Send money to Lebanon from the UK as cash dollars: what to open on £300

Do not send it to an ordinary Lebanese bank account unless your family asks for that and gives you a "fresh" account. The money is safer in their hand than in a bank, and they know it better than anyone.

Why your family wants cash dollars, not a bank transfer

In 2019 the Lebanese banks stopped letting people take out their own dollars. Seven years on, people with old dollar savings can still take out only a set amount each month. In Lebanon those trapped savings have a name: "lollars". They are dollars on paper that are worth much less than dollars in your hand.

So when your mother says "send it to Whish" or "send it to OMT", she is not being difficult. In Lebanon the bank did the skimming, and the money shop on the corner became the place people trust. A family that wants cash dollars and refuses a bank transfer is being careful. On this route, they are right.

This is the same lesson as the street money changer, turned around. Here the formal system is the one that took the money.

Where the money can arrive in Lebanon

Since August 2020, Lebanon's central bank has required money transfer companies to pay out transfers from abroad in US dollars. There is one catch at a Whish shop. Taptap Send's Lebanon help page (updated 8 October 2026) says the agent may pay the cents, or small notes ($10, $5 and $1), in Lebanese pounds at the market rate. On $394.50, that can be part of the money. Ask your family to check with the agent before they collect.

• Whish cash pickup: Most families. Dollars in cash at a Whish shop, with no fee to take it out. Taptap Send pays here.
• Whish wallet: The dollars go to the Whish app, to spend or take out later. Taptap Send pays here; Remitly pays to Lebanese wallets too.
• OMT counter: Western Union pays here. OMT says a 2% cash fee comes off the amount at the counter.
• Lebanese bank account: Only Wise, by international bank transfer. Slow, and only safe in a "fresh" account.

Whish also has a payment link. Your family sends you a link by WhatsApp and you pay it with a card. Whish says there is a "minimal service charge", but does not say how much, and we could not confirm that a UK card works. Use an app until you can see the cost.

What £300 becomes on each app

These are the amounts your family collects if you spend £300 in total, fee included, on the numbers pulled for this piece. The real exchange rate, the one Google shows, would give $401.88.

The gap is in the rate, not the fee. Western Union shows a small £1.99 fee, but gives about 1.22 dollars for each pound, where Taptap Send gives 1.315. On £300 that is about $30 less, or about £23. If OMT then takes its 2% at the counter, your family collects about $356.84. That is about $38 less than at a Whish shop, or about £28, every month.

If you send £300 every month, Western Union plus the OMT fee costs about £337 a year more than Taptap Send. That is more than one month's money, lost in the rate and at the counter.

Why the bank account is the wrong door

Since April 2020, the central bank's rules say new money sent from abroad counts as "fresh" and should not be frozen like the old savings. On paper, a transfer from you can be taken out in full.

The trouble is everything around it. The money must go into a fresh account, not the old account with the trapped savings in it. Of the apps checked for this piece, only Wise sends to a Lebanese bank account. It sends dollars by international bank transfer, and Wise estimated about a day and a half. Other banks on the way can take a fee that Wise cannot show you in advance. Lebanese banks then list their own charges on fresh money. And your family has to go into the bank that kept their savings to ask for it.

A law to repay the old savings was approved by the cabinet in December 2025. It has not yet passed Parliament. Until that is settled, most families will not choose the bank when a Whish shop is down the street.

If your family does ask for a bank transfer, ask them three things first: is the account a fresh account, in dollars, and can they take it out in cash at the counter. If any answer is no, send to Whish.

What your family needs to collect the money

For Whish cash pickup, your family needs a valid government photo ID, such as an ID card or passport, and the 12-digit pickup code. The code arrives by SMS. They can collect during the shop's opening hours. If you send to the Whish wallet, it arrives any time, day or night.

A single transfer to Whish can be up to $5,000, and a Whish wallet can receive up to $5,000 a month. For a bigger emergency, MTM shops pay up to $9,900 per transfer through Taptap Send, but your family needs the Whish app and an active wallet before you send.

Extra checks, and why

Since October 2024, Lebanon has been on the "grey list" of the Financial Action Task Force, the international body that sets rules against money laundering. The list names countries it is watching more closely. Lebanon was still on it in June 2026. This does not stop you sending. It does mean an app may ask what the money is for, or where it came from, especially on a bigger send.

Answer plainly: "family support" for the monthly money, "medical" or "school fees" for an emergency. Keep a recent payslip or bank statement on your phone. If the app holds the transfer, send it what it asks for. Do not cancel and try again on another app with a different reason. That looks worse, not better.

Sendwave pays into Whish too, but its own page says it sends to Lebanon from the US, Canada and some EU countries, not the UK.

What to open

How we checked

Each app's price for £300 from the UK to Lebanon, paid out in US dollars, was pulled from that app's own price tool: Taptap Send's rate list, Remitly's price calculator, Western Union's price list (paying by bank transfer), and the Wise price comparison, which also gave the real exchange rate. Payout methods, ID, codes and limits come from Taptap Send's Lebanon help page. The OMT cash fee and the US-dollar payout rule come from OMT's own notice of August 2020; we found no later notice that removes it. The fresh-money rule comes from the Association of Banks in Lebanon and the central bank's own decisions. The date of the check is at the top of this page.

Corrections

• 2026-10-22: An earlier version of this page said families always collect US dollars, not Lebanese pounds. Taptap Send's Lebanon help page says a Whish agent may pay the cents or small notes in Lebanese pounds at the market rate. The page and the message to your family now say so.