Best way to send money

Of course you can send it via PayPal for however she receives it. where she physically is does not matter, it’s in the ether. Check on for the provisions. As long as she has a bank account and an ATM card she can access it.

Check out TransferWise app and website. Easy to do, economical, fast.

getting some pounds here and mailing it

That would be a really, really bad idea. Sending large amounts of cash through the mail...what could possibly go wrong with that?

Use paypal or Transferwise, as previously mentioned.

Thank you! Have any of you used that company before? David I would never send a large amount in the mail. I really want to just send her some to cover her train fare to London and a little spending money.

PayPal is really easy to use and the fees are minimal.

has she got a bank account in the UK or even an American account that she has access too?If so just do a bank to bank transfer and then she will have access to the funds.

Transferwise is super easy but PayPal is easier.

"has she got a bank account in the UK or even an American account that she has access too?If so just do a bank to bank
transfer and then she will have access to the funds."

She has a UK account. Can I transfer bank to bank between an American bank and a UK bank easily? I've only ever done that between US banks.

don't know check with your bank but I have sent money that way to other countries

It hasn't been mentioned here so it must be unique to Canada, but I routinely accept my rents and much of my small business revenue by something called e-transfer. The sender logs into their bank account online, selects "send e-transfer", enters the amount, a password, and the email address of the recipient and hits send. The recipient receives a conventional email, enters the password, selects the financial institution and account they wish to deposit it to, and deposits it there. Been doing this for probably 5 years.

I have recently used Transferwise though for paying deposits on rooms and apartments in Europe and it was easy enough once I got through the set up process.

If you are sending money to a bank account in Europe, they have a system called IBAN (=International Bank Account Number). You can send money from any account to any other account in any country using your internet banking if you know their IBAN.
If you want to send money to her account, you will almost certainly need her IBAN, which should be on her statement. A British IBAN starts with "GB".

The USA doesn't use IBAN's, so I don't know what the procedure is for you, and the person you are talking to at the bank may not have even heard of IBAN's.

For that little amount of money, the bank fee for an international wire transfer would be a large percentage of the money, so you might want to include money for the fees in the gift. Does PayPal have a fee as well?

In the past, I've used people going over to visit the receiving party as couriers.

Have you thought about buying the train ticket via your credit card and other firm expenses if an hotel/hostel is needed as well. I've done this to resolve the international cash problem. This is the easiest way, actually. Free up her cash money in another way by paying an expense so she will have it for the incidentals, etc.

PS. I've also, when visiting, left birthday/Xmas cards with future cash presents to be opened at the appropriate time, etc. to alleviate some of this problem with small cash exchanges...if you visit her.

One of my banks offers international money orders (or international bank drafts - I forget what they called it). They charged a fee for it, but I imagine they'll charge for anything you do. I used this to send money in £ to the UK a couple of years ago. The key is you have to ask someone senior at the bank, not the tellers who were clueless. Worth a try.

actually, I remember I saw this option under international services on their website , and went in armed with that information.

I'm so ready for fintech to get going. There should be easy person to person money transfer. I've used Pay Pal and don't love it, not horrible just not exactly what I want. I haven't used transfer wise yet, I'll check it out. This type of stuff is the future. I'm always watching developing countries, they seem to figure out ways to do things without relying on a burdensome (and often expensive) banking system.

Transferwise is really a great tool for international transfers. Much less expensive than US bank transfers. If you do not like PayPal, TW is worth a look even for a single use.

To OP: Yes, I have used TransferWise. It's easy, painless, and cheap.

Let's separate the noise here...

Paypal generally works fine for small (or not so small) transfers between individuals. It's not perfect but pretty easy, not expensive, and is secure. If your granddaughter has a paypal account, try that - it's the simplest.

For bank-to-bank transfers, things become more complicated (it's the international component involved that complicates it - domestic bank-to-bank transfers are generally quick, easy, often free - but that all goes out the window with international transfers). The traditional way of doing an international transfer bank-to-bank has been a "wire transfer" and those still work, but they typically come with astonishing fees (last time I investigated this, I was shocked at the cost and the hassles). I researched alternatives, and came upon TransferWise. I ended up using that to pay for an apartment rental in Europe last fall. The process was simple, quick, easy and it was dirt cheap by comparison. I'm sold on TransferWise - if/when I ever need to send money to Europe for a similar purpose in the future, TransferWise will be my first choice. I had a great experience with them.

All that said, I'm not sure what the best option might be in your case:

I really want to just send her some to cover her train fare to London and a little spending money.

How much are you really looking at here? US$100-$200? For anything like that, I'd look at Paypal (assuming she has a paypal account and can manage using it - check with her first, getting money out of paypay may involve some hoop-jumping for her). The suggestion to simply pay for her train ticket by credit card may make sense, just be sure that she knows what to expect - ie might she need to change the date/time, etc.? How would that work? If paypal or simply buying the ticket gets too complicated, then as long as she has a UK bank account, I'd go with TransferWise. It's easy and cheap enough.

Good luck!

Ive used transferwise several times. Fee is very low and you get the exchange rate Of thevdat.