One significant benefit of digital money transfers is that the apps make it easy to send money using just a few buttons on a cellphone, and the money gets to its recipient in minutes. GETTY IMAGE
Sending money across borders through a traditional bank wire can mean high fees, days of waiting and a trip to the branch in person. Digital money-transfer apps offer a faster, lower-cost alternative. GETTY IMAGE
One significant benefit of digital money transfers is that the apps make it easy to send money using just a few buttons on a cellphone, and the money gets to its recipient in minutes. GETTY IMAGE
Last September, Nadine Pettman and her husband flew from Vancouver to Dublin with their 18-year-old son to help him settle in for his first year of medical studies. They had the usual to-do list for a student beginning life abroad, including opening a bank account and buying a cellphone. That turned into what Pettman calls a “comedy of errors,” including needing residency paperwork just to book an appointment at the bank and verification codes not going through to her son’s phone.
“There were so many dominoes in the whole process,” she says.
Once she was back home, and with her son’s bank account finally sorted, Pettman needed to send him money for groceries and everyday expenses. She did what seemed obvious: she went to her bank to make a wire transfer.
What should have been an easy transaction became unexpectedly complicated. Because of a minor discrepancy in her son’s address, the wire was held up at an intermediary bank in Europe. Pettman spent hours on the phone trying to trace the money. It took weeks to arrive, with her son relying on a credit card in the meantime.
“We lost money on the exchange, but it was more the headache and the hassle,” says Pettman.
With thousands of ɫtv students heading abroad each year, more families like the Pettmans are managing money between countries. estimates that around 7,500 ɫtvs move to Europe to study each year, while nearly 30,000 head to the United States. Australia and France are other popular destinations for ɫtv students.
However, moving money internationally can be harder, slower and more expensive than people expect. For the Pettman family, the experience prompted them to try a different way of sending money to Europe: a digital money-transfer service.
“While it felt a bit unknown to us at first—I think we’re entrenched in our own routines and habits and the things we trust—it’s so much easier,” says Pettman. “Transferring money is instant, it’s low cost and we don’t go through the hassle of wire transfers and time delays.”
For people studying or working internationally, money transfers are becoming a more important part of their everyday financial lives. While sending money back home is still a big part of the equation, global mobility means money is crossing borders for a wider range of reasons.
“The classic model—one person sending money home to family—now sits alongside a much more fluid pattern: a student funding their own semester abroad, a new grad wiring signing-bonus savings to a new country, or a digital nomad who earns in one currency, pays rent in another and still supports family in a third,” says Jung Lee, Canada General Manager at Remitly, a global cross-border financial service.
People who come to Canada on working holidays, through programs such as , are another example. As young professionals come to Canada to gain international experience, they may need to move income between their ɫtv bank account and accounts back home or receive financial support from their families to help cover their living expenses.
Lee says this broader shift has pushed demand toward faster money transfers, greater transparency around costs and the flexibility to move money in multiple currencies. “These customers aren’t ‘senders’ in the traditional sense; they’re managing one financial life spread across countries, often with transfers running in multiple directions at once,” she says.
However, when money needs to move quickly and in different directions, traditional methods can seem increasingly out of step.
Behdad Baghaei has experienced that firsthand. Originally from Tehran, Baghaei came to Canada to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Windsor. He now works as a research assistant at the university and provides tech support at the campus radio station.
Sending money across borders through a traditional bank wire can mean high fees, days of waiting and a trip to the branch in person. Digital money-transfer apps offer a faster, lower-cost alternative. GETTY IMAGE
Opening a bank account when he arrived in Canada was simple. But when he needed to send money abroad, a traditional wire transfer was less convenient. High wire-transfer fees, long processing times and the need to go to the bank in person led Baghaei to a digital money-transfer service instead.
Today, Baghaei and a few friends and family members abroad use an app to send and receive money between Canada, the U.S. and Europe. For example, when Baghaei needed help covering his rent because of a payroll delay, a family friend in the U.S. sent him funds. And when a friend in Italy urgently needed a few Euros one night, Baghaei was able to help. “I sent him the money in two minutes, just like that,” he says.
Baghaei says the group sees several benefits to using digital money-transfer services, including ease of access and lower fees. “With the apps we use, it’s just a few buttons on our phones and that’s it,” he says. “It’s absolutely worth the fees we pay, and they’re not much. But how fast the money gets there is the real selling point.”
When choosing a provider, Remitly’s Lee says 24/7 access is an important consideration since deadlines and emergencies don’t always fall within regular banking hours.
Transparency around fees is also key. “Look for a provider that shows the fee and rate clearly before you confirm, so there’s no guessing at what actually lands on the other end,” Lee says.
She also advises checking how the money can be tracked. “Knowing exactly when funds will arrive, not just when they were sent, removes a lot of the anxiety, especially around tuition or rent deadlines,” she says.
That’s the kind of peace of mind that appeals to parents like Pettman, who views the speed of digital money transfers as the biggest benefit. “You send it, it arrives, you can see that it’s there and it’s just done,” she says.
Pettman’s advice for other parents navigating a move abroad is to look for practical ways to make the transition easier, including how they send money.
“If there are things you can do to make the process easier, they shouldn’t be viewed as shortcuts or cheat codes,” she says. “They’re just better ways of doing it.”
