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International Money transfer - any suggestions?
 

Hi there,

I work a lot with Russia and Europe but there's problem to transfer money from there. Western Union is too expensive. MoneyGram is pretty expensive too. Bank to bank doesn't really work for me.

I've tried PP but they charge 4% on my side and charge currency conversion fee on the sender's side. Too high :(

Do you know any other options?

Thanks in advance,

Kia

Transfer to what? Yourself?

Or customer to you?

There are a lot of options, but the downside is getting something the customer can use easily. LiqPay is Ukrain based and fee is 1%. But it would involve sender setting up account and verifying card, etc. For one time purchases you kind of want to avoid to much hassle for sender. If its ongoing payments from clients you will have more options and once its in place should be pretty painless

Problem with LiqPay is US customers can not withdraw to Visa. So you would need to transfer to bank or use a non US based Visa

Yes, from customer to me.
Actually, I have permanent customers in Moscow. Do you think it will work with Russia?

Thanks.

If its ongoing payments, sure

Both you and him will need to setup accounts. It uses mobile phone to generate new password on every use, so its pretty secure.

Its best to try a small transaction to see if you both like the system before diving in all the way

Thanks again.
Have you tried it before? Do you know if my Russian customers will be charged any currency conversion fee?

I've used it lots. And its cheap and instant.

BUT. Both parties need to be signed up with credit card verified to be efficient. Verify is just a micro transaction on card like paypal. But once setup you can send money back and forth pretty easy. No holds.

Money in your account can be transferred to a Visa card in about one day. *BUT, Visa does not allow this to US cards. But I could use it on Canadian cards. Not sure what you would do to withdraw though. I dont think they have bank transfer. I have transferred to my entropay account before and it worked. But took 3 days and was 1.95% from entropay and 1% from liqpay

Lots of exchangers also work with LiqPay so there's that too. But you start adding up fees that way

Currencies it uses:
USD
EUR
UAH
RUR

So yes, your Russian contacts are good to go.

But again, with anything when moving money, always tread lightly as anything can go wrong.

You could also look into Moneybookers and Liberty Reserve.

Thanks a lot!
Hmm... Liberty Reserve sounds too good to be true - $2.99 for $1000 transfer?
Do they work with Russia? Moneybookers doesn't.

Have you tried any of these?

Thanks!

Liberty reserve requires an exchanger to load. And fees and speed vary. As high as 7%

Once money is in your LR account it can be moved to someone else's account instantly and cheap
But loading it is where it gets expensive.

I use moneybookers and its also good and cheap. But they are well known for causing troubles like paypal, so caution there

Thanks a lot. What about LiqPay? Any problems here?

I haven't tried for Russia but Liberty Reserve is used a lot for gambling and offshore money movements so...should be good. There are a few people lurking around here who use it so hopefully they will chime in. I have no experience and can't drop names =(

Thank you so much!
I really appreciate your help.

LiqPay has been pretty good as long as both parties are all setup. Cards on file and verified, etc. Just like anything else, you do need to get it up and running. But I have business client in India and we toss cash back and forth instantly all the time. No worries. But again, we are both setup.

The only problems I had were when I tried to get a payment from a new user from the US. Payment took days to complete. There just seems to be an issue with VISA and US card holders. But once 1st transaction is completed, all transactions from that card from then are are instant

Give it a go. It should work well with your Russian Contact

Thank you!!!