Vansibel

In a previous post I discussed various options that people use to send money and remittances to their family. The primary method that is used is Western Union, though more and more people have been considering Paypal due to their extensive advertising campaigns attempting to become a popular choice for remittences.

When you send money through Paypal, Paypal reviews the transaction to determine whether or not they think that its legitimate. If its going to an old account that has been around for years, in most cases they assume its good and let it go through. However, if the recipient is a new user, they often place excessive holds on the funds, resulting in huge delays. The average delay is 180 days, because Paypal feels that 6 months is an appropriate amount of time for people to wait.

Is it an appropriate amount of time to wait? Of course not. If your relatives are expecting to receive a payment, they don’t expect to wait 6 months for it, while still paying Paypal’s ridiculous fees. Whats worse, Paypal often then makes ridiculous demands for ID and other personal information. If you fail to provide that information within a few days, they permanently freeze your account and seize your funds.

To read more about how Paypal scams their customers, I recommend reading an excellent post on a blog that we frequently read: http://prevent-id-theft.org/?p=59

So before you consider using Paypal to send funds to family or friends, be sure that you’re aware that they’ll likely never receive them!

Each and every day, millions of people send money overseas using money transfer or money remittance services. Whether it be sending money home to help out family members, buying something online from a distant country, or paying an employee on the other side of the world, finding a quick and easy solution to transfer funds overseas is an important matter. Its often vital that the funds be available within a reasonable period of time, and that it is convenient for the receiver to receive said funds.

Unfortunately, along with that convenience and reliable comes a high price. If we look at the most popular money remittance service, Western Union, we will see that fees to send money overseas begin at $15 and increase to as much as $55. Now consider someone who sends money overseas to their family members once a week, that $20 per week ads up to $600+ in a year.

Today we will explore some of the alternative methods to send money abroad, and outline the costs as well as the pros and cons of each method.

MoneyGram – Very similar to Western Union, though the fees tend to be 25% to 50% lower. Like Western Union, Moneygram allows customers to send funds overseas, where they can easily be picked up by the receiver.

Pros – Cheaper, fast like Western Union
Cons – Fewer locations, often slow customer service, very poor website

Paypal – An online payment system that allows users to send payments to others, where they can be withdrawn to bank accounts.

Pros – Cheaper
Cons – Very slow, cannot send to many countries, requires a bank account, Paypal has a tendency to freeze accounts without warning or reason. Paypal is also not available in all countries.

Bank Wires – Bank wires are an excellent option , and often the cheapest method to send a payment when the amount exceeds $1000. Wire fees in Canada and the United States are usually $25 to $30. A wire usually takes 2-3 business days to arrive, and becomes available in the recipient’s bank account immediately upon receipt.

Pros – Cheaper, reliable
Cons – Slower, Requires recipient to have a bank account

In addition to the services mentioned above, there are literally thousands of alternate solutions that we will explore more in depth in the near future. These alternate options include methods that are capable of sending only to specific countries, as well as other online payment processors including Liberty Reserve and others. Please keep reading. Vansibel is here to help you with all of your money, loan, financing and fiduciary needs.