Cheapest way to send money to USA

[Buzzard]

What's the best way to send someone $US? I'm not concerned with speed, but rather cheapest. I know I could just send bank money order/draft but I'm trying to avoid getting bent over here. Are post office rates any better? I've done it through paypal, but payed 4% fee. Is that about as cheap as it gets?

[bizaro86]

Is it someone you know/trust that you'll be sending money to often? (ie kid in US university or something?)

Because then your best bet (imo) is to get a joint PC Financial account with the recipient and then you can deposit money here and they can withdraw it in the US for only the cost of an ATM fee/currency conversion.

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Is it someone you know/trust that you'll be sending money to often? (ie kid in US university or something?)

Because then your best bet (imo) is to get a joint PC Financial account with the recipient and then you can deposit money here and they can withdraw it in the US for only the cost of an ATM fee/currency conversion.

That would likely be around $3-5 fee plus 2.5% bonus exchange rate commission on top of the standard rate.

Bottom line is you are going to pay a fee one way or another.

[Jimmy Stang]

There are no fees on PayPal transfers if you specify that it is "personal" and not for "goods and services" or something like that. There will likely be a bit of a premium on the exchange rate, however.

Money orders, postal or through the bank, are about $7.50 I believe. I'm not see what kind of exchange rate you'll get with those, but the recipient can just deposit it in their bank account in the US.

[missdpuck]

Send me 50 bucks and I'll tell you.

[geos]

Write a cheque, send it in the mail. You could even open a US$ account here, then they don't even need to worry about currency exchange.

It might take a few days down there to clear (more like a week) because it's drawn on a foreign bank, but you said speed didn't matter.

Cost? Stamps + envelope.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by geos

Write a cheque, send it in the mail. You could even open a US$ account here, then they don't even need to worry about currency exchange.

It might take a few days down there to clear (more like a week) because it's drawn on a foreign bank, but you said speed didn't matter.

Cost? Stamps + envelope.

I would be careful with this.

My bank has practically stopped allowing me to deposit foreign checks and money orders*. If a check is to be written, I would recommend the OP to have the recipient call his bank and see if they will accept it.

It's really a pain in the **** to send money to the US nowadays. The terrorists won.

* I had a problem even though the money order was a JPMorgan money order issued through Royal Bank as a proxy.

[nfotiu]

If this is something you do regularly, open an rbc Georgia account. It will allow you to transfer money with no fees instantly over the web. Once in the rbc Georgia account, you can write real American checks on it or do fee free ach transfers to other peoples accounts, or American online bill pays.

There is a 4 dollar monthly fee for the basic account, and 20$ for one with preferred exchange rates! But no other fees for checks or anything.

http://www.rbcbank.com/cid-290320.html

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by geos

Write a cheque, send it in the mail. You could even open a US$ account here, then they don't even need to worry about currency exchange.

It might take a few days down there to clear (more like a week) because it's drawn on a foreign bank, but you said speed didn't matter.

Cost? Stamps + envelope.

There is typically a $5-15 fee through any FI to write a US funds cheque on a Canadian account, fyi.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Deegee

There is typically a $5-15 fee through any FI to write a US funds cheque on a Canadian account, fyi.

I had all sorts of problems depositing us dollar cheques drawn from Canadian banks in the us. I think I eventually talked someone into doing it, but with a 45 day hold, or something crazy.

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I had all sorts of problems depositing us dollar cheques drawn from Canadian banks in the us. I think I eventually talked someone into doing it, but with a 45 day hold, or something crazy.

There is a particular reason why we do not encourage our members to write foreign currencies on their Canadian cheques, though you'll forgive me as that is a procedural item the reason escapes me.

I do know as extra incentive we moved our service fee from $5 to $15 on those types of cheques.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

There are no fees on PayPal transfers if you specify that it is "personal" and not for "goods and services" or something like that. There will likely be a bit of a premium on the exchange rate, however.

Money orders, postal or through the bank, are about $7.50 I believe. I'm not see what kind of exchange rate you'll get with those, but the recipient can just deposit it in their bank account in the US.

Yeah....I think this is my best bet. I sent some money a while back through paypal, checked the "goods and services" box and the recipient was hit with the 3.9% out of country charge which was in turn passed back to me. This time I think I'll give it a try clicking the "personal" box. Hopefully there's no charge for that. I can't find anything regarding it with a quick scan on paypals site.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Buzzard

Yeah....I think this is my best bet. I sent some money a while back through paypal, checked the "goods and services" box and the recipient was hit with the 3.9% out of country charge which was in turn passed back to me. This time I think I'll give it a try clicking the "personal" box. Hopefully there's no charge for that. I can't find anything regarding it with a quick scan on paypals site.

Hopefully there's nothing hidden. One more thing to ensure is that the money comes from your PayPal balance or your bank account. Credit card payments will get slapped with a fee regardless of being personal, goods/services/etc.

[Buzzard]

^Yup I did know that much. Thanks for the heads up.

[Josh]

Send it to me as a gift through paypal.