Seems alot of people are complaining on the new policy of Xoom. Xoom recently announced that they would stop remittance to the Philippines from non US credit cards or accounts.
http://blog.xoom.com/2010/03/new-minimum-send-amounts-payment-source.html
And later confirmed by an email I sent to their customer service.
Thank you for contacting Xoom Customer Service.
Firstly, I would like to apologize for inconvenience caused to you regarding this issue. Please be advised that in order to send money to the Philippines you need to have an US Bank account or a US Debit/Credit Card.
Apart from Philippines you can use International Credit card or US bank Account to transfer funds.Currently we do not have any expected date of re-instating the services; but would encourage you to keep visiting our web-site for any update.
Thank you again for choosing Xoom.com – the Smarter Way to Send Money
Which means my employer in Dubai can no longer send with his local card and account on UAE.
Seems alot of people are hit by this change. Xoom has been actively stopping fraud transactions being done using their service and it has affected even those that uses their service for legit remittance.
I like the service alot for it is fast and can get the transaction done within the day. But time to search for an alternative. Any suggestions besides Paypal to bank transfer (which is normally 2-4 business days) and Western Union?
There is a service called Sendah that offers reasonable prices and service. Their website is http://www.sendah.com
Sendah works for me. Sendah.com
Hi,
I used to send with Xoom also but had my transactions canceled so many times that I decided to look for something else. I just found ATMCASH and its amazing! you can send money online with a credit card/bank account and they’ll send your recipient in the philippines a prepaid debit card. your recipient can use this card to get money from any mastercard atm in the philippines (they are everywhere!) the best part is that your recipient doesnt need to stand in line anywhere and the transfer takes minutes. Hope this helps!
Dani
I too am a long time customer of XOOM and very angry with the recent changes there. Not only have they changed the minimum amount from 25 to 50 dollars, they have also delayed the previously almost instant bank to bank transfers I previously enjoyed.
Thanks to the other posters for recommending alternatives to XOOM. I am sure they will benefit greatly by the changes XOOM has instituted.
Thanks Brian and Dani for the suggestions. I’ll try those. I tried Paypal last week due to this, the fee for accepting money on Paypal is huge then the bank deposit another $5 charge plus lower dollar rate conversions, so not a pleasant experience. Sendah and ATMCASH looks promising.
Well not only did Xoom make the above changes, they also terminated almost everyone’s account that was sending money to PI with the following very rude letter:
We write to inform you that, after careful review, we have disabled your Xoom account for violations of the Xoom User Agreement, effective immediately.
This decision cannot be appealed, and our customer service team will not be able to discuss the matter with you beyond restating the above.
Nonetheless, if you feel compelled to contact Xoom regarding this decision, you may send an email to us at account-compliance@xoom.com.
Very truly yours,
The Xoom Compliance Team
I now use http://www.yespinoy.com to send to family and friends to philippines. friends and family just need a smart money card to receive money.
tnx jamie, saw yespinoy.com, minimum is P1,000 and max is P20,000. Wish the max is a bit higher.
I had too problem now, I am an Indian sending money to my gf on regular basis,now theres nothing for me to do. I m the most hit as i live in India. Any way there.
how can i send to my family in philippines?
I used to love using xoom services in remitting money to the Phils. but I noticed lately the there are some delays now in their delivery, I hope this will not damage their promises to their customers and reputation because it took almost six days for them to deliver my Phils. remittance. And remember I’m a regular customer of xoom.
hi guys no worry use myalaya.com its nice to send money philippines but first we use they vernify u but its safe & faster also u can send money philippines any bank account sunday to thusday its only 1 day process
but they company not working in holidays
Yeah this decision by xoom sucks!
Thanks for the suggestions but ATMCVASH is US customers only and sendah is only pone loads, health ins or gift tokens not cash.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Xoom recently decided that my sending child support to the Philippines from my US based bank was in violation of their terms of use agreement. When I asked them how this was in violation they told me that they dont have to tell me and that they refuse to discuss the matter further. With customer service like that they can go to hell.
I received the same email that Ray talked about above (April 12), and had the same reaction that Sean had, on October 26th. In other words, “with customer service like that, they can go to hell!” I also have been a Xoom customer for over 2 years, have agreed to pay their higher and higher rates, because it got the job done. I have a couple of friends in the Philippines who have been in pretty desperate need of support, and I have been helping each of them trying to get a small store established. Now i have to find some other way to get these funds to them.
