I am wanting to transfer relatively small amounts of money to Poland. Royal Mail won't accept it to post and my bank will charge �26 per transaction. I have found this company, 1st Contact based in London. Has anyone used this service and was it ok? Any comments gratefully received
Royal Mail will accept it to post if you don't tell them what it is. Clearly there's a risk attached, but as Poland's in the EU customs won't be involved so it won't be officially seized - just liable to pilfering.
The problem is at the Polish end - Royal Mail don't have a problem with cash per se but some overseas postal and/or customs authorities don't like it.
Why not get an ATM card for use in Poland, on your existing account? They can then withdraw cash as and when they want, direct from your account, and charges would be relatively small. Having said that, Paypal is a good, cheap way of doing it also.