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What is International Money Transfer ?
There are several ways in which
money can be transferred. The suitability depends on one’s
situation. The situation may be as follows:
1.You may be settled in a country where you need to receive and
send money internationally.
•You have a bank account.
•You need to send money orders online which is greater than
500GBP.
•The money need to be sent is greater than 50GBP.
2. If you are a traveler passing through the country where you
need to send or receive money.
•You do not have a bank account.
•The money need to be sent is less than 500GPB approximately.
In this case it is advised to opt
for global money transfer companies such as Travelex or Western
union. Both are similar but the only difference is that Western
union will pay out in cash whereas Travelex will transfer the
cash in to the bank instead of picking it up personally. For
such case you don’t have to have an Internet access, No bank
account required and sending money through online can be done in
few minutes.
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But here you cannot transfer money
from an account or credit card it is done only through cash,
it’s not a long-term solution and money transferred in cash
makes large sum unmanageable. The cost for the above depends
upon the exchange rate and the transaction fee the company
charges. It can be a percentage of the total amount transferred
or a set fee for certain amounts.
There are many ways in which one can
transfer money.
The
three major ways of money transfers are
• Cash Transfers.
• Money Orders.
• Banking Transfers.
The other options e-gold, bank draft, sending ATM/debit cards
overseas, cash collection at agencies overseas etc. |
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Cash
Transfers: It includes Western Union and Money
gram.
Western Union money transfer is a leader in money transfer,
which sends money through out the world including the option of
transferring through online or phone. If the choice to transfer
money is made through online or phone then it can be paid using
a credit card or debit card. If the choice is not through online
or phone, then it is needed to locate for agents for both
sending and receiving. The payment for international money
transfer is made by cash. The online money transfer website
provides the fees, procedures, locations of money transfer
agents and also calculates the cost of sending money to any
country.
MoneyGram: Also has the
option of transferring money through online and its website
calculates the cost of sending money to the country of our
choice. It is cheaper and quick compared to the leading money
transfer provider. It has around 75,000 agents in 170 countries.
It works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. In addition to the
above features,
MoneyGram offers the following
benefit to its customers:
•Fast Funds, which are sent, are available for receipt within 10
minutes.
•Economical It costs less than Western Union.
•Increased savings On qualifying transactions it provides its
customers a free MoneySaver Card discount.
•Reliable It has 100% guaranteed service.
•Complimentary message It complements the customer with a
ten-word message.
•Complimentary call Calls the customer for three minutes for
qualifying transactions.
•Invests in Community It invests and also gives back in the
community in which the person is doing business by participating
in local community events.
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Money
orders include U.S. Postal Service and Banks
International money orders are allowed in United States Postal
Service. United States Money Orders can be cashed in post
offices or banks in most of the countries around the world.
Maximum allowed amount is $700 per money order. However,
purchases of multi money orders per day can be made up to a
maximum of $10,000. The processing fees ranges from about
$3-$8.50 per money order. The name of the recipient must be
filled on the money order before mailing. Most of the banks also
issue money orders up to maximum $1,000 and with a processing
fee of $10.
Banking Transfers include Checks,
Foreign Drafts and Wire Transfers
Bank allows transferring money overseas if one has an account
with a bank.
• Checks It may take about 4-6 weeks for clearing the check and
the recipient will be charged processing fees of about $50 |
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• Wire Transfers It is not necessary to
be a account holder of the bank to wire funds but the cash must be
paid. This is done quicker compared to a foreign draft and the
processing fee is about $40 for account holders. The recipient must
be able to access in the corresponding bank.
• E-Gold It is most widely used and trusted e-currency (electronic
currency). It is integrated into an account based payment system
that allows people to use gold as money. It enables people to spend
specified weights of gold to other e-gold accounts.
People around the world can open a free online account at the e-gold
website and then purchase e-gold from the exchangers or exchange
market makers around the world. A person who buys an e-gold account
can instantly transfer to anyone else who holds an e-gold account.
The recipient can then sell his/her e-gold to an exchanger for
exchange of funds which can then be transferred to their bank
account or receive the funds in the form of a cheque.
• Foreign drafts The bank takes around few days to week for
preparing a draft depending on the city or town the person lives.
The draft is then mailed to the recipient and the money is taken out
of the account once the draft is made. The service fee for this is
about $25.
• Drafts Drafts are like cheques that are payable to a named
recipient. In order to send drafts or wires, it is required to have
a bank account. If the transfer is not urgent and the recipient has
a bank account, then this is a good option since it costs less. For
safer side the sender must have a copy of the details of the draft
number, date of issue etc. While using drafts it is always better to
write the currency the same as the recipient’s bank account because
it may delay up to twenty days for receiving funds.
Sending money with an ATM/Debit Card:
In this case the recipient need not have a bank account and money
sent from overseas with a debit card is quick. It is sent as
follows: An account, to which the debit card is linked is credited
with funds by the sender in one country and the card is then used by
the recipient in another country to withdraw the funds at an ATM
(Automatic Teller Machine) in the local currency.
• Cash collection at agencies overseas It is quick and easy means of
doing but often expensive than other methods. It is done as follows:
The sender who sends money visits a money transfer service agent and
pays to transfer money electronically to the recipient in another
country. The sender gives the details of the recipient’s name,
address and secret question, which is security information. The
agent proceeds with transferring the money, which will take a few
minutes. The recipient visits his/her agent of the same money
transfer service and presents his details like ID and security
information and collects the transfer in cash over the counter in
local currency or any other currency. For this the sender or the
recipient need not have a bank account or access to Internet. The
processing fees are usually higher.
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Article Contributed By: Shilpa V
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