I hired a spanish tutor. Whats the best way to pay him

alexw

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Sep 6, 2008
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I hired a friend of mine to teach me Spanish over the internet. Whats the best way to pay him? He wants $20us an hour. Can I send him paypal or maybe a prepaid card through the mail. I thought about xoom but I know DR has paypal now. What the best option I have for such small payments?
 

AlterEgo

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Jan 9, 2009
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DR only has Paypal through Banco Popular, if I'm not mistaken. And I think I remember it costs $10US to withdraw the money, so not such a great deal, unless that has changed.

xoom goes right into their account, no charge to them.
 

Virgo

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Can I send him paypal or maybe a prepaid card through the mail. I thought about xoom but I know DR has paypal now. What the best option I have for such small payments?

Paypal MIGHT work, but only if it involves many hours. As I understand, he would pay US$10 per withdrawal from his paypal account into his normal bank account. If he does it after each ten lessons, that would be 10 dollars to withdraw 200, and perhaps you may split the fee.

Also, there will be a per-payment fee, which should be a few percentage points. Paypal offers a "micro-payment" option which might lower the transaction costs.

However he would need a Banco Popular bank account (for which he may or may not qualify), and from there set up a sellers paypal account.
 

LTSteve

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Jul 9, 2010
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I hired a friend of mine to teach me Spanish over the internet. Whats the best way to pay him? He wants $20us an hour. Can I send him paypal or maybe a prepaid card through the mail. I thought about xoom but I know DR has paypal now. What the best option I have for such small payments?

I know he is your friend but with all the on line material available it makes little sense to pay someone $20 an hour. If you are in the DR you can take Spanish courses locally for a lot less with live interaction. Unless you have a North American bank account that allows you to "pay bills" it is probably going to be costly to make payments. If you mail something it would be a minimum of $45us to send via UPS, Fed-Ex or DHL. I would do it locally with a group if possible and you will learn quicker and more effectively.
 

Tamborista

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Apr 4, 2005
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I am not suggesting this, but Rosetta Stone & Berlitz are readily available for FREE download if you know where to look.
 

alexw

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Sep 6, 2008
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Question.

Does the Dominican person need to have a banco popular account in order to withdraw paypal from them?

Alex
 

CristoRey

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Apr 1, 2014
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I hired a friend of mine to teach me Spanish over the internet. Whats the best way to pay him? He wants $20us an hour. Can I send him paypal or maybe a prepaid card through the mail. I thought about xoom but I know DR has paypal now. What the best option I have for such small payments?

If your ?friend? is Dominican living here in the Dominican Republic where a good salary for the
average Dominican is $125 per work week including Saturdays, if I were you, I?d negociate a
better deal and pay him much less.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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xoom charges the sender a flat rate of $4.99 for each transaction. That would make a $20 payment rather costly.