Colombia Forum

NuevoACol
Joined 2015
Posts: 298

4 years ago

Setting up a money transfer account with XOOM (a PayPal Service)

4 years ago

Ok, so I decided to give XOOM a try since several of you think of it highly.

First of all, this is actually a "PayPal service," and I happen to HATE PayPal due to a bad experience in the past. But... ok, I went on with it. It took me about half an hour to set it up, fairly straight forward.

Setting up XOOM I noticed the "exchange" is already given from the very moment you enter the amount to transfer in USD, so no mysteries involved here. They tell you exactly what the recipient will get in COP.

And since I already had two other services (World Remit and Western Union) set up in my computer and phone, I simply opened them, entered the same transfer amount ($100 USD) and they also provided the exchange rate as well (see list below). I checked these 3 rates within half an hour, so I am sure these are accurate.

Company exchange rate in a $1,100.00 USD transfer You get in COD Notes
World Remit $3,917.43 1100 $4,309,173.00 You get the MOST money
Western Union $3,819.19 1100 $4,201,109.00 $108,064.00 You would lose $108,064 in COP
Xoom $3,766.82 1100 $4,143,502.00 $165,671.00 You would lose $165,671 in COP
As per the list, World Remit pays the most ($3,917.xx). Second WU ($3,819.xx) and last XOOM ($3,766.xx).
Since the amounts I transfer are never above $300 USD, the exchange rate really does not make that much difference to me. Speed, ease of use and reliability are the things that count for me.

However if I had transferred $1,100 USD, I would have lost $108,064 COD with Western U, and $165,671 COP with Xoom

MY CONCLUSIONS: As they say, the "devil is in the details." In this case it means, the "devil" is the difficulty in setting up your account, as well as the data of the company or person you will be sending the money to. BUT ONCE you get all these details sorted out, then subsequent transfers are simple and fast. And then, "exchange rate" would be the deciding factor.

I still remember when I set up my World Remit account a while ago, I had difficulty providing all the information they wanted about me. I had to send them pictures of my Cedula, both sides, etc. I even had to exchange like 3 emails with agents of World Remit, to finally get my transfer approved. This is probably the reason I stay away from it.

WHAT DID I LEARNED? Next time I will do the same… open the 3 accounts, enter the amount I want to transfer and see which rate is best and do it!...That simple.

You can also see the actual PICs of the 3 different “exchange rates” here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ApmSo3iSVJSYc2by5

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