Monito's Xoom Review: Exchange Rates, Safety, 2023 Score, and Why You Should Find Alternatives

Xoom by PayPal is a poor money transfer provider (6.6/10), rarely recommended by Monito’s experts. Though it is a reputable provider (9.1/10) and is highly rated by its users (7.8/10), Xoom regularly has some of the worst fees and exchange rates in the market (2.3/10). With a nice user experience (7.0/10), Xoom is competitive in select corridors from the US.

What Monito Likes About Xoom

• A good variety of pay-in and pay-out options;
• A large number of destinations around the globe;
• Transfers are fast and easy to make;
• Highly rated by customers.

What Monito Dislikes About Xoom

• Rarely the cheapest option;
• A limited number of origin countries;
• Exchange rate margin is not disclosed and 74% of fees are hidden.

How We Review Money Transfer Providers

With more than 50 providers reviewed and 100 test transfers made over the past ten years, we pride ourselves on providing the best reviews of international money transfer services online. Curious how we make them and why you can trust us? Take a look at our process below:

Is Xoom Paypal Safe?

Owned by PayPal since 2015, Xoom is a credible and well-established name in the money transfer world, transferring approximately $10 billion annually for over 250 million customers, that as a bonus is backed by one of the biggest names in the field.

Is Xoom Legit?

Yes. Not only is Xoom a fully-secured and well-established international money transfer provider in its own right, but it is also a service of PayPal, one of the largest international money transfer service in the world. PayPal is regulated by the federal government, as well as by various U.S. state governments and agencies.

Is Xoom a Good Way To Send Money?

Setting up an account with Xoom takes a few steps, but making a transfer, whether to a new or existing contact, is straightforward. It has an impressive variety of pay-in and pay-out methods from which to choose.

What is Xoom?

Xoom is a leading money transfer provider to send money from the United States, Canada, and Europe (Eurozone, non-Euro zone countries, and the UK) to over 130 countries around the world.

You can pay using your bank account, debit, or credit card. Depending on the country you are sending money to, the money can be delivered as cash, deposited in a bank account, airtime top-up. It can also be delivered to the beneficiary’s home address. You can also use Xoom to pay utility bills in 10 countries: Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, and Vietnam).

What's the Difference Between Xoom and PayPal?

Xoom is owned by PayPal and its services are integrated. Because Xoom is part of PayPal, you can use a PayPal-linked bank account, credit card, or debit card, but note that you can't out of your PayPal balance.

Xoom offers mobile apps for Apple iOS and Google Android and their website is available in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, French, Hungarian, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Korean, and Chinese. You are kept informed of the status of your transfer with text updates or email notifications.

How Long Does It Take To Receive Money From Xoom?

If you fund your international money transfer by bank transfer, it can take two to three business days to reach the recipient. Transfer time will also lengthen if a non-traditional transfer route is used. Transfers from the United States to Canada or Mexico, for example, will usually take a day or so while less-common transfers from Mexico to Bangladesh, for example, can take three or more days.

Transfers by debit card, credit card or PayPal balance are usually immediate, taking just a few minutes to reach your destination.

Documents Required for a Xoom Account and Payment Limit

The maximum amount you’re allowed to send with Xoom is $2,999 per day in the US. Without providing documents, you also have a limit of $6,000 per month and $9,999 over a six month period.

You can increase these limits by providing additional documents. US residents need to provide the following:

• ID (passport, driver’s license, etc.);
• Green Card;
• Proof of Income (payslip);
• Bank Statement.

When increasing your limits, Xoom customer service will also ask you to answer a few security questions about your transfer, such as your relationship with the recipient, why you’re transferring money, if you’re sending money on behalf of someone else, and your current occupation.

Send Money to Mexico With Xoom

Xoom allows you to send money to more than 37,000 agent locations (including Walmart, Farmacias Guadalajara, OXXO, Soriana, and Elektra, and directly to someone's bank account at all major Mexican banks including Banca Azteca, BBVA Bancomer, BanCopeel, Banorte, and BanCoppel).

You can also top up the airtime for your friends and family with five carriers (Claro, Telcel, Movistar, Iusacell, Nextel, and Unefon) and even pay utility bills from several companies (dish, gasNatural, Iusacell, IZZF, Sky, Telmex, and Telnor).

Send Money to Colombia With Xoom

You can send money to almost every Colombian city, including Cali, Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena, in cash or directly to a bank account. Transfers are available to all major banks in Colombia (including Bancolombia, HSBC, BBVA and Banco Popular) and their partner networks (including Carulla, Exito, Davivienda, and Pagos Internacionales). More than 2,500 cash pickup locations are available.

