Price cut for Mexico wires

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wells Fargo & Co. is poised to introduce a discount service for wiring money to Mexico. The new service will charge a $10 flat fee for wiring as much as $1,000 to Mexico.

The price undercuts the rates charged by the dominant financial wire services, Western Union and Moneygram. The market leaders collect a $15 fee on a comparable wire transfer of up to $300 and charge as much as $50 for sending $1,000 to Mexico. In some cases, Moneygram charges a flat fee of $15 for any amount.

Mexicans living in the United States wire an estimated $8 billion annually to friends and relatives back home.

The San Francisco-based bank plans to offer the wire transfer service -- operated as a joint venture with Grupo Financiero Bancomer SA, Mexico's second-largest bank -- in all 3,000 of its branches in 23 states.

archive