New research shows that Pacific people in New Zealand sending remittances to their island homes could save money by using less costly methods of money transfer.
Research carried out by Waikato University's students in Free Enterprise has revealed that people are losing money because of the way they send funds overseas.
It shows remittances sent to the Pacific region could be worth up to 600 million NZ dollars, but as much as 60 million dollars could be saved if people use other options
SIFE has suggested that Pacific families use the ATM because costs could be as low as five percent compared with the money transfer services of 40-percent.
However, the Operatons manger for Westpac Bank of Tonga Rachel Mather says while ATM's would be the cheaper way, there are risks involved.
"The only problem is that what you would be asking people to do is open an account in New Zealand in their name and then forward their ATM card to somebody else which the bank wouldn't support because you would actually be giving your Pin Number so they can access the account."
The Westpac Bank of Tonga's, Rachel Mather
