Today’s world moves fast, and the demand for sending money abroad is increasing. 

With expensive bank fees, people are looking for cheaper alternatives. They want more than a low price; they want a fast transfer.

In 2019, hundreds of millions of people are living abroad. Most of them have close ties to their home countries – sentimental and financial.

In our article, we focus on the fastest ways to send money abroad and what can you do to speed up the process.

Avoid the slow players in the game

Banks

Banks are fundamental for national economies, but they certainly aren’t the fastest or most affordable way to transfer money abroad.

In terms of international transfers, banks have limited payment and delivery methods. A bank-to-bank transfer usually takes several working days, making it one of the least favourable services to use for your transfer abroad.

Unreliable services

There are many online remittance companies for you to choose from. Some of them consistently deliver excellent service. And others have less advanced systems to back them up. If you need to send money quickly, choose a well-established company - like WorldRemit. 

Last year, over 4 million people used WorldRemit to send money abroad. We’ve also got more than 125 thousand 5-star reviews across multiple platforms. With us, your money is in safe hands.

Read more about WorldRemit’s security here.

High street agents

For over a hundred years, people have been using high street agents to transfer money abroad. This allowed offline agents to charge high fees and offer low exchange rates. 

Even nowadays, transfers via high street agents are the least convenient way of sending money abroad. Why? It requires you to physically visit the branch, queue up, and wait for an available agent to process the payment for you.

Ismail Ahmed, a Somaliland migrant living in the UK, knew the struggle well. Frustrated by this time-consuming way of sending money to his loved ones, he thought to himself, “There must be a better way!”.

A few years later, he founded WorldRemit - an online money transfer service that enables people to send money abroad from the comfort of their homes.

Choose the best money transfer service for you

Does the service fit your needs?

Most money transfer companies offer more than one service – each one of them takes a different time to be received abroad. The most common services include cash pick up, bank deposits, or mobile money transfers.

WorldRemit takes pride in having more pay-out options than any of our competitors. Here is a list of our services and the approximate settlement time.

• Cash pick up - Available for collection instantly.
  
  
• Mobile money - Mostly instant. Rarely, some providers can take up to 1 working day.
  
  
• Bank deposit - Instant transfers are available to selected banks. Other timings can vary depending on the bank, day of the week, or transaction creation time.
  
  
• Airtime to up - Instant, or near-instant.
  
  
• The WorldRemit Wallet - Instant. Your recipient can choose when to retrieve the money.

Cheap vs. fast – can you have it both?

WorldRemit’s handy push notifications let you know about any changes in exchange rates. This way, you can send money when it suits you best.

Exchange rates change all the time, so if the time is pressing, you might miss out on the best deal. But you can be assured that WorldRemit always offers fair rates – one of the best ones on the market.

You can check the exchange rate and fees on our website or mobile app, using the built-in calculator.

Check the price of your transfer now

How fast is WorldRemit?

WorldRemit is making life easier for you and your loved ones by being one of the fastest money transfer companies.

• Over 85% of our mobile money transactions are paid within 10 minutes or less.
  
  
• Over 50% of our bank transfers are paid within 10 minutes. This number is even higher in Nigeria and India – 90% of transfers are credited within minutes.
  
  
• Cash pick up transactions are available for collection instantly, and more than 70% of them are collected within one day.
  
  
• Transactions to the WorldRemit wallet are available for withdrawal immediately.

Our customers frequently praise us for the speed of our service. Take a look for yourself.

What you can do to speed it up

Take it in your hands! We’ve gathered the best tips on how you can secure a fast transfer.

Verify your account before sending a transfer

WorldRemit is a financially regulated company and is required by law to verify all customers using its service. Following these regulations, we protect our customers against fraud and safeguard their funds.

These are some of the situations when your transaction might be placed on hold before we obtain additional documents or information from you.

1. You’re sending a high-value transaction.

For high-value transactions, we might need to request additional information from you. If that's the case, we will send you an email with instructions.

2. Your account hasn’t passed an initial electronic verification.

If we need to confirm your identity, we will send you an email and SMS with instructions. Our teams are constantly reviewing all held transactions and release them as soon as your account is verified.

Why not complete the verification of your account before sending your first transfer? You can do it at any time after you sign up for a Worldremit account.

Spell the name on your cash pick up transaction

Agents at our cash pick up locations have to make sure that your funds are handed over to the right person. So, the name on your recipient’s ID must correctly match the name that you give us.

Before you make a transfer, ask your recipient which ID they want to use for collection (driving license, government ID or passport are widely accepted), and double-check that you copy the name precisely.

What can cause a collection issue?

• Typing errors
• Name in the wrong order
• Missing middle name
• Name doesn’t match the ID
• Maiden name used

Find out what to do when you run into an issue with your cash pick up here.

Check all details before submitting

Unsurprisingly, most transactions get delayed due to incorrect details. Here is a list of the most common mistakes.

Bank deposits

• Routing number
• Sort code number
• SWIFT number
• Bank account number
• Bank selected incorrectly
• IBAN

Mobile money

• Incorrectly selected mobile money provider
• Misspelled recipient’s name
• Incorrect mobile money account
  
  

Choose the right payment method

Unlike banks, online money transfer companies regularly partner up with various payment providers. This way, customers can choose the most convenient one for them.

Some payment methods support an instant capture of funds, so they do not affect the delivery speed. However, other payment methods can take longer.

Here are all the payment methods offered at WorldRemit, as well as the time it takes for us to receive your money.

Note: Payment methods vary by country.

Funds received instantly

• Debit, credit or prepaid card
• Apple and Google Pay
• Trustly
• Most transactions paid by Sofort Europe below EUR 10 000
• iDEAL (the Netherlands only)
• Interac (Canada only)

Funds received within 2 hours

• Sofort United Kingdom
• Bank transfer (the United Kingdom only)

Funds received within one working day

• Poli above $10 000 (Australia only)

Funds received within 2 – 4 working days

• Sofort Europe above EUR 10 000

Need to talk to someone real fast?

Unexpected medical emergency? Last-minute school payment? Transaction on hold? For whatever reason, you might want to talk to a real person to help you speed up your transfer.

WorldRemit has an award-winning customer service team available across three time zones, available to help you 24/7! Our contact details are listed here.

Send money with WorldRemit