Best Ways to Transfer Money Internationally When You Travel

The best ways to transfer money internationally when you travel are the methods that are the most secure, cheapest and fastest ways to send money abroad – Western Union, Moneygram, Ria, international wire transfers, local remittances services, and PayPal are our picks. Our best tip is to sign up to a few before you leave home in case you suddenly need to send or receive funds overseas.

One of my best travel tips is to take a few debit-credit cards from different banks with you when you travel. That’s smart, but if your wallet is stolen? You’ll need to quickly get funds sent abroad so your holiday isn’t ruined. Or what if you have an accident, don’t have travel insurance (you should, here’s why), and need a quick loan? Or, you’re at home, your kids are travelling abroad, an airline loses their luggage, and they need money transferred fast to buy new clothes?

While I’d love to be able to tell you that there’s one international money transfer option that’s the best, unfortunately that’s not the case. There’s no single method of sending or receiving money overseas that’s perfect for every country, scenario and individual. It depends on where you are travelling, where the funds are being sent to and from, and the circumstances.

We must have used every kind of method of sending and receiving money abroad in our decades of travelling the world and working and living overseas. Western Union and Moneygram have saved us – as have family and friends! – when payments were late arriving or cards stopped working. Also excellent are Wise, Xe, Remitly, and Ria for sending and receiving money overseas.

I’m going to share the best ways to transfer money internationally when you’re travelling, based on our decades of experience as pro travel writers. But you’ll also need to do your own research if you get into a spot of trouble, or someone you know does, and you need to receive or send money overseas, as some money transfer methods are best for some countries.

Note: we are travel writers, we are not financial professionals, this guide is not expert financial advice, it is for general information purposes only, based on our experience as globetrotting travel writers, so you should also seek the guidance of qualified financial experts.

Best Ways to Transfer Money Internationally When You Travel

Some of the best travel adventures are misadventures, as they leave you with great travel tales to tell when you get home. Like that time in Buenos Aires when Terence tackled an armed robber to the ground who tried to steal my handbag outside a Palermo restaurant. It was not fun at the time, but it makes for a dramatic story all these years later.

Had the thief managed to get away with my bag with purse and bank cards inside, we would have had to email our partner we were collaborating with on a project at the time – the year-long global grand tour that launched Grantourismo in 2010 – to send us the next month’s payment in advance while we waited for new cards.

Technology has definitely improved the speed of international money transfers but while some methods of sending and receiving money overseas are immediate, such as Western Union’s ‘Money in Minutes’ option, others can take anything from a few days to a week or longer depending on where you are, such as SWIFT bank-to-bank transfers.

But some of the best ways to transfer money internationally when you travel simply aren’t available or aren’t as widespread in some countries as you’d expect, so it doesn’t matter how good the technology is and how fast banks can transfer funds abroad.

Do more research before you travel and sign up to a few money transfer options before you leave home, as it can be stressful to do on the road if you’ve had bags or laptops stolen or an airline has lost your luggage. Here are some of the best ways to transfer money internationally when you travel.

Best Ways to Transfer Money Internationally When You Travel

These are the best ways to send and receive money internationally when you travel based on our experience.

Western Union

As far as I’m concerned, Western Union is the best way to transfer money internationally when you travel and I base this on decades using Western Union to send and receive funds overseas. And it’s not surprising as the company was established in the USA in 1851!

Firstly, Western Union has half a million agents in some 200 countries, so they’re absolutely everywhere and easy to find, which is essential in an emergency. Also helpful is their ‘Money in Minutes’ service, which is instantaneous, and is invaluable if you’ve had your wallet stolen or your ATM/credit card suddenly stops working and you need funds urgently.

You can collect the funds in person from a Western Union agent – usually a bank, currency exchange or post office – and funds can be sent from a Western Union agent or via the Western Union app. All you need to pick up the cash is the MTCN number – the tracking code, which the sender provides – and the sender’s full name, destination it was sent from, and your passport.

There’s a flat fee for services; ask and they’ll tell you the exchange rates they’re using; and even easier, ask how much you need to send so the recipient gets X amount and it’s easy to figure out what it’s going to cost you. You can also calculate this easily on the Western Union app.

Western Union also offers a cheaper next day transfer if you don’t need to receive or send the funds urgently, along with an even cheaper transfer service that can take a few days.

