A wire routing transit number is also known as an American Banking Association (ABA) number in the United States or as a Bank Transit Number (BTN). It is a 9-digit number that you can usually look up on your bank’s website or in the bottom left-hand corner of your checkbook.
SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. You can usually look up your bank’s SWIFT code on the bank’s website or ask an employee over the phone or in person. In countries outside of the United States, such as in Europe, you might need an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and a Bank Identifier Code (BIC).
If there are fees for sending or receiving the wire transfer, make sure to come to an agreement with the sender about who will pay these. It’s typically expected that the sender will pay any sending fees at the bank on their end and that you will accept any fees from your bank for receiving the transfer.
You can ask the sender to check on their end or ask your bank for a specific estimate of how many days it will take for the money to show up in your account. Remember that weekends and holidays do not count as business days for banks, so a weekend or holiday will delay your transfer.
Many countries also have smaller services for making domestic transfers. However, the big services like Western Union and MoneyGram offer both domestic and international transfer services.
For example, Western Union allows senders in most countries to send money via the website that the receiver can pick up in cash at a local office. In some countries, the receiver can also get the money deposited directly into their bank or a mobile wallet.
Usually this is all you need to give the sender, but double-check by calling the service you plan to use or looking up the exact requirements on their website.
If you are picking up cash, you can usually do so within minutes or sometimes the next day. If you are receiving money to your bank account, it takes 2-5 days to appear.
If you are receiving money to your bank account or a mobile wallet, you don’t need to do anything. Just wait for the money to appear.
One of the most common and reputable online services is PayPal. Other popular options include Google Pay, Venmo, and Stripe, to name a few. You can do an online search with a term like “PayPal alternatives” if you want to see some longer lists of options.
With many online services and apps, you can also send payment requests to the sender’s email. This way, all they have to do is accept your payment request to transfer you money.
Depending on what service you used, you can transfer the money to a bank account or leave it there to use another way later on. For example, you can keep a balance in PayPal and use it to make online payments or send transfers to other people. Remember that if you want to transfer a balance to your bank account it usually takes 2-5 days to go through.
