Western Union Send Money Now
Reviews and Complaints

I never been a fan of western union. However because of my unique situation it was one of the apps I could use and set up.

So everything is going fine and I send a few transactions. So easy! Everything I hated about the high fees were out my mind.

Then comes the problem. The money starts to get denied from the same person who’s been picking it up multiple times. So luckily he has family. So I just send it to them. Then they started to get denied.

But then one transaction would get denied. While if I just requested another to the same person it would get denied. It was like Russian roulette.

Worst if it all is customer service. Omgosh what a bunch of incompetent and rude for no reason people. One lady said my passport information didn’t Mach. Im like how is that possible. I sent a photo to you. She couldn’t explain. I call back to remedy the situation. The guy said I had no passport on file. So someone is lying.

This is the same guy who answered the phone with such attitude and literally didn’t want to help. When I told him the information he was given me was wrong. Because I was literally on the app and the section he said to go to. Didn’t have what he said. So basically he was trying to get rid of me. Thinking I would hang up.

I’ve never done this. But I had enough with his attitude and lying that I actually lost my cool. And I’m sure that was his goal.

Now this is the icing. I try to send money s few weeks later. And I can’t send anything. I call and they said I have to wait a week to a month. But they couldn’t give me a reason.

I’m sure the guy who gave me attitude had nothing to do with this situation.

I’m done. I found another app and I wished I took the time to look someplace else before. There are other, better options.

The app is slow. It takes a long time to log on and spends an even longer time on a screen that says that it is verifying my email address.

But even more important, Western Union is inconsistent. I fund my money transfers using my bank account. I am fully aware that the ACH system takes 3 business days for bank transfer transactions to settle. But Western Union used to trust me. They funded my transfers instantly because they knew that money from my bank would arrive in their account. However recently, Western Union has lost faith in me. I have sent thousands if dollars funded by bank transfer and Western Union has always gotten my money without fail. So why do my money transfers now take 4 business days for my receiver to get the money? A call to Western Union’s customer service is uninformative. They just read from a script. They have no information about why Western Union no longer trusts me. I pay $2 more in fees to Western Union in order to use bank transfer. It used to be worth the small premium in order to be able to send money from home. The alternative is to do an in-store transfer, but during a pandemic it seems unsafe to go to the bank to withdraw a large amount of cash and then go to a Western Union agency to hand over the cash. I wish Western Union would be more transparent about what changed in our relationship. They have eliminated my willingness to continue to use their app.

Update: I received a Developer Response. It was just boilerplate text suggesting that I contact Customer Service. Since the plain text of my original review already said that I discussed the issue with customer service, the Developer Response only proved that the company is unwilling to listen or to help. I have deducted one more star from my original rating.

I send money to Ghana West Africa on a regular basis and have for over 8 years. I am the executive director of a non-profit and, as such, we help fund projects and support orphans around the world. The last two times I tried to send money to Ghana Western Union didn’t let the transactions go through and told me they needed more verification to process the transfers. The first time they called from a number that had no identification. If you are like me, there are so many robo calls that I do not answer calls I don’t recognize. They didn’t leave a message but sent an email saying they had cancelled the transfer because they couldn’t get you on the number you put on their paperwork. The second time I decided to call them. The customer service rep was professional and nice. However after asking why I was sending the money and listening to my response that I could vouch for the person I was sending the money to and that I had not been solicited in any way asking for money, she read me a script saying they recommend that people
not send to people they do not personally know and thus my money was being returned to me. I understand that Ghana is a country with one of the highest percentage of scams, however there are two people on our board who know personally know the people we send money to. There must always be room for exceptions to rules! I went on a search for other ways to send money to Africa and found SendWave. The person I was sending the money to had it within an hour. SendWave did email me saying I needed to call them but the conversation only lasted a few minutes. After I explained the same thing to the customer service rep that I had said to the Western Union rep she thanked me and said that was all they needed. SendWave is my new go-to for sending money!

Worst online experience ever. I have been using western union for over decade amd I have had bad experiences with them , but never ever I had such bad expense before.

I was trying to send money to my brother in Dubai and I went through the online app as usual. I followed all instructions on the app. At the end I got the number, which I sent to my brother. But when my brother went to get his money they told him he cannot trice the money because our fathers name was not on the paperwork.

1) the western union gave us a specific number which only my brother should have. So we already have proof that he’s the right person.
2) western union does not even have an option to put fathers name in it. Completely idiot.
3) exchange state is also less than everyone else in the market! That’s highway robbery.

Then I try to attempt to change the number, the app gave me an error and a number to call. I call the number and the customer service lady had no idea what I was talking about. What are we in the 1800s?
After 40 minutes of back and forth I had to cancel my transaction! Which will take 7 days to put my money back in the account. That’s just cheap and wrong on every level.

THE AGENT LADY PUT ME ON HOLD FOR 20 MINUTES TWICE AND THEN HUNG UP ON ME!

I then created a new transaction so I can send the money, and finally put both, my brother’s name in the firstname column and my fathers name in the surname column.

On the receiver side My brother has to wait over 2 hours for the second transaction to complete.

I have a huge family around the world I send hundreds of thousands of dollars year round and let me tell you I will never use western union again. Worst worst worst worst experience ever. Oh and I will also sell all my stocks and ask my family and friends to do the same.

I have been using the app many years. After today I will never use Western Union period! I attempted to send a small transfer to my son. He lost his ID and was not able to pick it up. The next morning, today, I called WU. Of course as with all customer service these days, it took several minutes dealing with the automated service before I was able to get a real person on the line. After explaining the situationand being on hold for 11 minutes, I was told I would receive an email with instructions on providing the receivers ID. I AGAIN explained that the ID was not available and was told I would have to be put on hold again while instructions was obtained regarding what I needed to do. I immediately noticed that I did not get the recordings as before and the line was silent. After waiting 7 minutes, I hung up and redialed. The second call was worse than the first. The man on the line said, “Good morning Miss Ray could I have your name?” I laughed and told him he obviously already knew it. He ask how he could help me. I explained the situation to him and was told that until I provided the document requested, the money would sit there. I ask if he was telling me there is no way I can get my money refunded? He told me no he was telling me the money would not be refunded until the receiver’s ID is provided. I told him I did not understand why since the receiver is not getting the money and it is being returned to the account that I own, so why is that the case? I then realized that the agent had simply laid the phone down and was ignoring me! I could here other talking in the background so I knew he had not hung up or put me on hold but I kept repeating hello with no response from the agent.
I am just appalled that customer service can be so bad.
As I said, I WILL NEVER USE WESTERN UNION AGAIN!

