Western Union
It's my blog, so i can say it: Western Union is crap!
I've never had a need for Western Union until past weekend. Normally i travel to China, USA, or anywhere else in the world with 5 Euro im my pocket and a few credit cards, not more. The world of plastic has become universal. You can pay almost anywhere with your EC card or a credit card, and if not you can can get cash from them. It has always worked for me. But not my daughter.
Last weekend she was in London and relied completely on using here DKB (Bank) credit card for obtaining cash locally. This worked successfully on the first day, but not the second day. What made matters worse is that she was supposed to retrieve cash for her friend too, whose father had transferred money in that expectation. After receiving her panicked phone call, i learned from the bank that her extremely low credit card limit had been exhausted AND they do not automatically transfer money from her bank account, which had plenty of cash. To shorten the story, there was no way for her to obtain cash in the normal way.
So i thought, Western Union! Never used it, but their ads look good. How does it work?
Well, all (seemingly in London) agents are independent, which means that they apparently front their own cash! This means that after you have transferred cash to Western Union, the client that wants to retrieve the cash locally has to find a local agent that has sufficient cash to pay! Finding one of those in London last weekend proved impossible. As they are all independent, they all belong to different organizations. Finding an agent then means you have to ring the organization, who then gives you the telephone number of an agent in the client's area. You then ring that agent to inquire whether he has sufficient cash to pay out to the client. If he does not (which all of them did not have last weekend!), you then start again.
Western Union has no way of determining which agent can actually pay out the cash you have just given them. So you give them money, and you "might" get your money paid out at the other end, plus a horrendous fee.
As i was desperate to get some cash to my daughter , i did try to transfer some money, hoping that we would find a local agent that would have sufficient cash. But then the transfer did not work! After waiting 30 minutes on the phone to confirm the transfer, a computer voice informed me that the transfer did not work! But, i was offered the chance to "start over" and try again......NO THANKS!
First experience with Western Union...last experience with Western Union.
I've never had a need for Western Union until past weekend. Normally i travel to China, USA, or anywhere else in the world with 5 Euro im my pocket and a few credit cards, not more. The world of plastic has become universal. You can pay almost anywhere with your EC card or a credit card, and if not you can can get cash from them. It has always worked for me. But not my daughter.
Last weekend she was in London and relied completely on using here DKB (Bank) credit card for obtaining cash locally. This worked successfully on the first day, but not the second day. What made matters worse is that she was supposed to retrieve cash for her friend too, whose father had transferred money in that expectation. After receiving her panicked phone call, i learned from the bank that her extremely low credit card limit had been exhausted AND they do not automatically transfer money from her bank account, which had plenty of cash. To shorten the story, there was no way for her to obtain cash in the normal way.
So i thought, Western Union! Never used it, but their ads look good. How does it work?
Well, all (seemingly in London) agents are independent, which means that they apparently front their own cash! This means that after you have transferred cash to Western Union, the client that wants to retrieve the cash locally has to find a local agent that has sufficient cash to pay! Finding one of those in London last weekend proved impossible. As they are all independent, they all belong to different organizations. Finding an agent then means you have to ring the organization, who then gives you the telephone number of an agent in the client's area. You then ring that agent to inquire whether he has sufficient cash to pay out to the client. If he does not (which all of them did not have last weekend!), you then start again.
Western Union has no way of determining which agent can actually pay out the cash you have just given them. So you give them money, and you "might" get your money paid out at the other end, plus a horrendous fee.
As i was desperate to get some cash to my daughter , i did try to transfer some money, hoping that we would find a local agent that would have sufficient cash. But then the transfer did not work! After waiting 30 minutes on the phone to confirm the transfer, a computer voice informed me that the transfer did not work! But, i was offered the chance to "start over" and try again......NO THANKS!
First experience with Western Union...last experience with Western Union.
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