[DaiHuy]

"Why do so many FReepers assume the remittance services of a real bank will only be used by illegal aliens?"

Answer this for me. Why should it cost me $10.00 to send money to a Bank in Indiana, well within the boundries of America, but nothing to send it to Mexico, and why only Mexico, why not Thailand, China, the Philippines, Australia or anywhere in Europe?

[international american]

It costs me 30-40 dollars to TT money to China and Malaysia
I will bring this up next time........BANK on it!!

[conservative in nyc]

If you use any real bank, it shouldn't cost you anything to transfer money by using the bank's "Pay by Internet" feature. A hard wire transfer costs money because banks can get away with charging money, and have to pay for the infrastructure used to make hard wire transfers (or so they claim).

The market for remittances to Mexico is much larger than Thailand, China, the Philippines, Australia or anywhere in Europe. There are more Mexican-born LEGAL immigrants here than from any of those countries. And Bank of America and other U.S. banks have Mexican retail banking affiliates through which they can accomplish transfers cheaply. They don't necessarily have retail affiliates in those other countries.

Look -- I'm no fan of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants shouldn't be given drivers licenses. And they shouldn't be able to open up bank accounts using some unreliable Mexican consular card (or at all) without providing a valid Social Security number for themselves so that we can tax any interest income. But I don't really have a problem with any bank lowering fees on any service. And I'd actually rather have transfers effectuated by a bank, which will cooperate with the feds in money laundering investigations, than some fly-by-night outfit, which may not.