Remitting money again!

Yesterday was 1st  June and I had my payday. As always I promptly make my down to People's Park Complex to remit money back home. I think the companies that help us remit money do good business. They charge us about SGD25 per remittance and this place is always full. I have done this every month for coming to 3 years and the situation is always the same whether I go there in the evening or on Saturdays or Sundays.

At any one time, there is an average of 30 people there... so that's a SGD750 collection. Throughtout the day, there could be easily 300 to 400 people. That would be a daily collection of SGD7,500 to SGD10,000. And that's not counting the exchange rates gains they would be making from converting SGD to RMB.

I would imagine they do one single transfer at the end of the day to China and from there, individually bank in the money to each account. Imagine the profits they would be raking in. No wonder, there are easily 10 shops doing such brisk business within People's Park complex alone. Personally, I have used the same one shop since I came to Singapore as they have proven reliable and I see no reason to change.

Can you imagine that during my first month in Singapore, I remitted SGD200 back to my parents in China and had to pay a SGD25 fee? That's more than a 10%! I guess we all get smarter with age and experience!

Remitting money back home - Part 2

I wrote about remitting money back home a few post ago. Just a few days after I remitted the money, my dad texted (sms) me to tell me to call home, saying that it's urgent! I was working then and it was during my peak period which means that I cannot even make a phone call. As usual, I panicked... trying to figure out what emergency had happened back home. Had my mum slipped and hurt herself? Did somebody close pass away? I don't know about you but I certainly don't like this feeling of anxiety! Beads of sweat started forming on my forehead... some from the heat of the noodle stall I was manning and some from the anxiety I was feeling.

I could not wait for the day to end and it finally did. The first thing I did was to call my dad and all he had to tell me was that I had filled up the form wrongly and he was not able to get the money. Instead of filling out my name in the "Remitter's name", I filled his name instead!

I immediately made my way down to People's Park again to correct the error. Fortunately, the place was still opened, although not as crowded as before... which is good for me. Anyway, I managed to get the error corrected and so all is well for now... at least I assume! Sometimes, I think my home folks should not use the word "urgent" unnecessarily. While this is certainly important, I did not think it was that urgent and it had caused me alot of unnecessary concern. My dad could have just said in the text message that I need to correct an error I made in the remittance and to call back after work! Ha ha... anyway, we all  learn from our mistakes!

Remitting money back home!

It's New Year's day and I just had my pay yesterday. I decided to go to People's Park to remit some money back home as I had not done so the previous month.

Surprisingly, People's Park was still crowded despite it being a holiday and most of the shops were opened too. However, it seems that many Chinese had the same idea and the shop that I frequently use to remit money back home was packed with Chinese. Hmmm... is it "Great minds think alike" or "Fools seldom differ"? Well, never mind. I managed to get into the queue and within 20 mins, I had it all done. Then I made a call to my mother to inform her to keep a lookout for the money going over. I expect her to receive it most probably on Tuesday next week.

They had changed the form since the last time I came and I had some difficulty filling up the form. I had to ask some of the others and they explained the new form to me. Thereafter, it wasn't so difficult! Anyway, I guess I had better get used to the new form as I am sure I will frequent this place. I also have to teach my sister how to remit money back home.

It seems like the owners of the business are having a great time helping Chinese to remit money back home. They have opened another side of the shop to cater to the ever increasing crowd of Chinese, eager to make sure their families at home have a comfortable life. Must be a good business!