swisshiker

I need to make a wire transfer and heard about this company on the business channel. Their fees seem much lower than my bank's.

Anyone have any experience using xoom.com? If so, I'd sure appreciate hearing about how it all worked out, good or bad.

Thanks in advance.

Michel_Paris

Is this a bank account to bank account transfer, or a person to person (like Western Union)?

sfgirl42

I don't know about xoom, but when I needed to send a friend some money, U used paypal...we both had accounts, they have two tabs, one for business, one for personal. Use the personal and there's a minimum charge. Goes directly into whatever account he has set up with paypal.
I had done a transfer before using a bank and it cost between US$30 & 40...to send the same amount with paypal it cost US$1.50.
And yes, their rate of exchange is good too.
I used it for another person and it worked well also...
don't know if this helps you, the recipient would have to be in a country that has ebay/paypal...

Michel_Paris

Paypal would be ~4% of the total. The transfer would be from your credit card to their credit card. Secure, I've never had any problems.

Bank wires are indeed $$. I do those every so often also.

Cheapest, if you have a few days, is a bank draft. It is the equivalent of a certified cheque. Money is withdrwan from your account, payment is made in their currency, drawn ion a bank of their country. You mail it to the payee. No one else can cash it. If it is lost, you can get a refund. I've sent many of these, and only had one occasion where the payee's bank did not know what to do with it (small town).

My cost is ~$5-6

swisshiker

From a bank to a bank account transfer. It seems like I could give xoom my credit card number, then they transfer the money to the overseas bank account. For sure I'd need to figure out all the fees, exchange rates first. But they advertise that they're much lower (fee-wise) than a direct bank account transfer from my account.

No paypal available on the other end. That was my first question to them.

sfgirl42

Michel_Paris:

Paypal is 4% if it's a commercial payment, .05% if it's personal and a gift with a US$1.50 minimum. I've sent several to various people in Holland and France recently, and one to the UK just yesterday. Would not recommend it if it were the 4%.
Swisshiker: sorry paypal isn't an option...good luck with the transfer

tld

Swisshiker: I'd ask a LOT of questions before committing to the transaction.

My bank's wire transfer fees are fairly high, and I signed up to send money via a another service that sounds a lot like Xoom (I forget its name). Apparently they make their money on the currency conversion, so you don't get anywhere near the bank rate. Their "fees" were lower, but it ended up costing me significantly more to send money through their service than it would have if I'd just sucked it up and paid my bank the wire fee.

Caveat emptor.

bcdnm

I feel that it would be considerate to recount my experience with Xoom on a few forums for people considering using their service. I sent a payment to Italy of approximately $600, to pay for some parts my dad's business ordered, that never reached the recipient. Granted I did not read the small print that you could only send money to individuals, not companies. I spent about a year emailing/talking with Xoom, sending documents, etc, and then another six months trying the same process through the Better Business Bureau. There is apparently no real recourse in this case. It is your word against theirs, and theirs prevails as they already have your money. If it were $5000 I could have hired an attorney and sued them, but that cannot be done for $600.
I used Xoom successfully to wire some money to France to pay for some bicycle tires a couple of times. Due to the above episode I will not use them again. But in counseling someone else, I would not use them unless the amount of money is small. If you are sending $60 (and Paypal cannot be used) and you are faced with a bank wire costing $40 as your alternative, then it is probably a decent risk. This is rather like uninsured/tracked mail through the post office. For something small it is ok. It gets there almost all the time, it is cheap, but if it doesn't arrive then there is not much you can do. This is fine for sending cookies, but I would not send a $500 watch like this. If someone had Paypal, use it instead.

Good luck,

Michael

I have not heard of your company, but I use http://www.xe.com/xetrade/ whenever I need to transfer money.