a problem. Shipping schedules don’t wait for bank authorisations. Neither do customs clearances. Inflexible payment systems often lead to demurrage fees, missed delivery windows, and unnecessary delays at ports. These are all real, compounding costs.

Once you initiate a traditional international transfer, visibility ends. Most companies have to follow up manually to check if funds were received or when they’ll clear. This lack of transparency leads to operational inefficiencies and strained relationships with partners.

When vendors are unsure of when they’ll be paid, and you have no clear insight into payment status, everyone is working with guesswork instead of data.

If your team always sends "Has it landed yet?" emails after every payment, it’s not just an annoyance; it’s a red flag. Delays in confirmation slow down the release of goods, create friction with suppliers, and increase downtime across the supply chain.

And the deeper problem? You're working blind. Traditional bank transfers offer little to no transparency once a payment is sent. By the time your vendor receives it, you may have already paid demurrage fees or lost a shipment window, all due to poor visibility in your invoice settlement process.

Read Also : How Logistics/Freight Companies Can Settle Invoices Globally Without FX Headaches

C. Your Treasury Strategy Isn’t Designed for Multi-Currency 

​​If your logistics operations span countries, especially in regions like Africa, managing multiple local currencies can feel like a constant uphill battle. Inflation risks, currency restrictions, and fragmented banking rules make treasury management extremely complex.

And yet, most businesses still rely on outdated treasury workflows that weren’t built for digital currencies or real-time FX options. When paying international vendors or clearing agents, every minor fluctuation in exchange rate costs you more, especially if your provider offers unfavourable or delayed FX rates.

For instance, converting local currency into USD at peak times or through traditional banks often comes with poor conversion rates, hurting already-thin logistics margins. Worse, if you’re making regular FX trades without access to real-time market pricing, you’re likely paying far more than necessary.

Consider this: your bank or PSP converts Naira to USD at 1,500/$1, while the market rate is 1,650/$1. That 12% difference on every payment? Pure loss.

Read Also: How to Avoid High Fees for Your Customers When Converting from Crypto to Fiat in Africa

D. You’ve Added 'Buffer Time' Just to Compensate for Banking Delays

When you send a transfer to a freight forwarder or warehouse operator abroad, how long does it take to reflect?

If your answer is: “It depends,” that’s already a problem.

When you start budgeting in 3–7 days, just in case your payments are delayed, that’s not operational foresight; it’s a workaround for an outdated system.

The fact that you're not shocked by payment delays anymore? That’s a sign you're absorbing unnecessary costs. It might feel like a proactive move, but paying international vendors in advance is often a desperate attempt to outrun the inefficiencies of the system. It puts your capital at risk, weakens your cash flow, and exposes you to situations where goods are delayed or worse, never delivered.

E. Your Payment Amounts Never Match the Expected Invoice

Here’s a test: Look at your last five international payments. Did every supplier receive the exact amount billed, down to the cent?

If not, you're likely losing money to hidden intermediary fees, poor FX conversion rates, or banking deductions on the receiving end, all of which chip away at your operating margins.

This is especially common in Africa, where correspondent banking is limited and cross-border remittances pass through multiple financial institutions before arriving at the destination.

Ready to stop leaking money through outdated payment systems?

Switch to Stablecoin-powered invoice settlement with Yellow Card today.

F. Your Finance Team Is Manually Tracking Every International Payment

If there’s a Google Sheet or WhatsApp group keeping tabs on international logistics payments, something is broken. Manual reconciliation takes time, increases the risk of human error, and slows down your finance team from making strategic decisions.

In 2025, this shouldn’t be the standard,  and it’s costing you more than just time.

If your finance team has to chase references, double-check vendor names, or resolve mismatch errors often, you're leaving room for overpayments, underpayments, or duplicate settlements.

G. You’re Overpaying Vendors  and Sometimes Don’t Know It

Vendor overpayments happen more often than you'd think. A repeated invoice, an extra zero, or incorrect payment instructions can lead to thousands of dollars lost, especially across international accounts with limited visibility. 

You wire $10,000 to a clearing agent. They only receive $9,500. Why? Intermediary bank fees, currency conversion spreads, or deduction by a correspondent bank. Now you’ve overpaid on a second attempt, or worse, the agent halts clearance until the funds reflect correctly.

Even when overpayments are caught, reversing them across borders is time-consuming and expensive, especially if they involve intermediary banks or unstable currency routes. This is where stablecoin settlement of invoices can eliminate ambiguity and ensure suppliers always receive the exact amount you intend to send.

H. You’re Losing Revenue Because Surcharges and Extra Costs Aren’t Billed Correctly

In international logistics, charges like fuel levies, handling fees, FX adjustments, and congestion surcharges change frequently, and if your billing doesn’t reflect these changes, you’re undercharging your clients. Many logistics companies lose money simply because their surcharge tables aren’t updated regularly, rates are manually copied from old invoices, or currency fluctuations occur mid-shipment but are never factored in. Over time, these small gaps accumulate into significant revenue loss.

It’s not just surcharges. Hidden or unexpected costs, such as detention and demurrage fees, last-minute documentation charges, or FX losses during delayed conversions, are often missed entirely. This typically happens when finance, operations, and procurement teams operate in silos. Costs fall through the cracks, go unallocated, or are recorded too late to recover. The result is underbilling, inaccurate reporting, and a steady erosion of your profit margins. A smarter stablecoin invoicing system can ensure billing stays dynamic and accurate.

A Better Way to Settle Invoices  and Scale Cross-Border Logistics

If any of these signs sound familiar, it’s time to rethink how you handle global invoice settlement. Whether you're paying international freight agents, clearing goods across ports, or maintaining supply relationships across continents, the right payment infrastructure makes all the difference.

The solution isn’t to add more people to the problem; it’s to upgrade your payments infrastructure to meet the pace of modern trade. The good news is that there’s a better way to handle global invoice settlement, one designed for modern logistics businesses in emerging markets. That’s why forward-thinking companies are shifting toward digital-first solutions built around invoice settlement with stablecoin.

Yellow Card’s Invoice Settlement solution is built specifically for companies that need to pay international vendors quickly, transparently, and at a lower cost. By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and USDT, Yellow Card eliminates the inefficiencies of traditional international bank transfers.

These transactions settle in minutes, not days, allowing you to avoid buffer windows, demurrage fees, and follow-up emails entirely.

More importantly, your finance team gains full visibility over every payment, from initiation to confirmation, with no hidden charges, no FX slippage, and no guesswork. Whether you’re paying freight forwarders in Ghana or customs agents in Kenya, stablecoin settlement of invoices gives you speed, accuracy, and control.

Ready to stop leaking money through outdated payment systems?

Switch to Stablecoin-powered invoice settlement with Yellow Card today.