6870: Sending money to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: gilles hudicourt <hudic@videotron.ca>


Two years ago we created a Haitian genealogy association in Montreal.  Some
time later we hired an employee in Haiti.  Every month we needed to send 2
to 3 hundred US dollars to Haiti to pay the employee.  We opened a US dollar
account at the Royal Bank of Canada and regularly sent a $200 US checks to a
contact in Haiti who had an account at Unibank.  This contact had offered as
a favor to cash the checks for the employee and give her the money in US
cash which she did for several months.  After a few months this person
informed me that she was a few hundred dollars short in her account.  She
thought Unibank was giving her $200 Canadian instead of $200 US.  I had my
branch here in Montreal trace the checks to find out what the cause was.
They were the ones to inform me that Unibank in Haiti charged $45.00 US for
cashing every $200 check, 22.5%.
We decided to try a wire transfer.  I recently wired $500 US.  The Royal
Bank of Canada charged me $30.50 for the wire and Unibank charged my party
in Haiti another $27.50US, a total of $58.00 US to wire $500.00, that is
11.6%.  A wire transfer is cheaper than simply depositing a check on an
account.  Logical isn't it ?  There is progress but I stlil found it too
expensive.    I then heard Unibank had opened an office here in Montreal to
wire money to Haiti, Unitransfer.  I called them for their rates :  they
charge $42.00 US to transfer $500, 8.4%.  If find this still expensive.  In
the 21st century is there any way to send a monthly salary to a person in
Haiti without having to pay to a Haitian bank 10 % of that salary ?