I have tried sending money to Mongolia, and it does not work. My friend in Mongolia opened a Paypal account while I watched on Skype. When I tried to send payment, I was told pay through the payee's wewebsite. The payee does not have a website. I phoned customer services in the UK, who were very supportive, and said the payee needed to confirm the account. The account had already been confirmed, and re-confirming it did nothing. So the payee closed the account, and I took my money back. I tried to pay another account in Mongolia which has been properly set up. The payment is marked as "pending".
So, perhaps Paypal is reluctant to deal with the Mongolian banking system. for technical or other reasons that we can only guess at.
On the plus side, Paypal has a pool of cash that they could invest if they choose to do so (eg in LIBOR) until we cancel our payments and take it back. This will help to keep our Paypal fees to a minimum.
I am very pro Paypal, I like using them, and this is the only issue I have had with them since they started many years ago.
HSBC, Bank of China, and Citibank do not seem to have regular branches in Mongolia. If they did, I would recommend my friend to open an account with one of them, and see if that made a difference.
Failing that, don't bother.
