how to send money internationally using paypal

Before I moved to China, I did a lot of research on how to send money internationally. There's going through the bank, using Western Union, just carrying cash and converting it when you're in the States, and PayPal. (Alas, Google Wallet doesn't work as an option because it is only available in the USA and the UK.) PayPal is a great way to send money internationally: it is cheaper than going through Western Union and you have control of it. Yes, you're sending it through a 3rd party but it isn't like you're trusting the banks to bounce from one to another. 

See, I don't have an account with a bank-bank, if you catch my meaning, and my bank uses Wells Fargo to do its international wiring. I found out that when banks wire money internationally, it can bounce through quite a few different banks before it gets to the destination. Also, the bank I use in China requires you to convert money from RMB into USD before you can use their online system to send it internationally, which means you have to physically go to the bank with your passport and convert your funds anytime you want to send money home. Call me a millennial (which I am) and wanting things to be easier, but yeah, I do. Online banking is the way to go, people, so it's a lot simpler to send money internationally with PayPal. 

To send money internationally using PayPal, you need to do a few things first:

1. Have two email accounts.
2. Set up a PayPal account with your international banking information with one email account. Change the PayPal website to the right country because the PayPal options can be slightly different. (There's a flag in the lower corner in order for you to do it.)
1. If you happen to be in China, you don't need your VPN for it to work. I also recommend that you use a non-Gmail email address: Yahoo and Outlook work fine. 
3. Set up a PayPal account with your home country banking information with your other email account. Again, make sure you're on the right PayPal.
4. Verify your banking information.
1. For example, when you link your bank account to PayPal, PayPal will make 1-2 deposits in your account and you will need to verify the amount that was deposited.
2. For a Chinese banking card, you'll most likely need to install a security control in order to enter the PIN to verify the card. You can uninstall the program after to verify it.
5. Make sure that your information is correct. There's also an option to verify your account even further to remove account limits by verifying your SSN, etc. 

Once you have your two PayPal accounts set up and active, you're ready to send money internationally. The first thing to know is that the fee to send money internationally is about 3.9%. Second, PayPal has 20 currency options for sending money. If you're in a home country that doesn't offer your currency, you'll have to send it another currency, just make sure your bank will accept it. For example, I get paid in RMB. PayPal doesn't have RMB as an option but it doesn't matter because I want to send money in USD. All I have to do is make sure that I know how much money I have in my Chinese bank account in USD (xe.comhttp://www.xe.com/ is the most accurate currency converter out there) and I'm ready to go. 

So, here's how it works:

1. Log on to your international PayPal account.
2. Click "Send Money".
3. Enter your home PayPal account email address. 
4. Enter the amount of money you want to send. 
5. Select the currency you want your money to be sent in. (Remember to know how much you have in another currency if you have to convert it.)
6. Click "OK".
7. Verify that your email address is correct and the amount of money you're sending is correct.
8. If there's a shipping option, select "No Shipping Required".
9. There's a space to write a message that will accompany the email if you want to make any notes.
10. Click "Send Money".
11. Log on to your home PayPal account. 
12. Withdraw the money to your bank account by selecting "Withdraw Money".
13. Write in the amount of money that you want to withdraw from PayPal and click OK.
14. In 3-5 business days, that money will be in your bank.

And that's it. You're basically sending money from yourself to yourself. My only experience has been sending money from China to the USA, so apologies if these instructions don't match your options exactly, but PayPal is easy to figure out. They also have good customer service if something goes wrong, so never fear. 

I've heard a few stories of people have money getting stuck in the ethereal layer of the internet through PayPal, but they have been few and far between. Once or twice I've had my Chinese PayPal be a bit finicky by saying you can only use American Express to send money but all I've had to do was refresh the page and it's worked fine. Just remember, the money that will arrive in your home PayPal account will be 3.9% less than the amount that you sent. 

I hope that this was helpful. I recommend PayPal to get around international wiring through banks and having the freedom to do it yourself. If you have any other good ways to send money internationally, comment below, I would love to hear about it.