Bank of America (BoA) is now offering a service they call SafeSend to send money to Mexico – at no cost for BoA account holders. Customers can send up to $1,500 at a time and up to $3,000 USD a month to up to 3 recipients in Mexico.

According to the Money/CNN article, BoA Waives Fees to Attract Hispanic Customers:

The changes raise the stakes in U.S. banks’ push to attract Hispanics, who this decade overtook blacks as the largest U.S. minority group. More than half of the roughly 40 million Hispanics in the United States are Mexicans.

Traditionally, remittances to Mexico made from family members working in the US, have been the #2 income for the country of Mexico. Estimated to total $12 Billion USD in 2003, surpassed only by oil sales, I have recently heard that remittances have now gained the #1 spot, but can not confirm that fact.

Although Bank of America is obviously running the promotion to pull in the Hispanic consumers, it might turn out to be a win-win situation. By requiring the customers to open a checking account, we could see a shift in savings habits of this population, which traditionally works completely on a cash basis with very limited or no funds available for emergencies.