Sending Money Overseas | My Experience by Zohaib Javed

Hello everyone. This is my first blog & I thought of writing about transferring money overseas. Bear with me on this one as it’s just my experience.
 
Once we all come Overseas regardless of being Student, Resident or Expat there comes a time when we need to transfer money to our home country for any reason.
Reasons vary as it may be for Donations (Sadqa or Zakat), for Helping Family, for paying BC (Committee – How we all love that), Saving or Buying some assets. Initially we all consent to easier or cheaper ways as we all want good rates and save every buck, we make with so much time and sweat invested. We all try for Hawala, Hundi or always find a person who needs to transfer cash here while we need it sent there as it’s a win win situation for both of us. Isn’t that true? do we not realize that we are doing something wrong here.
 
I shouldn’t be lecturing you all who are reading this as well all did this and well I learnt after making a mistake. I learnt when I got a letter from FBR in Pakistan (Yes, I am a taxpayer in Pakistan, A Filler). The letter stated can you please show documents to prove the transfer amounts with reasons. Well at least I have a good accountant overseas who sorted it as I had some paperwork to prove things. This made me realize I could have done the right thing without being penny wise pound foolish. That day onwards I tested services to use for money transfer and shortlisted one which wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Most online services are fast and quick, but they don’t give you good rates while some take time to transfer. A Lot of factors need to be looked for as some have charges for if you send under a certain amount i.e. under $300, they might have $5 Fee, some might charge not charge but wouldn’t give you good rates etc.
 
We have our own preferences also i.e. if we are not in a hurry we can transfer the amount to the Pakistani Bank account or if I am sending it to someone else’s account in Pakistan it may take a few days to go thru while if it’s a cash transfer it would usually happen straight away. For this we need to understand our priorities and decide accordingly.
 
To make things easier for most people I have attached a list of Money Transfer facilities available at the time of research.

Written By : Muhammad Zohaib Javed (Admin PCIA)