I've had thousands of dollars sitting on Paxum for the last few months because I haven't received the new card since the last one went tits up a few months ago. What's more, the new card has rubbish limits and high fees: I live in Australia, so the whole process of getting money to me is a pain in the ass, but I found a solution.
Let me explain.
There's an online service called TransferWise, which is basically trying to be a global banking service for people to utilize instead of the current, shitty systems. TransferWise has a Borderless transaction account, which essentially allows you to open a bank account in Australian Dollars, US Dollars, Euros and British Pounds for deposits.
Here's what I did to get my money from Paxum in the USA to my Australian bank account in just a few days...
Step 1: Open TransferWise Borderless account in the USA
I had my ID automatically verified, so it really shouldn't take you too long to have this sorted out.
Step 2: Set up your bank details with Paxum
Simply log into Paxum, add a new bank account and fill in all the details from the Borderless account data as it appears in the image above. You don't have to fill in the SWIFT code, just set the Bank Country to the USA and put in your account number/ABA Routing Number (this appears in TransferWise as your ACH Routing Number). Like this:
Step 3: Withdraw from Paxum via EFT
Next, go into Paxum and withdraw via EFT to your new bank account. I don't know if there's an upper limit on the amount you can withdraw, but I successfully withdrew thousands of dollars just now, so it seems to be pretty high.
It took 2 days for me to receive the money into my TransferWise account. I've heard that it can sometimes take up to 4.
Step 4: Convert Currency into your local currency and withdraw from TransferWise
Banks always want to fuck you in the ass when it comes to currency conversion, but TransferWise give you a solid deal. What I typed into Google was what I got: $1.35 AUD per $1 USD. They charged me $0.24 for this transfer. It seems that they use the mid-market rate and just take around 0.5% - banks here in Australia would do the same thing for about 2-3%, plus the wire transfer fee (and time).
Once that's done, you just withdraw the money to your local currency account - it took me a few hours here in Australia, but that's because the banks started to cooperate a bit better on transfers this year.
So in total, around 72 hours for getting my money out of Paxum and into my local currency account, paying basically nothing to do it. Transferwise allows you
withdraw money in 40 different currencies, including AUD, GBP, CAD, Dirhams, HKD, Shekels, Yen, Dong and more.
Okay, so lecture over. If you want to join TransferWise, you can
click here.
If you found this useful and want to compensate me, you can use
this affiliate link. It DOES benefit you: you'll be able to make a $500 international transfer with no fees. The standard link doesn't come with that!
Regardless, I hope this helped, and if you have any questions, let me know - this saved me one massive headache.