Issues with XOOM

[YanquiGallego]

A week ago, I sent two transfers from my US bank account to two different people here in Buenos Aires, one transfer was for around $1500 USD and the other for about $350.

I have sent one of the 2 recipients that same amount last month and she recieved it in about a day. In this case, a few days passed, and Xoom assured me that the money was out of their hands and now with the Argentine partner. However, the Argentine partner kept insisting they did not have it either. So basically I had almost 2k floating around without anyone knowing who had it or where it was, and most importantly, the funds had already been debited from my checking account and the recipients did not have it either.

Saturday I get an email saying that the Argentine partner needs more information in order to release the transfers, they asked me to send in a photocopy of my passport and a bank statement verifying the origin of the funds and demonstrating where the funds originate from. (I am guessing this is a government thing)

In any event, my larger transfer ended up being released today and the smaller one was cancelled NOT at my request and it will take about 5 days for the money to supposedly be refunded to my account, which is a huge hassle and makes me look bad as I have kept the recipient waiting for a week for the transfer and now I had to create a new transfer and who knows how long that will take.

I appreciate Xoom and their favourable exchange rate, but I just wanted to let people know about my incident for future reference, especially since their website literally says money in minutes. I don't understand why this is not the case, they do literally almost within a half hour debit the funds from my checking account so it's not like they can't see if I have the money to do the transfer.

 

[sesamosinsal]

$1,850 would be more than $10,000 ARS, which gets flagged, according to previous posts. I think if you sent them at the same time, they'd be viewed as one transaction all-together.

I've not had any problems with Xoom thus far. However, this month I've transferred much less than $1,850. Today the rate is back up at 5.63. Last week, it reached 5.68.

 

[YanquiGallego]

Is this limit per transaction? Per month? Etc?

 

[sesamosinsal]

According to this thread, it seems that it might be per transaction.

However, your experience (two separate transactions) seems to suggest that it would be a monthly limit.

 

[domthegreat]

Xoom offers a great product, but has a terrible service! They have blown 3 of my credit cards and have simply told me that "our system will not let you use that card"...The only thing I did was listen to their instruction and they all on their own froze my card for no reason. Even though they admit it was their fault, they say they do not have the ability to override their system and release the card. Very disturbing...After hours of time on the phone with them over a week, I finally got the number for the head office in San Fran which I will be calling later today to complain and see if I can get this problem resolved.

Again great product! (you can't beat that rate) but terrible service!!!

 

[YanquiGallego]

I second that, the customer service is horrible and the fact that they basically kept my money in limbo (possibly earning interest off it) for a week without being clear as to what was wrong or where it was, is ridiculous. The call centers I believe are in India, but they are San francisco based officially.

 

[henryb]

Xoom called me a couple of times to verify transactions. Their customer service people speak with a spanish accent, probably they have a regional office somewhere in Latin America. I've been using Xoom for two years and I think their support is OK.

I believe 10,000 peso limit is cumulative and applies to all transfers person receives per month regardless of the company that actually performs it. It is not specific to Xoom. You can receive one transfer via MoneyGram and another via Western Union and hit this limit. So Western Union will reverse the second transfer.

I do not think it is a limit per sender, but per receiver. It is possible that the person, whom YanquiGallego sent $350, already exceeded the limit of incoming transfers and that's why the transfer was rejected. May be he/she has problems with AFIP. Once again, it is rather an exception, than the rule.

With current savings account rates in the USA of 1%, holding $350 for 7 days would raise Xoom the whooping 7 cents. At the same time Xoom currently gives you favorable exchange rate of 26% above the official rate. So, the idea, that Xoom holds your transactions to earn the interest, is ridiculous. Xoom is actually doing pretty good, regarding the craziness of the current situation.

 

[imranq2]

We had issues transferring via Xoom to a third party here but it was much easier to transfer to myself, pick it up at the More Transfers Libertad branch and pay the third party.