I’m so frustrated with Western Union because of this new update!

So I went to send money in-store to within the US... and the agent said I need to download the app and initiate the transaction through the app. Ok... so after more than 30 min recovering password, updating profile, adding bank account... and all the nine yards... I finally initiated the transaction through the app only to find out that in order to send it IN-STORE only to find out that I had to CASH OUT the amount to send it...

The fees for this transaction was supposed to be $14.99. Only $11.00 if I wanted to send directly from my account but it could’ve taken up to 4 days. That wasn’t an option.

So I drove to another location but the system was down. So I drove to ANOTHER location... when the agent asked for my phone number she said that I wasn’t allow to do any transaction at that time. WHAT? I had already initiated the transaction and I had the cash and I had a few minutes before the store closes...

So I called WU and the lady explained that not all the stores allows you to initiate transactions online... that the fees would be higher for doing it directly through agent but she was going to give me 50% off from the fees for the inconvenient.

There I go back to the agent... total fees: $21.50! SERIOUSLY? I had 2min to send the stupid money because the person needed for today... but I will NEVER again send money from a location that doesn’t use the app to initiate transaction.

So... why 3 stars? BECAUSE $21.50 is super high... Because the agents didn’t explain all this things to me... because I wasted 3hs just to send this money... because, maybe, if wasn’t for my bad review you wouldn’t be reading this msg...

What I want you to know is: ONLY USE AGENTS THAT USE THIS STUPID APP! It’s waaaayyy much cheaper. I wish I knew before.

Let me first day I’m writing this because I find it impossible to reach a live person to speak to regarding complaints. Only representatives who can’t transfer me to a supervisor because said supervisor (there’s only 1?) is on the phone and it will be 20 minutes or longer. Do I want a call back? Yes. (I’ll let you know if that happens.)

8/3 Speaking to a WU rep by phone to figure out why the app would not let me use a promo code. I find out I have 3 accounts with a total of 385 points (my calculations by what the rep told me). I ended up with 3 accounts through various cell phone and email address changes. (I’m 65, I can’t always remember a password or which email address I’ve used so I created a new one. I also retired from my job and that email went away.)

So, 385 points - NO - 300 points TOTAL by the rep’s calculations when she consolidated all 3 accounts. I’m eligible for $2, $4, $8, or $12 discount - I choose $12 which uses 140 points (balance 160). Rep gives me a promo code.

It’s all a nightmare to muddle through.

Called again, new rep transfers me to someone at a different department (app dept?; promo code dept?). Explained promo code won’t work, he says he applied the discount directly, that didn’t work, yada, yada, yada...sign out, sign in...why is this so hard? Finally! Eureka! I completed the transaction using my promo code and received my $7.95 discount - wait - what? Yes, $12 discount out the window, $7.95 - so I lose $4 ($3.95) and have used 35 points I didn’t need to use. Oh well, nothing in life is what we expect - especially customer service and companies that tell us apps make things easier, etc.

The good news is that hopefully , this is my last WU transaction. Except that I have 160+ points on my account that expire in 1 year.

We get what we get and don’t throw a fit, right? Just ALWAYS write a review if offered/asked!

This review is to inform every consumer that even a easy, supposedly convenient service as a wire transfer from WU can be a disaster even more damaging due to:

1. Poor and Unsatisfactory Customer service (outsourced). You can clearly tell their reading a script because they go on and on without even trying to put an effort to listen to my very simple issue so I had to call back a total of 6 times in a span of 4 days because of misinformation and still was not successful

2. No real WU agent on site so your dealing with third party vendors who do not know and don’t really care to know how to help their clients(WU) customers to process a simple refund. Every single WU that I went to, total of 8 had a different excuse as to why they cannot issue my refund.

3. The app is supposedly more useful and user friendly. Instead it is not updated showing WU locations that don’t even exist. Every single 711 that I went to that is listed on their Find Location tab does NOT have WU onsite.

4. An easy fix such as updating the receiver’s name to something different turned into a week of driving to 9 different WU locations that either did not exist or the store had “issue with the system could not refund” or was told that they don’t do WU refunds at all. The store that I initially sent the money from says the number that was provided to me by the customer care fora refund does not work or does not exist.

By the way, this wire transfer was an emergency fund that was meant to alleviate an ongoing family crises 7000 miles away but instead it became an embarrassment to my family for not following through.

There’s a lot more discrepancies that needs to be addressed and brought to WU’s attention But this review is for the Consumers / paying customers to be smart with their money, do a little research and don’t settle for anything that you don’t understand yourself.

Never ever!

I am an international student, and for the first two years of college I relied on WU for money transfers my dad would send me. But I have stopped transferring money through WU and yet I still have nightmares about my experience at WU branches, calls trying to sort out transfer issues with WU personnel, the fruitless back and forth trips to WU thinking this time I would pick up the money. When you are an international student living in a country where you are not allowed to work to support yourself, you end up having to rely on your parents back in your home country, and WU( if you don’t know better).

In the 2years that I was using western union, not one transfer ever went through seamlessly. There was always an issue about missing information from the sender, incorrect information, receivers information not matching his/her IDs, the transfer refunded to the sender prematurely. My dad was always meticulous enough, to do transfers through western union agents, with a picture of my ID and and my address but there was always an issue with the transfer, that It took me about 4 calls and 3 trips to western union to finally pick up the money. I don’t know if it’s hiring policy for WU to hire irritable customer service agents, but most of the interactions with their personnel was me getting attitude and no help at all. Not to mention that all their call center personnel barely speak any English at all, so you can imagine trying to communicate with them over the phone.

