Compare rates and fees for sending money to Cameroon
There are multiple ways to easily send and receive money in Cameroon but these will largely depend on the provider you decide to use.
Ways to Send Money to Cameroon
Every week, thousands of people and businesses send money to Cameroon. All of them aggressively search and compare the options available for the best rates and fees before sending. You also need to do that and to start you off, check below for the best ways to send money to Cameroon.
Interbank Transfers
You can send money from your bank in the host country to a bank in Cameroon through wire transfer. Traditionally, banks have been trusted for their reliability and solid financials. For instance, when sending money from France to Cameroon, you can use banks such as Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, La Banque Postale, and others.
When sending from the US, banks like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup are some of the prominent banks you can use. Many banks have online options you can transfer money to beneficiaries, but they require that the recipients have bank accounts as well.
Cameroonians with no access to banks in their host countries may find it difficult to use interbank transfers to send funds to their families back home. The fees banks charge for international transfers vary, but most of them charge up to $40 per transfer. The delivery times differ from 3 to 5 days.
Online Money Transfers
The advancement in technology has seen lots of money transfer operators venturing into the Cameroon transfer corridor. Providers such as WorldRemit, Azimo, Softeller, Monisnap, and PayTop are some of the frequently used in the France Cameroon route.
These money transfer providers require that you open an account with them, have it verified and funded before you can send to your recipients. The fees they charge vary from one provider to another. For instance, WorldRemit charges $6.99 to transfer $100 to Cameroon. For the same transfer, Xoom charges $4.99 to a cash pickup point.
The type of transfers you can make with online money transfers include:
Direct to bank transfers
Cash pickups
Mobile money
Some providers such as World Remit and Xoom allow you to top up the recipient mobile phones with airtime straight from their platforms. Xoom can reload MTN and Orange mobile phones.
Paying for your transfers is simple as all you need is to add your bank account, credit card or debit card onto the platform to enable you to pay. Cash pickups and mobile money take minutes to be delivered, but bank transfers can take anywhere from the same day to 3 days to be delivered.
The exchange rate markup these providers charge range from 0.5 to 3.5%. This is a much better deal than banks that charge upwards of 5%. Most providers have mobile apps you can download from Google Play or Play Store to help you send money and track your transfers on the go.
Cash transfer
Money transfer providers like Western Union, MoneyGram, Xpress Money, Moneyglobe, and Dahabshiil offer agent-based transfers. This means you have to walk to an agent, deposit the money, and let them send to your designated recipient.
Western Union and MoneyGram offer both internet-based and agent-based money transfer platforms. In fact, you can begin your transfer online and complete it at an agent. For the online services, the providers will require that you sign up for an account.
MoneyGram allows senders from the UK to pay for their transfers using debit or credit card, Sofort, or cash at the location. The payout option available is cash pickup and the money is available in minutes. The maximum you can send from the UK is 6,000 GBP.
When sending money through Western Union from the UK, you can pay for your transfer in cash, using a bank transfer, online bank transfer, or credit/debit card. The recipient can only get the money in cash and the maximum you can send is 4,485 GBP. Delivery time is in minutes.
Save for MoneyGram and Western Union, the other providers do not have mobile apps hence the inconvenience of having to locate a physical store to do your transfer.
PayPal
If the recipient has a PayPal account, you can transfer money directly to their account. However, the recipient won’t be able to withdraw the money to a local bank, but they can use the PayPal balance to pay for products and services online.
What is Needed to Send Money to Cameroon
To send money to Cameroon, you will be asked to provide the following information:
A government-issued photo ID
The name of the recipient, their address and phone number
The recipient’s bank details if the transfer is to a bank account
The transfer payout method
When signing up for an online money transfer account, most of this information will be requested and verified. Once that is done, you won’t need most of it for your subsequent transfers.
What Are the Ways of Receiving Money in Cameroon?
There are various ways your beneficiary can choose to receive transfers made to them. Depending on the provider, some payout options may not be available. The common ways to receive money in Cameroon include:
Bank Deposit
The recipient can choose to have money deposited directly into their account. One thing to note is that some banks may charge intermediary fees, landing fees, and other processing fees.
