19, part time job, grandma in puebla can't afford her diabetes meds this month because my parents are holding a grudge from some family thing that happened before I was born. Abuela's not supposed to know I'm paying, nobody's supposed to know actually, so sending it to her bancoppel myself feels like the cleanest option.
Looking at options for small sends. taptapsend us to mexico goes straight to her bancoppel, no separate fee on the send, the cost is just in the rate. When I ran a $80 test send last week it landed in about 45 minutes and the rate was better than what wu would have given me at cvs. Remitly is $1.99 on small sends. Wise uses mid market rate with a percentage fee, and at very small amounts it can actually be cheaper because their percentage on $80 is under a dollar. Western union at cvs wanted $8 on $80, which is 10 percent gone before the exchange rate even gets involved.
Grandma only has bancoppel and she's not going to learn mercado pago at 78. Cash pickup at oxxo or a bank deposit to her bancoppel account are the only options that work on her end.
Real question though: is there a legal issue with sending money to a relative in mexico if I'm still on my parents' tax return? Don't want IRS problems for trying to help my abuela.