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Have you ever money grammed?

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facattack

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
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960
Location
Bucks County, PA
Oh well, I saw "Money Gram" at CVS. I'm wondering if you would trust such a service to send money/ receive money.

Apparently to receive money you go to a location like CVS and identify yourself. You present ID and if they do have you on record for a transaction they'll give you cash. The service also (in Mexico only) sends money to a bank account or credit card. That stinks. I could easily just get a pre-paid VISA or Master Card card and use it for receiving payments.

What are the pros / cons? I'm thinking I would love to get money this way! :D
 
facattack said:
Oh well, I saw "Money Gram" at CVS. I'm wondering if you would trust such a service to send money/ receive money.
Click to expand...

The pros are you can get cash without having a bank account and it is secure. Cons are you pay a premium for sending money and have to take the time to pick the money up.

I used to use Western Union a lot, I also used to collect S&H green stamps. Don't do either any more .
 
I guess I should get paypal debit card.

My old method of getting money is cashing checks/ money orders at check cashing places in the lower part of the county. That's a long drive to cash a check...
 
Western Union and MoneyGram are not considered to be safe ways to conduct a transaction because of the risk of Fraud.

They can not be traced. Once you send the money to the Payee, he/she can pick it up anywhere in the World with a Western Union Office or MoneyGram Office with an ID with that name on it. Meaning if you make a deal with someone supposedly in let's say Canton, OH, the crook could actually be in Seattle, WA. Your money is gone if anything goes wrong.

Western Union and MoneyGram will accept a check from the Sender, and they actually pay the Receiver with a check (which the Receiver is allowed to cash with proper ID if the Office has enough cash on hand). If you accept the check, and the Sender's payment to Western Union or MoneyGram bounces (NSF, Stopped, or Unauthorized on Account), Western Union or MoneyGram stops the check issued to you, and if you cashed it already, comes after you for reimbursement.

If you know the party you are sending the money to, then it can be faster than mailing a check.

Did you know you can also send money through the USPS? They have a service also.
 
No kidding? Through the USPS? The United States Postal Service? I'll look into that.

EDIT: I see no mention on the website...
 
I had one gentleman (can't remember what country) that I purchased something from who said specifically it was much easier for them if it was a USPS money order than other. I don't really know the logistics of why but it certainly wasn't any more difficult.

In the one ore two times I did do a moneygram or whatever from I think western union it seemed that they sent it to a specific location or city so at least the person had to really be in the right vicinity with the right id, etc. At least that was my understanding but it could have been different. It wasn't just a money order which is just a check that's gauranteed by the MO company vs a personal check which you as a "depositer" (apparently not a word) have to sorta hope they have the money in their account which takes a few days to clear or bounce. The old problem I think was someone can obviously write you a bounced check and if you gave them the item, then it bounces, it was a hassle to clear up or possibly not be able to track them down any more. I heard (well craigslist says it all the time) about a money order scam but I'm not sure I understand that or how it works enough to know what to worry about. Ironically the gentleman I bought a Commodore Pet from in Wisconsin, I had pointed out that supposedly there's some risk but I didn't really know about it nor did he. Other than the trust issue of I'm mailing a check we both hope we're telling the truth. Could be the difference between a money order and a cashiers check though. This one I think it's typed on the check that it's for him so someone would have to forge his signature, etc.. it's just just a guaranteed amount but blank check.

More on topic for your scenario though I would think that if they have it tied to your bank account for a direct deposit the risk would be minimal. The only advantage paypal has is some theoretical protection if one person bails on the mailing of an item you can dispute it but I think that's mostly a buyer protection scheme not seller. I've heard of criminals buying something via paypal then claiming it never arrived and they get the item and their money refunded. Obviously it would flag your account if that was common but that's the risk I've heard of.
 
MicrocomputerSolutions said:
PayPal Debit Cards aren't really free.

You leave your money with PayPal, and they collect interest on everybody's money that they're holding until it's disbursed. And, whoever you pay using the Debit Card, pays an additional 3%-5% credit/debit card transaction fee to PayPal, to get their money from PayPal.

So whoever you pay, jacks up the cost of the product (for everybody) you buy from them to cover the cost of your payment. If you transfer the money to your bank account, and pay whoever with cash or a check, then PayPal doesn't make the additional money off you and your Payee, and in the long run, the product cost can be reduced and the product can cost you (everybody) less.
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Now that a real crock!!!

I use my PayPal card at the Post Office several times a week. There's no charges whatsoever passed on to me and if I ask them for $50 cashback during a transaction I get the full $50. So who's paying what there?
 
Stone said:
Now that a real crock!!!

I use my PayPal card at the Post Office several times a week. There's no charges whatsoever passed on to me and if I ask them for $50 cashback during a transaction I get the full $50. So who's paying what there?
Click to expand...


When the Post Office tries to get the money back from PayPal, do you think that PayPal gives them the whole $50? No, the Post Office loses a percentage of every card transaction. If you buy a $50 Money Order at the Post Office, you pay $50, plus the service charge for the Money Order, right? It used to be $.85, but it's more than $1 now, isn't it? Part of the $1 (or whatever the charge is now) goes to pay for the cost of you using the PayPal Debit Card, and part goes to the cost of accepting cards, and part goes to the cost of bad cards. Just as when you use a Credit Card, part of the price of the goods or services that you buy is used to pay the cost of the credit card service (monthly fee, transaction fee, plus use percentage).

The USPS is losing billions of dollars a year. Part is that is the desperate measures they've adopted to try to compete with other shipping/mailing services/companies. The USPS was one of the last places to start accepting cards as payment. Allowing cash back on card transactions is probably costing the USPS millions of dollars a year. When you buy postage, and complain about the cost of a stamp or postage, remember that you are paying additional money because of the cost of accepting cards.

When you use your PayPal Card anywhere, do you think the place where the Card is accepted get the whole amount back? No, there's a service charge, and there's a discount rate involved.

The Fees you pay for using a Debit card or a credit card are built into the price of the goods and services that everybody pays on every product. The Merchant has to recover the cost of accepting cards, or the business would go out of business.

Which is why I made the decision for my business to not to accept credit cards or debit cards. While the credit cards bank fees have gone down slightly over the years (a long time ago the cost was about 10%-12% of the gross month card activity), card fraud and bad card losses would keep the true cost of accepting credit cards and debit cards to between 5%-10% of the gross monthly card volume. With the average markup on new computer parts at less than 10%, accepting cards would wipeout the entire profit on the transactions.

If everywhere you went, you were offered a 10% discount if you used cash or check, would you pay by cash or check? I certainly would.
 
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