Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:41

With the high cost of transferring money home Latin Americans living in the USA are keen to adopt money transfer using the less traditional method of a mobile phone.

Transferring money home by foreign works can be an expensive business. A survey survey commissioned by Upaid looked into remittance habits in Latin American countries and the US found that the majority of those questioned (61%) are spending over US$75 a month on fees and commission associated with cross-border payments.

Unsurprisingly many considered their current method of money transfer “expensive”. Two thirds of those who transfer money via a shop find it expensive, particularly those sending money to Uruguay, Haiti, Belize and Aruba, with a unanimous 100% of respondents thinking transferring money this way was costly. Many more respondents found other methods of transfer more affordable, with less than half believing money transfer via cheque or telephone is expensive (44% and 46% respectively).

While the more traditional methods of transferring money are currently most popular, with the majority (80%) having visited a shop, nearly three quarters of those surveyed were keen to use mobile as a method for transfer in the future. The majority (70%) of those that currently use mobile phones to transfer money are males aged 25 to 34.

All respondents thought that the most beneficial aspects of money transfer via mobile was instantaneous transfer of funds, no commission on money transfer, the ability to transfer money directly to a family member’s bank account, and the ability to directly pay for a family member’s phone credit or to utility bill.

The most popular countries for Latin Americans living in the USA to send money are Mexico (41%), Puerto Rico (12%) and the Dominican Republic (6%).

Stephen Gibb, Upaid CIO, comments on the research, “As the global economic crisis continues and more and more money is transferred from US citizens looking to send funds to Latin American countries, people are looking to a cost effective, easy-to-use method that is safe and timely. The mobile phone is a perfect fit for money transfer due to its ubiquitous nature and the fact that it is carried with a user nearly all the time.”