Western Union is not worth it guys, this company is a nightmare for its customers. Save yourself a headache and use other companies that are doing a much better job that this incompetent , money holding machine.

I am writing this review because after 2 years not using WU, I decided ( against my better judgement) to send one transfer through this frivolous organization and I had the exact same experience.

Every time I’ve had to deal with customer service agents about ANY problem regarding a money transaction I’ve sent someone, they’ve tied me up for literally hours, passing me from one person to the next, requiring one piece of information then requesting it again with the next person. I recently sent my brother a small sum. I used only his middle initial, but his ID had his full middle name. After being passed to 3 different people, and being persistent, the 3rd person finally told me (after putting me on another long hold) that she’d taken the block off the money. I thanked her several times before the call ended, and right before she disconnected, I thought to ask, “So my brother can get his money now that the block is off?”. She replied, “No. it will take some time. Call back later.”. I was stunned and asked how long because he had a timeline with his ride. She suggested 20-30 minutes. I asked how ICould be connected to her/her department. She said “no no no you call 800 # main number”. Needless to say my brother and I were more than frustrated with the whole mess! I called back “later” and was again bounced around, left on hold, and transferred finally to the department that “releases blocks. I explained the problem AGAIN, and the man attempted to START AT THE BEGINNING AGAIN! I stopped him, told him I’d been through that and this was the “requested call back “. Again I was put on hold! I spent over 2 1/2 hours of my afternoon tied up with the mess! As I told my brother, “That’s the last time I’m sending you money through Western Union”, and “No good deed goes unpunished!”.
I was also very upset that I attempted to apply some of my points to the fee, but when it was all said and done, I was charged $9.99 to send $25.00 to the next State from me! I don’t pay half that to send money to another Country! And haven’t been able to apply my points to my last few transactions there, either! Very dissatisfied!

So I tried to send money to my fiancé earlier today. We’re getting married and we have a lot of expenses to make so I’m sending money back home to cover for them. Fired up my WU app, went through the tedious WU process to send the money and everything went through. It’s all golden, money will be delivered within minutes. Now I’m sitting down waiting for my fiancé to tell me she’s received the money, nothing. So after about 5 hours I give them a call and that’s when they started telling me other customers have called to make complains of fraud so they put a hold on my transaction for further details from me(First issue, why wasn’t I notified about this? Why did I have to reach out 5hrs later before you tell me this?). So I explained to the lady I’m sending the money to my fiancé because we’re getting married and we have a lot of expenses coming so I needed the money delivered immediately. Then she tells me she understands but as a financial institution they have the right to place holds on transactions until the sender answers a few questions. She again asks me what the money is for and I’m thinking to myself, first of all I already told you but then again that is none of business. Imagine you go to McDonald’s to order a Big Mac and they tell you several customers complained McDonald’s food made them fat so now they have the right to place holds on orders until you tell them what your calorie count is. Maybe those other customers that complained about the fraud shouldn’t be so dumb to be sending money to people they’ve never met before. Why do I have to deal with the fall out? At least I got my refund back and used another money transfer system to send the money. It was delivered almost as soon as I pressed send with no hassles and questioning as if I’m dumb and don’t know what I’m doing. It is my money, if you want to make it any more difficult to offer me your services, there’s a million other ways to do it out there and I will take my business there.

I’ll keep the story as short as possible. I sent a family member money. Instant money via a western union kiosk. For 3 days she tried to pick it up. Store after store and they all told her she had to have a phone number. I can’t count the amount of phone calls with customer service we had. Every single one of them had a different answer and not a single one of them worked as to why can’t she pick the money up. She had the tracking number, her I.D. & all information was correct. But “apparently” when I sent the money on the kiosks.. It it gave the OPTION to put a phone number down for the receiver. So I chose not to put a phone number because it wasn’t mandatory and she had her I.D... Every single person said they couldn’t cash it for her because she simply lacked a phone number. I had a worker tell me she had to call the number to fix it with an 8 digit code. She then called and they said I had to be the one to do it. I was over it at that point. So I asked for a refund. They gave me a tracking number which then locked me out when I was putting in exactly what they told me. I’m sitting at the kiosk on the phone with them as they misinform me over and over until I get locked out. The person on the phone gives up and gives the phone to somebody else who then asked the Walgreens manager if he can call us back in 10 minutes. NEVER GOT A CALL BACK. The next day an older Walgreens worker told me that when I put my name down as both the sender and the receiver for the refund that I had to put that I was from Colorado as the sender because that’s where their company is based. WHAT DO YOU KNOW IT WORKED. But 2 hours sitting at a kiosk with a customer service worker did absolutely nothing. COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

***Update***
Western Union if all you guys know how respond is with your twitter link.. Why don’t you put that on your 12 foot long receipt instead of giving us a customer service number that’s full of people who don’t know what they’re even doing!? Matter of fact all that money you charge to send money in minutes.. Yea why don’t you use that money to train your employees.

