Sending Money Overseas: What Service to Use?

When purchasing a product or sending money to a friend or relative many of us use the money transfer services that are available worldwide. Depending on the country you need to send the money to, or the amount you need to chose which service is more convenient for you, and which is the cheapest.

Western Union, is the service that is known by most people, it a reliable service, and will deliver the money anywhere in the world in minutes. Also this service is trusted by most people, because they are sure that the money will be delivered, and on time. Western Union also has an on-line service for sending money worldwide which you can use in order to send money from home, and not go to a location anymore. This service is available not only for the US residents but for many other countries such as England, Australia, Germany and others.

MoneyGram is another service that you can use to send money worldwide, is cheaper than Western Union, and has almost the same speed, the money will be there in minutes. MoneyGram also has an on-line money sending option, which you can use, but it is not as developed as the one that Western Union provides, and has a much complicated process. Also they are only allowing people from the United States to send money using the on-line service.

iKobo, is one of the new money transfer services that are on the market today, but is gaining ground constantly. The advantage at iKobo are that it is much cheaper than Western Union, and MoneyGram. Also iKobo will provide you with a pre-paid VISA card, called an i-Kard, that you can use everywhere such a card is accepted. The money is sent directly on the card, and not to a location, so you can pick it up anywhere in the world, at an ATM. The problem is with the first money transfer, because you will need to wait from 1 day, to 2 weeks for your i-Kard to arrive, it is shipped by FedEx. After you have received your card, you can receive money from anyone that has an iKobo account, on the same i-Kard.

PayPal is another option to send money to people worldwide, but it is required that they will have a PayPal account. PayPal is usually worth your time when transferring small amounts of money, and also they are not covering the areas that the ones above are. When the person receives the money, the money will be transfered to their PayPal account and it could take up to 3 days for the person to receive cash.

MoneyBookers, is a service that resembles PayPal, but has a wider coverage area. In order to use MoneyBookers you will need to have an account with them, and so will the person that will receive the money. The main problem with MoneyBookers is that the process of sending the money is very slow if you do not have the accounts, and also the money will be transfered in the MoneyBookers account, meaning the person would still have to wait 3 days to receive cash.

Please take note that most of these services are to be used when sending money to a person you know and trust. When purchasing a product it is suggested that you do not use Western Union, or MoneyGram if the product if you are not guaranteed that you will receive the product. No matter what service you are using to send the money, you need to remember that if you have sent the money first there is a very small chance of getting them back, if the person that will receive it will not provide what you desired.