Sending Money To Poland

Looking for the most economical method of sending money. Advice sought.

[cordless kettle]

Hi, I have a supplier in Poland and I really need to find a more ecconomical method of sending money to them. I live in Britain and usually send money via bank transfer, Western Union or simply withdraw cash from my account, get on a plane and deliver the money myself. Believe it or not often the latter is the quickest and cheapest option if I am also going to collect stock from them while I am there!

Unfortunately, Paypal (which I gather can be used for cheep movement of money) cannot be used to withdraw money in Poland.

Please, does anyone else have any possible solutions. There must be a way to send relatively small amounts (usually about 1000 pounds) to Poland from the U.K. for less then 50 pounds.

Any advice or pointers would be most gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

[grobe]

I have no experience whatsoever with them, but a couple sites I have seen mentioned have been Moneybookers and Ikobo.

[cordless kettle]

Thanks, I'll have a look at them now.

[cordless kettle]

Hi, just had a look at Moneybookers. I cannot believe how cheap this is compared to others who offer international money transfers. I am just a bit suspicious that there are some huge hidden costs or complications somewhere.

Can anyone who was any experience of Moneybookers please tell me anything about them. i.e. how smoothe is the whole thing, are there any hidden costs, are they a big company as I have never heard of them before?

Any comments would be warmly received.

Thanks.

[grobe]

Do a Google search on the company; you will find various comments.

There is a statement on their website: "Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom"; but I have no knowledge of how effective that regulation is.

You might try very small transactions to see how well it works; that way if there are problems you are out very little money.

[derekwong28]

Xoom is OK, I sent a $500 payment to the Philipines with it. The fee was $25.5

[jecasc]

I have used Moneybookers before to receive money from a customer. Easy to setup and easy to use. And very cheap. I found it was simplier to use than Paypal. I can recommend it.

[cordless kettle]

Thanks for the comments.

I think I will send a few small sample payments to check their reliability, although they do look quite safe. The Financial Services Authority is a sort of watchdog which regulates all major banks and financial institutions in the UK so that must count for something.

Also, glad to hear from someone who has used them without problem. My only concern is that it just seems so reasonable in comparison to standard bank transfers, Western Union, et al.

[jecasc]

I think the main reason why Moneybookers is not used by merchants a lot is because the credit card payment is a little complicated. You have to use your mobile phone to confirm your payment. At least it used to be like that.

But for bank transfers it is very good.