Western Union money transfer

[Traveler]

Hi all.,,
Is the GECO code still working ?
Thanks

Yes, at least as of yesterday!

 

[Millie]

Yes, at least as of yesterday!

Thanks a lot !

 

[hotfuzz]

It would not be without precedent, if true.This is what happens today in Lebanon if using WU (going through a similar crisis)

Sending and receiving money in Lebanon - Blog | Western Union

Questions about sending money to Lebanon? Here's how you can send and receive money to Lebanon via multiple channels.

www.westernunion.com

(fast forward to about 3 minutes, a painfully long explainer but shows how it works in practice there if anyone is anxious about what this could mean to them)

This forces remittance agencies like WU to actually send dollars to the country and then buy those dollars back from the central bank at their real dollar value. What happens when the customer receives those dollars, is of-course that they disappear into "cuevas" when they are exchanged in the "blue market" for local currency at rates well above the official. With a brecha of 1500%+ in Lebanon, I'm not actually sure how this helps the economic situation of the country... other than moving more dollars through government accounts for short periods of time.

In practice it also means that agencies struggle to get dollar notes to be able to pay out to customers... and use of dollars for domestic transactions, for example between bank accounts or digital transactions, is not allowed, meaning if you want it in your bank account it gets liquidated to local currency at the official (or whatever trading rate the government permits) far below its real value.

This will cause so much more hassle for expats and I really don't see the benefit to it as everyone will just go to the cuevas for the real exchange. If this is true, I'm surprised we haven't heard of it anywhere except that tweet.

Perhaps with the new new tourist dollar they announced they will allow bank transfers to be pesofied at a CCL/blue equivalent rate and they still get some USD in return.

Do you know how this works in Lebanon with currencies other than USD/Euro?

 

[Rich One]

WU Transfers in Lebanon are paid out in USD bills. So if that happens here we would run to the cueva for the Blue rate..?

 

[Zetas]

I TRULY doubt that the banks would give USD cash, they'll probably make us exchange the USD to official rate or whatever rate they set.

 

[antipodean]

Do you know how this works in Lebanon with currencies other than USD/Euro?

Yes, it is all done with USD - so if you transfer EUR/ GBP it gets converted by WU into USD. USD-USD just incurs the fee plus a 2% mark-up.

I struggle to see the logic behind paying out in USD cash since the government / central bank would not keep that cash on their books (unless of course the intent behind is to try "force" recipients to liquidate it at the official or similar so that the central bank gets to keep some dollars... but even then it is unlikely to be accepted by the market and would not take long for remittances to simply move underground and get even further out of the government's reach, exactly like what happened in Venezuela where an instant Zelle transfer to a Cuevas' US bank account essentially replaced WU altogether...)

 

[PatriotsFan]

Being a newbie to this process. I am surprised that the government does not crack down on the "Cambios" on the street and force people to go to the various other stores that are brick and mortar. Are these stores independent? I have not used the street vendors and use these stores. Hopefully someone can enlighten me. Thank you

 

[jblaze5779]

To me it seems like they would pesify the dollars at the official rate like they do for businesses thst bring in dollars.

 

[lunar]

... various other stores that are brick and mortar. Are these stores independent? I have not used the street vendors and use these stores. Hopefully someone can enlighten me.

There are no street vendors, actually. These people just bring you to the same stores and get their commission. They do not sell on the streets.

I am surprised that the government does not crack down on the "Cambios" on the street and force people to ...

Apparently, right people are getting their kickbacks.

 

[sneakrnet]

This tweet

https://twitter.com/x/status/1553155288382980096

Says that after the new Massa economic plan, WU will have to give dollars for all transactions.
What can happen if that is true? I think they will only allow transfers to bank accounts, making it almost impossible to get that money in bills and limiting the number of transfers (actually, dollar transfers between arg bank accounts are limited).

If what this "tweeter" said was true, this should have started last Thursday. It did not.

I read the thread that follows the initial tweet, and he was claiming that they are going to start to pay directly in dollars. Some people were asking him for proof, which he did not provide. It's clear from the thread that there are a lot of Argentinos receiving dollars from WU the way that we are. Very interesting.

I copied one interesting tweet from someone who seems to be familiar with this guy:

Otra mentira más!!, no te cansas de decir boludeces?


7:50 PM · Jul 30, 2022·Twitter Web App

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So maybe nothing is going to change. Anyway, if it does, it does, and we'll all figure out what the best thing will be to do then.