El peor servicio al cliente que he experimentando en toda mi vida... ojo : a nadie se le ocurra mencionar la palabra estupidez porque quieren colgar el teléfono o comienzan a dar lecciones de moral... esta fue mi experiencia:( por cierto me atendió una tal Claudia)...
Desde mi teléfono envié un dinero a otro país... los pasos a seguir de siempre ...en fin... apenas termino la transacción recibo un mensaje de mi banco diciéndome que mi tarjeta había sido declinada ... llamo al banco primero me fijo y si!, el monto se me cobró ... el banco me dice que el problema fue con WesternUnion y que la única opción era volver a hacer otro pago ... es ilógico pagar doble ... otra opción era llamar a la compañía de envío porque ellos eran los del problema ...ok, les llamo y la muchacha fingía que no me escuchaba y en un tono de voz de enojo ... que ellos no sabían que era lo que estaba pasando y cuando mencioné la palabra estupidez ( puesto que le contaba lo que el banco me decía ,pagar doble)... me dijo que no tenía el por que ? Aguantar groserías ... que yo sepa es una ofensa ,no una grosería ... ademas su trabajo es escuchar el problema para saber si puede solucionarlo, esta fue mi respuesta. Antes de comenzar a darme clases de moral ( no digo groserías , no soy de ese tipo, más solo llamo las cosas por su nombre)... por que? Si no les gusta su trabajo están ocupando un puesto?... para servir hay que tener vocación y está muy claro que ese departamento no funciona...
Acaso no era más fácil ... primero escuchar... ellos están delante de la computadora , el sistema habla por si solo... acto seguido ... aclarar la duda : mire con nosotros no es el problema , la transacción está correcta...no entendemos por que el banco miente ...
Que les hace pensar que una se va a tomar la molestia de enviarle dinero a alguien y después decir, fue un error cancélelo , y mas siendo persona cercana... eso es una ridiculez...
Ah! Detalle importante...Te amenazan con decir que te están grabando para intimidar a la gente... esto es USA ! Un país libre donde la gente se puede expresar como quiere!...

I’m really disappointed in the online transaction service at Western Union. The service apparently should allow customers to initiate their transactions (to send money) online and complete the payment at participating locations for more convenience and a lesser fee.

I initiated the transaction online to send money and provided my recipient’s first name, last name and contact information correctly. However when the participating agent gave me the receipt to validate that information it was not correct. My recipient’s first name is two worded however the receipt was only displaying one. The agent told me that he can do nothing about it and that I would have to initiate a new transaction or call Western Union. The Western Union app didn’t let me create a new transaction since it was less than an hour that I created the same transaction previously. Consequently, I called WU customer service and told them the issue. The customer service representative said that the issue has been fixed, cancelled my previous transaction and asked me to create new one. By this time almost 45 minutes had passed (including the ~15 minute hold time) and I was back to square one. I then created a new transaction, again entered all the details accurately, walked to the agent’s office a second time only to be given the exact same receipt again. This second receipt had the exact same error i.e., only one word of the first name was showing up. The agent told me he was helpless and that his office was closing in 30 minutes. My only option was to create a whole new paper transaction which defeated the whole purpose plus is also double the fee.

I am extremely disappointed with the terrible experience that I had today. I’m a regular customer at WU and always use the in-store paper method at participating locations. I got really excited that when I saw the online method since I could now do the whole thing online thereby requiring less time at the store. However, what is advertised by WU, doesn’t really work! It wasted all of my afternoon, made me do 2 trips to the pay-o-matic location only to be using the usual way in the end. What a waste!

I have sent my girlfriend a small amount of money $100 every other month for over a year .
All the sudden I attempt same transactions online from my debit card as always and transaction goes through, but a day later I get a cancellation email and she cannot pickup the money as always.

Calling into the help center , I get the run around, one person has no answers and turns me over to the next ,
This person says I maybe should just try again in a few days .

So I wait three days and try again and then again, no luck.

She checks her bank and nothings available.

I call again and this time I get a lady tell her the story and she says she will check lists me on hold and after several minutes some guy answers and asks me what I want.
This guy had no idea why the call was passed off to him .
I tell him the same story again, he has no idea and puts me on hold.
All the sudden I am back into the voice box and the computer is asking what I want .

After again going through the prompts I get another person and tell them the same story they ask the same questions and and he says I’m not able to send anything more , has no real reason and says check the terms and conditions.
I ask what is that going to tell me as why my transactions will not go through to same person who I have sent about $1,000 dollars to over a year and never had a problem.

He could not answer me, and again referring to the terms and conditions and said there department does not tell them why or what .

So I ask to speak to a manager.

Same story same information been on the phone forever and many different days and people.
He says he doesn’t know why the verification department puts a hold on it.
I’m just trying to send $100 !

He has no idea and just says well wait two or three days and try again.

I told I did that and been trying for two weeks.

It does not make sense

Western Union has the worst customer service I’ve ever seen in my life!

No knowledge no help !

On the phone forever and a day !

These people are improperly trained and in the dark and rules , terms and anything in life !

I’m totally surprised they are still in business

I have been a WesternUnion customer for over a 10 years and no major problems, I have friends who switched and would never consider them again cause he sent some money for his daughter’s school fee more than once and they rejected it. My little brother was in Panama for over a week and asked me to send him $100 from my same account for years I sent the money from USA to Panama next time I tried using my account to send money an offering to my church in Jamaica to a bank account what I’ve doing for years and it told me I have to live in the USA to send it I contact customer service they informed me that I have to open a new account I informed them that I have been a customer for years and I don’t wish to open a new account and they said that’s the only way they said to retry I did still the same problem, so I had to open a new account, I sent money this December for the holiday and they cancelled all my transactions. I have love ones that I help take care of and I send my offering to my church to help my church family, I am currently looking for another option to send money to Jamaica WesternUnion app having too many issues. Below is the message concerning my previous account. Western Union [ ref:_00D15F40r._5006O1ltJ3r:ref ] Hi MD, Thanks for your email. Concerning your issue with logging in, we kindly request to retry in order for us to capture the latest logs. We strongly recommend to clear or delete browsing history, cache, and cookies (or uninstall then reinstall the app if using the mobile app) before trying again. If the error still persists, please provide the following details so we can escalate to our Technical Team for further investigation: Brief Description of the error - Error code/message - Latest screenshot of the error - Date and Time the error occurred (Time zone) - Internet Browser used (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mobile App etc.) - We await your confirmation. Sincerely, Western Union Customer Care I tried everything that you’ve suggested and the error message remains the same that I should register in the USA and not Panama I’ve never been to Panama just send money there, here is the other error message received.

Please check your username or email address and password
and try logging in again. If you've forgotten your password
click "forgot your password"? (C1131)

Firstly, their conversion rates are ridiculously high in comparison to other (better) services. Not to mention, their compliance rules and laws are, sometimes, completely arbitrary.

