4 Benefits of Online Money Transfer vs Bank Transfer

Sometimes you just need to send money to someone, or yourself overseas. There are a few ways that you can do this like with a traditional bank transfer, cash in the hand or an online money transfer. This article is going to discuss the benefits of sending money via an online money transfer.

Banks have been the one-stop-shop for all financial services for many years. Most people have a bank account, a debit card and may have even taken out a loan or locked-in a term deposit. As a financial institution, a bank is a rock-solid choice to get your financial needs met, for an often-hefty price.

However, convenience always comes with a price premium. Twenty years ago, it was viable to use a bank for all things finance, simply because they were the only option. Fast forward to today, there are many independent service providers that compete directly with banking products, such as online money transfer.

Costs

It costs a lot of money to use a bank to facilitate a money transfer overseas. For example, when you make an online money transfer with CBA you pay a minimum fee of $6. If you choose to pop into a branch and send, you’ll pay an extra $24 for the transfer. That’s $30! Further to this, there are pricing bands starting with transfers less than $1000 AUD and then greater than $1000 AUD. Sending money online with a bank is complicated and costly but up until recent times, has been necessary.

Exchange rates

Exchange rates between two countries move up and down every second of the day. This makes it hard to predict what is going to happen with exchange rates. All financial institutions are going to offer different exchange rates due to the spread they use. Banks have high exchange rate for their online money transfers; much higher than an independent remitter. Online remitters provide competitive rates because they don’t have the same profit motive as a bank does, so it’s in a customer’s best interest to shop around.

Send time

In the past it was perfectly acceptable to pay the $40-50 that a bank would charge so that your money would arrive in the destination countries 3-4 days later. Now, you should expect a maximum transfer time of 1-2 business days. With some countries, transfer time is even faster, with transfers getting to their bank account in 0-1 business days.

When you send money online with a reputable online money transfer company, you are ensuring your money gets to its destination in the fastest way possible, with only a small fee attached.

Cash pickups

Online money transfer companies provide cash pickup services in countries like The Philippines, Nepal and Vietnam. For example, OrbitRemit has 15,000+ cash pickup locations in its network, making it a good choice if your friends or family back home don’t have a bank account.

Conclusion

We live in an interconnected world where singular online services are the new norm. You go to Netflix for shows, Spotify for music, Audible for Audiobooks and OrbitRemit for online money transfer.

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