When you need to send money to a friend way on the other side of the country, there are various ways that you can do it. 

Money Order/Bank Check

One way that you can do it is that you can get a money order or a bank check. You get these in the amount that you need to send out to the person you are sending money to. Depending on how you do it, the teller at the bank may fill out the name and other information by having it go through a printer when they print out the check, or if you choose to send a money order, you would fill out all that information.

There are various plusses and minuses to doing it this way. One is that you can pick up money orders at a lot of places, including grocery stores, you don't have to go to the bank to get the money order. However, some of the minuses include the fact that it's going to take some time to get to your friend or family member since you will have to physically send it through the mail or other delivery service. Another minus is that there is always going to be the risk of something stealing the check or money order out of the envelope and it just not getting to your friend. There are other options available to you, though. 

Wire Transfer

A quicker and safer choice is to do something like a wire transfer. These transfers go directly from bank to bank or from transfer service to transfer service. For example, there are companies where you can set up a wire transfer in one location and then the person you are sending money to will be able to go to an office of that company in their location and pick up the money. It is generally quite quick and may be nearly instantaneous, depending on the service you use. If you choose to go through your bank or credit union and are going to wire money to your friend or family member's bank, you are going to need to know their bank account number as well as the routing number. The routing number is a unique identification to each bank which allows them to get or send money. 

If you need to send money to someone who is far away from you, in your country or even in another country, there are easy ways to do it.