Sending Money Overseas (Argentina)

DavidMarq · 7 May 2006 at 00:49

I need to send some money to a friend in Argentina and am looking for the cheapest and simplest way to do it.

I have looked at Western Union, which seems to be a very easy method. However they will charge the best part of 10% as a fee.

Paypal although much cheaper £7.50 to withdraw funds in Argentina will only payout by cheque to my friend and not in local currency. She would then incur exorbitant fees from her bank to process a foreign currency cheque.

An electronic trasnfer from my bank would cost £20 to set up this end and also incur unkown fees from my friends bank in Argentina.

At this time Western Union seems the favourite option unless anyone at OCUK knows of a better cheaper option.

Thanks in advance.

gord · 7 May 2006 at 01:02

Not to question the situation, but to infact blatantly question the situation, youve used the words Western Union and a foreign country in the same post and its got my defences up.

As long as you know exactly who your dealing with then i imagine WU are fine.. but ive heard bad things about them in terms of ebay dealings etc etc.

DavidMarq · 7 May 2006 at 01:28

gord said:
Not to question the situation, but to infact blatantly question the situation, youve used the words Western Union and a foreign country in the same post and its got my defences up.

As long as you know exactly who your dealing with then i imagine WU are fine.. but ive heard bad things about them in terms of ebay dealings etc etc.

It's a transfer of money to a friend that I trust implicitly so there is no danger of me being ripped off. The money is a gift.

I have no previous experience in these matters and realy just need to know if I have better options than WU.

Jokester · 7 May 2006 at 09:29

How much money are we speaking about, it may effect the advice?

Jokester

DavidMarq · 7 May 2006 at 10:19

Jokester said:
How much money are we speaking about, it may effect the advice?

Jokester

I'm looking to send about £500.

Just to complicate things further my friend does not have a bank account. Agentinians tend to have a marked distrust of banks since the economic crisis (1999-2002).

Economic Crisis

Wiki

So if there is a better and cheaper option than WU it needs to allow my friend to collect the money in cash.