Best way to send money to China

[Nikikita 3]

My fiance will eventually need to send money home to his parents in a small city in Guangdong, China.

What is the best way with the least amount of fees?

I live about four hours drive away from San Francisco and know that there are some more banks there, possibly some with branches in China, and am wondering if it would be worth it to make the trips down there and try transferring money to China?

Anyone with experience or advice?

[Yadeliz N Jairo 1]

Xoom is good I think its $4.99 for up too 2999 see if thats available in china for pick up.... the transfer from U.S is online.

[nialresu 1]

Western Union is a pretty good option. The fee accounts for about 3% of the amount if you're sending more than like $400 USD at a time. Also, the largest Chinese banks support Western Union, it's pretty easy to get done.

[CowBoE 429]

I used Western Union to send money to China few times.

It was very prompt and reliable, and the money can be picked up at

many locations, but I don't think it's the cheapest option.

I had looked into other cheaper options and attempted but

either they didn't serve China or I couldn't quite get it to work.

[Tuzi and Niu 5]

Look into the Schwab high yield investor checking account. No ATM fees worldwide and the exchange rate when withdrawing from certain banks is the same as what I see on online sites like XE.com.

http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking_account

[Sam and Fen 41]

We have used Western Union and the Money can be picked up at a Chinese Post Office.

Paypal is another option tough I have never used it.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Sam and Fen

[Mourad's girl 8]

I use western union all the time to send money to Algeria. If you search online you can find discount codes for the transaction fee. Right now there is one out there for no transaction fee at all

[Nikikita 3]

Thanks for all the help!

He would like to send small amounts monthly. If we can do that without accruing too many fees than that would be great! Otherwise, it have to be larger amounts less frequently.

[Darnell 8,478]

Western Union - is 14 bucks to send, cash or debit card at a retailer (not online).

you accumulate points if you register and account, and with so many points you start getting discounts on fees.

She had a paypal debit mastercard for 3 years in China, it was interesting on the fees, depending on which bank had agreements in place with the paypal clearing bank. Recently, paypal got into ANOTHER clearing bank, and there are no agreements with China banks (as of yet) for ATM card fees. It was sweet, for a 1 dollar USD withdrawal fee.

as to wire transfers, bank to bank, I don't suggest it unless you are sending over 5K chunks, up to 50K chunk.