Needing to send money from US to England, I started to research my
options.  It didn't take me long to find out that there were a lot
of _bad_ options, financially speaking.

The problem was largely due to the need to convert USD to GBP.  My
personal bank wanted $45.00 to send funds via wire, and could not tell
me the exchange rate in advance, nor what it was based on, and it would
require banking info from the recipient.

PayPal would charge 2.9% + $0.30 + a 2.5% conversion fee (for example,
$54.30 for $1000.00) after a poor exchange rate, assuming PayPal was
even available on the other end.  USPS "International Money Orders"
don't support Europe at all; I wonder why they call them "International".

Western Union wanted $81.00 (plus an unknown currency exchange rate,
available only by phone) to transfer $1000.00.  Purchase of an
international Visa Debit Card had similar costs, for instance, iKobo
wanted $5.00 + 3% + $9.95 delivery + $1.99 withdrawal by recipient
which totals $46.94 on $1000.00.

I knew that a "bank draft" (check) in the correct currency could be
easily deposited by the recipient, but my local bank could not supply
one.  I eventually discovered that XEtrade (www.XETrade.com) supported
15 currencies, and could do exactly what I wanted with NO fees at all
-- they make their money only from the "spread" between buy/sell rates,
and they will send the payment in the form of a bank draft directly to
the recipient, again with _no_ fee.  Their exchange rates are not bad
either, in my experience about 2.5% off the mid-market rate.  An actual
transaction using EFT [Electronic Funds Transfer] (direct withdrawal)
from my bank account, and paid out as a bank draft sent by mail, took
less than 10 days for the recipient to receive the draft (mailed from
Canada, where they are physically located).

If any of you choose to set up an account with XEtrade, note that their
security standards will require you to scan/fax documentation to them,
and they will actually set up an appointment to phone you in order to
verify your information, but I consider their professional diligence an
asset -- I was much more comfortable with high security than the lack
thereof.  Also note that their web site is designed with a professional
approach, easy to use but expecting you to know what you are doing.  If
you send money to some scammer, that's your responsibility and your loss.

Obviously I have no personal ties to this company; I just wanted to
share my positive personal experience.

Todd Augsburger -- Roller Organs
http://www.rollerorgans.com/

 [ At https://www.xe.com/fx/ :
 [ "XEtrade is the on-line discount foreign exchange service of XE.com"
 [ -- Robbie