Welcome to the SaveOnSend Blog
This is a test version — we need your feedback to get it right! Write to admin@saveonsend.com
Money Transfer to Philippines: Review and Tips
Are you sending money from USA to Philippines? Want to get the most pesos for your dollars or receive most dollars in Philippines? Not sure which provider is the best, cheapest or fastest? Should your funds be received in pesos or dollars? YOU came to the right place! We will cover all most important topics:
-
Money Transfer to Philippines: current state and key trends
-
Pesos to dollar exchange rates and timing
-
Top money transfer providers
-
Receiving money transfer in pesos or dollars
-
Sending larger money transfer amounts
-
Choosing the best receiving method
-
Finding the best way to send money
Please note this post is specific to Philippines. If you are looking for general knowledge of how to best send money, please review this other SaveOnSend blog post first.
Before we get started… Great news if you are a consumer sending money from USA to Philippines: it is currently one of the most competitive corridors from USA, attracting more providers and larger investments than many other destinations. You are in luck with variety of choices and lavish promotions which don’t exist for some other destinations. Continue Reading
TRANSFAST, Worldwide Money Transfer Company Background & Industry View
“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
– Warren Buffett
Transfast presents a particularly interesting case among providers of international person–to–person remittances. While we often read about startups or bitcoin taking on the industry’s largest players, Western Union and MoneyGram, Transfast is unique in being an independent, private equity–backed company that is in–between those extremes. Transfast straddles both offline and online worlds across the globe, while being nimble enough to maintain an entrepreneurial / startup culture. In the last eight years, Transfast has grown ten times, expanding from a narrow focus of sending money between the U.S. and Latin American corridors to a truly global provider. Their story and insights on the industry are quite unique and informative.
This blog is specific to Transfast – if you are looking for more general knowledge on the best ways to transfer money, check other SaveOnSend blog posts.
We will cover questions like:
-
Should I use Transfast to transfer money from the U.S. to India, Philippines, Mexico or China?
-
How do Transfast’s fees and exchange rates compare with other money transfer companies?
-
How is Transfast different vs. other online remittance providers?
We will structure this post as follows:
1. Transfast’s history in money transfer
2. Transfast’s pricing: fees + FX markup (exchange rate)
3. Whether or not you should use Transfast for money transfer
4. Transfast CEO’s views on the money transfer industry and current trends
International Money Transfer Services: Lean and Hungry
Do remittance startups have fundamentally different cost structure vs. incumbents? What are the primary customer acquisition channels for money transmitters? What can explain massively higher relative valuations of remittance startups vs. established providers? If you are interested in such questions, this article is for YOU.
We will cover the following topics:
-
Customers
-
Operating models
-
Acquisition channels
-
Valuations
Continue Reading
Western Union: permanent leader of international money transfer?
“… long, sorry decline has left the 140-year-old company a shell of its former self. Today, it is fighting for its very survival. Western Union fell victim to technological advances…”
Reading current reporting about Western Union’s role in international remittances could make us think that the company has been a successful monopoly of this space forever, but, now, with the arrival of some disruptive innovation (“P2P”, “Bitcoin”, “Social”, “Mobile”…), there is a real danger of its imminent demise. In reality, Western Union began providing international money transfers around 30 years ago, when deregulation allowed a previously domestic service to expand internationally. In these three decades, Western Union had plenty of upheavals, going near or into a bankruptcy more than once. Even after the company was resurrected as an independent entity in 2006, its performance has been highly volatile with less 10% growth in stock price over the last 9+ years. While it is better than Xoom‘s performance since its IPO or than its main competitor, MoneyGram, Western Union’ stock trajectory has been dwarfed by the overall market:
TransferWise: Rebel, What is Your Cause?
Tale of Two TransferWises
“Revolution is a tough business. You can
– Lenin
TransferWise’ story usually goes like this, “Entrepreneur from Estonia, who was the first Skype employee, got tired of paying huge fees to banks for money transfer from UK to Estonia. So he came up with a brilliant idea of matching remittance senders and receivers in the same country, aka, “P2P.” TransferWise was launched with an office sauna and employees who don’t mind getting undressed to fight a hiding evil. They got funding from crème de la crème of investors like Peter Thiel, Richard Branson, Ben Horowitz becoming “unicorn” with $1B valuation in the process. TransferWise has been successfully taking on banks and Western Union with cheapest and most transparent fees. All it is done with the key objective to make the world a better place by saving poor-unbanked-women from oppression of remittance incumbents.” As with any good story, and TransferWise is a particular standout in otherwise mundane fintech collection, it has all the key elements: suffering helpless victims, conniving old despots, and young-good-looking savior with clever tricks. And with like most of good stories, it is quite accurate on a surface. So let’s start with what is true…
Does Bitcoin make sense for international money transfer?
“I think we will know when bitcoin has reached prime time when it is transferring more value each day than Western Union or Money Gram…”
Bitcoin money transfer is usually discussed in either sensational or downright misleading way. There is a significant category of Bitcoin stakeholders and observers who seem to be completely vested in this innovative product’s awesome potential and are unable to entertain a deviating opinion. This very smart and capable, but, unfortunately, close-minded group believes that Bitcoin cancels a need for regulation and would soon destroy Visa, Western Union and “banks.” Articles written for and by such audience are easy to find, and we will not link to them to avoid enabling such either outrageously ignorant or deceptive opinions.
Rational view of Bitcoin for Sending Money
In this context, we are always grateful to find a write-up about Bitcoin for remittances which attempts to be more objective. Here are some examples: Bootstrappers guide to bitcoin remittances, Tackling bitcoin price swings OR
Banks And Money Transfer: Sleeping Giants?
“The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”
– Arab Proverb
The premise of money transfer startups’ PR pitch revolves around a relatively intuitive notion when it comes to the role of banks: they are sleeping giants with bureaucratic culture, awful customer service and backward digital capabilities, so it is just a matter of few years before banks will be disrupted out of cross-border money transfers, also known as “remittances.” Paradoxically, the first part is not incorrect. Moreover, banks don’t view money transfers as strategic business or care which flavor-of-the-month startup is bragging about their imminent disruption. However, while majority of those remittance startups will be gone in few years, the leading role of banks in this space will remain forever. How could that be?
Money Transfer Startups: race against time?
“High fees, large incumbents, and a $400B+ market are under attack by a slew of remittance startups.”
– CB Insights, February 26, 2015
The best feature of being a startup during a bubble is TIME. Investors, usually impatient folks, are doing much better and encouraging startups to focus on growth rather than boring corporate stuff like “revenues” or, even worse, “profits.” Why bother with positive cash flows when investors are stuffed with money and more are available with a quick WhatsApp message? This is especially true when considering such seemingly easy and huge market as international remittances: $0.6T in size, ruled by one, hopefully, incompetent, colossus.
Source: publicly available data as of June 2015 and proprietary analysis
Money Transfer to China: Review and Tips
Are you sending money from USA to China? Want to get the most yuan for your dollars or receive most dollars in China? Not sure which provider is the best, cheapest or fastest? Should your funds be received in renminbi or dollars? YOU came to the right place! We will cover all most important topics:
-
Current state and key trends for sending money from USA to China
-
Yuan to dollar exchange rates and timing
-
Top money transfer providers
-
Receiving in renminbi or dollars
-
Finding fastest and cheapest vs. better and best money transmitters
Recent Comments