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Reviews of the best overseas money transfer services - Western Union:Ever needed to send money overseas to a relative or an online business perhaps? Most likely you used Western Union to do the money transfer. Western Union has been around since 1851 sending telegrams and they evolved into a worldwide company that now sends money transfers and quick collect transactions right from your computer. This is a hard business to get into since it takes a recognized name and trust for most people to give you money and have you send it around the world without worrying about it. Western Union has earned that trust over the last 150 years and they currently have over 270,000 physical locations worldwide in more than 200 countries making it the largest money transfer network. With the growth of the internet, now you can use Western Union online and send money transfers overseas with your Visa/Mastercard via your computer.
Internet Money Transfer - Ikobo - MoneyGram:Ikobo is a prominent money transfer business online and they do compete directly with services like Western Union, the biggest difference being that with Ikobo you need to physically send an ATM card to the person you are sending money to so they can extract the money on their end of things (just takes longer than Western Union). Ikobo makes money the same way that Western Union does by charging fees - $5 per transaction + 3% of amount sent for money transfers. I played out the same scenario up above (US to Costa Rica, $500) except I did it through Ikobo using a Visa Debit Card and the fees were only $20 (savings of $30), but again the money is not sent instantly. Moneygram is another company specializing in online money transfers either for bill pay needs or to do global money transfers. They offer express payment, utility bill payment, money orders, gift certificates, and official checks. They have 92000 agent locations worldwide (170 countries). You can check out their website at Moneygram.com for details on fees and services.
PayPal Money Transfer - Online Money Transfer:PayPal lets you send money to anyone with email. PayPal is free for consumers and works seamlessly with your existing credit card and checking account. Over 100 million people have signed up to use this service, often in accordance with Ebay purchases. Paypal is the "online" form of payment for millions of everyday users who have linked up their checking account or credit card to Paypal so they can shop without worrying. Online merchants use Paypal as a form of payment since it's a trusted source and there are already millions of accounts setup by users and ready to go. If you have an online business, it's almost mandatory that you accept Paypal as payment for your goods. Paypal, having been bought by Ebay sometime ago, is the easiest way to purchase things online and of course they reap the rewards by charging merchants fees that range from 2.9% (plus $.30 per transaction) down to 1.9% for the higher volume businesses they work with. At the start of 2006 more and more articles and stories have emerged about customers problems with fraud when using Paypal services. Paypal is notorious for bad customer service (although it is improving) so be warned that you better read the fine print when authorizes credit card transactions via your account. I have received many spam emails lately telling me that my Paypal account needs to be updated or else I lose all my funds and this email actually leads you to another website that resembles Paypal so you will give them all your login info, DO NOT RESPOND to emails like that.
How to watch for fraud with online money transfers services:Below are some tips on how to avoid online fraud via money transfers:
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