Sending money to the village

[amy]

How does one usually send money to family in the village nowadays? I was transmitting money via my elderly aunt here in the U.S. who gave it to a friend/relation to personally hand deliver to the village. But she is in her 90's now and I hate to trouble her. Does anyone wire money or send checks? Or is this just not done?

[FayChee]

Hi Amy,

In the past 2 years, I have sent money to China a number of times using Western Union and have had no problems. Just have to get the exact spelling of first and last name, then tell person on other end (email or phone) what the Control number is (given on receipt). Also, request the money be paid in RMB.

Fay Chee

[amy]

Thanks, Fay Chee! You are an endless source of information and inspiration!

[Doug 周]

Amy,
I have also sent money to China using Western Union. The fees are usurious. I have transferred money overseas (Australia) using PayPal and the transaction fees were more reasonable. However, Australia has a modern banking system. Paypal does not have a conversion to RMB, so I doubt it's ability to send money to China.
Let us know if you find a less expensive means of transferring money.

[philiptancl]

Agree with Doug 周 on the high cost of using Western Union. Found this out when FayChee and Henry sent me money from US to here in Malaysia to get genealogical scrolls printed over here for them. I had some knowledge of how money, amounting to quite considerable sum and not related to business, was sent to China. These include the following:

1. Money for restoring the house built by my grandfather,
2. Money for certain area of upgrade to the main Chen/Tan () ancestral hall in my ancestral place that is being completely borne by clan members from Malaysia,
3. Inheritance money to my brother-in-law who now lives in China,
4. Smaller amounts of money remitted by some friends and me on special occasions to relatives over there.

I did send once for a small amount (2,000 Yuan) through the local branch of Bank of China here. It was done through my Stephen Lim who had an account there. I did not find out the cost involved. What I do know is that banks over here has a buying and selling rate for most major currencies. The spread between the buying and selling rates is smaller for telegraphic transfer. Besides the implicit cost of the spread, there could be charges by the bank itself and the intermediary settlement bank.

Before I go any further on the cheapest way of transferring money, let me comment on the buying and selling rates of banks. This could vary from bank to bank. I was in Australia just last month visiting my son. What I found was that the spread between buying and selling rates in Brisbane was considerably wider there than in Malaysia. My son and daughter-in-law could be going to China later this year to work there for a year or so. Because of the wide spread in changing into Chinese Yuan for their initial expenses, my son asked me to bring over some Chinese Yuan from over here.

For us over here wishing to change currency or to buy foreign currency notes, we normally do not go to the bank to do so. We find the spread of selling and buying rates too wide as compared with what we could get from licensed money changers. One of my friends just told me that he had remitted small amount of money to his relative in China through a licensed money changer. Pay the local licensed money changer in cash here. His relative over there received the money almost immediately in the bank account nominated. I observe that the worst places for changing money are at airports.

When not in a hurry, wanting to send large sum of money in various major currencies, and there is much volatility between paring currencies I desired (e.g. USD, AUD, NZD, SGD, CHF, EUR, CAD, GBP, RMB, HKD) I normally may do dual currency investment (DCI) trade with my bank at say 50 points below the spot rate (or even at the spot rate) for say one week (or two weeks or one month). Firstly you could earn additional “interest” and at the same time betting that your trade might then be converted into the selected alternative currency desired. If the trade be converted, you can then remit it the money to, say, your children studying or staying in foreign country. When you are a premier customer with the bank and if that bank also has a branch in the other country, you can then transfer the money there without any cost whatsoever. I have done this several time transferring money to my son in Australia. Say you have AUD10,000.00 in your foreign currency account with HSBC Bank here, on transfer your son will receive exactly AUD10,000.00 in HSBC Bank almost immediately in say Brisbane.

Hope the above is of help to Forum members.

Philip

[amy]

After exploring all the options, I ended up having a cousin take money back to the family in village for me on his recent trip back to Toisan. Sometimes old ways are still the best ways.....

[chansomvia]

Hi Amy

I agree the old way, and the only way during late 1940's and 50's was to have money personally delivered to the folks in Toisan. In this day and age where many villagers own or have access to the smart-phone and internet it is convenient and almost instantly transacted using the many wired money transfers commercially available. A security number is sent to the villager through the smart-phone, he goes to the bank or Post Office and gets paid the full amount in Renmenbi after punching in the security number. Painless and quick and avoids the many red-tape of collecting money sent by TT and other means.

Is this the cheapest? A moot point, as one is not usually able to find someone who happens to be going to the village to do it for free, there are charges for sending it through agents and in previous cases some agents were found not to be scrupulous, banks have their charges which can be scandalous. The receiver has to take time off to go to the bank, endless queues and forms galore in China, sometimes need to open a bank account.

We have the need to send small amounts as a wedding present, or funeral white packet, the total extra few dollars spent for this transaction makes for the speed and gets things done neatly and tidily, no need to leave home and go to the bank or money exchanger, and is what we use. For commercial transaction and for larger transfers of money then one can shop around, for small amounts just wire it.

Just my two cents worth.

Joe