How to Send Cash

So you need to send some money. Maybe you want to slip a couple of $20 bills in a birthday card. Maybe it’s a larger payment for some not-at-all-sketchy, off-the-books services rendered. Either way, it can be a pain to send paper money without having to worry that it might mysteriously slip out of your envelope into someone else’s pocket.

“Sending cash physically via mail or something is probably one of the least efficient options for moving money around,” says Kevin L. Matthews, a financial adviser who has offered money advice for WIRED before. “It’s not necessarily something that I would recommend.”

The problem, he says, is that if something goes wrong and the cash goes missing, there’s really nothing you can do about it. There are better ways to transfer finances, but if you absolutely have to get your coins from one piggy bank to another, here are the best ways to do so without getting ripped off.

Don’t Get Scammed

To be clear up front, you should not just stick a wad of cash in the mail and hope for the best. There’s too high of a chance it will get lost, stolen, or otherwise wind up in the hands of someone you don’t intend.

And to that last point, if you are sending somebody any kind of payment, ask yourself these basic questions: Do you personally know the individual you’re sending money too? Have you vetted the agency purporting to get your dough to the right place? Is there any fine print? Does the method for sending money seem too good to be true? If any of those questions give you pause, it’s probably a scam.

Scams are evolving quickly, Matthews says, and they are getting more difficult to detect all the time. “The number one rule is, don’t ever send any money to anyone that you do not know. And don’t be afraid to call and check. That’s always an option. Be careful of the details, verify the information, and just make sure this makes sense. Because usually once that money walks out the door, it’s absolutely not coming back.”

There are lots of ways to keep yourself and your loved ones from getting ripped off and protect yourself from AI scam calls. (Grandma, I promise you, Charter.bot texting to ask you to send it gift cards is not a legitimate way to pay your cable bill.)

Paper Trail

There are ways to send cash safely. If you’re just sending a small amount, like slapping a fiver in a birthday card, using the regular mail system is probably fine. You run the risk of it getting lost, like with anything you mail. But if you care about the money getting where it needs to go, you should insure it or send a money order.

In the US, you’re allowed to ship cash up to $500 without having to register it with the US Postal Service. It’s not technically illegal to send more than that through the US Mail, but it’s also not a good idea. If you do need to send cash and don’t mind Uncle Sam knowing about it, you can insure your package for a value of up to $50,000. There are a couple caveats, though.

First, there is an additional charge for protected postage, ranging from $10 to $42, depending on the declared value inside. (For cash, the declared value is however much money you’re sending.) And you’ll have to go into an actual post office to declare how much money you are sending, then fill out a form for Registered mail. After sending the envelope or package, you can use the USPS tracking service to see when your money is delivered. The process is a bit of a pain but certainly better than sending a box of cash that “mysteriously” disappears.

Check It Out

Checks are the vinyl albums of payment methods—a seemingly outdated medium, inconvenient to get set up, but overall really worthwhile once you get into it.

“If I had to do something like this and send money physically, I would go old-school,” Matthews says. “I would send a check.”

Checks are a way to get money to someone quickly and efficiently through the mail while also having the built-in protection that only the person whose name you make the check out to should be able to cash it. If something goes wrong, you can call your bank and cancel the check. Plus, most banks now offer the ability to remote-deposit checks by taking pictures of them, so your recipient shouldn’t need to go into a bank if they want to deposit.

Money Order

Alternatively, you can send a money order through the US Postal Service or a service like Western Union. In the UK, Royal Mail has a Special Delivery service for sending money. Fees vary widely, though the USPS is probably your best bet in the US if you can get to a post office (fees there range from $1 to $3). You can send up to US$1,000 anywhere in the US via the post office. On the other end, your recipient will get the money order in the mail, then cash the money order at their local post office. That means they will also need to go to the physical location.

Walmart offers money order services as well, via a partnership with Western Union. The difference is that Walmart says it charges a maximum fee of $1 for its services. You’ll also have to go into a physical Walmart location and share the details of the sender (that’s you) and the recipient.

Money orders are safe and reliable if you get them through the right vendor. The only downside is that your recipient will have to go to the same establishment that you did to cash the check, like a post office or Walmart.

Digital Dollars

You probably already know how to send money on your phone. Apps like Venmo and CashApp are ubiquitous, as they are fast and easy ways to request and transfer money between your accounts. (If you link a credit card, you may be charged a fee.) If you and your recipient both have Apple devices, you probably already have a person-to-person money-transfer option built into your phone. Apple Cash lets you send money directly to your contacts and even transfer it by tapping the devices together. (There used to be a similar way to do this natively on Android phones with the Google Pay app, but Google merged that into its Wallet app and ditched the peer-to-peer payment services.)

If you want to make it feel a little less transactional than the last time you paid your friend for chicken wings, you can make a payment app transaction a little snazzier with Gift card mode. Just make a payment in either Venmo or CashApp and there will be a small gift option in the window. Tap that, and you’ll be able to choose to send a digital gift card for a specific retailer, or just send cash. You can choose a fun little animation that your recipient will see, so it will alert them and not just appear like a routine transaction. See? Look how thoughtful you are!

If you don’t need to worry about gifting, Zelle is a great option. If it’s offered by the banks of both parties, then it’s tied directly to your bank accounts. The money is transferred between accounts within minutes and ready to spend right away. There are a couple of limitations: Zelle only works between US banks, and there are daily limits for transfers that can be as low as $500.

Matthews cautions that even though these methods seem like the most direct and straightforward, they have also been prone to attracting scammers who try to capitalize on the public social feeds that are displayed in services like Venmo.

International Waters

If you’re looking to send money internationally, your safest bet is a wire transfer. There are also online services like Wise.com that calculate the exchange rate and send funds while charging roughly a 0.88 percent fee. (So if you send $1,000, Wise takes an $8.75 fee.)

Gift Cards

If all this feels too risky or not worth the bother, there are always that old holiday stalwart: gift cards.

Gift cards can feel like a slightly more personal touch than just tossing a wad of bills at your giftee. After all, you know this kid likes his PlayStation, so your Best Buy gift card means you’ve been paying at least a little attention, right?

You can also buy gift cards that aren’t tied to a specific retailer and can be spent freely anywhere that accepts regular debit card payments. Banks sell them as preloaded debit cards backed by the major credit card companies: American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. They charge a fee, usually between $3 and $8, depending on the total amount loaded onto the card. You or your recipient can also create an online login at the issuer’s website, which will let them keep track of the balance remaining on the card. There are sketchy gift card sellers out there, though, so you should do your best to make sure the card is legit and reputable by getting a referral from the issuer: Visa, MasterCard, and American Express all sell gift cards through third-party partners.

Be Careful With Crypto

Cryptocurrency is all the rage, except for when it very much is not. If you’re using a stablecoin—a digital currency that is directly tied to the value of a fiat currency like the US dollar, you’re probably fine. But more volatile coins that fluctuate wildly may not be the best for making casual payments.

“You are absolutely taking risk depending on what coin you use,” Matthews says. “You send something like Bitcoin or Doge or whatever else is out there, then the value of that may or may not be what you expect it to be between the time you send it and time the person gets it or the time you wake up the next morning. So it can absolutely be a risk. You could be giving somebody a fortune, or nothing at all.”