You want your mother in Guatemala to have groceries this week, your brother’s phone to keep working, or a hot meal to show up at the door for a birthday. What you do not want is to wire cash into a void and hope it gets spent on that.
This page compares every route we could verify for paying, from the United States, for something your family redeems in Guatemala — the supermarket run, phone credit, a meal, essentials. It is deliberately narrow: if what you want is to ship a physical box of US goods, that is a different process covered in our package guide and courier directory. If you simply want to send cash as cash, start at the remittance hub.
There are no affiliate links on this page. One important honest note up front: only one of these routes publishes its fees openly. Where a company does not publish a number, we say so rather than guess.
The options at a glance
| Route | What your family gets | Speed | What you need | Published fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash to a supermarket (Félix Pago) | Cash collected at a store — spendable on anything | ~30 min average | WhatsApp; recipient brings reference number + valid official ID | $2.99 bank account · $4.98 cash pickup |
| Prepaid voucher app (Oky) | A prepaid digital voucher redeemed with a participating merchant | Not published | The app, and confirmation your merchant is active | Not published — verify in the app |
| Mobile top-up (Ding, BOSS Revolution) | Prepaid airtime and data on the family phone | ~3 seconds (Ding’s claim) | The Guatemalan number and the correct operator | Varies by amount and payment method; shown before you pay |
| Delivery app to their address | A specific meal or grocery order at the door | Varies; check in the app | An account and a payment method the app accepts | Varies; check in the app |
| Encomienda / courier box | Physical goods from the US | Shipping time plus customs — see the directory | Courier account, declaration, recipient details | See the courier directory |
| Classic remittance | Cash or a bank deposit | Varies by provider | Varies by provider | See the remittance comparison |
Félix Pago: send the grocery money to the supermarket door
Félix Pago is a money transfer service that runs entirely over WhatsApp — its own pitch is “No necesitas ninguna aplicación, solo WhatsApp” (you don’t need any app, just WhatsApp). For a sender who is already messaging family daily and does not want another login, that is the whole appeal.
The verified numbers, checked July 26, 2026:
- $2.99 to send to a Guatemalan bank account.
- $4.98 for cash pickup at a store.
- A $10-off promotion advertised on a first transfer.
- About 30 minutes average arrival time.
- The exchange rate is shown before you confirm the transfer, and rates move daily.
For pickup, the recipient does not need a bank account. They bring a reference number and a valid official ID to the pickup point. The network is listed at more than 5,000 pickup locations in Guatemala and includes Despensa Familiar, Maxi Despensa, Walmart, Banrural, Banco Industrial, Banco Azteca and Tigo Money.
That supermarket list is why this route belongs at the top of a groceries page: you are effectively delivering the grocery money to the door of the store where the despensa gets bought. Be clear-eyed about what it is, though — it is still cash. Once collected, your family can spend it on anything. If your goal is control over what the money buys, cash is the wrong instrument and a voucher or a delivery order is the right one.
Prepaid voucher apps: the Oky model, with a caution
OKY Envíos a Latinoamérica (developer: Merkado Services LLC) is a Guatemalan-founded app built on the prepaid voucher model: the sender in the US buys a digital voucher, and the family member in Guatemala redeems it with the merchant. Its App Store description covers “pagar servicios, enviar una recarga, la compra del super, comida rápida, gasolina y mucho más” — paying for services, sending a top-up, the supermarket shop, fast food, fuel and more — and claims 1,000+ brands across Latin America. The app launched in December 2019, got local press in June 2020 (guatemala.com), and is actively maintained — when we checked on July 26, 2026, its latest App Store release (version 1.10.38) was eleven days old, and it rates 4.5 stars from 465 ratings on the US store (the storefront a US sender actually uses).
One practical rule for any voucher app: confirm inside the app that it currently processes orders for the specific merchant you have in mind, and start with a small amount. A brand appearing in a marketing list is not evidence of a live redemption agreement today. Verify, then scale up.
We do not publish fee figures for voucher apps because none of them publish a fee schedule we could verify. Whatever the app shows you at checkout is the number that counts.
Mobile top-ups: the smallest, fastest care send
Sending prepaid airtime is the smallest kind of care send there is, and among the fastest — Ding runs international top-ups to Tigo Guatemala and Claro Guatemala prepaid lines from the US, with dedicated pages for each operator, and claims the credit reaches the phone in about 3 seconds. Fees are not published as a flat figure — they vary by amount and payment method and are shown before you pay.
BOSS Revolution is the alternative most often mentioned in the same breath, advertising international top-ups to 280+ carriers in 95 countries. We did not individually verify its Guatemalan operator coverage, so treat that as a claim to check on their site rather than a promise.
Two things decide whether a top-up works: the line has to be prepaid, and you have to pick the correct operator. If you are not sure whether your family is on Tigo or Claro, our Tigo vs Claro plan comparison explains the difference between the two networks and their prepaid products. Full walkthrough: mobile top-ups to Guatemala from the USA.
Delivery apps: a hot meal at their door
Food and grocery delivery apps operate in Guatemala — PedidosYa and Uber Eats among them, in the cities they cover — and an order can be placed to a family member’s address. This is the only route on the page that delivers a specific thing rather than spending power, which makes it the right tool for a birthday dinner or a same-day emergency.
The catch is payment. Whether a given app accepts a foreign card varies, and you have to verify it inside the app before you promise anyone dinner. Set up the account, add your payment method, and confirm that a small order actually goes through before you build a plan around it.
Sending actual goods from the US
If the point is US products — a specific medicine brand, clothes, a phone — none of the routes above apply. That is a shipping question: compare services in the USA-to-Guatemala courier directory, review what customs will do in the packages guide, and estimate the tax bill with the import duty calculator before you ship rather than after.
Which one, when
- Groceries and household essentials → Félix Pago cash pickup at a supermarket. Verified fees, no bank account needed, ~30 minutes.
- Their bank account already exists → same service, bank deposit route, $2.99 instead of $4.98.
- Phone credit → a mobile top-up. Seconds, tiny amounts, and it cannot be spent on anything else.
- A specific meal today → a delivery app, if the city is covered and the app takes your card.
- Control over what the money buys, at a specific merchant → a prepaid voucher app, verified small-first.
- Physical US goods → an encomienda or courier box, not a payment app.
- Plain cash, largest amount, best rate → compare providers in the remittance hub.
Sources
- Félix Pago — fees, WhatsApp-only model, ~30-minute average, rate-shown-before-confirming, ID + reference number pickup (checked July 26, 2026)
- Félix Pago — Guatemala page — 5,000+ pickup locations in Guatemala; Despensa Familiar pickup page — named network partners
- OKY Envíos a Latinoamérica — App Store listing — developer, description, brand claim, version 1.10.38 released July 15, 2026 (checked July 26, 2026)
- guatemala.com — Oky coverage (June 2020) — historical launch context only
- Ding — Tigo Guatemala recharge and Claro Guatemala recharge
- BOSS Revolution — international mobile top-up — 280+ carriers / 95 countries claim
More for Guatemalans in the United States: diaspora hub · mobile top-ups from the USA · sending packages home · remittance comparison
