Any international banking experts on here, in particular Africa?

[stix]

I wondered if anyone understands how international online money transfers work when sending money to Africa, and in particular, The Gambia? I sent $108 US to a contact in Gambia via an online transfer, and he only received $36 US and I cannot find out why or where the money has gone? The irony is that the bank is called Trust Bank Ltd.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

[bambam]

Have you checked the fees at both ends? Often there is a fee to pay at the sending end and sometimes there is a fee/charges at the receiver end also. The receiver end is often quite opaque and can lead to situations like yours where the bulk of the sent amount seems to vanish.

Might be worth checking that first. You may find that the service you used can't be explicit in what any recipient fees are if they don't have their own network in place to disperse the funds, but rely on the banking network, or whatever network is in place in the end country. It might be that your contact in Gambia will be best placed to find out.

What service did you use to send the funds?

[MB2]

Yes most likely fees. When you make the payment should be an option on the fees we usually choose shared so we pay our banks and the receiver pays theirs. Whilst they sound high 30 odd USD each end plus the usual rip off exchange rates could do it.


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

[stix]

Have you checked the fees at both ends? Often there is a fee to pay at the sending end and sometimes there is a fee/charges at the receiver end also. The receiver end is often quite opaque and can lead to situations like yours where the bulk of the sent amount seems to vanish.

Might be worth checking that first. You may find that the service you used can't be explicit in what any recipient fees are if they don't have their own network in place to disperse the funds, but rely on the banking network, or whatever network is in place in the end country. It might be that your contact in Gambia will be best placed to find out.

What service did you use to send the funds?

Thanks and makes sense. I just used my Australian Commonwealth bank which when sending to the UK, is fine. Yes there is a fee, but not that much of a fee. My contact wasn't really able to get to the bottom of the issue due to his limited English. The bank handed him a form which had up to four different bank accounts around the world that they said I would have to route the money through in future to avoid losing so much money. I couldn't make any sense of it all. It's such a shame as it could have been so easy but I can only assume they take huge fees and taxes.

[stix]

Yes most likely fees. When you make the payment should be an option on the fees we usually choose shared so we pay our banks and the receiver pays theirs. Whilst they sound high 30 odd USD each end plus the usual rip off exchange rates could do it.


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

I paid $6 US dollars my end in fees, which was fair enough and was on top of the 108.

[bambam]

Is there a service like World Remit in Australia? They, and others like them, have their own network which means they settle the funds directly and the fees are often lower.

CBA are a good outfit and their fees seem reasonable. Sending to/from Australia to UK will likely have lower fees than parts of Africa.

[seikopath]

You think this is bad, have a look at how much aid money actually gets through

[stix]

Is there a service like World Remit in Australia? They, and others like them, have their own network which means they settle the funds directly and the fees are often lower.

CBA are a good outfit and their fees seem reasonable. Sending to/from Australia to UK will likely have lower fees than parts of Africa.

I was using Western Union up until recently when they decided my contact was a fraud, even though I have been supporting him for over 7 years! I am still trying to get it resolved as it worked fine. World Remit has terrible reviews as does many of the other operators. It's a bit of a snake pit. I will look into CBA.

Thanks for the advice.

Edit: Just re-read and misunderstood your remark re CBA haha silly me.

[bambam]

I was using Western Union up until recently when they decided my contact was a fraud, even though I have been supporting him for over 7 years! I am still trying to get it resolved as it worked fine. World Remit has terrible reviews as does many of the other operators. It's a bit of a snake pit. I will look into CBA.

Thanks for the advice.

Edit: Just re-read and misunderstood your remark re CBA haha silly me.

No problem, I worked in banking for a while so the CBA acronym came naturally - I thought I had excised all trace of my time there!