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Ask HN: How would you simplify international money transfer?

4 points by adetayo ↗ HN
Hello HN. What would be your ideal way of making international money transfer really simple? What do you dislike about the way it works now?

I'm working on something in this area and wanted to get different perspectives.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

7 comments

[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 45.1 ms ] thread
dave1619
I hate going to the bank and filling out the international wire transfer form and having them manually input everything from the form into the computer. Going to the bank and everything kills about an hour of my time.
adetayo
Are you based in the US or overseas? If not, where are you located and if in the US, have you explored online money transfer services? Seems like that would solve your problem
symbion
I believe the system should mimic the email system: - a simple unique identifier. Eg: me@mybank.com, you@yourbank.com - any mail client would do - mail content (amount and currency details)

Paypal does this but: - it is fairly convoluted process now - requires Paypal software (website or app)

mootothemax
I have many clients scattered around the world - I am based in Poland - and the biggest issue I have is with the US banking system in general.

Pretty much everywhere else around the world, asking a client to transfer electronically to my currency broker's local account (http://currencyfair.com if you're interested) is not a problem. The process is as quick and painless as PayPal, and most times without fee.

In the States though, it's always a different story. Some have to phone up their bank to request a wire transfer. Others ask if they can avoid the wire/PayPal fees and send me a cheque! (I'm astounded that cheques are still being used in 2012). All because it seems that the local banks offer close to nothing for their clients. The concept of using online banking to make a transfer seems to have completely passed the country by.

So, that's what I'd change, and I pray for the day online banking sweeps through the USA as it has elsewhere. I bet PayPal are very much praying for the reverse.

nanijoe
xoom.com works pretty well for me..I'm not sure there is anything I would change about the way they transfer money internationally, well except maybe if they were to make their exchange rates slightly better
kevinconroy
Check out FXecute: http://www.intlfcstone.com/foreignexchange/corpsolutions/Pag...

From the US to any other country, FXecute is a far more efficient and economical way of transferring funds than traditional international wires. Many traditional international wires must go through an intermediary bank, which frequently charge a processing fee of about $20 for each wire they receive. Local banks also usually charge between $10 and $75 to receive the wire. In addition, local banks usually charge 3-11% to convert U.S. dollars into the local currency. FXecute does not charge these bank wire fees and charges a much lower currency conversion rate.

FXecute does charge a fee for currency conversion ranging from 0.3% to 1%. There is no fee for the actual transfer of funds. This is in contrast to typical bank transfers, which charge between 3-11%.

I do not work for FXecute - I'm just a happy customer. :)