Sending money to Poland from the USA?

What is the best way to send dollars to family and friends in Poland?

Western Union?
American Express?
MoneyGram?
Pol-Am travel bureaux?
American personal or cashier's cheques?
Cash in letter?
Other channels?

What are the pros and cons of each?

bank transfer. It's the cheapest and nowadays quite quick.

go to the bank and do an international wire transfer.

What is the charge for a bank transfer? Is it a percentage of the amount being sent? What about Poles who haven't got a bank account. Quite a few elderly in rural areas and small towns do not, and they are the ones who need a helping hand from American relatives the most.

My recommendation is to send a pre-paid card that you can top up yourself - they can withdraw cash at the post office, and it's probably the cheapest way to do it :)

Arvest and Citi charge a flat fee


younger (nonshady) family member could deliver it.


do you have more information on that? have i been asleep for the last couple of years?

Have a look here - public.neteller.com/content/en_PL/cards_index.htm

There's hundreds of providers these days - netteller is the one I'm familiar with, but there's endless others.

Western Union is $10 US to send to Poland.

I did this in reverse and it worked well.

It might be different sending from the US. I've used it and they take a percentage, on a sliding scale. If you send a lot, it can be expensive. The advantage is that it is more or less instantaneous.

Its much cheaper to do it from the US then Poland.

When I was sending money back to the US it would have been about double to do a bank to bank wire because both the sending and receiving bank charge.

The Neteller sounds good except for one thing. It says the reciepint will receive an e-mail that he is being sent moeny. But what about the majrotiy fo elderly in Poland B who do not use the net? The most convenient would be doorstep delivery of cash. Is this possible with Neteller or any other outfit?

Just give a call when you send money. It looks like a neat system.

Merged:Sending money to Poland from USA or another country

I thought I'd share some of my initial findings.

I'm trying to figure out the most cost effective way to send money to Poland from the US. The following are my comparisons of 4 services:

XOOM.com
$4.99 transfer fee
exchange rate 1 USD = 2.9328

Western Union
$43.00 transfer fee
exchange rate 1 USD = 2.9634926

ATMCASH.com
$5.00 transfer fee
Monthly maintenance $1
ATM Withdrawal Fee $1.50 (* excluding local owner ATM fee)
exchange rate 1 USD = 2.91

Citi Bank Global Transfer
$8.00 transfer fee
exchange rate 1 USD = 2.9843

... so far Xoom.com gives you more bang for your money. Although, the transactions are a bit slow.

just go with the real bank.. it's cheaper in the end and you know for sure what you're getting..

Moneybookers.com is the best way. It's fully legal tho. You have to have a reg address in your country to deposit and they have to have a reg address in that country to withdraw it.

I use it alot to transfer money from my UK account to my Polish account. I save around 3-8% each time. Takes up to 10 days tho. Normaly 3 days.

My bank has the following fees for wire transfers:

What are the fees associated with an international wire?

Customer Funds Sent in US Dollars (USD) - $45

Customer -Funds Sent in Foreign Currency (FX) - $35

Not quite sure how this works exactly. But if you can send USD to a Polish bank and withdraw it in USD, then it probably works better especially for large amounts since you can just take that money to a kantor for a better exchange rate... no?

If you want to take USD out of a polsh bank you need a USD account witht the polish bank. Other wise they just transfer it to ZLT. Thats why moneybookers is the best way to send it. It can be sent any way you want and withdrawn the way the other person wants.

It is probably so if you are not in the US. But Moneybookers.com does not offer the same service here in the US.

I have used xoom for several transactions here in Poland. I pay my rent and other bills. Xoom is pretty quick overall. I have had no issues with them so far.

If the sum of money isn't big, western union or moneygram take both almost the same fees. But if your sum is relatively big, then the best and the safest choice to send it through a bank transfer

Then their family should stop being selfish pigs and move back to Poland to support them in their old age.

I simply log into my my UK bank account then initiate an international wire transfer from there into my Polish account, hits my Polish account the same day and costs £17. I think there's a £10k per day cap.

No FX companies, no annoying foreign lady on the phone who you cant understand and no mistakes. Bloody marvelous.

They might not use the net, but most use cell phones (or know someone who does). The email could be sent to the phone.

And much safer than using FX companies as well.

What bank are you sending to/from?

Merged:

Sending $$$$ to Poland?

People often ask: WHAT IS THE BEST, MOST HASSLE-FREE AND CHEAPEST WAY OF SENDING DOLLARS FROM THE USA TO PEOPLE IN POLAND?
Has any PF-er had various experience with bank transfers, American Express, Western Union, PayPal, Pekao? I think the Polish Post Office also hands some kind of dollar transfer service.

What do the different outfits charge to send, let's say, $100 or $1,000 to a recipient in Poland?
What are the snags? Does the recipient have to be online, have a bank account or go to the nearest town where the cash-transferring agency has an office? Do any of them offer doorstep cash delivery? Is it in dollars or złotys?

Typically, many of the recipients are elderly rural and small-town folk in Poland who do not have bank accounts, do not use the Internet and have limited travel ability.

Merged: What is the best way to send money to family in Poland?

What is the best way to send money to family in Poland? I don't want to use pay-pal, or check, or money order, or travleriers checks, but there must be another way, also, don't want a bank transfer. I am told you can send some sort of pre-paid credit card. Can you help me with this?

Mike

WU is pretty easy to use. I'm making use of them for the 2nd time in the last couple of weeks and the procedure is simple.

I use Moneygram, i get the money in the post in zlotys. Obviously according to the value of dollar it can be more or less sometimes so for me its a gamble. I dont have other cheaper option. I consider bank transfer expensive... maybe it works better for transfer from other countries.

Who knows anything on a pre-paid debit, or credit card, as far as where you buy it, and how it is used?

Mike

I used Custom House. It's a company that Western Union recently bought. They charge $22, give you an exchange rate that's good for 30 seconds (then automatically refreshes), then they draft your American bank account and transfer Zloty to your Polish account. The whole process took 5 business days.

I used them to pay my applicaton fee for the university which I am studying now...and after I arrived I used them to transfer the remaining balance in my American bank account to my Polish account.

I submitted the transaction on Sept 30 (when the rate was about 3.33) and I got a 3.27zl rate. It was nice =)