General Chat

Does anyone use Western Union to pay monies abroad?

We have to pay the chap who owns the apartments for the place we couldn't use and then claim it back from the insurance. He has asked for it to be done through Western Union but o.h. will have to do it online which he hates, as there is no office locally.

He is concerned about the fact he has to sign up as he hates giving his details on line and will be paying by credit card.

Any advice please so he can do this and feel comfortable, I just want Dimitris paid so he hasn't lost out, he says finances are critical at the mo and as we(I) want to go back next year I don't want him upset.

Thanks, back later

Lizx

I use Western Union to Africa almost monthly - have done for years and have never ever had any problem.
I don't do it online though, I phone up and speak to somebody. They are very strict with all their time consuming questions.

I prefer to hold on while they transfer the money and give me the code there and then. So I can text it on.

Depending on the country the money can be picked up in 10 mins. For some countries there are two rates of charges.- it is often slightly cheaper for the sender if the recipient can wait 12/24 hrs before collection

"We have to pay the chap who owns the apartments for the place we couldn't use and then claim it back from the insurance."

DING DONG, DING DONG.....?

Why do you think you have to pay anything and have you agreed a claim with the insurance first?

Something smells fishy here.....!

Thanks NanaSue, maybe o.h. would be happier phoning through, it costs enough, doesn't it ? Will tell him about possible cheaper rate if the chap will wait to collect, I am sure another few hours won't make any difference as long as he knows we aren't wriggling out of our commitment to him. Had we gone on holiday he would have had the money almost a month ago!
(Hard to believe it's a month since we cancelled, less than 24 hrs before we should have arrived on site.)


IGP We let him down at the very last moment and he couldn't relet the apartment or he would have obviously waived the charge. We entered into an agreement through emails and we know him from our stay last year, why would we let him down? Not his fault we couldn't go.

The insurance will take some time to sort out as we have to wait for No Show letters and they take a while to come through apparently altho the travel agent is chasing them for us.

Lizx

It is much cheaper (seriously cheaper ) to make a bank transfer through SWIFT.
Some retail banks are pretty useless at this especially in the provinces where many bank staff have never heard of SWIFT. OTOH Nationwide are well geared up for SWIFT transfers.

There are also several online SWIFT agents in London who will make transfers starting from £ 500.

Better forex rate and far lower charges than WU.
OTOH for small sums WU are reliable if expensive.

Rollo you are absolutely correct but many countries don't have Swift.

The preference for Western Union is because there are outlets all over the place in little shops. A recipient doesn't need a bank account and some countries have an option of the kind of currency a recipient can collect. Local currencies have no value so hard currency such as USD is on of the preferred currency they like to collect.

Nearly all countries have SWIFT.
If they didn't then international trade would be next to impossible.
In some it is difficult for retail customers to get access. That is not the case anywhere in western europe.

Put this into yr google search and the top of the list is a company I have found to be ok though as I said Nationwide do a good job.

The serious disadvantage of sending funds to deal with serious transactions by WU is that it is quite easy to set up a fraudulent account and the sender can have a devil of a time proving payment. That is especially true with anybody connected in any way to Iberian property.

The great advantage of SWIFT is that the receiver has to provide bank account details and hence provable transaction trail of the payment becomes available.
And of course compared to WU it costs less.

WU comes into its own when you need to settle fairly small amounts in a hurry usually due to some emergency of the other. It is not a way to settle such things as lettings, flat deposits and so on. The list of people who have been stung trusting the remote end of a WU deal is long and sad.

As it is really easy to get access in the UK and at the other end all that is needed is the parties banking coordinates then I cannot see what the problem is.

Rollo, the money has to go to Crete, do SWIFT deal there?

The accommodation charge is not all he will have lost out on, we usually spend money in the bar etc as well.

Lizx

The reason I raised it that it didn't gell quite right and set the bells ringing.

Good morning IGP, How do you mean?

Lizx

SWIFT is good if bank to bank but W U is good for people who don't have or want to go through a bank account. They can collect cash over the counter.

I imagine he doesn´t want the money to show up in his bank account.
Common practice here in Spain to ask for cash in payment of almost anything, particularly from the self employed,

I asked the chap how we should pay him and he suggested Western Union. I wish we had been able to book the apartments with the flight like a package, as we did the first time we went there. This time he wasn't using a travel agent, well not as far as the agent could tell. The same thing happened when we went to Corfu, found some lovely apartments, when we wanted to return we had to arrange it all separately, cost us a lot more but if I find somewhere good I like to return and we did love Crete and the people we met.

We have to claim for the flights separately and the transfers and coach travel to the airport here (both returns obviously) and they were all booked separately.

I will show this thread to o.h. later on and he can make his decision. Still waiting for the No show letter.

Lizx

I transfer money from Barclays in the UK to Tenerife using Swift. It is easy to do and the charges are low. As Wisechild says it does have to go bank to bank and is traceable for tax purposes etc.

Ah well that makes sense wisechild and TS. I guessed that was why he wanted us to pay him cash on arrival.

Lizx