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Sending and receiving money across borders

6 min read · Before you start: Lesson 31 on foreign currency · Updated 31 October 2026

Money crosses borders constantly in Caribbean families: a relative abroad sending home, a parent paying tuition overseas, a freelancer invoicing a foreign client. The advertised fee is almost never the real cost. This lesson shows where the rest of it hides and how to compare services on the number that counts.

The two costs

Every cross-border transfer has two charges, and only one is usually advertised.

1. The stated fee. A flat amount, or a percentage of the sum sent. This is the number in the advertisement.
2. The exchange rate margin. The rate the service applies, compared with the mid-market rate — the midpoint between buying and selling that currency websites quote. The gap is a second charge, and it is often larger than the fee.

A service advertising zero fees is making its money somewhere, and the rate is usually where. The only comparison that settles it is the total amount that actually arrives, in the currency the recipient receives. Asking each service "if I send this exact amount, how much lands in their hands?" converts every pricing structure into one comparable figure.

A worked comparison

Sending US$500 home from abroad through two services:

• Service A: US$5 fee, rate 2 per cent below mid-market. Cost: US$5 plus about US$9.90 in rate margin ≈ US$14.90.
• Service B: no fee, rate 4.5 per cent below mid-market. Cost: about US$22.50.

The service charging nothing costs about half as much again. The arithmetic is the same whichever direction the money travels.

The routes

• Money transfer operators with agent locations. Fast, cash available at the other end, and typically the widest rate margins.
• Bank wire transfers. Fees at both ends plus possible intermediary bank charges that are deducted in transit, so the amount arriving can be less than the amount sent minus the quoted fee. Asking who bears the intermediary charges is the question that avoids the surprise.
• Online transfer platforms. Often narrower rate margins, but availability and limits vary by country and by whether a local payout partner exists.
• Card payments for overseas purchases. The card issuer's conversion rate and any foreign transaction fee apply, and in Trinidad and Tobago banks also set foreign-currency spending limits on cards.

Receiving money here

Funds arriving into Trinidad and Tobago are subject to the bank's own processing and the foreign exchange conditions covered in lesson 31. A few practical points recur:

• Identification is required under anti-money-laundering rules, and the name on the transfer matching the identification exactly prevents most delays.
• Large or unusual amounts attract questions about the source of funds. Having the supporting document — an invoice, a sale agreement, a gift letter — ready is what shortens that conversation.
• Receiving in foreign currency or in TT dollars are different outcomes. Where the funds are converted, and at whose rate, determines what arrives.
• Business receipts are income. Money received for work done is taxable regardless of which country the client is in. Lesson 23 covers small business record-keeping.

Where this goes wrong

Cross-border transfers feature heavily in fraud because they are fast and hard to reverse. The patterns that recur:

• A request to receive money and forward part of it onward. This is how money laundering recruits people who believe they are doing a favour, and the account holder carries the consequences.
• Overpayment followed by a request to refund the difference, where the original payment is later reversed.
• A sudden change of bank details on an invoice, sent by email. Confirming the change by a known phone number rather than by replying to the email is the check that defeats it.
• Pressure to send quickly to an unfamiliar name. A transfer collected in cash abroad is effectively gone.

Our Scam Watch page sets these out in more detail.

Questions worth asking before sending

1. Exactly how much will the recipient receive, in their currency?
2. What rate is being applied, and how does it compare with the mid-market rate today?
3. Who pays any intermediary or receiving-bank charges?
4. How long will it take, and what happens if the details are wrong?
5. Is the service licensed to operate where the money is going?

Test yourself

Mark this lesson as done

Not financial advice. This lesson is general education only. See our editorial policy and disclaimer.