Ways to Send Money to other Countries

[BlackEd]

Hi folks!

Paypal makes it easy (if expensive) to send money to another country.  Sometimes Paypal isn't available because PayPal doesn't go to the target country.

I thought I'd share my experiences trying to send money to Russia.  My hope is that this will help others who need to do the same sort of thing.  I also would ask that other post there experiences with sending money outside their native country also.

So:  I wanted to send 26 Euros to Russia from the USA.  My Chase Visa credit card wants to charge me $10USD plus 19.2% annual interest on the amount sent, with interest accruing from the day the money is sent.

Moneygram would charge me $10.50 for a transfer that would take 10 minutes or less.  For $9.00, they would transfer the money but it would take up to 3 days.  I opted for the slower method to save the $1.50, and because I didn't want the transaction on my credit card.  The slower option takes money out of a bank account.

Walmart advertises $4.75 USD fee on-line, somewhat fradulently in my opinion.  That fee is only for sending money inside the US.  Money to other coutries incurs a $9.00 USD fee, and you have to go into a Walmart store to do it.  I had to go to a Walmart store to find out that the correct fee was $9.00 (it should have been on-line, since this fee was well known).  To express my displeasure at being lied to, I did not do business with Walmart.

I did not ask my bank (Digital Credit Union) about sending money to Russia.  When I last ask the bank to exchange forgien currency to USD, the fee was way too high.  So I didn't bother.

I heard that some of you chaps in the UK spent a small fortune on fees.  I would be willing to be a go-between.  If you PayPal money to me I can MoneyGram it to where ever it needs to go.  Unless I find out that this is illegal for some reason, but I don't see why it would be.

[David Wasilewski]

Sounds better than the £25.00 it cost me to send money to Russia, and then at the other end, the recipient lost a similar amount for the privilege of receiving my money so we were both ripped off!!!!

Banks are oligopolistic rip off merchants who hold the real power in the western world and this is just a small demonstration of that power.

Rant over

Dave

[marell le fou]

I would accept your offer with great pleasure.

No Money Gram here, and my bank ask for approx 30€ for an itnernational transfer...

I contact you in private.

[Geep]

PM sent on behalf of Big Red and myself

[BlackEd]

DaveW:  Well, the transfer isn't complete yet, so we'll see how much the bank takes out of Alexey's payment. 

Marell, Geep, Claude and others:  Yes, I will make the transfer.  I don't know how much Paypal charges in fees -- I have a rough idea that PP charges 4 to 6%, but I need to figure it out.  If I can, I will try to collect all the payments so that one transfer can be made to Alexey (thanks for the idea Marell).  I will distribute the cost of transfer among all parties taking part in the transaction. 

The soonest I can work on this is tomorrow, so if other join in by tomorrow, I can include the newcomers as well.  I will contact all parties with how much they will need to send to me.

I have to agree that the fees being charged are pretty steep.  If this idea works, maybe next time we can pool all the money owed to whatever party and make one transfer as a group.  But we'll have to see how this works out first.

[Dave]

PayPal is generally 0.029% + $0.30, I've never run into anything other than that. I didn't know they have markups for other countries, although I've never sent money to anywhere but North America, Europe or Australia.

[Lex]

The biggest problem was that Russian?Siberian locals can PAY using Paypall, but are not allowed to receive.......

[Dave]

Weird. What's enforcing that? PayPal locking down the functionality based on your IP?

[Lex]

Paypall is connected to a bank account, right ??   so it wont allow a transfer FROM Paypal to a russian/siberian bank I would guess

[Bel]

All I can say is that the PayPal didn't include Russia in 'safe list' yet (I use my Paypal account 6 years but can pay only) - perhaps due high risk or similar things.

[eastern barbarian]

when you paypal the money send it as a "gift" option  and it should be free. At least you can do that from UK although sending a gift to certain country still makes you pay the fee but smaller that the person receiving would have to pay for receiving normal payment.

[Cobalt]

Thanks blackEd. Will wait for your mail (although I may be out of touch for a week: any player in Papoua New guinea? 

[BlackEd]

I sent mail to all parties who asked for me to be an intermediary.

[BlackEd]

I received word from Alexey.  He was not charged a fee to get the 26 Euros I sent, although he recieved only 25.72 Euros, probbably due to fluctuations in the currency exchange rates.

I've got money from 2 of the 4 parties involved, So I'm waiting for the last 2 to send me the money.  Once I have all the money from all parties, I will make the transfer to Alexey.

If I find that I've asked for too much money, I will rebate the overage through PayPal to those who paid me.  I'm not looking to make money on this.

[BlackEd]

I received all money tonight and sent a payment to Bel.

There was a tense moment there when no confirmation message was received from MoneyGram.  However, this was because my credit card declined the payment (I opted for the 10 minutes or less option).  After two calls (one to MoneyGram and one to my credit card), I started a second transaction.

By the way, the 3 day option and the 10 minute option both use the currency conversion rate at the time the transaction is initiated.  Aside from the speed, the 3 day option was easier for me.  Presumably, though, Bel will like receiving the money sooner.