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Context: Settling small amount of personal debts to people in the US from the EU
When Paypal isn't available, in what ways can small amount of cash (<~$100) be sent from the EU to the US, with minimal fees & administration?
Specifically tried so far:
Any other suggestions?
If the people involved are family or friends, you could perhaps pay something for them. For example, you could add a credit to a prepaid account they have in the US (where permitted), buy them an online-only prepaid visa card, or buy them an emailed Amazon US gift card, using your EU credit or debit card. In other words, pay for something online they would otherwise pay for themselves. For minimal fees, try to use a credit card that has no foreign exchange fees.
Literally sending cash is an option, but as it's becoming increasingly expensive to send letters (especially with insurance), and you need to exchange the physical money at one end or the other, it's not really that cheap anymore.
If it's a wider range of people you're paying, on a regular basis, there are specialist international payments companies like payoneer.com, but that's really a business solution, outside the scope of expats and personal finance.
Bitcoin is worth investigating - I have also used that.
Also, I know you said PayPal isn't available - but I have found this is the best way EU - US.
Could you use someone else's PayPal?
I have used Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers) quite often over the last ~15 years to send various sums of money over the years to family and friends from EU to US. I admit I haven't used them in a couple years, but according to their website it's still pretty cheap:
Sending money to merchants is completely free of charge.
Sending money to other individual customers incurs a fee of 1% of the total sent, capped at a maximum of €10 (or the equivalent in your currency).
This means that even if you send a large amount, the maximum send money fee you will pay is €10 –regardless of the location of the recipient.
If you want to send money in a currency different from your account currency, a conversion fee will be applied. Where applicable, we will inform you of the charge prior to the transaction.
Taken from the Fees calculator page:
For transactions involving currency conversion Skrill adds a fee of between 2.99% and 4.99%** to the wholesale exchange rate we offer.
NOTE: You have to first upload funds into your account, which may take a few days. Afterwards you can send money to various places such as email addresses (which provide instructions how recipient can receive funds).
Venmo is an app for small payments among friends that's gaining some popularity in US. However, from outside US you'd probably have to use credit card, which would incur 3% fee.
I used CurrencyFair a couple of times to transfer money from Australia to Europe. It takes usually only 1 or 2 days until the transfer is finialised. Sending money costs 0.35% of the amount exchanged and a fixed €3 transfer fee. The fixed rate might be costly if the amounts are really small.
Western Union or Moneygram are fast and easy ways of sending money between countries. They have a huge network of places where you can send or pick up money. The fees are quite small.
On the receiving end it's all cash; when you send a payment you get a transaction number that you give your friend. They use that number and their ID to pick it up.