The only problems I’ve had with Western Union is if a sender doesn’t write the recipient’s name in full as it appears in their passport. Western Union won’t allow the recipient to collect the funds and it takes some time for the funds to be returned.

MoneyGram

Very similar to Western Union, MoneyGram offers another one of the best ways to transfer money internationally. The only reason I haven’t listed it as the best is because MoneyGram is not as ubiquitous as Western Union.

While MoneyGram has agents in some 200 countries, it has 350,000 agents compared to Western Union’s 500,000 agents. MoneyGram was established in 1988 as a subsidiary of American Express – a name you’d be familiar with if you travelled in the 1980s and 1990s when everyone travelled with American Express travellers cheques.

MoneyGram is fantastic for some countries, such as the USA and UK. However, these days it’s difficult to find MoneyGram agents in Australia, and they’re often located in strange and unexpected places, such as an Indian mini mart in an out-of-the-way suburb in a regional city.

Other MoneyGram innovations in the USA include MoneyGram kiosks, where you can use a touchscreen to transfer money, as well as being able to send money at 7-Eleven stores. These services are not available globally, however, so don’t count on them being accessible in the country to which you might be travelling.

Like Western Union, you pay a fee for transfers via MoneyGram, which can also be made via the website or app using a debit or credit cards, and the recipient can collect funds in person at any agent around the world.

Ria Money Transfer

While the brand might not be as familiar as Western Union and Moneygram, Ria Money Transfer is another one of the top money transfer services, thanks to partnerships with banks around the world (especially in Africa) and Walmart in the USA and Latin America.

I found Ria agents absolutely everywhere in South America and I used Ria’s money transfer service to both receive money in and send money to Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico, but I know they’re all over the Americas – I also spotted Ria in New York – and right around the world.

Ria has some 500,000 pick-up locations in over 190 countries in the world, however, these days they also have the excellent Ria app, which allows you to send instant transfers on your device and has real time tracking, as well as on the Ria website.

Having struggled to use the Western Union app on both my iPhone and Telstra phone here in Australia, I have to say that the Ria app is far superior in my experience. (The Western Union website is better than their app).

Another thing I like about Ria are the comparatively low transfer fees and competitive exchange rates. I’ve long used Xe.com for checking exchange rates and Ria’s rates compare closely, whereas other remittance services can be way off – and a rip-off.

International Wire Transfers

International wire transfers are yet another one of the best of the best ways to transfer money internationally and almost every bank and many currency exchanges around the world can do an international wire transfer – only there’s a catch.

Most banks require that you have a bank account with them to send money overseas by wire transfer, which won’t help you if you’re travelling in a foreign country and need to send money home to family urgently – unless you find a bank that does allow you to make a wire transfer without a bank account.

Those banks do exist and over the years I’ve had to find them in foreign countries simply by walking the city streets, going from bank to bank, asking if they can do an international wire transfer. They tend to be expensive, the exchange rates are usually bad, and they are slow, so they’re not so handy in an emergency.

Having said that, I have found currency exchanges in the strangest of places around the world, such as a dingy travel agency in Georgetown, Penang, which made a wire transfer for me for a flat rate of US$5 and the funds arrived safely the next day.

International wire transfers can be made from bank to bank or from currency exchange to bank using SWIFT or the Automated Clearing House (ACH) and are essentially a type of bank transfer or bank deposit. You’ll need to know the recipients bank account number, as well as their SWIFT code or IBAN number, as well as details such as their bank branch address.

PayPal

PayPal is another one of the best ways to transfer money internationally online – as long as nobody has stolen your wallet and ATM/credit cards. Because to access those funds that have been sent to you via PayPal you’ll need to transfer the money to a debit/credit card.

The beauty of PayPal is its speed, in that you can instantaneously transfer funds online across the globe from your PayPal account to another PayPal account and the money appears immediately. Sounds too good to be true, right? It is!

PayPal doesn’t work as well now as it did many years ago and operates differently in differently countries according to those countries financial regulations, and in some countries PayPal barely operates at all, with very limited services.

For instance, in Cambodia you can receive funds into your PayPal account but you can’t transfer funds to a bank account, so it’s pretty useless.

PayPal charges transaction fees, which vary by country, and the exchange rates are often bad, so do the math before sending funds.

Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway

Lastly, if you trade in Bitcoin then you probably know how to transfer the digital currency internationally and that’s via a cryptocurrency payment gateway, which is essentially a payment gateway or payment processor similar to how credit cards and international wire transfers work.

