Do you want to transfer savings into your own account to a foreign bank or help close relatives? Regardless of the purpose of the transfer, there may be a number of problems when sending funds from abroad.
If you understand the ways to move funds from country to country, you can identify in advance the most common difficulties and avoid them. In this article, we will help you choose between a bank transfer or entrusting your funds to one of the best-known international money remit systems. This way, you can choose the most reliable way to send money to Nigeria or any other country.
Sending money abroad can be very expensive, especially if you don’t know about hidden fees. Banks and money transfer companies not only charge a transfer fee but also offer an exchange rate with an additional markup. You can save a lot of money by comparing exchange rates and money transfer fees. After carefully studying the information about money transfer services, you will find the best way to send money abroad with just a few clicks.
Your bank
SWIFT transfers, cоmmоnly referred tо as internatiоnal bank transfers are an internatiоnal interbank infоrmatiоn transfer and payment system. SWIFT payments are an abbreviatiоn оf the Sоciety fоr Wоrldwide Interbank Financial Telecоmmunicatiоn.
The netwоrk includes mоre than 11,000 оrganizatiоns wоrldwide: banks and оther financial institutiоns, such as stоck exchanges оr clearing hоuses.
SWIFT has been arоund fоr 50 years and has becоme the standard way tо transfer mоney between banks anywhere in the wоrld.
PayPal
While PayPal is a respected service provider and often chosen for its convenience, the service has the highest fees on the market and an unfavourable exchange rate. Therefore, the service is very expensive to use. This results in low customer satisfaction and a PayPal rating on TrustPilot of just 1.20/5 stars — meaning users agree that PayPal should never be the first consideration when sending money.
PayPal is for customers who prefer to use an existing PayPal account and are willing to pay extra for the sake of existing convenience. The main advantage is that you can send money without needing the recipient’s bank details (however, you must have a PayPal account), as well as the wide availability of PayPal around the world, which can be useful in some specific situations.
Best Finance
Best Finance offers a level of security and transparency that is virtually unparalleled on the market. Best Finance provides a wide range of easy-to-use services and features, and its rates and exchange rates are among the best available on the market. Thanks to all this, the Best Finance service maintains its high popularity among customers.
- Consistently one of the most profitable money transfer services of all
- No exchange rate margin, low and transparent transfer fees
- A user-friendly mobile application designed to send and receive money
- A large number of available payment options in most countries
With a global reach, an impeccable reputation and attractive fees, Wise is the ideal service for those who are interested in transferring money with only one provider and do not want to spend extra money on fees.
MoneyGram
A well-known company with a long history, MoneyGram today has more than two thousand employees, 10 million customers and annually processes transactions worth about 25 billion US dollars. MoneyGram fees are not transparent: about 87% of all MoneyGram transfer fees are hidden in currency exchange rates.
Registration in MoneyGram Online is a rather laborious process, and before sending the first transfer, you will need to add a lot of personal data to the system, which is not always convenient.
Contacting the support team is not easy, but you can find the Help section on the site (in the upper right corner of the main page).
Western Union
Founded back in 1851, Western Union is arguably the largest brand in the world of international money transfers. In 2020, the company served more than 150 million customers and made transfers worth more than $96 billion. At the moment, the company has 11,000 employees. Western Union is not transparent about the cost of the transfer: about 90% of the total fees are hidden in the exchange rate markup.
Opening a Western Union account is fairly easy thanks to a simple, well-designed website and mobile app. Western Union provides a detailed FAQ section (though not very easy to navigate) and offers customer support by phone.