Secondly, I have only used this service to support my fiancé, who lives in Ukraine. I started helping her out after the war started. I’ve only sent a little less than $2,000.00 since the start of the war, to compensate for lack of jobs and resources in Ukraine. In that $2,000.00 I’ve sent, Western Union has easily pocketed $400.00 or more. Understandably, you should have to pay for a service and I was, obviously, glad to do so. However, during a war, they only waived transfer fees for certain dates and times with certain stipulations. They are simply coat-tailing on what’s popular. They do not actually support Ukraine nor it’s people during this war. They only want to look like they’re proponents. When, for no reason that they could articulate to me, they chose to specifically stop serving me. I have been a compliant customer for over a year, giving them quite a bit of money. Then they tried to tell my that I had reached my sending limit. However, when I proved that I had sent more than said amount beforehand, they were silent and said that they could not discuss why they have chosen to deny my transfer. Oh! By the way, it was literally my final transfer! I had told Western Union that all I needed to do, was send ONE last payment, which would’ve helped my fiancé flee Ukraine for good! One final payment to save the life of a Ukrainian citizen and Western Union chose to ignore this. I asked if they could at LEAST point me in the direction of another service comparable to theirs. Their representatives acted like they were robots! “No, sir. You can go to Walmart and they may be able to tell you about other services.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? You’re going to intentionally force me to let my fiancé die or go ask somebody else for information that you could’ve EASILY given to me. I never asked for a better service, just a comparable company. What type of representatives don’t know about their own competition? Not just this time, but countless amount of times, I have received the absolute worst customer service of my entire life through Western Union. But I have been absolutely polite and docile until they are intentionally telling me that it’s Ukraine’s fault, during a WAR THAT THEY NEVER WANTED TO BE PART OF! Horrible company. Highly recommend Wise.

Yes, when I tried to authenticate my phone I had to try twice, I recommend letting it go to voicemail, no problem then. I entered the 4 digit code and my phone was good to go. As far as the complaints about multitasking, yes they do exist but I think for a good reason, I want a banking application to close when I minimize it in case I get busy and can't get back to it or leave my phone laying around. Now lets get to the nuts and bolts, it was as straight forward as it could get, it has 4 options to begin choose send money , then it asked how you want to pay I selected debit card, then you have to log in, then I got 2 questions start new or repeat I chose start new. select country, enter amount of money and it shows you the exchange rate that they will receive on the other end. next 3 questions how do you want the money sent, direct to bank, money in minutes or mobile wallet. I chose money in minutes, it lets you review all the information so far then select receiver, new, contact or previous. I chose new entered the info and saved to my profile to be able to auto fill next time. then choose payment method, I entered my debit card info and 3 digit security code and saved for future use. By the way it will not remember the security code so you have to have the card with you unless you can remember it. I think another good security feature. Then review all the information and agree to terms and conditions and hit send, then something unexpected happened it asked for my PIN number for my debit card, good job, and as I entered my pin, after each number I entered, the key pad scrambled, wonderful! you have to pay attention! but the person looking over your shoulder can't. Great job WU. Your done. now you have several options, you can text, email, or call the person from the screen and tell them the MTCN and you are done. It sent me an email with all the info plus all the hyperlinks you could want. Other features that are worth mentioning you can use your current location to find agents and it will draw you a map and their operating hours for those of you old school people, it lets you estimate pricing of various ways to send money and let's you track transfers. If you read this whole thing you could have sent money ten times by now. Now for you people that think I work for WU, I do not! and this was a better experience than standing in line at Kroger minutes before they close and all from the comfort of my home. I tracked the MTCN and it said the money was already available for pick up. Now if for some reason on the other end there is a problem getting the money I will be right back on here letting everyone know. Enjoy the 21st century, stress free. The money was picked up and my sister in law said it was to the penny. So for the person that said it is not accurate, Wrong again. I just sent money on the other side of this planet in seconds from my basemen on my phone. Stress free, hassle free, problem free.

UPDATE: To start, if you need to send money, I suggest Wise app or Moneygram. The issues I’ve had with western union, I have not had with either one of those. I’ve downgraded my rating to 1 star, since zero isn’t an option. For the second time in a row, they have suspended a transaction and they won’t explain why. I have now stopped using western union due to their company practices. Wise and Moneygram have been found to be a better option.

My issue isn’t with the app. The app is great, which is the only reason I didn’t give one star. My issues is with the company itmself. After 5 years of sending money and at times needing to call for an interview before my money is released for pick up, they hit a new low. I’ve always asked that if I’m sending the same person, why do I need to be interviewed. Why can I not have a list of approved recipients who are cleared to receive funds without any interview call required. Only response… “we understand your frustration”. I don’t think you do. As an American living in the Philippines and making several contacts here as I’m establishing a non profit, I use western union to send money for various reasons but nothing illegal and certainly not sending money to unknown people who I’ve never met, which I’ve been asked during these interview calls before releasing my funds for pick up. Today was a new low for western union. I sent money on the weekend. Knowing I would probably have to call before it was released. I thought 5 days would be plenty of time to clear the funds for pick up. On the day I initiated the transfer, I got an email saying they’re reviewing my transfer. Ok… so I waited. Then, yesterday, one day before I needed the money transferred for payment, I got an email from western union stating the transfer was canceled. They didn’t call, they simply stated they canceled and to make matters worse, my refund will take up to 7 days. I called customer service and was told they canceled for compliance issues. I didn’t do anything different this time. I was never given an opportunity to address any issues they had. I’ve had larger transfers in the past. But now they canceled and gave no specifics. Now, I have to explain to the recipient why they will not be paid today and will have to wait for up to a week for me to receive my refund so they can get their money, assuming they’re willing to wait. This tells me that western union is like a crap shoot when sending money. The recipient may or may not get the money. I can’t rely on western union for my money transfer needs now. Western union gets to decide if my transfer is worth transferring without having all the information and without even asking me to call to verify. They are quick to take my money but slow to give it back. What could I have possibly done to be out of compliance? I don’t know, they won’t tell me. They simply say, “I understand how you feel”. No…. I don’t beleive you do. Otherwise you would change how you do business. That being said, does anyone know of a money transfer company that will actually transfer money?