If you’re new to Bitcoin and are still bamboozled, then cryptocurrency gateways are what enable you to send and receive the digital currency immediately and as more and more people trade in Bitcoin, the easier and cheaper cryptocurrency transfers are becoming.

For the Bitcoin newbies, before you can make transfers, you’ll need to have a Bitcoin wallet with some cryptocurrency in it and the recipient will also need to have a digital wallet.

While Bitcoin is becoming increasingly integrated into the global financial economy, different countries have different regulations regarding Bitcoin – just as they do with PayPal – so you need to do some research to ensure your transfers are legal.

Investing in Bitcoin is still considered to be very risky and we are by no means experts, so do seek the advice of a financial expert.

More Tips on the Best Ways to Transfer Funds Internationally

• Confirm how long it will take to transfer the funds, especially if the recipient has been robbed or lost their luggage and needs money urgently – domestic transfers cost less and are faster than international transfers; some international money transfer services have different ‘products’ with different fees, so instant transfers are more expensive.
• Check the transaction fees and make sure there are no hidden fees – transfer fees can vary between countries, despite what the global website might indicate, so if you’re sending money from a local office and not transferring online, ask what their fees are and look for hidden fees, for instance, if the funds have to go through a third party, such as an intermediary bank.
• Find out if both the sender and receiver have to pay fees – I often forget that the recipient might take a hit on fees as well, so you might want to add additional funds to cover the recipient’s fees, especially if it’s a family member who has had their wallet stolen and are short on funds.
• Check the currency exchange rate being used by the money transfer platform against the actual market exchange rate (use XE.com) – when the fee seems low and too good to be true, the currency exchange rate being used will probably be one that works in the favour of the money transfer service.
• If you’re sending or receiving funds in a different foreign currency – for example, you’re sending US$ dollars and the recipient needs to received UK£ – you have an additional currency exchange rate to check, plus you might be charged an additional transaction fee for the financial institution to exchange currencies. In some cases it might be better to exchange the funds first, but check with the bank or transfer service if this is possible.
• Take the exchange rate and fees into account not so you can determine what it’s going to cost you, but so you know exactly what the recipient is going to receive – the easiest way to ensure you’re sending enough money or receiving the money that you require is to ask how much do you need to send/receive so the recipient or you get X dollars.
• Calculate and compare fees and exchange rates between several international money transfer services – shop around, in other words. I’ve found that Western Union is best in some countries, but MoneyGram is better in other countries.
• Don’t get too stressed out about all these fees and exchange rates – sometimes they might be minimal and not worth worrying about, but at other times they might be outrageous, so you definitely need to do some checking and comparison shopping.
• Lastly, check, double check and triple check details carefully when completing forms, especially the sender and recipient details – for instance, make sure the names exactly match the names in the passport, which is what will be required to confirm your identity when you send and receive funds. If a middle name is left out, the transaction will be rejected and the funds could be in limbo for up to 7 days while they’re returned to the sender, plus you might have cancellation fees.
• Make sure to send the recipient any transfer codes and information they might need to collect the funds, and vice versa – all parties should keep the receipt and any other documentation until the funds being received or sent have been collected.

If you find our advice helpful, please consider supporting Grantourismo by using our links to rent a car, buy travel insurance, book accommodation on sites such as Agoda or book a beautiful apartment or home on PLUM; book a tour or tickets to museums and attractions on Get Your Guide, buy train tickets on RailEurope, bus and train tickets on 12Go, or book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith.

For more helpful travel advice, see our guides to Slow Travel (Our Best Budget Travel Secret),  Local Travel and Living Like Locals and our  Experiential Travel Guide, our tips to How to Meet Locals When You Travel, How to Be a Better Traveller and How to Be a Greener Traveller, and It’s Not Where to Travel But How to Travel.

You might also enjoy these posts on 20 Travel Lessons from 20 Years Living Abroad and Travelling the World, How We Created a Life Filled with Travel, How to Get Paid to Travel the World as a Travel Writer, At Home Anywhere and Having a Sense of Belonging Everywhere and tips to dealing with Reverse Culture Shock.

Have you been in a situation on holidays abroad when you’ve had to send or receive funds urgently? What are the best ways to transfer money internationally when you travel in your experience? We’d love to hear from you in the Comments below.