Mobile applications and services to move money between countries

A few weeks ago, it was revealed that the social network Facebook retries a second time to create a money exchange service that allows capital to move contacts from different countries. But it is not the only project underway. In a globalized world where remittances from those working out is often the only livelihood of entire families, systems for sending money abroad are highly demanded and should facilitate the maximum user experience. This paper reports on the developments in recently in this area, both in terms of web services and mobile applications.

The Credits of Facebook, in 2009, was the first attempt by the social network to create a financial system that would allow users to move money between users or from companies that were announced on Facebook. The intention was to implement a system to pay directly to the dealers who advertised without having to leave the ecosystem functioning network. However, the idea did not stall between users and, after three years, closed.

The current proposal of this network would be constituted in financial institution certified by the Bank of Ireland and operate in partnership with a number of web services that are already made. They have specialized in the payment of money between users and businesses, but especially for international transfers, so they are designed for migrants, people who make their living in another country.

Features of the new service to send money abroad

The main advantage of the system for sending money abroad is that by not having a physical operational base, but are communication systems with high levels of security that connect two bank accounts (a station of an amount of money and another receiving it), operating costs are reduced. Therefore, they can charge lower rates and more favorable than those of a traditional bank or even classical systems such as Western Union and other businesses specializing in remittances that have physical offices.

They are based on known transfer codes between countries and have automated every process, so that the user only enter the amount to be sent and which country did send realized. However, for such purposes, it must link the service with a bank account from which the service will extract the money to send, with your permission. You can make a credit or debit card, according to the conditions that will allow the bank.

In addition to these new services, they also have released some traditional applications for transfers from Mobile, so save office costs. However, as the main defect of pages and apps include the fact that most are in English only, which limits the Spanish-speaking migrants with little knowledge of other languages.

Web services to send money

PayPal pioneered these services of sending and receiving money as well as online payment. Belonging to eBay, the system is global and can access a page in Castilian. You have to register and link one or more accounts to the service, usually a debit and a credit, which serves as a guarantee in case you can not respond with the debit. Allows transfers between accounts of many countries in a simple and fast way, just use a password and the email address of the user.

WorldRemit is a system of monetary transfer that operates between 35 different countries. You must register for the service with their personal data and linking one or more accounts to service. This, acting as intermediaries between banks, promises run with immediacy and transfers reported rates charged in each case other than by country of origin and destination. Reception depends on the bank site conditions. It is only in English.

TransferWise is another similar system that has the support of some of the co-founders of popular services like Skype or PayPal itself. It is designed to greatly simplify the process of transferring and receiving the lowest possible rates, for which rests on a favorable currency exchange during the transfer process, ensuring that it will always be less than three days. Allows shipping charged to a debit card or by wire transfer from the account to the service as the user wants.

Apps to send money

Moni is an innovative application to send money between two phone numbers. It works like a similar app WhatsApp, but for sending money instead of messages. The phonebook entry you want to send the money is indicated, the amount is fixed and a photograph of the debit card you want to use is. The service is then responsible for contacting the parties and the transfer between accounts.

With this system, pedestrian appearance, gains in safety, since bank details will only be given in the form of an image, which can not be detected by any robot or attacker. However, the service is in beta and, for now, only you can download the application on request to developers.

Both PayPal and Western Union have their own apps. The app of PayPal has all the advantages of the web platform, is also present in Castilian. However, the Western Union is only in English. Another interesting app, but it is very focused on Latin American remittances from migrants in the United States, you Xoom.