Paypal now charging US$4.99 for family/friends overseas payments.

[station240]

Not including fees for credit card use, and currency conversion.
Below fees are paid by the buyer to send money to family/friends overseas.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees#sending-friends-family

Sending to other countries.
Canada & Europe    $2.99 USD
any other country    $4.99 USD

For Australia
https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/ua/cfsgpds-full?country.x=AU#int_18_Fees_and_charges

Sending internationally $5.99AUD

Way to screw up international trade Paypal, was your greed so worth it ?
Really going to mess up online forum trades, not entirely clear how things like ebay and Patreon type donation sites will be effected.

[ataradov]

It sucks, but it is still the cheapest way to send money.

[ebastler]

Way to screw up international trade Paypal, was your greed so worth it ?

Nicely in line with the current US administration's direction:
Let's reduce the trade deficit; sending money abroad is "so sad"...

[Seekonk]

Maybe too many friends in China. I imagine friends and family was greatly abused. I know I have.

[guenthert]

It sucks, but it is still the cheapest way to send money.

Only for small amounts.  You better check the currency conversion rate and for larger amounts you're probably better off using different services.  I had some luck with XE (xe.com).

[tooki]

I’ve been very happy with transferwise.com for sending larger amounts.

[thermistor-guy]

Have a look at currencyfair.com.

[NiHaoMike]

I see a big business opportunity for an exchange that converts Ethereum (because Bitcoin fees are already quite a bit more than $5 for anything that resembles a speedy transaction) to whatever currency the receiving account is in.

[nowlan]

Does currencyfair work with US? I thought US was a difficult one.
I think there were some other alternatives.

Of course btc =)

[ebastler]

Have a look at currencyfair.com.

"CurrencyFair is a marketplace where money is never exchanged across borders rather it stays in the country of origin thereby avoiding bank conversion fees.", according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CurrencyFair.

If that is correct, it disqualifies currencyfair for the purpose discussed here, i.e. sending money overseas.

[Marco]

I see a big business opportunity for an exchange that converts Ethereum (because Bitcoin fees are already quite a bit more than $5 for anything that resembles a speedy transaction) to whatever currency the receiving account is in.

I think the big exchanges spend a lot of time keeping their head down. Coinbase could trivially add automatic conversion to national currencies for given addresses, but stepping on the toes of paypal and western union is not a great idea. Crypto skates by on momentum, feel good PR and no one wanting to be responsible for bursting a bubble a lot of citizens are invested in ... they don't want to press their luck.

PS. coinbase killed instant exchange for sending bitcoins and they have never offered it for altcoins at all. Their new shopify integration service for merchants doesn't offer instant exchange to fiat any more at all, even though every merchant wants it ... they obviously don't want to step on the toes of CCs and Paypal nor get too much attention from regulators.

[thermistor-guy]

Have a look at currencyfair.com.

"CurrencyFair is a marketplace where money is never exchanged across borders rather it stays in the country of origin thereby avoiding bank conversion fees.", according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CurrencyFair.

If that is correct, it disqualifies currencyfair for the purpose discussed here, i.e. sending money overseas.

I think CurrencyFair qualifies. From https://www.currencyfair.com/how-it-works/

Transfer the money to the recipient

Once your money is exchanged, you can send it to the recipient. We charge a very small fee at this stage, only €3.00 (or equivalent). The money will arrive safely in the recipient's bank account in just a couple of days.

That's it! Low cost money transfer, as simple as you want it to be.

The big saving is in the tighter exchange rate spreads (smaller difference between buy price and sell price). Banks and other services (like Amazon.com) rip you off on the spread.

[thm_w]

"CurrencyFair is a marketplace where money is never exchanged across borders rather it stays in the country of origin thereby avoiding bank conversion fees.", according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CurrencyFair.

If that is correct, it disqualifies currencyfair for the purpose discussed here, i.e. sending money overseas.

They are just explaining how they are able to reduce rates.
ie person in country A sends to person in country B. Person A's money goes into a local CF account, then CF account in country B releases the money (I assume thats how it works).

Anyway, I use transferwise and it works well. Example fee is about $10 for $1000 transfer, exchange rate is market rate, so 1% final cost which is quite reasonable.