I am so very grateful to my donors, both those who contribute occasionally and those who subscribe to a monthly donation. Thank you to the “200”‘s! I am so very grateful to those who send items from my wish list. The material help is really needed, but the moral support is fundamental. Your good will and prayers are my daily sustenance.
Every once in a while I get a note from someone about how to send a donation without using PayPal or one of those other services. There are alternatives which work.
One alternative is to send a check by snail mail to my continuing address on the side bar of this blog. The mail is forwarded to me. So, this is going to take a while to complete but it always gets done.
Use your smart phone’s camera.
Another alternative is Venmo, which is pretty spiffy.
Another alternative – and this is for anyone in pretty much every country and currency – is to use Transferwise, recently now know as just Wise… wise.com.
A couple of you readers have sent donations using this method. It works. It also has extremely low fees, much lower than most services and the exchange rate is not skewed in the changers favor.
At the present, I have accounts in USD, GBP, CAD and EURO. I can receive money in those currencies and then retain it as is or transfer it to my US account. Essentially, I have accounts with banks in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe. In the UK you can send GBP to my UK account. In the Euro-zone, send Euros. There are no international transfer fees that way. You can also send USD from the UK or USD from Europe or anywhere else. With a Transferwise …. Wise… account, all you need is my email. 38 different currencies. I haven’t needed to get an account in Hungarian Forint yet, or Indonesian Rupiah, but I’m open to it.
Today I received some GBP from a kind reader via Wise, which was instantly available and without any fee. As I watch exchange rates, I could leave those GBP in my GBP account or I could transfer it into USD and send it to my US bank with the fraction of the fee that international bank transfers take and it would need minutes, not days.
Here is an invitation link to start your own Wise account. HERE
As you can see, if you travel, or perhaps have business transactions in another country, or bills to pay or need to be paid from another country, this could be of big help in eliminating fees. Also, if you get their Mastercard debit card for your multi-currency account, you avoid the truly horrible conversion rates at ATMs. The card uses the currency of the place. If you are in London, it will use your GBP. If you are in Rome, it will use your Euro. Same card.
How I wish this had been available when I was living in Rome. I look forward to using it when travel is more possible. It should save a lot in fees.
adriennep on So very cool that it needs its own post! VOYAGER 1 is TALKING AGAIN!: “Thanks Father Z, cosmology lesson as only you can impart.”
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