It certainly is the pinnacle of poor customer service to send a message like that, with no explanation of what specific terms of the agreement I have supposedly violated, and with no appeal process or other recourse.
It is companies like this that need to go out of business.
I am Indian regularly sending Money to Philippines using XOOM. But after closing of XOOM we are helpless now. To ADD more now Indian Government only allows VBV & 3D Mastercard Secure transaction only. Thanks GOD for a complete mess. YesPinoy/ Myayala/Paypal/Moneybookers gosh No one use VBV or 3D Mastercard Secure. HELP HELP.
ANY ONE PLEASE Start any service that accept indian card to send money to Philippines.
I have used Xoom since 2008. Yesterday they abruptly closed my account claiming I violated the User Agreement. I e-mailed Xoom to ask why, and their reply contained 2 paragraphs copied and pasted from their User Agreement. They provided no explanation as to how those paragraphs applied to me.
There are other money transfer providers, so basically this is only an inconvenience to find another provider. However, their rude language and their lack of willingness to give me a reason for my account termination pisses me off.
The CEO’s name is John Kunze. There are 2 co-founders: Kevin Hartz and Alan Braverman. The CFO is Ryno Blignaut and the VP of Operations is Frank Walter. The company’s phone number is 415-777-4800 and its fax number is 415-777-8690.
hi. ive been wanting to send money directly from my US account to a relative’s metrobank account in philippines. but d negative blogs i found (dated 2008-2009 about people deducting money to xoom.com customers)scared me to death! but now dat xoom.com changed their policy, how safe do you think is sending money through xoom?
im just curious. ofcourse we wana make sure of safety esp. money is involved–its tough right now
Hey I have found one website to send money to Philippines. But the recipient should have a Globe Number. Money can be transferred to recipient using Globe Cash. I hope this is a Good opportunity for sending to Philippines.
http://www.mukuru.com is the site address.
Xoom cancelled all accounts sending to the philippines from the US and abroad. like Nimitz said I recevied the same letter and I emailed VP of Operations is Frank Walter. the response I received from him was worse than the 1st email saying my account was closed.. you can call them they will not tell you anything other than their decision cannot be appealed also be warned they do not remove your banking information from their servers even after they cancelled you.. The reason they cancelled all the accounts they got in trouble with homeland security and the FBI and Secret Service for supporting terrorism.. A colleague of mine was contacted by the secret service and had his bank accounts frozen for 30 days because of the ongoig investiagion into XOOM….
I’ve tried Mukuru.com – worked well, but yes, your recipient needs a Globe SIM.
Hi Abhi I am an indian too and facing same problems to send money to phils,can u help me if u found any way to do so ? If u checkmy msg plz try to contact me on my email a_4_apple4u@yahoo.co.in
Yeah, those bastards cancelled my account a day
before i was about to send money to the mother
of my 2 month old baby girl in the Philippines. They just kept saying the same old crap about violating the user agreement and all of that. They are just little robot girls that just say the same thing over and over.. I wish there was a way to tell the world about this and put these bastards out of business.
Try Ko-Kard. I use the service for getting paid from my US based employer, im sure this service works from anywhere in the world. Below is from the ko-kard website:
The all-in-one ko-kard debit / ATM MasterCard is a convenient, cost-effective, and secure method of sending money to the Philippines.
Money transfers can be received and withdrawn from over eight thousand (8,000) Bancnet, Megalink and Expressnet ATM terminals or where ever MasterCard is accepted. As a debit card, ko-kard is accepted in more than twenty (20) million MasterCard-affiliated merchant shops worldwide.
Also got hit with this XOOM.COM policy and they decided to close our account. It was a legit transaction. Spent many days fighting for it but they do not reply nor their customer service keeps pointing me back to the compliance team. What a waste of time! Good thing now, our bank Wells Fargo have now remittance service to Philippines at $5 per transaction. I will never remit to XOOM.COM nor ever used or recommend to anyone in the future.
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Based on a thorough review of your transactions and/or your recipient’s transactions, we have decided to close your account.
Pursuant to the User Agreement, Xoom may, at any time and in its sole discretion, refuse any transaction, and reserves the right at any time, and from time to time, to modify or discontinue the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice. Sending money to a recipient who has violated the User Agreement can also affect your ability to use Xoom.
Our complete User Agreement is available for review on our website.
Thank you.
Xoom Customer Compliance Team