Xoom Corporation, an international digital money transfer provider, has expanded its service a number of European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Greece, and Portugal, according to a Xoom statement.
Xoom made headlines last week after Payments giant PayPal purchased Xoom in a deal worth $890 million. PayPal acquired Xoom with the hopes of keeping its eyes on the growing remittance market – indeed, dominated by the likes of Western Union and Moneygram, the remittance market has become synonymous with high fees charged for the transfer and exchange of currencies to cross border locations.
The new service to Austria, Belgium, Greece, and Portugal helps streamline transfers and deposits, often in as little as 24 hours. The service could be instrumental in the instance of Greece, which has recently had multilateral wire transfers stymied in a bid to prevent the flight of capital out of the country.
It will prove interesting to see if this method of payment catches fire or serves as a de-facto alternative to other forms of payments in Greece at the moment, given the dearth of Liquidity brought on by its capital controls.
In addition, the service can be accessed via mobile devices and boasts a mobile app for iOS, Android and Amazon phones. Xoom adheres to a broad-based payments schedule that ranges from as little as $4.99 when sending up to $2,999 – when paying with a US-based bank account. As is typical with wire transfers, recipients will not be charged fees from the receiving bank.
According to Iain Allison, Xoom’s head of business development for Europe in a recent statement on the expansion, “Historically, to send money to Austria, Belgium, Greece, and Portugal, expats were forced to use bank wires, which are typically slower and cost more in fees. Xoom now allows expats from these countries to deposit money more quickly and affordably – using xoom.com or the mobile app. Plus, customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