I just conducted an international money transfer using WU app for the first time without any trouble. Worked just as fine as doing it online (I use my debit card) or at any WU agency...even at supermarkets.

Here’s the trouble with WU though:

While I find the cost of their international transfer fees (using debit card) fair, it’s mind boggling that transferring money within the US costs SO MUCH MORE THAN TRANSFERRING MONEY INTERNATIONALLY.

And here is their “catch”: while charging a seemingly small fee for us to transfer money internationally (well, as long as we use cash at a WU location or debit cards online!), my recipient from another country, which happens to be my widow elderly poor mom, has to bear with the absurd exchange rate deductions/taxes or whatever they invent in that country, as WU there takes an absurd amount of money from my regular transfers to my widow elderly mother.

When contacting their customer service here, the chat WU rep told me there’s no such thing as WU fees to receive money and that such WU rule is global. The person firmly advised me to warn my recipient to REFUSE to receive money from any WU agent charging ANY FEES from a recipient. I had this in writing during the chat...But then, as I called them today, another painful process, WU rep here said that international recipients are subjected to their country’s taxes, tariffs, and differences in exchange rate, which is absurd, considering my mother extracts the money I transfer only few minutes after I transfer it and what they call as “difference in exchange rate” is nothing short of absurd robbery, which the WU rep claimed it’s something “beyond their control”. Yeah...right...

Well then, “beyond their control” just caused them to lose this customer here! Thank you very much, but no thanks!

I’m done with WU! Found a much a better and safe way to transfer money to my widow elderly mom, who lives in poverty in another country and shame on WU there for robbing folks the way they do! If this is something WU can’t help, then they shouldn’t be doing business in countries that have no issues robbing their own citizens! So either way, WU is responsible and accountable.

Now, my mom will actually receive whatever I send to her and any feeds to be paid is only on my side, not on the side of the recipient and she’ll see the same exchange rate, which is something global for the most part and differences in exchange rates are usually minimal, not absurd discrepancies, which are obviously fake and the product of corrupt governments. Now, that I actually understand. The fact that WU is doing business in such countries while charging Americans far more to transfer money domestically than internationally, that is not something to be understood because it’s simply preposterous and just as dishonest as corrupt governments!

So bye bye WU! You charge absurd fees to American Citizens to transfer money within our borders to begin with! That alone is absolutely reason to drop your costly services, as if we Americans had no other safe options to wire money within our country for free, such as PayPal and even other safe options to send money internationally without our recipients being literally robbed by both you and their corrupt governments!

Give me a break! Over the years, you made enough money on me and my poor widow elderly mother. SHAME ON YOU! NO MORE!

As far as the WU app goes, worked just fine but it’s a pain if we use in our tablets (my iPad) as app developers insist in keeping the portrait orientation, which is only suitable to our cellphones, NOT OUR TABLETS!

LAME AND THUMBS DOWN ALTOGETHER!

We have no other options but the app. Furthermore, when the transfers say “complete”. It’s debatable when receiver has access to funds.
But even worse? When transfer says “available”? It’s anything but available to receiver. When trying to rectify and resend almost $200 in transfers, the western union customer service person said we needed to contact facility. Also, they were unable to provide us with a comprehensive statement of our transactions.
So we contacted the facility, and you can guess what they said...contact Western Union. Long story, but at the end of the day and several long and frustrating calls and placed on hold, Westetn Union said they would notify facility and email us the outcomes. That never happened.
When we pay 7.95 per transfer, and then no one can account for funds sent but not dispersed, well that feels a lot like fraud or theft...
The fine print? It’s nonsense offering no guarantee of recourse for funds transferred or lost or stolen before intended receiver collects. But you can transfer without agreeing to their terms.
My advice? If there is any other option available to you, choose that one over this one
R
California

Had a very close international friend I send money to on a regular basis. Western union decided to put a block and deny all transactions without giving a reason and no way to resolve it in a timely manner. Only support is by email which can take up to a month at a minimum to get a response from. The agents and customer service do not have access to why a transaction was returned. Very frustrating as with the world in the state it is in, jobs are hard to find and my contribution helps with buying food and fuel. Thanks for nothing WesternUnion.

now I get a response from the developer that says that their system “automatically rejects certain transactions” and can’t disclose what criteria they use. What garbage. What if their system makes a mistake? I had used WesternUnion for years to the same person with no problems till then. Haha. I’ll make sure to tell everyone how they can become banned arbitrarily from their system with no recourse or remedy. Shhh, we wouldn’t want to “compromise the integrity” of their flawed controls. I’m glad I switched to a different platform and have had no issues with their competitor. MoneyGram is easier to set up direct bank transfers.

Tracking number: [protected] Worst service! I transferred money through this application in bank account in India. They were unable to do that so they stated they have processed a refund on 23rd January 2022 and it will take 5 business days to show in my bank account. Today is 16th February 2022 and I have reached out to them almost 4/5 times till now regarding this issue. WesternUnion never came up with the updates anytime, everytime I was reaching out to them. Their response was it is under investigation and it is the under high priority so you should get refund in 24/48 hours. So this is how your team works when you have high priority things on your table? This is unacceptable and worst. I will make sure that me and my family don’t use this service again in my life. FYI, there are many competitors so work accordingly because customer satisfaction is significant in this business.

This is almost a 16 calendar days delay from WesternUnion’s end so requesting them to throw some money for this extraordinary work (no gift cards). If your team wants any kind of motivation to do high priority things LMK so I will share beautiful videos and motivational speeches with them!

