A Simpler Way To Send Money For Christmas

Christmas is traditionally the time of year when Pacific communities across New Zealand send more money back home to their families and friends in the Pacific Islands.

Sending money this Christmas has been made much simpler through the new website www.sendmoneypacific.org, which can help you find the cheapest and easiest way to send money back home.

Visiting the website could help to save Pacific families time and money at this often hectic and expensive time of year.

SendMoneyPacific was set up by the New Zealand and Australian governments to help members of Pacific communities in both countries find out the many different options available when sending money to Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Fees to send money from New Zealand to the Pacific have been among the highest in the world.

The Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs has been leading work on the MoneyPACIFIC Project, focusing on improving Pacific peoples’ financial awareness, including efforts to improve the range of financial products and services available. 

Phase one of this Projects, in conjunction with the launch of www.sendmoneypacific.org, has resulted in a number of remittance providers reducing their costs below 8 percent, with the Westpac New Zealand Express Card leading the way at 3 percent.  This step-down in costs was facilitated by a regulatory change to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act in September 2008.

The Ministry, in partnership with the Reserve Bank of NZ, World Bank and NZAID, has launched a pilot 2010 MoneyPACIFIC calendar.  The calendar provides financial tips and information about www.sendmoneypacific.org to help Pacific families benefit from increased competition and choice in the financial sector and to better understand and manage financial issues.  This year the calendar has been produced in Tongan and Samoan.

With the busy Christmas period fast approaching, SendMoneyPacific will be teaming up with the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and Auckland’s Pasifika Education Centre to host a workshop for the benefit of Auckland’s Pacific community leaders, featuring an introduction to and demonstration of www.sendmoneypacific.org. 

www.sendmoneypacific.org is a joint NZAID and AusAID funded project, developed and managed by Developing Markets Associates Ltd (www.dmassocs.com) to improve the transparency of remittance costs, speed the process and stimulate competition amongst service providers.

Notes:

The global average money transfer fee is approximately 10 percent while in the Australia–Pacific Island region the cost is anywhere between 3–30 percent of the amount remitted.

This means it costs someone sending $200 up to $60 to send money to the Pacific compared to $10 in other parts of the world.

These costs include transaction fees, foreign exchange commissions, messaging fees and pick-up charges.

The website provides details and transparent information on the fees and services for key money transfer service providers and the speed to transfer funds.

It also uses a “secret shopper” to spot check the validity of information provided on the website.

In addition to the cost comparison service, the website provides Pacific communities within Australia and New Zealand with a news service, financial information and notice boards.

Information from the website will be made available in hard copy for distribution to community groups.

ENDS