The Western Union branch on West Avenue in Quezon City is nearest to my place, so one morning a few weeks ago, I went there to get a remittance from a friend in the US who asked me to buy Swarovski stuff for her hobby.
I was in a hurry, so I asked Western Union to give me the remittance in pesos. The girl at the counter said their exchange rate was P39.30 to a dollar!
I was outraged. I said, “That’s too much!” I just came back from Bank of the Philippine Islands and Banco De Oro and they were converting at P40.40 to P40.30. That’s an almost one-peso difference. Aren’t they satisfied with the huge remittance fees they charge?As with most Western Union outlets, this one was shoulder-to-shoulder with a moneychanger booth. The moneychanger was offering a P40.20 exchange rate.
“Ok, just give me the remittance in dollars please,” I said, wondering about the intelligence of the owner.
“Sorry ma’am, but we don’t have dollar bills available,” the girl said.
I guess I judged too soon. The owner was indeed intelligent -– and greedy, preying on Filipinos’ vulnerabilities.
There are many choices out there, don’t be a victim to opportunists out there. I claimed my remittance in another outlet, where the moneychanger affiliate gave me an exchange rate that was even better than BDO’s.
(Readers across the globe shared their experiences with cutting the cost of remittances in this blog post. Check it out.)
April 18th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Ria, yes but not all branches. I don’t think they use the same exchange rate and i would guess they treat WU as a separate business segment.
oh and thanks for pointing out the exchange rates on credit card transactions. i realize how lazy i am in tracking dollar charges on my credit card. now that you pointed this out, i should pay more attention
April 18th, 2008 at 8:46 am
jtdc, another western union outlet near quiapo church, of all places. very nice service too.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
hello, I think its timely also for me to share my horrible experienced with Greedy Western union remittance center here in Al-Jouf KSA, last week one of my friend in malaysia sent a small amount of money for me through CIMB to Western Union KSA, so I’d used their tracking system in the internet and it has a positive results “ready for pick-up by the receiver”! but, I was surprised when i was about to claim my money, the ENJAZ teller told me that the my money isn’t in their system yet, so i come back and fall in line again for 6 times and again i got same answer with the teller, “not in their system, and after those horrible experienced i made a decission to return the to the sender in malaysia, and they got the money with a huge cut in it. maybe my control# is just a hoax contrl# created by western union representative in malaysia branch!
April 17th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hi Salve, I’m great but a bit busy lately. Don’t worry I still read every entry and comment.
I never send money through Western Union. It’s true you receive money in minutes but if I send it to BDO the beneficiary will also receive the money in 24 hours. Unless it’s extremely an emergency - matter of life and death - why use Western Union?
I also heard that Western Union sometimes change the conversion rate when you collect the money - to their favor of course
April 17th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Do they have a uniform rate for all Western Union branches? I know that some banks like BDO transact Western Union also. How do they work out exchange rates then?
All I know is that Western Union has the highest fees when it comes to remittances.
By the way this P1 difference against the bank rates are the same with credit cards for overseas charges. Citibank pa nga charges almost P2 more than actual exchange rate during your transaction.