Chile Forum

Just got this from xe.com today:

Due to the various financial services regulations we operate under, we can no longer offer XE Trade services in your home country.

Unfortunately, as a result of these requirements we are required to deactivate your account and discontinue your XE Trade service.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for using XE Trade to date - we very much appreciate your business.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Regards,

XE Trade Customer Service

Whiffs quite a lot of BS to me, but that's academic. I notice that they are now associated with Western Union...

I think admin has mentioned some service in the past that sounded similar (via etrade?), so maybe that's worth looking into. Hopefully xe's currency mailings will continue working.

Cheers,

James.

Let me translate that for you. xe is saying, "The U.S. government believe you might be an American living oversees, and are thus automatically suspected of removing our (it use to be your) money from the country to avoid paying taxes so we are assuming you are criminal of the highest importance".

Yea, I have quit using etrade because they have gone down hill in multiple ways. Chief amongst them is a similar "new" policy of not allowing international wires except from your account with them to your account in another country, plus you have to mail in a notarized authorization form for each wire. In other words, they want to know exactly where your accounts outside the country are also. You can not for example wire to a car dealer's account.

You might be right about the reasoning, though in fact I'm not American, I was wiring money from Chile and xe.com is based in Canada (though their account is in the US) I suppose they didn't make up this policy especially for me though... Drat, some more expenses to complement the rock-bottom dollar (along with my car cooling system failing).

Wait a minute... Do you mean to say that xe.com does not work for Canada --> Chile money transfers any longer??? It worked just fine for me earlier this year and I was going to use it again soon.

What I was told (see above) seems to indicate that it's no longer available for people living in Chile. You should presumably have got the same email if you signed up with a Chilean address. I suspect you can still send money to Chile via wire transfer if you live in Canada.

James.

Never used xe.com, but I suspect this is a problem of volume of biz vs. paperwork costs.

Hell, we don't accept international wires anymore to our Chilean accounts for payments of services, except in special situations. Mostly the problem is payments under $1,000 US. Why? Because I end up having to spend 3-4 hours at the bank goofing around to clear say a $500 US payment, just for either me and my client to get burned on the fees and exchange rates once it is cleared.

Well, now xe.com says this was a mistake! So it seems it will still work from Chile.

An email notification was sent to you in error regarding the deactivation of your XE Trade account. Please disregard that email. We wish to inform you that your XE Trade account is still active and that you may continue to use it to send funds internationally by logging in to your account.

Our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

We value your business and look forward to serving your payment needs.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

XE Trade Customer Service

But if they are associated with Western Union like you mentioned in the OP I'd still avoid them like the plague...

Western Union are absolute scum, they are complicit in apartment rental scams (you can check out "Finn Herskind" and maybe scamwarners.com to see how they pay out money without valid ID to scammers), and they will sequester your money after contracting to send it and require you to answer questions which are none of their business about you, your money, and your payee to satisfy their curiosity^h^h... I mean their money-laundering checks