| Western Union(UK) |
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Type - Cash transfer and collection. Sender pays cash at this end and reciver collects cash in local currency at the other end, after giving a transfer number and proof of identity |
Type - Online transfer from your bank account to a special Visa card held by the receiver. Receiver draws cash from any Visa Plus ATM or uses the card to pay for goods. |
Type - You load your account from your bank and then transfer up to that amount to receiver/s, who collect cash in local currency. |
Type - Account is loaded from your bank as you make a transaction (eg send money). At the receiving end, the recipient can have any money sent transferred direct to his or her bank. |
Coverage - Almost every country in the world |
Coverage - 170 countries - everywhere you and I will ever need plus a few more (unfortunately, Nigeria is not covered as there is no Visa Plus access there.) |
Coverage - claim to cover all countries except - Cook Islands, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Philippines, Ukraine
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Coverage - Essentially a 'Western' system. The Americas, West
Indies, Europe and parts of Asia are covered.
Many African and Asian countries are not, but it is excellent otherwise. |
Charges - To send, scaled from 15% for smaller amounts down to 7.5% for larger amounts
To receive, free
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Charges - To send, 4% (min $US2)
To receive, $1.50 per ATM withdrawal
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Charges - To send, 1% (up to €.50) - to load account, free for bank transfer, 3% for transfer from card.
To receive, free
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Charges - Free to send money. To withdraw in UK costs 25p for less than £50, free for more.
2.5% charged on multiple currency transactions
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Advantages - Worldwide coverage, almost instantaneous transfer of money |
Advantages - Excellent coverage aound the world, instantaneous transfer of money, low charges, easy withdrawal by sender, flexible use of recipient's Visa card, security for sender through a pin number on the Visa card. |
Advantages - Low charges, good coverage, |
Advantages - Quick and efficient. A slick and secure operation that is used by thousands daily - especially on Ebay transactions! |
Disadvantages - High charges, particularly if you only want to send £100. Only accept cash at agents over the counter. Problem if you have to extract large amounts of cash from your bank just to take it all down the road to the agent and hand it over! To send direct from your account you have to ring up and use a credit or debit card. For large amounts, there is usually a wait of a couple of hours while they pass the transaction. |
Disadvantages - Not every city and town will have a Visa Plus ATM, possibility of losing Visa card.
You have to jump through what appear to be a lot of 'hoops' to get your bank account registered with Ikobo, but that tends to be normal with today's international money-laundering regulations.
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Disadvantages - Slightly long-winded process to set up payment direct from cards into your account, |
Disadvantages - Lack of coverage in much of the 'third world'. |
Recommendation - In this internet age, only use as a last resort. |
Recommendation -After a number of trials, we thinkIkobo is the best! |
Recommendation - We found them hard work and with a number of awkward ways of doing things. |
Recommendation - The best there is, but let down by its lack of coverage compared to say
Ikobo. Use it if you can!
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