My WesternUnion app has became another place for those stupid ads. I can’t even do business without have to answer questions about stupid ads. If I wanted those, I would go do it myself. This is ridiculous. I hate it. Also also I made a mistake one time send annette 3 to 4 business days because it took seven business days and that’s not counting the weekend. The last time I paid for in minutes I want my wife went to pick it up the place that they didn’t have any money, not even half of it. I paid for in minutes do you think they’d refund my feet? Do anything to make something right no. And you’re supposed to be able to go in there with the ID and your ID and the Lady in there quiz my wife who I was why am I sending her the money? I’m very frustrated. Yes, I am older and I’ve been doing business with them for over 50 years. It seems like whoever is running to WesternUnion now pride that they had years ago to make sure everything was done, right. Do you want my wife to go to the store and then have that lady called into the main office and explain to them why they didn’t have any money. Seems to me if I was part of the WesternUnion I’d be calling him myself to find out what’s going on. Just said how things change over the years said to see it, go down the hill.

WesternUnion is very unprofessional and never send any money if you want it on time. Customer service is the worst I have ever seen in my life

I have used WesternUnion 3-4 times before and about 8 days before my transaction got canceled on calling them I learned than they wanted me to resubmit my ID. I then proceeded to create a new transaction and resubmitted maid. When I called back I was told my ID was accepted and my money will be transferred on then 6th. But as you can guess it was canceled each time I called to check why this was canceled I got a new response
1st response “I don’t have information to tell what exactly happened and if you want to send the money go to the local office ”
I requested to talk to a specialist or supervisor they responded by saying there supervisor is busy and will call me with in 3 hours
2nd response “your bank has canceled it”
I confirmed with with my bank they said they never got a request
3rd response “could be canceled by the receivers bank“
Receivers Bancorp never canceled it
4th response “WesternUnion canceled “
I again tried to escalate but never got a call back
No supervisor ever called me
WesternUnion is very unprofessional and never send any money if you want it on time. Customer service is the worst I have ever seen in my life

After multiple attempts to send money this app has not been successful even once. On the first two attempts WU indicated they needed more information, which was provided. The questions were intrusive but they were answered. E.g. How long have you known the recipient? Over a decade...but whether it is one day or a decade, it is not the business of Western Union. Despite providing answers to Western Union questions the transactions were cancelled by Western Union, and they refused to provide an explanation. The next transaction Western Union claims was stopped by the bank because there was an extra 0 in front of the account number. If there was a zero it did not come from the sender. Upon inquiry the bank referred recipient to WU. The next attempt was stopped by WU with a statement that additional information was needed from sender, and they were not able to contact senders cell phone. Sender’s phone did not show a call from WU and no voicemail was left. There appears to be no interest by WU in resolving this. Two customers known to each other for over a decade are totally unable to exchange a nominal amount of money between their two bank accounts using this App. From my perspective this App rates a total FAIL. I am at a loss to know how anyone is able to get satisfactory results from this App.

Another update: it’s now been almost two weeks with no resolution and no effort to help me. Just words. With an organization this big, it should have been fixed by now.

Please be advised that this is a known issue under PBL-4725 and is currently under investigation. We sincerely apologize if we are still unable to resolve your case as of this time. Rest assured that our technical team is already on top of this matter. As soon as we get an update, we will immediately notify you.

UPDATE. I sent another message to “customer service” along with a screenshot of my previous review and all they said was they would “revert me” when they had a response to my problem. case ID 9977663. It’s now been more than a week! I need to send money to friends who badly need it for food. Sooooooo frustrating. How could it take this long?

After sending money each of last three months, the app stopped working. After trying to resend to the same people, I got an error message after the last step. I contacted customer support and they emailed me to delete and reinstall the app. The said they would escalate the problem 4 days ago. Since I hadn’t heard anything, I called and 22 minutes later after talking to June and then John in the Philippines they said they would transfer me to someone who could help. Instead I got disconnected. So frustrating.

قمت بتحويل مبلغ إلى السودان قبل ثلاثة أيام ولم يتمكن المستقبل من استلام المبلغ ليومين متتالين وحتى كتابة هذا التعليق. حيث يتعلل الموظفون في الوكالة الواقعة في مدينة ودمدني وسط السودان بعدم وجود سيولة وعدم وجود كهرباء أو عدم وجود شبكة إنترنت وبالأمس أفادوا أنهم في عطلة بدون مناسبة. هذه أسواء طريقة لتحويل الأموال إلى السودان حيث تُظطر لتضييع الكثير من المال والوقت لاستلام مبلغ يجب أن يتم تسليمه فوراً لحظة التحويل حسب ما يفيد الموقع عند التحويل من حساب البطاقة المصرفية أو الحساب المصرفي. يجب تغيير طواقم العمل بالوكالات السودانية حتى لا يتم الاستغناء عن خدماتكم وإيجاد البديل.

I transferred an amount to Sudan three days ago, and the receiver was not able to receive the money for two consecutive days and until this comment was written. The employees of the agency, located in the city of Wadmadani, in central Sudan, explain that there is no money, no electricity, or no internet, and yesterday they reported that they are on vacation without an occasion. This is the worst way to transfer money to Sudan, as you have to waste a lot of money and time to receive an amount that must be delivered immediately at the moment of transfer, according to what the site says when transferring from the bank card account or bank account. The work crews of Sudanese agencies must be changed so that your services are not dispensed with and an alternative is found.

The first time I used it was no issue, I’ve send my mom money apparently she was blocked from the system I then proceeded to ask the lady from customer service if she was able to change the name of the receiver and she kept ignoring everything I said. I asked several times if it would be easier to just change the senders name like they usually do in store and she kept saying that they didn’t do that when in the app it clearly stated “call customer service “ to edit the name . I ended up getting a re-fund then proceeded to send my dad money none the less had another problem and called immediately just to get no answer it’s been the 14 time I call and have to go through all he options just to get to the point where it says “ hold in the line for a customer service representative “ and about 5 seconds later an operating talking another language pops up and the call is ended out of all 14 calls just one went through and had me waiting “a couple of minutes “ that turned into over a 30 minute wait just for them to never pick up . I then emailed them with the problem but said I would be contact within 24 hrs ! Are you serious ? But yet nothing ... I’ve called 3 different numbers of there so claimed 24& 24/7 hr customer service wich is a total bs . & here I am struggling just because apparently it would be cheaper and more convenient when u still end up paying more less the same thing .

