I could care less about RFMs, but I DO have to conduct biz in LatAm. Uncle Sam is making it harder with new paperwork they are demanding from foreign banks, that have US citizen depositors; the banks would rather close the American's accounts than deal with the paperwork.
Western Union has taken its fair share of skin from me, as well as Visa ATM fees, etc.
Short of carrying physical cash (remember that Euros come in larger denomination bills than US dollars
, I have been sending money through the BBVA network of related banks. Costs may vary, but as an example, I can transfer up to $3,000 from Compass BBVA to Bancomer BBVA for "free" one time per month, and then only $5 on other wires after that. Once they set you up in the computer system, it gets easier. The person on the other end has to be trusted to execute your business, and able to open a bank account in that target country. Uncle Sam is watching every dollar, so it is all transparent, and large transfers (I think greater than $10,000) would have to be declared (don't worry, your bank will declare every dollar any way). Remember that some of the Compass employees may not be very families with this, so talk to the branch boss first. At my branch, I was the first customer to ever do this kind of transfer.Later, I will try out the BBVA loan system where they try to make payments from one country appear "seam-less" on a note in another country. So an American could borrow from Compass BBVA for that nice hacienda in Spain.
Suerte, Amigos...
