Cheapest way to send funds to Europe
 

Does anyone know the cheapest way to send a fairly small amount of Euro to Europe? Not a complicated issue, we're just trying to get a couple hundred Euro to a family member who lives in Ireland, without expensive wire transfers or making her run to a Western Union location (she's done a lot for us already recently)

We thought a money order in Euro and just mail it. But we're surprised to find that our bank, a large chain, doesn't do int'l money orders and the Post Office does Bolivia, Japan, etc. But not Europe! (huh??)

Anyway, ideas welcome.

&quot;<i>Not a complicated issue,</i>&quot; Shouldn't be, but it is.

There really isn't a good/cheap way to get funds from the States to Europe. Few banks do it, and the ones that do charge high fees, plus the recipient will probably also have to pay fees to have the money deposited in her acct. Even risking mailing &euro; TC's will likely result in her having to pay her bank to accept them.

I was going to suggest the &euro; TC. As janis stated, she probably will have to pay fees to cash it but it still might be the cheapest way.

Does she live in a city with an AmEx office? I wonder if they will charge her to cash it. I would ask that question of AmEx.

....Oh heck, just take it to her peronally. I would take any excuse to visit Ireland again. :-D

Hi

Don't know alot about it but is it possible to get her bank account number and deposit the money from your bank. Fees and charges will no doubt apply but how much is the big issue!

No matter how you send it, the recipient is going to end up paying about $25 to receive it (unless you choose to absorb that fee yourself, which you can only do in certain types of transactions).

The cheapest way is through an international draft. That will cost you $5-$10 on your end, and you'll have to mail it and she'll get it about a week later (and pay as I mentioned above, unless you opt to absorb those costs.

Another option is to purchase traveler's checks in euros and mail them. Again, she'll pay on her end ( you won't have the option to pay for her to receive them).And you'll pay a bad exchange rate for the TCs.

A wire transfer will cost anywhere from $15-$60, and again she'll pay to receive the money unless you volunteer to pay that.

There are no good choices that I'm aware of. It might actually be easier to mail her a check in US dollars and have her get her bank to cash it (for a fee of course) and deposit the euros in her account. Send more than the equivalent of 200 euros though.

Not that I'm suggesting that you do this but FWIW, we regularly slip a C Note (or two) into an ordinary letter we send to family in Germany.
They easily convert the $ to &euro;s.

As Janis has said, it's difficult and it's the chance we take. Nothing's been missed (yet).

Thanks everyone. I think you've pretty much confirmed what we were finding. She lives in a small village a ways outside of Dublin, so not a lot of services out there, except the BoI. Just thought it was odd that I could run down to the locale USPS and get a money order for Bolivianos, but not Euro. There must be a story there somewhere...

Tuck, that's what I was telling my wife! It's not a huge risk, really, given the amount. I'd probably just go that way.

My wife just called her Mum though in Australia and it turns out M.O.'s in Euros are available there so I think she's now leaning towards having her take some out of our Aus acct and send it from there. I guess that's not too bad a plan. I didn't think of it..

P_M - now there's a good idea! I'd love to. Oddly, what we're paying her back for is the fees for my Irish citizenship, which had to be drawn on an Irish bank. So she took care of it for us. I got my final papers the other day. I'm Irish! (more or less). Now I'm afraid if I go, I won't be comin' back.

PayPal account.

Congratulations, Clifton!

I'm &quot;Irish&quot; too :)

You might want to look into XETrade (http://www.xe.com/fx). I have not actually used it myself, but I have looked into for transferring money from my German account back to the US. I have seen some other posters recommending it as well.

Paul

I also suggest paypal. She could use it anywhere online and most people shop online today...even if just occasionally.

Clifton, congratulations on becoming Irish. The best I could do was to marry a lovely Irish girl.

Can you deposit the funds in her American bank account? Then she can withdraw them with her ATM card.

I was going to suggest the same thing - couldn't you deposit money in an American account and let her withdraw it with an ATM card.

If she doesn't have one, perhaps you could open an account and then mail her the ATM card.

I opened an account at a local credit union for the sole purpose of being able to use an ATM in Europe for lower fees than our normal bank does.

