The cheapest and quickest way to transfer money to virtual assistants (and anyone else!)

When my new virtual assistant (VA), who is based in the Philippines, asked me if I knew Transfer Wise, I told her I didn't. 

She told me that it was the best way to pay her, because it has the lowest fees, the best exchange rates and it gets the money into her hands faster.

I wasn't too worried about paying a little bit extra for convenience.

Since I already had a PayPal account, I did think to myself: why not just use that given I was happy to pay a couple of extra dollars to cover any loss that she might face when it's converted into the Philippines Peso?

But then I thought, every little bit counts, especially when added up over weeks, months and even years.

Also, I don't have any loyalty to the "old guard" of international money transfer platforms, but it seemed to matter to her.

Why not try something new? 

So, I did.

Setting up my account with TransferWise only took a few minutes and it works really well.

It's better than the other platforms I'd been using in the past, and infinitely superior to a money transfer via a bank. Once you're set up, each transfer just takes a minute.

The commission percentage is far smaller, the exchange rate is better and even the fee per transaction is much cheaper (which makes a difference if you're sending relatively low amounts each week or per task).

Best of all, getting on this new platform was something that I could do for my virtual assistant to get the new relationship off to a good start (given some false starts with other VAs, I feel lucky to have found Mary!). 

By showing her I was open to doing something that she wanted (which didn't really matter to me), she might be more inclined to go the extra mile for me, too (including those little things that I think are important).

If you're looking for a fast, cheap and easy way to transfer money across borders, I recommend TransferWise - if you use this link you can get a fee-free transfer (up to $1,000) on your first transaction. 

As for VAs, well, I'll share some tips on how to find a good one and ways to work with them another time, because that's a whole other story!!