I think this was mentioned here some time ago.

Has anyone tried this XOOM for wiring money to South Africa?

It is quite a bit cheaper than my bank!

Les

Hmmmm. Looks like 5% from here.

My bank charges me a flat fee, last time was only about $20.

PM Mike Jines and talk with him about sending it for you.

Rich

$35.00 at my bank.

40.00 at Wachovia in FL.....with caveat that $$ might not arrive at destination account for up to 10 days.

It appears to me to be $4.99 for a Bank to Bank transfer, and about 5%for a credit card to bank transfer.

Am I missing something?

My apologies. I just typed in 1000 and hit the calculate fees button. I typed in 1000.00 and hit it again. Now it says $1054.99

Better

Rich

USAA savings bank charges $40.00

Hi Les

My GENERAL OVERVIEW as I have personally used some of these companies with success myself

There are a LARGE number of these THIRD PARTY money transfer companies that have sprung up and not all will transfer money to RSA. But there are some that seem OK if you want to go that route and not use a bona fide certified bank.

The USA and also RSA are a bit more restrictive than some other countries so you need to find the right (third party company) if that is the choice you prefer

I have sent money with success to RSA and other countries worldwide through third party agenta before. To RSA I used CHITORO.

I just want to tell you that be careful to see that your are getting a better deal than your local bank as these third party agents might charge a very low fee to transfer, some do it free BUT be careful as the KEY is to see what the curency exchange rate they charge as it could be an adverse exchange rate that could in some instances still make the main BANKS overall costs cheaper.

Essentially the key is you need to know the NET amount that will arrive in the RSA account and if that account will also deduct their fee or not.

Sorry to be so complicated BUT I have studies it closely and there are fish hooks with some companies and also some BANKS.

There is another WONDERFUL OPTION offered by VISA but not applicable yet worldwide.

In some countries you can actually transfer money DIRECT from your debit/credit card to another persons debit/creit card in a destination country. So you in effect circumvent the BANKS and use the worlwide VISA network to transfer the money

Cheers, Peter

BB,

thanks. I am sending money to RSA for my head & shoulder mounts on three antelope and a full body mount Caracal.
The taxidermist in RSA sent me their options.

1. To their bank in RSA, the only charges are a flat fee by my bank of $20 USD.
2. Pay via their paypal acct. with my VISA card. Note, they charge 5% for this service. IIRC, that is about what paypal charges them.

That would add about $190 USD to the cost. I think everybody has their hand out...

thanks for the post

Rich

Hi Rich

What sort of money are we talking !!

Does the RSA chap want payment in ZAR as maybe we can do a "dope deal" (-:

I have a few international bank accounts that we can look at an option maybe !!

Drop me a private mail if you wish OR MAYBE look at Chitoro OPTION !!

Chitoro

OR exchange4free



Cheers, Peter

Peter,

I did notice that the exchange rate Xoom uses was lower than Forex but do you ever really get the published exchange rate ?

Xoom is offering 7.0818 vs 7.24 published which seems about what everyone gets.

The charges of the receiving bank are hard to nk operates!determine except for the persons receiving the transfer, right? If that is their bank they are going to need to deal with that.

Xooms 4.99 fee is very low, but really how much SHOULD it cost?

ISS your $20 fee seems fairly reasonable. My bank is $45.

Les

Hi Les

Basically from my experience if you want to send small amounts of bucks then proberbly (third party transfer) comapanies can be the best option BUT as I say, there are a few things you need to establish first regardless of whether you use them or a bona fide bank.

1) Ask you local bank making the transfer specifically what is their transfer fee AND as important, what is the intemediary bank fee which they use on route to the destination bank. Remember that most all banks have to go through another bank somewhere in the world to get the money transfer to destination, so that other bank also charges a fee. This fee varies dependant upon where in the world you are and where you are sending the money to.

2) Find out the exchange rate when the currency you are sending is changed to another currency.

3) Ask the person whom you are sending the money to what their bank charges to receive incoming wire transfer from your initiating country .. Some destination banks dont charge for incoming some do and charges vary. Again it depends upon each different bank if they charge or not

The way these (third part agencies) work is they essentially have their own bank accounts in various countries so that means they make their money on exchange rates as opposed to send and recieve fees. That is because normally transfers from one account within a country to another in the same country DONT attract fees

In summarry if you have some time to do the maths then you can work out the best option to save money.

With large amount transfers it will possibly be best to use a bona fide bank.

Our bank in Zambia (which just happins to be a UK bank) does not charge for incoming money.

In all instances whenever we collectively make a transfer we need to tell our own bank to charge their booking and intemediary fee at source before making the transfer otherwise the receiving end will get less than the origional transfer amount )-:

At the end of the day we have to be prepared to pay for a service whether it be using an agent to sell our house or using a bank to send our money around the world

IF you want to be a (real smart cookie) then consider opening a bank accounts in a foreign country and you can then do your own transfers. In this day and age of the internet it in quite easy to do legally. Just look for an account with no fees and no minimum balance and BINGO you are a quasi bank

Cheers, Peter