Review of WesternUnion international money transfer services

WesternUnion is the largest provider of international money transfer services, with a network of about 500,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. It specializes mainly in international transfers, though domestic transfers are also possible.

The following prices are valid at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.

Additional information from WesternUnion
	Western Union: fast money transfers and wide network. This operator is most useful for people who need to send or receive cash, as well as for sending transfers to not covered by other providers corners of the world. Western Union has a complicated pricing structure and it's difficult to find information about it, but the site is fully translated into many languages. Customer support in many languages is available 24/7, both by phone and email, in some countries there's also live chat option.
	WesternUnion channels and options of international transfers. You can send a transfer through the WesternUnion website and its mobile app, in person at an agent location, or even over the phone. You can pay for the transfer with your bank account, credit or debit card Visa, MasterCard or Discover, cash in WesternUnion locations. You can receive transfers in cash or to your bank account. Transfer limits vary depending on the destination country, for the US the minimum is $1, the maximum for online transfers varies from country to country, so for example it is limited to $5,000 for Mexico, but you can send up to $50,000 to other countries.
	Western Union pros. Transfers can be executed almost instantly: with cash and debit card payments, the money can be received within minutes. A wide network of agent locations makes it possible to send and receive money without a bank account or credit/debit card.
	WesternUnion cons. WesternUnion charges different fees for transfers, depending on the amount to be sent, the sender's and receiver's countries, etc. You can estimate the costs using the calculator on the WesternUnion website. But in general, the commission for sending from the US is about 3-10% (with 3 to Mexico and 10 to Germany). The maximum transfer amount is limited to $50,000 per online transaction. On the site of Western Union, it is quite difficult to find information about its rates, for some reason the link to it is in small print and located at the bottom of the main page.
Additional information from WesternUnion
	The main competitors of Western Union on the market of international money transfers. The main competitors of WesternUnion are MoneyGram, Azimo, OFX, Remitly, Ria, Wise (Formerly TransferWise) and Xoom (subsidiary of PayPal). You can read our reviews on most of them by following the corresponding link.
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