Cash Pickup
Online money transfer providers have expanded their disbursing network coverage in Cameroon through strategic partnerships with local operators. For instance, World Remit entered into a new partnership with Express Exchange to allow Cameroonians living abroad to access money in new 300+ pickup locations in the country.
Mobile Money
In January 2019, WorldRemit and Express Union launched an international mobile money transfer service where WorldRemit customers can transfer funds directly to their recipients through the EU mobile money wallet. Other providers offering mobile money transfer to Cameroon include Small World, Transfast, Ria, Money Express, Tempo Money Transfer, CashXpress among others.
What is Required to Receive Money in Cameroon?
For you to receive your transfer in Cameroon you’ve got to provide the following documentation and support information.
Your national identity card or passport
The transaction number -This code is automatically generated when the sender initiates the transfer. It could either be sent to you by the provider or the sender
Depending on the provider you are picking the funds from, you may be asked to identify the sender and the reason for the transfer.
Common Reasons for Sending Money to Cameroon
Most Cameroonians living or working abroad send money home for several reasons some of which are:
Family Support
Families, especially in rural Cameroon, are heavily dependent on aid and external support because of their economic marginalisation. Cameroonians in the diaspora who come from these areas often send money to support their families.
Savings and Investments
Cameroon’s gross domestic savings as a percentage of GDP is about 17%. Part of the savings are inflows from the diaspora into savings vehicles in the country. The diaspora money is also targeting investments in real estate and financial assets.
Education and Tuition Expenses
School enrolments in Cameroon have always been below the 50% mark. While many factors contribute to this, the lack of finances has been key among them. Diaspora Cameroonians have been sending money to keep their siblings and even relatives in school.
Income Repatriation
Cameroonians working and doing business abroad periodically repatriate their profits and incomes into the country. Geopolitical events also push some of them to find a safe haven for their hard-earned cash back at home.
Mortgage Repayments
It is common for diaspora Cameroonians to have loan facilities either directly or through their families back home. Depending on the loan covenants and terms of repayment, part of the money that gets sent is used to repay the loans advanced.
Why Send Money with a Money Transfer Service?
Online money transfer services offer unique advantages to Cameroonians sending money from abroad. Some of the benefits include:
Exchange Rate Margin
Providers charge margins as low as 0.5 to 3.5%. This means that the recipient will receive more money per unit of the host currency.
Transfer Fees
With fees as low as $2.99 you can make your transfers to any part of Cameroon. If you are not so much in a hurry to get you to transfer across, paying via bank is the best option for lower fees.
Transfer Speed
Money sent to Cameroon gets delivered quickly. Some of the transfers are instant while others take up to 3 days to get to the recipients. Compared to traditional channels that take up to 5 days, this timely delivery is a huge plus.
Ease of Set-Up
Signing up for an online money transfer account takes about 5 minutes as long as you have all the information requested. Most providers will also ask you to verify your account, an exercise that will take only 24 hours at most and you are set to send countless transfers.
Multicurrency Support
When sending money from different countries, it helps to get money transfer solutions that support both the host and destination currencies. Money transfer providers have strong sending and disbursing network coverages that support hundreds of currency pairs. For instance, Xendpay supports up to 2968 currency pairs.
Security
Money transfer providers are regulated by bodies in the different countries they operate. Among the regulatory requirements is that they must put in place robust security measures to safeguard customer information and separate client funds from their business finances. Many of the providers have two-factor authentication systems, sever security protocols and encryption systems to ensure information transmission is secured.
Things to Consider When Sending Money to Cameroon
To ensure a smooth transfer when sending money to Cameroon, you should consider the following factors:
Cameroon Money Exchange Market Regulations -The Ministry of Finance issued a communique that outlaws all non-authorised money exchange operations. Only 25 institutions are recognised and authorised to engage in money exchange operations.
Scarcity of Foreign Currencies -Even with the favourable trade that the Central African Monetary and Economic Community (CEMAC) region enjoys, there has been some prolonged scarcity of foreign exchange. It is therefore important that when sending money, you insist on providers that will give your recipients the CFA franc.
Heavy Cash Dependence -Most Cameroonians prefer cash to electronic money. When making your transfer choose cash pickups because they are preferred more than bank deposits and mobile money especially when small amounts in the range of $200 to $500 are involved.
