www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Jokey title, serious business. Not the RFMs themselves--they are a small part of the cross-border remittance arena ($483 Billion last year) of moving money peer-to-peer or biz-to-biz between countries (a guest worker sending money from the US to Mexico, for example or perhaps a business remitting licensing fees). Here's an article discussing just such: http://www.economist.com/node/21554740
Extracted from that are these:
The old reliables
Western Union http://www.westernunion.com
MoneyGram https://www.moneygram.com
New players
Xoom https://www.xoom.com
CurrencyFair http://www.currencyfair.com/
M-Via http://www.m-via.com/
The Currency Cloud http://www.thecurrencycloud.com/ << essentially, biz-to-biz but could be used otherwise
2 outliers
M-Pesa by Safaricom http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=250 << to/from Kenya--offered as an example of a biz alliance (WU and Safaricom)
ICICI Bank (India) http://www.icicibank.com/ << again, only an example of a brick-and-mortar bank in transition

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

thanks for the interesting read jb

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When I was born, I was given a choice - a big pecker or a good memory.... I don't remember what I chose.

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...

When I'm feeling offended by a RFM I send the TICA a letter that has been cut open and resealed.
It contains a letter discussing my $1,000 gift and NO money.

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It is cheaper to pay now and get it over with.
It is also easier to get them to leave.

haha That is vicious! The kind of thing I would do for shits and giggles.

Here's more on this money-transfer topic, focussing on WU and the fees they charge. As the article makes clear, on the receiving end, they are frequently the only game in town:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/busin ... imits.html

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED