UPDATE (1/9/15): Ria has since added a transfer fee for sending from your bank account. Post updated with new rates and details.
We’ve been big fans of using Xoom to transfer money from the United States to Argentina at near the blue rate, but now it looks like competitor Ria Money Transfer may be giving Xoom a run for its money!
We’ve been hearing rumors that Ria pays a higher exchange rate, and looking at the numbers today it appears to be true. While Xoom is paying ARS $11.79, Ria ia paying ARS $12.54. Also, Xoom charges a higher transaction fee than Ria.
Taking a sample transaction of U$S 1000, with Xoom you’d pay $1030 with fees and get an effective rate of $11.45, while with Ria you’d pay $1010 and get an effective rate of $12.42. That’s an extra $750 pesos (U$S 56 at the blue rate).
While Ria works the same as Xoom (send money from a US account to be picked up in Argentina or deposited to an Argentine bank account), there are a couple of tricks to using Ria that you need to be aware of:
- You need to connect from the United States to use it (not just have a US account). If you’re in Argentina, you will need a VPN service that spoofs your IP address to make it look like you’re in the US.
- You cannot send money to yourself. You’ll need to send from a friend or family member or vice-versa and receive to a friend or family member.
If you’ve been relying on Xoom for getting close to the blue rate in Argentina, Ria may make sense for getting a better rate. If you use our link, you’ll also get a $10 Amazon gift card on your first transfer. (With Xoom, you’ll get a $25 Amazon gift card.)
Let us know how it goes.