Mexico received an estimated $38 billion in remittances in 2019. Evidently, sending money to Mexico is big business. A surprising number of money transfer services such as Ria Money Transfer compete with big banks in an effort to get a bite of this sizeable pie. People send money to Mexico for many reasons. Each sender has a different set of priorities. Service providers capitalize on their expertise to offer features which match these priorities. While some operators offer cost-effectiveness, others advertise speed or flexibility. Here is a quick look at some of the best options that you can choose from, to best suit your unique needs.

Speed

If your primary consideration is to send money to Mexico quickly you can safely rule out conventional banks. Most of these will take a minimum of three to five days for processing. Your obvious choice would be one of the nimble online money transfer operators. Some of these can complete your transfer in mere minutes. Moreover, some operators offer unique conveniences. With end-to-end online processing you may never need to go to a bank or step out of your home/office. One notable service which goes a step beyond is Ria. In addition to web-based transfers Ria has a mobile app for Android and Apple, which lets you send money anytime and from anywhere. The app can be personalized and allows repeat transfers to be sent in moments – perfect for those of you who send money to your loved ones regularly.

Cost

When cost-effectiveness is a priority, the best option is to make a transfer from your bank account directly to the recipient’s bank account. This works best when you don’t use the banks’services. Account-to-account transfers are cheaper because there is less overhead related to customer or recipient verification. One of the issues with using the bank as the service provider is the currency conversion cost. Banks almost universally charge a higher conversion cost. They rarely mention this cost, cleverly hiding it in the poorer conversion rates they give. Some money transfer services specialize in this, and can convert USDs to Mexican Pesos at optimal rates. However such transfers can take a day or two to process. Customers should know that in addition to stated charges some operators have hidden costs. Also note also that some operators impose a limitation on minimum transfer amount (sometimes as high as $1,000), and prove to be quite expensive for transfers less than this amount. It is advisable to check your total costs and conversion rates before initiating a transfer. You can do this conveniently by using a tool such as the price calculator.

Convenience

The primary purpose of sending money abroad is to make life easy for your beneficiaries. There is not much point to a transfer service which is inconvenient for you or your recipients. There are situations when either the sender or the recipient does not have a bank account. Sometimes recipients may find themselves located in a remote or rural region with limited connectivity and not much hope of accessing web-based services. Some recipients do not find it convenient to use web based services due to lack of familiarity. Then there are those of us who never really got accustomed to plastic money, and must have hard cash in hand.

Most money transfer operators have one area of expertise and offer one key advantage. Rarely is any service able to solve all of these problems. However there is one exception. Ria currently serves customers in 144 countries through more than 314,000 locations worldwide. You can walk into a Ria office and send money to Mexico. Your beneficiary does not need to have a bank account, a computer/smartphone, or internet access. The money you send can be collected in cash by your recipient from another brick and mortar office, or a cash collection point in Mexico.A simple verification using a government-issued identity is all that is needed for collecting the money.

The range of services available to senders and recipients of international money transfers to Mexico is wide. Each has its unique advantages and shortcomings, because each is designed to suit a unique set of priorities.