Let’s say that you have a friend that has been going through some financial problems, and you want to help him get out of it. The problem is that your friend lives in another state, and you can’t get the money to him in person. How can you safely send cash to friends without the worry that your confidential information will be compromised?
Use Xoom
Powered by Paypal, Xoom gets backed through a major online payment system to lend it credibility. You can trust that your personal data won’t get compromised on this secured system. With Xoom, you have the advantage of fast transfers to bank accounts, and you can choose to do a cash pick-up much like how you would with a Western Union.
The negative of Xoom comes from its expensive transfers. You can pay up to $5 for sending cash between $200 and $1,000. In addition, if you will send it to a friend in another country, the exchange rate isn’t as favorable as some of the other choices.
Western Union
One of the industry giants with a long-established reputation, you can trust that you will have a dependable transfer to your friend. Western Union offers greater safety through protecting personal information, and giving security questions to keep you safe. When your friend goes to collect the money, they will need to provide an identification card exactly as the name states, and they will have to give the MTCN or tracking number to proceed. Getting through to the vulnerabilities will be much harder for hackers on this system.
Walmart
As you noticed, many of the biggest companies in the business have been mentioned for safe sending of cash to friends. This has been deliberate. The bigger companies have greater security, and Walmart has an added plus of beating many of its traditional money transfer companies on price, such as MoneyGram and Western Union. Having thousands of Walmart stores across the nation and even internationally, you will have no shortage of places for your friend to collect the cash. Because of that, they won’t have to go to a seedy neighborhood to collect the cash where they might face robbery. Having a lot of cash on you even after the money transfer can be dangerous if the wrong person knows about it.
Google Pay
Interesting technology, you can use Google Pay to transfer money via email or through phone number. Your friend can cash out for free with an in-app wallet through a debit card. For extra safety when sending money to friends, you might add an extra step of authentication with a PIN number. You might also use a screen lock to secure Google Pay. A lot of great security features add to your safety with this app. At the same time, Google will keep your payment info and confidential information safe. This is a giant corporation after all.
Never Send to Strangers Online
It may be time to highlight a big safety issue. Never send money to strangers online that you consider as friends but don’t know personally. You have a big problem with doing this: You don’t actually know them. You have countless stories of unwitting people who sent money to an online friend, and they never saw them again. In addition, don’t buy the sob stories. In some cases, scammers will use a fake emergency situation to elicit sympathy. When you send money, know who you’re working with to stay safe and ensure that the cash gets used as it should. Once the money has been received, you have no way of getting a refund. Real online friends won’t ask this of you.
Scams to Beware Of
You do have some scams out there that have given money transfers a bad name. For example, you have some bad seeds like Crown Currency Exchange. When they went bankrupt, they left their customers high and dry without a way to reclaim their cash. You have a few negative signs to be aware of. First, never send your money through a company that doesn’t give you sufficient details about who owns it, who the senior managers are and how long the transfer will take. Second, the company should be listed in the FCA register to show that they are a legitimate Authorized Payment Institution. Finally, beware of extremely unfavorable exchange rates when sending cash to someone in another country.
In general, you can avoid problems with safety through going with the tried and proven companies. If a deal seems too good to be true, you may want to consider someone else. There’s no reason to risk your money. Always know the person that you will be sending your money to. Many of the problems with money transfers come in when people send money to people that they don’t actually know. If someone is asking a large sum from you, you might be wise to go the other direction.