Xoom allows you to top-up their mobile phones on the Claro, Moviestar, Tigo, Avantel, or Virgin Mobile networks for small gifts to your friends and family.

Send Money to Guatemala With Xoom

With over 9,500 cash pickup locations, Xoom has Guatemala covered if you want to deliver money in cash. Xoom’s network in Guatemala includes Banrural, Banco Industrial, and even El Gallo más Gallo.

You can also send money to banks in Guatemala, including Banco G&T Continental, Banco Industrial, Banrural, or reload the phones of Moviestar, Claro, and Tigo customers. It is also possible to pay the EEGSA and Energuate bills of your family.

Send Money to the Philippines With Xoom

Many Filipinos use Xoom to send money back to the Philippines. You can send money to over 10,000 pickup locations (many of which are open 24/7), and your money is usually available in just a few minutes. If you send money to a bank account, the delivery is instant for accounts at BDO, Metrobank, Land Bank, and PNB. You can also send money to any other bank account, although the delivery time will be a bit longer. There are no fees if you send over US$200 to a Philippine Peso bank account and pay with a bank account.

The Philippines is one of the only countries where Xoom offers cash delivery directly to your recipient’s home at no additional cost. The money can be delivered in less than six hours if your recipient lives in Manila or roughly 1-2 days in most other provinces.

If you want to send an airtime top-up to reload your recipient’s mobile phone, Xoom allows you to reload numbers from Sun, Smart, SmartBro, and Globe. You can also pay for your family's local utility Smart and PLDT bills.

Send Money to Vietnam With Xoom

You can send US dollars or Vietnamese dong to over 1,700 pickup locations throughout Vietnam in a few minutes. Bank transfers to Vietcombank, Sacombank, DongA, and Vietinbank can generally be done in minutes, and a quick bank transfer can be made to other major banks. You can also arrange for money to be delivered to your recipient’s home – in major cities, this is usually done on the same day, in all other locations.

You can also send airtime to your relatives using Beeline, Mobifone, Vietnamobile, Viettel, and Vinaphone, or pay for their utility bills such as VNPT and EVNHANOI.

Xoom's Mobile App Review

Xoom's mobile app has excellent ratings on Apple's App Store (4.8/5 stars on over 1 million ratings) and Google's Play Store (4.8/5 on over 5 million ratings). With the Xoom app, it’s easy to send money from your smartphone in a few taps. The app is available in English, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

Xoom's Fees & Exchange Rates

Xoom rarely ranks competitively in Monito searches, though it does better with cash pickup transfers from the United States.

Xoom Fees

Xoom's transfer fees vary depending on where you're sending your money from and to, as well as the transfer method involved. In general, fixed fees are not applicable to larger bank transfers (usually above US$1,000) and only affect smaller bank transfers. For example, a US$750 transfer from the US to a bank account in India would incur a US$4.99 fixed fee.

In addition to the fixed fee, Xoom also charges a variable commission (usually between 2.9% and 3.3% of the transaction value) for debit and credit card payments.

Xoom Exchange Rates

The second transfer cost comes in when you're charged the difference between the "real" exchange rate (known as the mid-market exchange rate) and the rate which Xoom decides on. This difference is known as the exchange rate margin, and is expressed as a percentage.

Is Xoom Better Than Western Union?

Xoom's exchange rates hover between 0.4% and 1.5% in general for most currencies, which make them reasonably priced compared to other traditional players on the market and on par with Western Union. Xoom is, on average, more expensive than many other services due to the fact that it charges the above fixed fees and commissions in addition.

Why Is the Xoom Exchange Rate So Low?

Bear in mind that Xoom exchange rates decrease in proportion to the size of the transfer. For example, if you were to send a small transfer of US$500 to India, your exchange rate margin would be around 1.1%. Meanwhile, if you were to send a larger transfer of US$10,000, your exchange rate margin would be only around 0.4% instead.

For these reasons, the experts at Monito highly recommend you compare Xoom to better alternatives in real-time using the Monito comparison engine below:

Xoom Money Transfer Customer Reviews

Xoom is popular with users, earning a 4.8 out of 5 star rating on both the App Store and on Google Play. It has fared worse on Trustpilot, however, with a 2.7/5 star rating.

Positive Review Highlights

• Transactions speed is quick;
• Smooth and easy-to-use service;
• Excellent customer service.

Negative Review Highlights

• Sending documents to Xoom for compliance reasons was a hassle;
• Some transfers cancelled days after putting a transaction through;
• High fees and poor exchange rates.