Aussies please: Sending money regularly from Australia to Kenya

Dayyana wrote:

Hi out there in internet land.

Up until now I've been sending my money from my Brisbane bank ($20 charge) via the US (exchange rate loss) to my bank in Kenya ($10 charge and another exchange rate loss). This is because it seems most banks in Kenya who use an intermediary in Australia try to get you to use the regular 9 digit Aussie account number and then add something like AUD11254. Well, online forms don't like that and the money gets returned to my account.

So, are there any Aussies using internet banking to successfully send money directly to a Kenyan bank's partner bank in Australia which then sends it here? I hope that makes sense.

Or maybe someone has done the maths and figured out it's cheaper to use their Aussie Visa or Mastercard in an ATM here instead?

Thanks for your help.

Credit cards are better in your case. You should look at a debit card which you can recharge online. No interest to pay as you do with a credit card.

We use our Westpac Mastercard. While we opened a bank account it's much easier and cheaper for us to withdraw it from an ATM or pay with our card.

Forget rip off banks. I have a KCB account - easy to open, no salary in Kenya required, just need Passport and maybe PO Box. Then I use xe.com which is the cheapest international money transfer ever - bit of beauracracy to set up - but once you have it, you just log on and transfer money and it takes a few days.

If you need instant money, my ING card is the cheapest at only $2.50 per withdrawal.  Westpac is a rip job. 
I also use World Remit - but from my westpac credit card I was charged $17 on $850 plus a further $25AU from World Remit so only worthwhile doing on a debit card - it came straight to my Mpesa account on my phone.  I used it in Addis Ababa Ethiopia as well (although had to pick the cash from Ethiopia Commercial Bank as they don't have mobile banking). 

I am having a dispute with Westpac as their card is an old chip and have had it frauded before and this year, at two ATMs, I had duplicate transactions.  ING has a later chip and ANZ which I also use.

If you get a Kenyan bank account and say use Xe.com, you then can transfer money from your KCB account to your phone and vice versa which is handy.