5 Best Ways To Transfer Money Online

5 Best Ways To Transfer

 Money Online 

Every year, billions of dollars are transferred to various countries – particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America – using remittance services. According to the United Nations, over 231 million people lived outside the country of their birth in 2013, and the World Bank reported that migrants from developing countries sent home $414 billion during the same year. This amount is expected to rise to $540 billion by 2016.

For many years, foreign workers that wanted to send funds back to their families had little choice but to resort to going to banks, post offices, or a limited number of remittance service providers located in physical office buildings. Today, there are numerous options available to anyone who wants to send money anywhere in the world, in person or online.

What are the world’s top money transfer service providers? Here are 12 of the most popular and up-and-coming online payment services, in no particular order:

PayPal

PayPal – mainly associated with providing payments for its parent company, eBay – was originally founded in 1998 as a provider of fund transfers for Palm Pilot users. Therefore, it seems logical that the company has branched out into the world of online remittance. PayPal makes it very easy to send money to someone using either the recipient’s email address or mobile phone number. It offers the ability to transfer funds to almost anyone in the world with competitive service fees.

Western Union

What originally began in 1851 as a telegraph company has become perhaps one of the best-known name brand names for money transfer. In addition to offering services over traditional service counters, Western Union also lets customers transfer funds by telephone, mobile phone, online banking, or through their website. Their mobile phone option allows transfers to mobile wallets to emerging markets, including Kenya’s M-Pesa.

Amazon Payments

Amazon, a well-known eCommerce company that started as an online bookstore, offers Amazon Payments to leverage its already large customer base and offer online and mobile payment services for online retailers. Its solution bears a strong resemblance to PayPal, as Amazon Payments also allows users to pay without having to re-enter payment and shipping information already stored by Amazon. Currently, Amazon Payments is only available in the US, the UK, India, and Germany.

MoneyGram

MoneyGram International’s history dates back to 1940, when it began with money order processing and electronic payments. MoneyGram is now the world’s second-largest money transfer company with over 347,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. In Canada, MoneyGram has partnered with Canada Post to provide money transfer and bill payment services from Canadian postal outlets

Google Wallet

Google’s mobile payment solution, Google Wallet, allows users to send or request money via Gmail. Any money received and stored in the Google Wallet can be spent immediately or withdrawn from an ATM using the Google Wallet card. The funds can also be spent by using an Android phone to tap and pay at a participating store, spent online, transferred to the owner’s bank account or to someone else.