There are some countries where people cannot easily create paypal accounts. Is there another way to transfer money online?
2 Answers
Western Union is available in most African countries. For example in South Africa, Absa Bank's offer western union services. You can setup most popular shopping carts to allow check out, and display instructions on sending payment with Western Union.
It's even available in Nigeria http://www.westernunion.ng/ a country I don't think PayPal is available as of today.
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thank you. Would you know how WesternUnion works? Would we both need to set up an account and then I would give the person some id via they would transfer money? Sep 16, 2013 at 23:14
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1@Genadinik neither of you need an account with Western Union. For them to send you money, they typically need your name, and I believe the expected pickup city, which is where you would pickup the money. It may vary, they may need your phone number etc. Once they go to the bank and send it, they'll be given an MTCN number. Which is the WU Tracking number, you go to your local WU location, fill out a form to receive the money using the MTCN, and senders name and information. The fee's are very nominal compared to wire transfers. So it's worth using. Call WU for more information.– AnagioSep 16, 2013 at 23:21
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I have tried Western Union, and it works. But if you are going this way, might as well do a wire transfer. Sep 19, 2013 at 5:02
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@Prasad, the cost of incoming and outgoing wire transfers can be as much as $50 USD, the fee's banks charge varies. If the product or service being purchased is hundreds of dollars then in my opinion it's worth it, but Western Union is still most likely cheaper for smaller payments.– AnagioSep 19, 2013 at 5:08
Bitcoins seem perfect for this. I'm not sure how big it is in Africa at the moment, but apperantly it's becoming bigger in countries like Kenya (http://theconversation.com/bitcoin-fuels-africas-banking-revolution-16044). The cost to transfer bitcoins is very low, you only pay a fee when you buy/sell them for fiat currency.
You can just use a service like Coinbase to automatically get dollars for your BTC. This way you won't have to worry about fluctuating exchange rates.