Whether you want to help your college-age son pay for books, cover your sister's trip to the spa as a birthday gift or help your aging mom with medical expenses, sending money online to a family member is a viable alternative to paper checks and gift cards. If you're loaning significant amounts of money, LendingTree.com recommends you discuss interest rates and repayment terms with your family member, just as you would a traditional loan.
Step 1
Send money through PayPal. Log in to your PayPal account, and click on the tab marked "Send Money." Enter the person's email address or cell phone number and note the amount of money you'd like to send. There is no fee to send money to an individual via PayPal. The family member will receive a text message or an email to alert them that the money is in their PayPal account, which they can then transfer to their personal bank account or access with a PayPal debit card.
Step 2
Transfer cash via Obopay. Sign up for an Obopay account online to get a PIN that allows you to send money via text message, an iPhone application or a mobile web browser to anyone with a cell phone. Your family member receives a message and chooses whether to access the money through a bank account or transfer to a payment card. The credit card company MasterCard also uses the Obopay system for its mobile money transfer service called MoneySend, according to Bankrate.com.
Step 3
Dispatch funds via Amazon. Enter the recipient's email address or cell phone number and the amount you want to send using Amazon's service called WebPay. Click send, and the money is drawn from the credit or debit card linked to your Amazon account. Amazon sends the money to the recipient's Amazon account, where he can use it to make purchases or withdraw it to a bank account.
Step 4
Send money through your bank. Log in to your bank's online banking interface, or, if you don't have online banking access, sign up for it through a local branch of your bank or credit union. Initiate a bank-to-bank transfer to the family member's bank account from the Transfers page. You will need to know the name of the person's bank, the account number and how much money to send. You may need to pay a fee for this service.
Step 5
Send money via a wire transfer service. Western Union offers multiple ways to send money online. You can send money directly to a family member's bank account or you can send money in the person's name online to a Western Union Agency location; for example, retail stores such as Wal-Mart have Western Union agencies at their customer service desks. Western Union reports there are 37,000 locations worldwide. To send money via Western Union, you'll need cash or a debit card, and you'll also pay a fee to complete the transaction, which depends on the amount of money you're transferring.
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