The Catholic Sun :: Phoenix Diocesan Newspaper

Four immigrants stood outside a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store one recent Friday morning. A sign advertising a new wire transfer service the store offers hung behind them.

“We send $200 home to my mother each paycheck,” said Ricardo Campos, who stood next to his brother. “That helps take care of her.”

Campos, who’s been here for five years, said he’d consider using Angel Wire, the wire service offered through two St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores.

“Yeah, if it’s cheaper, I’d try it,” he said.

Angel Wire is now available at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores at 2945 E. Bell Road and 8231 N. 7th Street in Phoenix. The stores began offering the service late last month.

“We’re an organization that likes to help,” said Ron Langhurst, the Bell Road store manager. “It caters to Hispanics who need to send money to Mexico for considerably less money than other wire transfer services.”

The cheapest rate available at Western Union, for example, is $14.99 per transfer to Latin America and Mexico. That’s for transfers of $500 or less. Rates go up with the amount transferred.

Angel Wire charges a $6 flat fee for transfers of up to $900.

Someone like Campos could potentially save as much as $18 a month by using Angel Wire.

Sending money home

A few years ago, San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez had a meeting with leading Hispanic business people, said Angel Wire’s Joe Bortle.

“Their biggest concern was that they were getting charged so much when they sent money home to their families,” he said.

According to Inter-American Development Bank, people living in Arizona sent more than $600 million to Latin American countries in 2004. In Texas, remittances to Latin America totaled more than $3 billion.

San Antonio parishes began offering Angel Wire to help ease the burden.

“But the churches weren’t used to handling money, so we streamlined the whole process and teamed up with St. Vincent de Paul,” Bortle said. “We can offer a similar service for less money, so we’re trying.”

Here’s how it works.

A customer gets a card at a store and calls the toll-free number to register with Angel Wire. The operator takes down information about who will be receiving the money that will be stored on the card.

Then, any time customers want to send money home, they simply hand the card to a St. Vincent de Paul store clerk, who then swipes the card and types in the amount to be transferred.

Since the limit is $900, customers don’t need to show identification.

The exchange rate is printed on the customer’s receipt and the person receiving the money is guaranteed that rate, no matter when the person picks up the money, Bortle said.

The money transfers are available immediately at more than 2,000 Bancomer Banks or worldwide Bancomer affiliates.

While Angel Wire offers better pricing, the Phoenix thrift stores haven’t seen many customers yet. After three weeks of implementation, Langhurst said he hadn’t sold a single card.

“I don’t think we’re on their radar screen yet,” Bortle said.

Yet he remains hopeful.

Bortle handed out more than 7,000 flyers at parishes with Spanish-speaking communities earlier this month. A man from Belgium who regularly sends $2,000 home also showed interest.

“If it works in Phoenix, it can work anywhere,” he said.

J.D. Long-García/CATHOLIC SUN

Joe Bortle, Angel Wire president, demonstrates how his company’s low-cost money transfer service works March 2 at a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. Angel Wire offers a less expensive rate than more popular wire services and is offered through two St Vincent de Paul store locations in Phoenix.