Is there a better way to do remittances in 2024?
October 4, 2024 2:01 PM   Subscribe

Friends and I send remittance payments to a mutual friend in Guatemala, once a month, and the typical services (Western Union, Ria, etc.) have extremely annoying limits which seem arbitrary and can never be explained to us by the wire services. Is there a better way, anno domini 2024?

She is a pretty average Guatemalan, which is to say that she is not rich, she is not allowed to travel to the US for any purpose, including bringing documents here to set up a bank account, and she would have difficulty receiving a debit card via mail to her residence (there's not really a postal service in Guate). She does have easy access to the regular group of Guatemalan banks, like BanRural, BAM, G&T, etc.

I guess the ideal situation would be one that satisfied the following goals:

1. Doesn't get anyone in any kind of official trouble in either country. (Again, these are just non-commercial foreign transactions . . . run of the mill remisas.)

2. Does not have a monthly limit under like $2,000.

3. Would be easy for at least one US citizen to put money into, and would be easy for her to get in Xelaju, Guatemala.

Things I could envision are:

1. Some kind of joint bank account in a Guatemalan bank, but I'm not sure how I could establish an account in Guatemala, and neither is she.

2. Some kind of "status" in the existing wire transfer services that allows her to receive more money.

3. Some kind of online international bank account or joint account, and we could send her a debit card via DHL?

Anyway. Just looking for a road map. She doesn't have one and I can't really figure it out. Or even just to know there's no solution would be amazing.
posted by kensington314 to Work & Money (9 answers total)
 
Check out Remitly. A good friend uses it to send money to family in Colombia and it looks like they do Guatemala as well. A quick search indicates their 30-day limit is $10,000-20,000 depending on what tier of service you sign up for.
posted by outfielder at 2:07 PM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you, outfielder. I'll check that one! Not to threadsit but I think part of the issue is less the sending limit, and more the recipient limit. Apparently every bank has a different monthly limit for the recipient and no wire service can ever tell me what they are. You just have to . . . hit the limit. But I'll contact them and inquire about what they know regarding recipient limits!
posted by kensington314 at 2:12 PM on October 4, 2024


Crypto, if she’s got reliable access to the internet and has ID so she can get a crypto exchange account (this is needed to convert to local currency and send that to her bank), is an option.
posted by The Last Sockpuppet at 2:42 PM on October 4, 2024 [1 favorite]


You said she can't travel to the U.S., could you travel to Guatemala to set up an account there?

Another possibility is that she opens an account for the purpose of receiving the money. Gives you the card number and pin. You download and install the bank's app (this may require either downloading the app from somewhere other then the play store or travelling to guatemala) and use the app to deposit a cheque each month.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:02 PM on October 4, 2024


Best answer: If the limits are on her bank's side, could she open herself a second regular local bank account? Assuming that's not a problem in Guatemala, she might be able to double her limit that way.

Also, has she tried talking with whoever's in charge of her account at her bank to learn more about the limit and whether it can be increased?

Some kind of online international bank account or joint account, and we could send her a debit card via DHL?

Theoretically you could open a regular US bank account and send her the debit card or a credit card paid from that account (making sure to unlock it for international use). You'll have to investigate the best fees/conversion rates, and think about what to do if the card/information gets stolen.
posted by trig at 6:18 PM on October 4, 2024


Best answer: 2nding Remitly, literally their entire reason for being a company is to make this suck less.
posted by potrzebie at 6:26 PM on October 4, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You may want to ask the destination country's diaspora community in your area and see what they use. They often have informal networks that are NOT registered money remitters, but have a reputation of working well by reputation only. I know because I use one such for remitting money to Vietnam (long story).
posted by kschang at 10:18 PM on October 4, 2024


In your place, I would worry about tickling some government entity's anti-money laundering antenna. That may be the reason for the limits you have described. Of course, money sent back by family members working in the US is an important cash flow for many smaller countries, so they have to be realistic about it.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:57 AM on October 5, 2024


Wise is my go to for every currency problem I have, and the app appears to be happy to send money to a recipient's Guatemalan bank account for a fairly long list of banks. It will do the conversion to the Guatemalan currency and has reputation for giving good exchange rates. Here is their page on limits - looks like it won't cause you a problem.

It's free to set an account up, so you could experiment with that relatively easily. (And if you have a friend with the app go ask for a referral code, they get a small bonus.)
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 2:00 PM on October 5, 2024 [1 favorite]


« Older can i p/ate my prius in gold, metaphorically or...   |   Software for Animating MacBeth Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments