Sending money overseas discussion area

uc644800

Tranferring money from one country to another is quite expensive.
I need to tranfer funds to africa, Congo, but the cheapest is about 10% of the sum for the fees.

Those anyone know of a cheaper way?

thanx
Claude :beer:

grumbler

'Sending Money Overseas: Moving money large or small' article

Sending money overseas discussion area (don't miss post #56 here)

Large International Money Transfers Discussion area

EDIT: After merging, this advice looks very funny again ...

Mike_Power

Hi All,

Just thought I'd let you know about a new online international money transfer system which I have found. Currently it's a little limited with respect to countries, only really covers Australia, UK, Isle of Man and Ireland, but they are soon to add USA, South Africa, New Zealand and Spain.

It's kinda unique in the way which is works and has great exchange rates and really low fees. You as the user, transfers funds (in say GBP) from you personal UK bank account into Oz-Pay's UK pooled account and then you perform exchange/transfer funds online through the Oz-Pay website (into say AUD). You are then simply able to transfer your exchanged funds from Oz-Pays Australian Pooled account into your personal Australian account. Easy!

I haven't actually used the system as yet but will be in the future, seems to be the best out there on FX rates and fees charges. Can anyone that has used Oz-Pay give me advice for or against, I'd love to hear from you.

According to a news article online at their website "Oz-pay is the 'Skype' of international money transfers". So may be the next big thing in IMT.
See Oz-Pay's article here...

If international money transfers between these countries interests you check out Oz-Pay and give me your feedback on what you think.

Check out Oz-Pay now....

Thanks,
Mike.

Milky_Mocha

I posted a question on a different thread some days ago about my predicament in sending money to someone in the USA - USD639.75 and have explored a number of options.

The first option I looked at is Auctionchex. I have used them in the past. To send the amount stated I needed to give Auctionchex £384.00. This includes all fees including postage of the money order. They are quite popular on ebay too.

Their main advantage I found was that 1. competitive, 2. fast, especially if you send the money by paying cash into Auctionchex's account and 3. Recipient does not need an auctionchex account.

Now I've looked into moneybookers. To send the same amount I need send no more than £376. This would give the recipient USD641 to allow for the EUR1.80 withdrawal fee at their end. Someone mentioned a EUR0.50 fee to send but as far as I can see it is free to send. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Even if it is fifty cents it will cost me absolutely no more than £377 in total. That's a saving of about £7 over Auctionchex. I find that so long as the overall exchange rate I'm charged is competitive it doesn't matter what their spread is - it is not an extra cost to me.

Can anyone beat the above? If I were to go the Nationwide route would I be better off in terms of pounds/pence? If so then its worth doing as I could end up making more payments to this person if I purchase more goods. She is someone I can trust with a card as she is a work colleague as well as family friend and I'd only load the card when I need to make a payment.

innovate

I have also found Moneybookers the best in terms of charges - though they do generally take longer since you cannot send any money until it is loaded into Moneybookers. Currently (because UK bank transfers are treacle slow but this should get better over the next 12-24 months), this takes at least 2 working days, sometimes it was four. This is not normally an issue for me, so my preferred method is presently Moneybookers. You are right, there is no transfer fee, and loading is also free if done by bank transfer.

I did try the Nationwide "2nd card" route but couldn't get a second card for someone who cannot identify themselves with a UK address, utility bill, bank statement etc. If you know a way to get a second card for someone living abroad, I would love to know.

Bathsheba

I've found Bayba Express (www.bayba.com) efficient for sending money to the Gambia, to someone who doesn't have email and so couldn't use some of the other systems available.
The downside is that you have to physically pay the money into a branch of Barclays but, after phoning Bayba to let them know and get a reference number, the transfer is more or less immediate (maximum of four hours, anyway).
The website says that they can transfer to other countries, but doesn't specify.

innovate

From what Bayba publish on their website, there is a minimum charge of £5, and possibly some very steep charges. May be ok if you need to get money to someone without Internet access or a bank account but doesn't look competitive if the recipient has such facilities.

Bayba Spain charges look like normal bank transfer charges, and can certainly be beaten by Moneybookers - on both, the charges and the exchange rate.

grumbler

Milky_Mocha wrote:

...If I were to go the Nationwide route would I be better off in terms of pounds/pence? ...

Yes. The only loss involved is postage for sending the cash card abroad. The rate you get is very close to the interbank rate (http://www.oanda.com/). With today's rate $639.75/1.7231=£371.28, although you cannot withdraw exactly this amount from an ATM.

innovate wrote:

I did try the Nationwide "2nd card" route but couldn't get a second card for someone who cannot identify themselves with a UK address, utility bill, bank statement etc. If you know a way to get a second card for someone living abroad, I would love to know.

Of course, it is impossible to get the card for non-UK resident. What I always suggest (and have done this myself) is to open a second account on your name and then to send your card and PIN (separately of course, PIN - by e-mail or phone) abroad. We have two jont accounts: one with debit cards and one with cash cards. Both cash cards are abroad.
One joint account with two cards can be used the same way too.
In fact even single account with one card can be used if you don't need this account for other purposes. Here in UK it can be operated online without any card.

Milky_Mocha

Ok. I think that does it for me - Nationwide for this and other friend/family remittances and moneybookers for ebay.

grumbler

Milky_Mocha wrote:

...and moneybookers for ebay.

I am not expert in this, but I've heard that ebay don't recommend using other systems instead of paypal. With paypal (only) you have some protection in case something goes wrong.