I used MoneyGram. It was almost as expensive as Western Union. And they gave me problems necessitating several expensive international phone calls and many hours' delay. I never anticipated that they would call me and send me back to the place where I'd paid from 'for enquiries' and that, ther, I would be asked to provide the recipient's passport details - which I didn't have.

PayPal depends on the other person having PayPal too. In the part of the world I deal with it, it's as familiar as planet Mars.

I still haven't got my head around this Liberty Reserve thing but, failing any advice on these pages, I guess I will go ahead with a token amount. The High Street banks simply rip off, I'm determined not to use them for overseas remittances any more. Once I sent £50 notes by post. It arrived safely but the worry wasn't worth it.

There are companies on the internet which claim they will send free of charge for over a certain amount, but I don't feel safe with those guys.

If the transactions were to Europe, I'd just jump on the next available bottom-price easyJet - despite their cocrete seats.