As someone who still needs to send money back to the U.S. for the occasional bill here and there, I was extremely dissatisfied to find out that Money Mart, who operates mostly as a front for Western Union, no longer issues money orders in U.S. dollars as of today, December 1st. As far as I have been told, this is a nationwide policy in Canada now, and it’s a Western Union decision to no longer offer these types of transactions.
Insert commercial sounding statement here, but when I can’t get home from work in time to visit the bank, Money Mart is within easy reach on my way home. Obviously I’ll take them out of that equation from now on.
Still, there is part of me that wonders what the throngs of Craigslist and eBay buyers and sellers are going to do now that getting money orders have been made just a little less easier. There are alternatives, but if I was unhappy to hear this news, imagine what the average person will do when they are in a last minute rush to get that money they need when they are so desperately trying to get that payment in the mail so they don’t get negative feedback or lose the purchase entirely.
At the same time, Western Union’s current slogan on their website is, “reliable, fast and convenient”. Yeah, not so much anymore.
You can get cheaper US$ money orders done at any post office location (like inside a 7-11).
Western Unions only charged $1.49 here and post offices charge $4.95 and up
=)
Yup, post offices screw you on the price. Western Union used to be reasonable.
I don’t know about other banks, but Bank of Montreal charges RIDICULOUSLY high service charges on their money orders.
Western Union had the best thing going. Now they’re a pack of asshats.
As has been my experience, most US sellers online do NOT accept Canadian postal money orders – even the post offices here will tell you it’s due to fraud. This is the same reason that sellers will not accept a money order from Canadian financial institutions.
As for pricing, I can’t say that I’ve seen a money order for cheaper than $4.95 in the past 5 years…maybe the postal ones, but no one accepts them so I never inquired as to their costs since 2003.
I’m aware that there are other payment methods, but that doesn’t help out too much when the seller him/herself won’t accept Paypal or credit cards (particularly when dealing with sales of original art – how do you insure something that’s one of a kind?)
Does anyone else think that the start date of this fiasco (December 1) to be completely insane?? AFTER Christmas I could understand, but RIGHT before….?
After reading this article, I just feel that I really need more information on the topic. Could you suggest some more resources ?