I have a separate account that I opened so that a friend could access money. I opened the account, but then gave her the ATM card.

Most credit union accounts have low minimum balances.

Debbie

Hey StCirq - I do remember now. You and I had a tangent on someone else's thread once, I think, about dual citizenship. Back when we were just requesting the paperwork. We hope to follow in your footsteps one of these days. Maybe not the Dordogne, but at least the same continent.

teacherCanada. I guess I sort of did too. Well, she's an Aussie, but with Irish citizenship since birth. Guess it's a bit late to mention it, but up until the end of last year, you could submit for citizenship through being married to a citizen. Changed after I applied at the end of 2006, and now you have to take up residence.

On the original topic, more thanks to everyone. I don't see settign up an American bank account just for this. If she were a daughter away at school or something, maybe. I'll check to see if she has a Paypal account but I'll probably just try to slip it in her mailbox (long distance). For her, it's one of those &quot;ah, don't worry about it&quot; things, so she probably wouldn't ever cash out at an ATM, but we just want to pay her back all the same. Great people. Very first time I met them, they practically insisted we move in for the week. So it's just a family thing, not so much like a &quot;transaction&quot; or anything. Just thought it was going to be a lot simpler, lol. Something along the lines of that we were just picking the wrong bank for a money order. Ah well, we'll probably just send it from Oz and then she can't quibble when she finds it in the post.

1. Most Irish post offices are Western Union outlets. If there's a BofI in your relative's village, there's bound to be a post office, and it'll almost certainly have the computer terminal to handle Western Union. No need to run miles.

2. Don't know about BofI, but most UK banks charge surprisingly little for handling foreign cheques in major currencies (a definintion which does indeed include AU$): usually about &pound;10, which is probably cheaper than any other option except:

3. The easiest solution is to do what cousins of the Irish have been doing for the past 150 years - stuff a few bills in your own currency in a letter. No-one's going to bother opening it, and if your relative's got a BofI branch handy, it'll turn them into real money. Or, if you've a bureau de change nearby, stuff the relevant amount in &euro; notes in a letter.

The days when a letter from abroad meant cash, which meant temptation for Irish postmen, are long gone - though even then, the postmen never stole the cash. These days, they're usually begging letters from distant cousins in the New World who can't understand why their ancestors chose to move to a somewhere so much poorer than Ireland and want help getting an Irish passport.

I would also do Paypal. They charge the receiver about 3-5% for the service, but it is fast and safe.

PayPal is what I'd do too.

that said...I've sent US post office money orders to Ireland before!! can't recalll though if they were in Euros or if I just sent them in USD (it was a few years ago)and the pereson recievinig them just converted them to euros at the bank or credit union or wherever.

Wouldn't the recipient need to have a PayPal account for that to work? I would think most people don't have one.

Inquire at your local PO about registered letters. I have been using that service for ten years and never had anything go astray. I am suggesting you mail Euros via Registered mail. A more secure service will be 'insured'.

Regarding sending a euro Travelers Cheque -- I've done that numerous times, and all those who have received them have assured me that there is NO charge for them to deposit them in their own bank account. There would be a charge if it was in US dollars. So the only cost of doing that is the cost at AAA or your bank for the rate they sell it to you for. But for a small amount, it's probably less than getting a good rate and then having a $20 or greater fee tacked on.

NeoPatrick: But there have also been quite a few posts from European Fodorites who say their banks do charge to deposit &euro; TCs. Maybe it depends on the bank and/or country??

I am among those who have recommnded www.xe.com/fx. I use my account to send money to relatives in the UK and I've also used it to pay a deposit for a B&amp;B in London that didn't accept credit cards.

XE takes money directly from my checking account by electronic transfer, issues a bank draft in the currency of my choice, and mails the draft directly to the recipient of my choice. The exchange rate is only slightly higher than the international rate on the day the transaction is initated and there are no other fees. For security purposes it takes a little time and effort to set up an account, but things go quickly and smoothly after that. For faster service I could choose a wire transfer through XE, but there would be an extra fee for that.

