Using online money transfers is perfect for sending money to pay for things, however, there are so many more reasons once you start to think about it. There are many of these money transfer businesses around with some focusing on a single country or region, others focusing on a particular industry and others that offer worldwide money transfers. If you are looking to send or receive money from a specific country then check the links on the right for your country.
Here’s a quick list of some more reasons why you should think about signing up for an online money transfer service:
- Allows you to maintain a high level of anonymity when transacting online. For example, if you are purchasing from an online store that you haven’t bought from before and feel uneasy about giving your bank or credit card details then using an online payment service adds another layer between the merchant and your financial details.
- Quite often the fees are less to send money online, than if you were to process a wire transfer from your bank account to the recipient’s bank account.
- Less details to remember because often you just have to enter the recipient’s email address and that is all. No need to worry about getting the bank account number correct, let alone one of the numerous international identifiers such as a SWIFT code. It is just much easier
- It usually takes less time to do the transaction when compared to a bank wire transfer or one of the other ways to send money such as Western Union
- Send money to family and friends in any country where they can then withdraw in their local currency. There is no need for you to buy local currency in order to send to them. Just process the transaction in whatever currency you require, provided it is available as an option with your chosen service.
- It becomes a very inexpensive extra bank account where you can keep funds separate for any reason you wish.
- You can use the debit card when traveling if your bank’s debit card charges higher fees which is most likely does. Many banks charge a transaction fee in addition to the less than favourable foreign exchange rate when you use your card overseas.
- They are free to open and there’s usually no requirement to keep a minimum balance to maintain the account. Depending on how you set up your funding source, you can initiate an email money transfer and have the funds deducted from your bank account automatically.
- You can maintain whatever balance you are comfortable with and you are not exposing your entire bank account to potential online fraud through something like identity theft.
It is not all about sending money either. Thinking about it from the receiver’s point of view there are also a number of advantages. They include:
- Almost immediate notification of payment and no having to wait for the funds to clear (depending on the method of funding used by the sender). This means if you are being paid for goods you can send them faster.
- You have more flexibility as to what to do with the funds. You can leave some in the e-wallet, withdraw to your bank account or use in conjunction with an ATM card that many of these online money transfers places supply as a feature. Just use it like a normal debit card.
- Using the debit card feature often means you can avoid the fees associated with receiving and withdrawing the funds. Most banks with charge for initiating a wire transfer and then the receiver also gets charged by their bank for receiving the funds.
Once you open an e-wallet account so you can send money by email you will realise more and more times you can use it to save money. No need to go down to a money transfer agent and it can all be done from the comfort of your own home. Likewise, the recipient can check it and organise a withdrawal without having to leave their home either. They can even use it for online purchases if they want.