The Day I Paid $14 to Send $20: My Immigrant Journey to Starting Prepay Nation

24th October, 2025

Author:

  - Anurag Jain, CEO

Category: Trends and Insights

 

Back in 2003, I was a recent immigrant with little to my name but great optimism about the opportunities a new country could offer. I found work in Long Island, NY, while my wife remained in Philadelphia, where we settled, and I traveled back and forth every weekend. All I had was a beat-up Dodge Caravan with 200,000 miles on it to bridge that distance.

It was on one of these trips back home that my first car finally gave up, leaving me stranded between my work life in Long Island and my family in Philadelphia. After getting it towed to a garage, I decided to let go of the car and donate it to Kars4Kids, a charity that helps kids with education programs.

The next day, I flew to Las Vegas for a prepaid industry show. When the charity went to pick up my car, the garage owner refused to release it without a $20 parking fee. Fair enough – but I was across the country with no credit card to my name.

“Use Western Union,” he suggested.

I had never heard of Western Union before. After giving me an overview of how it would work, I set off to the nearest location, about 2 miles towards downtown Las Vegas, deciding to walk in an effort to save the $1.40 bus fare. When I finally arrived, sweaty and tired, the clerk told me:

“That’ll be $34 total. $20 for the transfer and $14 in fees.”

I stood there, stunned. I had just walked in the desert heat to save $1.40, only to pay $14 in fees to send $20, a 70% fees?

Twenty-two years later, I still feel that sting. But it is one of the reasons Prepay Nation was created – to enable people worldwide to support their loved ones with small-value transfers instantly and affordably.

The corporate world sees “remittances” and “transfer fees.” We see the construction worker who skips lunch to pay for groceries for their family back home, the nurse working double shifts to help her parents pay utility bills, the student surviving on ramen to support a sibling’s mobile recharge.

Two decades later, despite countless fintech “innovations,” traditional money transfer systems still struggle with the same fundamental problem—making small-value transfers accessible and affordable.