Clifton,
I also recently paid fees for my irish citezenship ;-)

just for future reference (although perhaps no more fees to pay except for perhaps passport!) Bank of America can and WILL get you a bank draft drawn on and Irish bank...they have a branch in Dublin...your local bank in the US can order it and they take the funds directly out of your account and send you the bank draft in Euros (or to your local branch if you need it faster), listing the Dublin Bank of America ad the issuing bank :-)

Thanks for all the additional replies. Sorry I hadn't gotten back to the board yesterday. I think we're going to go with the lowest tech solution on this one and just mail it. The registered letter is a good idea GSteed, I think we'll do that. We just don't want her to have to do any signing up for stuff or running around town to get what she's owed and on reflection, the amount just isn't worth worrying over while it's in the mail.

CasaDelCipresso - NOW you tell me. lol. Congratulations on getting your citizenship papers too. I've sent off for the passport, but didn't need an Irish draft for that. Just USD up to the consolate here like my wife does when she renews hers. Passport is muchhhh easier.

Clifton-- you stated &gt;&gt;We just don't want her to have to do any signing up for stuff or running around town to get what she's owed&lt;&lt;. You probably should had include that caveat on your original post....you asked for advice and then end up with a rationale that pretty much says that there wasn't a good reason to ask....way to waste people's time...

Viajero2, I should have. I'm human and am capable of not realizing how much would be involved in finding a money order in this case, as I thought that was really the answer to me original question. I also have a spouse who provided additional opinion on the subject. Sometimes, life can just change on you.

My humblest of apologies for the mental strain you must have suffered in providing your two word answer and my hopes that your family did not go unfed for lack of the time that you lost.

NeoPatrick,

It appears that north of France the recipient of a check in euros must pay a fee to deposit the check in his/her account. The B&amp;B we used in Brussels was reluctant to accept a check from a French bank until she decided that she could send it to her father in France and use the money while she was vacationing there. In Germany checks are also non-existent and fees are similarly imposed for cashing one, according to my Berliner cousin. When it comes to checks, the EU is not unified.

This is just a question regarding the last post which I've been wondering.

If checks are nonexistent in Germany, how do people pay bills, such as utility bills, taxes, etc.? Do people have to go in person all the time to some counter/outlet where they have to pay all these kind of fees with cash? That would be very inconvenient and some people who are working couldn't do that very well during their work hours. It would waste a lot of time, also. It also would be burdensome for people who couldn't get around that well for mobility reasons, age, etc.

Even though some electronic transactions have gotten more common, where I live, you still cannot pay most of these kind of bills with a credit card--if it is allowed, they charge you an extra fee, of course. Some of them can be made as direct electronic transactions from your checking account where I live, but many people who wouldn't have a computer or just are leery of that (allowing direct access to checking accounts, which I guess wouldn't exist if Germany doesn't have checking) or are not up with technology. My elderly parents never would have been able to set that up or figure it out, that's for sure.

I can't imagine my bank charging me a fee to deposit a check made out to me in US dollars into my own US account. I'd look for another bank in that case. I realize that some things are different in Europe, but it really is hard to imagine that a bank charges someone to deposit (not cash) a check written in their own currency.

Meanwhile, Michael, your &quot;north of France&quot; didn't apply to Amsterdam, where I was also assured that I could send or give them euro traveler's checks and their bank would not charge any fee at all for depositing them which would be at full face value. But they were quick to point out there would be a fee if they were in dollars.

&gt; If checks are nonexistent in Germany, how do people pay bills, such as utility bills, taxes, etc.?

Everything is paid by transfer (&Uuml;berweisung). For recurring payments you would set it up for automatic withdrawal. For non-recurring payments, the traditional way would to fill out a transfer form at the bank. Some billers would also send a preprinted form (with their account information). Nowadays of course, it can all be done online. At least some companies (e.g., Amazon) will let you pay by transfer for online purchases. Also of note is that it's far less common for people to have a real credit card. (Debit cards are very common.)

Paul

I recently had to pay some parking tickets I received while in France...so had a similar problem.

I bought an American Express travelers check in Euros and mailed that to the Cannes traffic people.

It seems to have worked.

Good Luck.

Clifton-- I accept your apology; don't let it happen again. :-D