If you and the person you want to send money to have the same bank account, or an affiliated one, you may be able to transfer money without a fee, so check out the other person's banking arrangements. In fact, if it's a lot of money or regular payments, it may even be worth them opening a new account - but many countries charge fees for this, so you need to ask first.

You can also ask what your credit card company will charge you to transfer money - some of them do this free or very cheap, but sometimes they will give you a very poor exchange rate, so look up the exchange rate before you ask about this.

Other methods worth looking at are special transfer companies like Paypal or moneybookers - these do charge, but the advantage is that it's a one-off payment and quite quick, so you may prefer this even if it isn't the cheapest way.

The Post Office is also a secure way to send money - you don't get the best exchange rate, but it's still less than that charged by some card companies and there shouldn't be any hidden extras. You can get more ideas here.