If you’re a student who is working abroad and wants to send some money home from a part-time job, you only have a few different options to do this right now.
This can include using a bank to transfer your money, which will probably require having a bank account in a foreign country. You can write a check and send it back home to Canada or the United States and hope it can get cashed quickly.
Sending a Foreign Check
When you send a foreign check back home, you have to make sure that the bank in the United States will be able to cash it, which takes extra time to verify. This can be expensive as the American bank will usually keep a percentage of the total amount as a processing fee. You’ll also likely have to wait for those funds to clear, which can take days and even weeks.
Wiring Money Via Your Bank
Another option to send money home is by wiring money through your bank. You can ask your bank to utilize a wire transfer and send your funds from your local bank to a financial institution in Canada or the United States. To do this, you’ll usually need to wire money in the form of United States currency and expect to pay a fee. To ensure that this method gets performed correctly, it’s important to have the recipient’s bank account number, name and address.
Using a Remittance Service for International Money Transfer
You can also choose to use a remittance service to send money internationally. This type of transaction is initiated by using an online wire transfer or by visiting a physical office. To send money, you will use the local currency, which will be exchanged for United States dollars. This means you’ll have to think about converting your funds into the desired amount you’d like to send. There will be fees for this and different delivery dates.
Utilizing Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology
With the introduction of blockchain technology, there is a chance for massive disruption to occur in the way that international money is transferred. One of the main benefits is the decentralization that this technology relies on. It removes the middleman out of transactions and distributes the same information across several different nodes. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to emerge that utilizes blockchain technology.
Providing Lower Costs
One of the advantages of using blockchain technology and Bitcoin in international money transfer is the extremely low cost that is required to process a transaction. The fee that’s charged when you use an international money transfer app that allows Bitcoin will be much lower than the fee charged when you wire money through a bank or are using a remittance service.
Faster Money Transfers Are Available
Another advantage of blockchain technology and the utilization of Bitcoin is the ability to provide faster transfers of money internationally. When you use a bank to send money home from your part-time job, it can take days to get the transfer completed successfully. There’s a significant difference in transfer and process time when you utilize Bitcoin. It usually occurs within minutes and takes significantly less time than it does for a bank transfer.
Greater Access to More Individuals
When you use Bitcoin and blockchain technology to send money home, it’s easier and more convenient as you don’t have to have as much information. This provides access and availability to people who don’t have a bank account. A money transfer can be quickly sent to a digital wallet that accepts a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
Increased Safety
You have probably heard stories about banks getting hacked and critical information stolen. This is difficult to do with blockchain technology due to its decentralized nature. This makes the use of Bitcoin for international money transfers safer than using a traditional money transfer method. Unique entries are created for each transaction on a digital ledger, which makes each transaction safe, immutable and secure.
Acceptance and the Road Ahead
Bitcoin and blockchain technology are still in their infancy as a way to transfer money internationally but show hope for an improvement in money transfers in the future due to the safety, low fees and speed of transactions. As more people adopt cryptocurrency and its use, the acceptance of digital money will become more widespread.