Different Ways to Send and Receive Money While Traveling

Different Ways to Send and Receive Money While Traveling

Finally, it happened to me. I lost my ATM Visa card on the very first day of my trip to Caucasus (Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia). This is the kind of region where CASH is the primary currency of business transactions. Credit cards were not accepted in many venues, including the less popular American Express, the only card I had left.

What could I do except dialing the people whom I knew and kindly asking them to ‘show me the money.’ Thanks to all the friends, I learned about all different means to send and receive money abroad.

I compiled a table comparing different methods. The fees might be different depends on the amount that you send or the country that you send/receive. I used 3 methods on this trip, Western Union, MoneyGram, and Paypal plus the information from my bank and credit card companies.

To make it simple, I used dollar and euro though the money was sent in Czech crown. Later I converted them to Georgian lari and Azeri manat. Somewhere in between, there was a lot of loss in conversion.

Note:
(1) (2)  Send and receive fees in most cases are just one fee. It means either the sender or the receiver pays the transfer fee. I break it down to two because Paypal explicitly lists both fees.

(3) Traditional money-transfer agencies like Western Union, MoneyGram, and Contact, charge one transfer fee based on the amount while others charge both transfer fee plus commission fees.

(*) Western Union charges $15 fee for any amount up to $500. However, I paid $21 because I asked to send money to Azerbaijan, not a common destination. MoneyGram didn’t operate in Azerbaijan, and I didn’t know at first. I asked my friend to send the money via MoneyGram and had to switch to Western Union.

(**) Paypal has different sender fee depend on the type of SERVICE you choose and the SOURCE of your funding. Paypal charges LESS for Personal vs. BUSINESS/SERVICE (you can choose either one during check-out). Additionally, Paypal charges much less (more than 50%) if you fund your Paypal directly from a  BANK instead of a credit or debit card.

(***) I used my own bank as an example, but it can be any bank. Different banks have different procedures and fee schemes.
(*+)  I used American Express as an example, but it can be any credit card which let you withdraw cash in advance. Minimum withdrawal = 2.5 euros, max withdrawal = 240 euros per week.

Pros and Cons Between Different Methods of Sending Money Abroad

Take-away

• Not to lose your ATM or credit card in the first place, duh!
• Take 2 Visa or Master cards in case you lose one. They are like bread and water you can’t live without nowadays. American Express is not widely used and accepted in most high-end businesses.
• Take an extra card which you can withdraw cash in advance.
• Use Western Union if you like the easy way and don’t mind the commission rate. They are more popular than McDonald and everywhere.
• Use Money Gram if you want the second easy way. They are almost everywhere.
• Ask local people for other money-transfer programs specific for the country or the region. They can have much cheaper rate than WE and MG.
• For risk-averse, double-careful persons, it might be worth checking if the bank or receiving point where you intend to take money indeed works with MoneyGram or Western Union. Usually, it should have a WE or MG sign posted somewhere. I found a link online for a list of banks which accepted Monegram in Baku, Azerbaijan and nailed down two banks in the center. After telling my friend to sent the money, I arrived at the bank to learn that Moneygram no longer operated in Azerbaijan due to a political reason. If you travel to an ‘unstable’ region, it doesn’t hurt to check first.
• Get a credit card which allows you to withdraw money in advance–in my case know which one. I have a personal American Express card which I always carry, but it doesn’t allow money-withdrawal. I also have a corporate American Express card which I never used and of course didn’t bring. It could have saved me a lot of money and effort.

Don’t quote me just yet as I need a few more rounds of testing, research and gather feedback from others