Western Union money transfer

[zensailor]

Can you please list the ways to get transfer dollars without a bank account?

I checked their website, and it seems your only 2 options are a bank account, or an e-wallet ... no provision for cash pickup ... unfortunately, my experience over the years has been that no one, other than WU, has a legitimate and dependable system for cash pick up

 

[Goata]

Thanks.

 

[Caribbean Cool]

Thanks for all the replies. I just made a transfer at 1:1474 with no fee. I thought that was a pretty good rate.

Like everyone I was getting no transfer fee fees through 2021. I stopped using Western Union in 2022 because the fees were getting high and credit cards were accepted more and more. I guess they want me back.

In Argentina you still need to have about five different ways to get money if you want to get the best rates.

Maybe, just maybe, there was no fee because you were not signed in before this transfer. Once you are signed in the next transfers will involve a fee. I think so.

 

[retiredbanker]

I'll stick with WU as I trust them. Their fee is a cost of living in Argentina.

 

[MercyRego]

Hi everyone. Anybody is having "issues" with WU lately? I'm trying to send myself money from NY to BA (suburbs) since YESTERDAY....with no luck. At the very end of the transfer shows up the following: "we cannot complete the transfer at this moment. Code C2228".
I talked to them via "chat" online and I tried the suggested option: to try other payments options. I always use debit card. Then I opted to choose the bank checking account. When I started to set up the bank info another sign showed up: server problems...
I talked to them over the phone, few minutes ago, they cannot solve the issue because of "some restrictions" and suggested me to go to the store and do the transfer from there. Ridiculous....

Also: anybody can recommend another transfer company? Besides WISE?

Thank you!

 

[SlowWalker]

Balanz

They are a broker in Argentina. You can transfer to their account by wire, they credit your account in "dolares cable" and then you can do an exchange with CCL rate which is usually a few percent higher than MEP. The commission is around 1.2%. then you just transfer it to your bank account or mercado pago wallet or whatever pretty much instantaneously.

If you want to transfer to a bank account here first, you can, then transfer to them USD but then you'll only get the MEP rate, again being charged 1.2% overall.

In both cases, you are buying bonds in USD and selling in ARS, it is actually two transactions each with 0.6% commission. Which bonds depend on MEP or cable.

They have a function in the app so for MEP at least it's just push one button and it does both automatically.

They are a major regulated financial institution in Argentina. I wouldn't be worried using them.

 

[MercyRego]

Balanz

They are a broker in Argentina. You can transfer to their account by wire, they credit your account in "dolares cable" and then you can do an exchange with CCL rate which is usually a few percent higher than MEP. The commission is around 1.2%. then you just transfer it to your bank account or mercado pago wallet or whatever pretty much instantaneously.

If you want to transfer to a bank account here first, you can, then transfer to them USD but then you'll only get the MEP rate, again being charged 1.2% overall.

In both cases, you are buying bonds in USD and selling in ARS, it is actually two transactions each with 0.6% commission. Which bonds depend on MEP or cable.

They have a function in the app so for MEP at least it's just push one button and it does both automatically.

They are a major regulated financial institution in Argentina. I wouldn't be worried using them.

Thank you for the info!

 

[Caribbean Cool]

Hi everyone. Anybody is having "issues" with WU lately? I'm trying to send myself money from NY to BA (suburbs) since YESTERDAY....with no luck. At the very end of the transfer shows up the following: "we cannot complete the transfer at this moment. Code C2228".
I talked to them via "chat" online and I tried the suggested option: to try other payments options. I always use debit card. Then I opted to choose the bank checking account. When I started to set up the bank info another sign showed up: server problems...
I talked to them over the phone, few minutes ago, they cannot solve the issue because of "some restrictions" and suggested me to go to the store and do the transfer from there. Ridiculous....

Also: anybody can recommend another transfer company? Besides WISE?

Thank you!

Try this. Clear your cache on your computer. Sign in again using a different email address. That changed me from being totally restricted to being accepted in full. Let us know what happens.

 

[pmacay]

I could never get the debit card option to work for me with WU, and just gave up trying, using the bank transfer option that usually takes 8 days, but sometimes only 2 or 3 and once even the next day. So I just lived with the 8 day transfer. Of course, an unexpected expense came up and I wanted the money faster, so taking Caribbean Cool's advice, I created a new WU account, put in all the bank and debit card info, and then it got to the CONTINUE button and nothing would make it go past this and continue to the next REVIEW screen. Then I tried using the phone app, thinking it was a problem with Chrome on a PC (I also tried MicroSoft's Edge, still wouldn't go past CONTINUE when I clicked the button!) but it wouldn't complete with the phone app either. Then I went back to Chrome, relogged in, and the debit card option worked, but the card was declined and it said to use a different card, hmmmpth!. I got an email from CitiBank that asked if the transfer amount was valid, I clicked on YES and it said to go ahead and try the transfer again, then I used my McAfee VPN and set my PC to the USA. Logged back in using Chrome and then WU finally transferred using my debit card.

Since it was a first transfer the transfer fee was waved, but I've been using the Chrome extension from https://capitaloneshopping.com/ and have been getting discounts and only paying $5.00 USA transfers from WU for almost 2 years. The extension is a little annoying as it pops up when you're on commercial websites, but it's worth the annoyance for getting discounts at WU.

FYI, I also tried creating an account on (https://www.taptapsend.com/) that Filipo mentioned, but they suspended my account on the first transfer attempt, and after chatting with them and giving them all my documents proving it's me, and my bank accounts, they said they'd get back to me soon, it's been over a week and I've sent them a follow-up email, but no reply.

 

[LongtimeExpat]

The extension is a little annoying as it pops up when you're on commercial websites, but it's worth the annoyance for getting discounts at WU.

Have you tried disabling the extension in Chrome except when you want to make a WU transfer? Or is there a problem if you do that?