Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 January 3

= January 3 =

Jim Ryun, military draft, mononucleosis
When Coach Timmons told Ryun to run in a meet although he had symptoms of mononucleosis, could Timmons have taken away his sports scholarship if he refused? Would Ryun have been in danger of being drafted if he lost his scholarship? Did he have a high or low draft number?2602:306:CFC8:DDB0:8DA:B469:C4E6:5AE8 (talk) 07:59, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Sending cash to Italy from the UK
I would like a secure way to send banknotes to Italy from the UK. When I say "secure", I mean with some sort of insurance. I'm aware that the regular Italian postal service does not allow for this, but is there an alternative courier that I could use?--Leon (talk) 14:12, 3 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Royal Mail offer a secure delivery service with compensation for loss - but only to a maximum of £250. No ordinary courier company appears to accept money. If you have a lot to send, you might find a CVIT company able to help - https://www.bsia.co.uk/sections/cash-and-valuables-in-transit.aspx Wymspen (talk) 15:29, 3 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Do you need to send actual banknotes? My mother sometimes sends money to me from Australia (thanks Mum!) - she deposits it into my paypal account and I then transfer it from there to my bank. --TrogWoolley (talk) 10:37, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
 * What's the advantage of using PayPal compared to just transferring bank account to bank account - which you can also do online? In fact the Commonwealth Bank has recently been advertising direct transfers from its electronic banking app directly to the Barclays Pingit app. --165.225.80.115 (talk) 14:19, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
 * International transfer has a big fee from the bank, perhaps $30-50, so for small amounts it is better to just get a percentage cut from paypal. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:41, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
 * If you're paying that much, change your bank. I've never paid more than £10.86.28.195.109 (talk) 08:26, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
 * It does have to be banknotes.--Leon (talk) 08:37, 5 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Transfer costs may depend on where you are. From Switzerland I get a low rate for bank transfers to anywhere in the Single Euro Payments Area but a substantially higher cost to do bank transfers outside of that.  We use TransferWise for moving substantial sums at relatively reasonable costs (especially including favorable currency conversion rates, which tend to be the largest cost if you are changing currencies and moving more than a few hundred euros).  Dragons flight (talk) 08:40, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Indeed. Both the UK and Italy are in the Single Euro Payments Area, so money transfers should be no more expensive or complicated than local transfers. Of course, in my experience, Italian banks give the Mafia a run for the money as "most greedy bastards of the continent", so they may not pass on all the benefits. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:51, 5 January 2017 (UTC)