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.