The money transfer fees vary across the different services that allow you to get and send money online. It is important when assessing which email money transfer service to join that you consider the fees and have a think about how you will be using the service. Whilst it is important to make a note of the fees, you also need to look a the merchants you might be paying money to online plus the transfer services your family and friends use. There is currently no service that allows a transfer from one e-wallet (common name for online money transfer accounts) system to another. It would simply be abused and most likely used by money launderers to ‘clean’ their money.
By way of an example of the fees charged for email money transfer services are shown below. These give you an indication and you can then compare against you bank wire transfer fees or other money transfer companies. These fees are for PayPal and whilst they vary from country to country, a few are listed here. Check the PayPal website for more information because they also vary depending on the type of account you have with them.
Open an account – free
Add funds – free
Withdraw funds – varies depending on destination with some being free
Pay for purchases – free
Get paid for purchases – 1.9% – 2.9% + 0.30USD, 1.9% – 2.9% + 0.30CAD, 1.4% – 3.4% + 0.20GBP, 1.1% – 2.4% + 0.30AUD
Personal transfers – free to send and receive if the funding source was the PayPal balance or a bank account. If funded by a debit card or credit card the sender decides who pays the fee. 2.9% + 0.30USD, 2.9% + 0.30CAD, 3.4% + 0.20GBP, 2.9% + 0.30AUD
There are also fees associated with cross border transactions so you need to check these for your personal situation. Don’t feel like it is all too difficult because most of the good email money transfer services summarize the fees when you are processing the transaction and you have a chance to cancel the transaction.
Keep in mind that whilst there might be a transfer fee and a cross border fee, most likely the total cost with be less than some of the alternatives to email money transfer services. Often it is just a case of making sure than you make the most of each transaction and perhaps combine multiple transactions into one. Plus, some places are now reducing the withdrawal fees or lowering the minimums for fee free transactions so they are becoming even better value when compared against, say bank wire transfer fees.