Remittance is one of the main props of the Jamaican economy. It is the second largest earner of foreign exchange next to tourism. So its fair to say that money transfer in Jamaica is big business, and there are no shortage of players. Their rates, service, opening hours and effeciency may differ but they all charge a fee, its how they make their money.

Here I will outline a method of transferring money that is more cost effective and convenient, than western union or any of the other players in the transfer business. This assumes you are sending or recieving cash from one person fairly regularly.

TRANSFER MONEY FROM US TO JA

1. Get your, spouse, father, mother or whomever is minding you to open a Checking account with Bank of America.

2. Have them get and activate check card and send it to you via fedex or with someone who coming down (don’t tell that person the pin number)

3. Go to any scotia ATM and draw to your hearts content, you can also use the card as a debit/credit card.

BONUS: Scotia Bank has a foreign exchange ATM in Liguanea where you can actually get your money in US$ and avoid “tiefing” exchange rates.

NB. If the account goes below the minimum limit of $25 (have them verify this amount) It will attract a charge so do not go below this minimum balance…the fees are fat ($35.00) I think. Alt. you can have them use a savings account to provide over draft coverage…Though this will attract a $10 charge for each transaction…Bottom line avoid the fees or this is not free or in fact cheaper.

TRANSFER MONEY FROM JA TO US

In the unlikely event you want to send cash to someone in the US.

1. Create a Scotia Bank account and get them the scotia ATM card.

2. They then go to any Bank of America ATM and withdraw the money.

NB. I am not sure what is Scotia Bank’sÂminimum to keep an account active…figure that out and have them keep that in the account at all time. Also be aware that the scotia card will not work as a debit/check card in the US.

CONCLUSION

This may work for other banks, but I have only done this with BA and Scotia, if you use a BA card in NCB there is a $5us charge. The card will not work in a RBTT atm. The reason this work is that BA and Scotia are apart of a global alliance, and so member banks use each others ATMs at no charge.

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