What is Western Union is important for everyone who today faces the need to make a money transfer. This is an American company that specializes in providing such services. Having appeared on the market in the middle of the 19th century, it is currently one of the leaders in this financial industry.
Foundation of the company
What Western Union is for the first time, Americans have learned. The company was founded by entrepreneur and industrialist Hyrum Sibley and Judge Samuel Selden.
Sibley came to Rochester to do real estate and banking. Soon he was elected Sheriff of Monroe County, after which he met Judge Selden. The latter held Royal House telegraph patents. In 1849, they founded their first telegraph company, but soon decided to change the direction of their activity, as they realized that they could not cope with the high competition in this market.
Selden, analyzing the market, decided instead of creating a new telegraph line to begin the unification of all telegraph companies west of Buffalo into a single network.
Companions turned to influential New York businessmen for help. They offered to finance the project for a share in it. Seven years later, the company changed its name, turning into a Western Union.
Activities
Currently, there are more than half a million Western Union branches worldwide. The company serves users in more than two hundred countries around the world.
It is noteworthy that it works not only with individuals, but also receives impressive defense and government orders. In particular, it serves the US Armed Forces and the Federal Government.
Work in Russia
In Western Russia, they learned about what Western Union is in 1991. From that moment, the company operates in our country through its daughter - Western Union DP East Open Joint-Stock Company.
Since 2006, the American company has been closely cooperating with the largest state-owned enterprise in the field of communications - Russian Post. Since then, about two and a half thousand service points for the company have been opened in communication departments, which has made its services much more accessible for Russians.
In total, in our country at the moment there are more than twelve thousand customer service points. In the Russian market, the company controls about 15 percent of all remittances, ranking third after Russian Post and Sberbank.
Send transfer
What is Western Union, everyone knows who is faced with the need to send money transfers across the territory of the Russian Federation or to other countries.
You can transfer money not only at customer service points, but also on the company's website. To do this, create your profile and register. After that, enter information about the recipient, as well as about the credit or debit card from which the corresponding amount will be sent.
After that, the client receives an SMS message with an identification code on his phone, which serves as a confirmation of his agreement with the actions taken.
Anyone can send money through Western Union as soon as they create their profile and confirm their identity. To do this, it is not necessary to be a permanent resident. You can transfer money through the Internet Banking in Western Union.
It is worth noting that confirmation of a profile after registration, as a rule, takes up to three hours. If the person who is registered in the system is not a citizen of the Russian Federation, this period may be extended to two days.
Translation Features
When transferring to Western Union, there are certain features that you should be aware of. The amount sent via the Internet cannot be less than one hundred and more than 15 thousand rubles. Moreover, during the day there is a restriction on transfers equal to 30 thousand rubles. In a month, one user can send no more than one hundred thousand rubles.
After confirmation of identity, the amount of transfers during the day increases to one hundred thousand rubles.
An important point: when registering a profile, you must specify the address located on the territory of the Russian Federation. Profile confirmation is required from the user when trying to transfer an amount of more than 15 thousand rubles. In this case, it will be necessary to provide your passport data exactly as indicated in your document.
Branch work
You can send money to Western Union at the nearest branch of the company. As a rule, such services are used by entrepreneurs, travelers, people who support their friends and relatives living abroad, all who need to make quick international transfers.
To send a money transfer to Western Union, you will need to fill out the appropriate form and present the employee with an identity card. After that, transfer the transfer amount in cash or from a card and sign the required documents.
Unlike transfers via the Internet, you can send almost any amount through the Western Union branch. True, when making major operations (with an amount of more than 7.5 thousand dollars), you will need to provide additional documents or information that employees of the company will require from you. Please note that when transferring money from Russia abroad, there is a limit of $ 5,000 per day established by law.
After sending the transfer, you can track its status on the company's website. To do this, you only need to enter the name and surname of the sender and the control number of the transfer, which will be reported to you at the department. Having indicated your mobile phone number, you can receive an SMS notification when the transfer is delivered to the addressee.
Receiving the money
To receive a transfer to Western Union, you must contact any branch of the company with documents that can confirm your identity. You will also need to provide the money transfer control number, which must be obtained from the sender.
Upon receipt of the money, fill out the appropriate form, hand it over to the company employee together with documents proving your identity and provide the money transfer control number.
Please note that in the form when filling out you will need to indicate the data of the sender from whom you receive the money, the country from which they came, the full amount, a unique transaction number.
To get a transfer to Western Union, you don’t have to pay anything, since all fees are borne by the sender. An exception can only be if you wish to receive the amount in another currency or in another account.
Commission
The size of the commission paid by the sender depends on a number of factors. In particular, from the size of the amount and the country to which the funds will be received.
When transferring to the CIS countries in foreign currency, the commission will amount to one hundred rubles with an amount of 100 to 10,000. If the amount is greater, then 1% of the transfer amount will have to be paid as a commission.
In the CIS countries, you can send transfers in Russian rubles. This condition is available for Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. In this case, the commission will take one hundred rubles when transferring from 100 to 5,000 rubles. If the amount is higher, you will be charged 2% of the transfer amount.
If you send money to non-CIS countries, the same fees apply as for transfers to CIS countries in foreign currency.
If you transfer through a bank branch, then the commission for an amount of up to 10,000 rubles will be equal to 100 rubles. With the amount from 10 001 to 100 000 rubles - 1% of the transfer amount. For transfers amounting to more than 100,000 - one thousand rubles.
Branches
To send or receive a money transfer, you will need to use one of the branches of Western Union. Today in Russia there are several thousand representative offices of this company. They are open in almost all cities of our country.
It became especially convenient when the American money transfer company entered into an agreement with Russian Post. Now there are Western Union representative offices in most post offices.
Customer Impressions
Many customers highly appreciate the work of this company, remaining satisfied with the cooperation with it. They note a large number of branches throughout the country, high speed of money transfers, ease of use and reliability - you definitely will not have to worry about the fate of your money.
Of great importance is the fact that all operations on the site are so simple that anyone, even the most inexperienced user, can handle them. And if you come to the department, then here all the necessary help will be provided by employees.
Negative
At the same time, it is worth recognizing that some customers are faced with shortcomings in the operation of this system. The result is negative reviews. In this case, they do not advise anyone to use this service.
Recently, users are faced with unpleasant situations when they are denied the receipt of directed money from abroad, citing their links with terrorist organizations. Moreover, we are talking about fairly little money in such situations. For example, about 100-150 dollars. Of course, this is extremely rare, but still takes place. If the client is suspected of such relationships, you should be prepared for the fact that it can be extremely difficult to prove their case.
There are much more indignant reviews related to the high commission when sending money transfers. Especially in comparison with other similar services. There is a feeling that the company considers itself a monopolist in this market, since it maintains rates at this level. Although in reality this is not so. The competition in this area is quite high, so the company has fewer and fewer customers every year. As a result, many people send money through Western Union only if there are no other money transfer companies in the recipient city.
Another drawback is bug fixes. As in all other payment systems, in case of an error in the data of the user or sender, the transfer is not issued until all the information has been corrected and corrected properly. However, if in other systems this can be done automatically, then in “Western Union” you need to fill out a special application (it’s good that in electronic form), and then send it by fax. All this is very long and inconvenient. This position demonstrates that customers are not sufficiently taken care of.