When armed with the right information, sending money to Cameroon is simple. You just need to ensure that the provider you use is reliable and has good network coverage in the area you are making the transfer to.
The USD to XAF exchange rate
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Sending money anywhere else in the world is as easy as sending money to Cameroon. If you're looking to send money to another country, here is the list of the most popular destinations.
Frequently Asked Questions About Cameroon Money Transfers
What’s The Overall Best Way To Send Money To Cameroon?
The overall best way to send money online to Cameroon is through Payoneer. If you do some research on the topic, many of the leading (best) online money transfer services are not available in Cameroon. Payoneer is both available and especially good for sending money to Cameroon. They make sending and receiving money easy, while also offering the most well-rounded option for Cameroon.
What’s The Easiest Way To Transfer Funds To Cameroon?
The easiest way to transfer funds to Cameroon is through Payoneer. Payoneer makes sending money very convenient and easy. Payoneer is also one of the few payment services that are available in almost every country. The recipient of a Payoneer transfer can have the money sent directly to their debit card, at which point it can be withdrawn from an ATM immediately.
Payoneer also offers another option which allows the recipient to receive the money directly into their bank account.
What’s The Cheapest Way To Send Money Online To Cameroon?
MoneyGram is the cheapest way to transfer funds to Cameroon. With MoneyGram, you can expect to pay a small upfront stated fee. You will also pay a small amount in hidden currency conversion costs. When you do the math, MoneyGram ends up being significantly cheaper than most of the competition. To find out more, we've written a guide to help you find the cheapest ways to send money abroad.
What’s The Fastest Way To Send Money To Cameroon?
The fastest way to send money to Cameroon is through the fast option offered by Western Union. With Western Union’s fast option, your money will get to Cameroon in a matter of minutes. Western Union is also a more common money transfer service that keeps the process simple.
The only real downside to Western Union’s fast option is that it is expensive. You can expect to pay more than average with any of Western Union’s services.
The current exchange rate for the Central African Franc (XAF) is 616.667 XAF per American Dollar (USD) as of the time this was written. The XAF reached a high of 636.24 XAF per USD and a low of 595.63 XAF per USD during the last 90 days. The average exchange rate for the XAF over the last 90 days was 614.79 XAF per USD.
The average volatility rate for the XAF against the USD was 0.44% over the last 90 days. This is a normal volatility rate, although the XAF has gone through some long-term fluctuations. Going forward, you can reasonably expect only moderate fluctuations to continue, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
How we compare?
What do we mean by the top provider?
The top provider is the money transfer service that we believe is the most suitable for the country you’re sending money to. In order to keep our service free we factor in the commercial agreements we have with partners into this ranking.
How do we choose providers to display?
We make sure that each table displays the most relevant brands to the country you are sending money to and from. We consider many factors when choosing the providers to display in the table. All of the providers we display are fully regulated to provide money transfer services in the jurisdiction you are searching, relevant regulatory authorities are the FCA, ASIC, Fincen, FINTRAC & AMF. Alongside being regulated the services are manually checked by our team for both quality of service and online trust from such platforms like Trustpilot and Google reviews. We base our rankings primarily on the quality of the service provided, the benefit to the consumer and to keep our service free – the commercial agreements we have.
How do we order our comparisons?
We are affiliated with some of the partners displayed in the tables. However, the order of the providers is based on the quality of the service for the particular country corridor followed by the commercial agreement in place. You don’t pay any extra and the deal you get isn’t affected by our commercial agreement with the money transfer provider. We may receive a commission when you click through to a listing or when you make a transaction. We aim to find the balance between the quality of the service, customer satisfaction and the commercial agreements we have, and continue comparing services in a transparent way. If you have any questions about our listings, please don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected]
Jonathan is the founder and editor of MoneyTransfers.com. Jonathan is highly experienced in the currency transfer market, having previously worked in the FX trading industry, alongside being an avid traveller. Using his knowledge he identified a need for transparency and further education to help people save money on their money transfers, leading to the creation of MoneyTransfers.com
Jonathan is the founder and editor of MoneyTransfers.com. Jonathan is highly experienced in the currency transfer market, having previously worked in the FX trading industry, alongside being an avid traveller. Using his knowledge he identified a need for transparency and further education to help people save money on their money transfers, leading to the creation of MoneyTransfers.com