#2577: $$$ to Haiti: Chamberlain asks and Bell replies

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: madison bell <mbell@goucher.edu>

Greg, and anybody... I've good experience with Unibank, which will now open 
savings accounts in US dollars with a minimum balance of $100.00.  These 
means you need your recipient to be capable of maintaining that balance (I 
recognize that this is truly difficult for lots of people, even if you 
furnish the 100 bucks yourself and say, look, this is just to keep the 
account open, it's not real money, don't take it out....)  But if you get 
over that hurdle, you can send wire transfers.  Unibank charges (or did the 
last time I used the service) 27$ FLAT FEE for wires, so obviously it's not 
really worth it to send fifty bucks.  On the other hand, with the account 
in place you can simply mail a check in US dollars and it will be negotiable.

         I have such an account in my own name now, which spares me the 
trouble of hiding cash in all my... well, never mind.

Before Unibank I used western Union but they charge nigh on ten percent of 
the amount you send, which is mighty discouraging.

msb

At 08:25 AM 2/27/00 -0800, you wrote:

>From: John C. Kozyn <jckozyn@mnsinc.com>
>
>From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>
>
> > Could anyone remind me of an effective way of transferring money to Haiti
> > (as discussed in recent posts), apart from carrying it personally in cash?
> > In this case from Europe.
>
>Greg,
>
>When I lived there several years ago, my wife used Western Union -
>you pay a certain percentage though - and she also used to send me
>cash via DHL. Some might say that might be risky, but DHL never
>failed me in Haiti. YMMV etc... Around the Haitian community in
>Paris, Brussels etc, there must be a Boby Express or something
>similar... these also charge a percentage.
>
>John Kozyn