Customer service agent was rude and patronizing. This app was a waste of my time.

I explained it was my first time using the app and told them in the beginning that I’m using my mom’s card which is different from the name in the account. I assumed that that’s okay because they then proceed to ask me a bunch of personal questions (E.g. relationship to sender, reason for sending, have I met them in person before, etc.), questions they have no business knowing and I never get asked any of this when I go at a location. After going through all that they told me that they have to decline the money transfer because the name on the account doesn’t match the name on the card. They had me go through the whole process and waste my time when they could have told me this in the beginning when I said it!

Because it was an emergency and my mom needed to send the money, I did what the customer agent told me to do and made a new account for my mom to match the card, went through filling out all the information again and doing all the verification. In the end the app tells me that I can’t use the card to send money.

This app is a waste of time and very unreliable. The customer service I received is just the worst. Based on other reviews I’ve read, I’m not the only one who’s experienced this and it speaks volumes that this company is not doing anything about it. Or maybe they train their agents to be rude to customers? I DO NOT recommend to this to anyone at all. It is NOT worth it.

I rely on this app and use it monthly. But my last transaction was horrible. I completed my transaction and it clearly read incomplete. I redid the transaction then I get 2 emails saying that both transactions were completed. I check my account and sure enough the monies were taken out twice. I check the app and it says only 1 transaction was made. I call customer service and the woman says I need to contact the receiver to get my money back. Mind you this all happened within 10minutes and still western Union is not being helpful. I call customer service back today and I get transferred 2x and finally the last person I spoke to Ralph, keeps saying “I understand what you are saying but you need to speak to the receiver!” I was asking for my $8.95 fee back. He said they provided a service so and it was completed so I need to speak to the receiver. I emphasized for the 3rd time how I’m not asking for my money that was sent but for the $8.95 fee. He refused to help and just kept repeating himself. I finally asked for a supervisor and Ralph took my name and number but would not provide me with a supervisors name. So now I wait for a call back. I’m very upset because years ago I had an issue and the customer service waived the service fee. Now I’m calling years later because of an error on Western Unions part and no one is willing to help. This is just poor customer service. No longer be using western union. That is my last transaction and will be deleting the app after everything is resolved.

I used this app to try and pay a couple of bills in Mexico. At first it seemed to work but kept giving me an error ‘technical problem try again later ( C9999) I called customer service and was told to shut my phone down and reopen app. I followed their instructions and it still have me the same error, I went straight to their website and it did the same thing and the same error message. Called their customer service again and they said to clear the history in my browser, did that and after about 10- 12 attempts it finally went through. Did I mention a had to pay two bills from Mexico? I tried to pay the other bill through the app since it seemed I was having some luck. I entered all the info and that error message came back, I jumped back to the app and nothing. I walked away because the frustration was getting to me, I decided to just try the following day , after many many attempts on both the app and website it finally let me pay the second bill...sucesss right? Well I’m back trying to pay those bills again and the same error pops up but this time I have tried for days! And all I get is the error message. I called their customer service and I was transferred a few times because they said that I must be wrong because they don’t offer the service to pay bills from Mexico, that they haven’t heard of that being a service they offer...what the? I had just used it and it’s all over the internet and their website! I wish someone could tell me when this bug will be fixed so I can use the service that is advertised... I need some help here .

I have been using the WU app for a while to transfer money to my family and have found the WU iphone App one of the most convenient to send funds.

However, my last interaction with this app has caused me to hastily delete my bank account information from this app and delete the app from my phone.

The last time I logged in to this app was after a few months hiatus from the app so my iPhone had to reload the app from the appstore. I logged in to verify my sender information in preparation for a transfer but I didnt do the transfer. The following morning I see an email confirming a transfer of $986 to an unknown address in the Dominican Republic with all my information taken from my WU profile including my address, my bank routing number and account ending number. Luckily the WU verification steps apparently had detected this fraudulent transfer attempt and had blocked it before I woke up the next morning.

No harm was done but it cant be denied that my information was obviously gleaned from the app and some one had tried his luck on my expense. I have lost all faith in the app after this incident and have deleted the app after filing my complaint with WU support.

I would like to recommend the following to the app developers-

You have a very useful and easy to use app. This appears to make it easy for thieves as well. Please add additional levels of security for a transfer such as those used by the BOA app

Add a second layer of authentication at least before transfer confirmation.

Looking forward to using your very useful app again after these improvements.

The app seemingly makes it easier to send money. However if you choose the “in store”
option which is the cheapest option, the app will suggest in store locations where the agents aren’t trained to take money via the app or the hours of operations do not match the

After attempting to transfer money at gas station, currency exchange center, bank and drug store, the call center representative finally called a grocery store to confirm the agents were able to receive money via the app.

After 4 locations, I was finally able to transfer money for a relative’s funeral.

However my frustration didn’t stop at the in-store experience. The app also allowed me to signup for “My WU” awards. The prompts say you can combine an existing account. However, I was not able to combine them.

I called ‭[protected]‬ for assistance and face them the error number. The agent explained I couldn’t combine the accounts and I would have to just choose an account number.

I tried to explain that I downloaded the WU app and wanted to use my old WU number, but couldn’t. The agent proceeded to explain I would just have to give the cashier which ever number I chose or my phone number.

So the agent finally confessed: you can’t merge the WU accounts and you can’t merge the points.

Having just sent $350, I wanted to make whichever number I use I wanted that number to have the points. Not understanding my predicament, the agent said: You don’t have to worry, the cashier put in your old WU number.

I looked on my receipt and found the WU number missing. So no rewards either.

If only PayPal was international...

I have used WesternUnion for months and most of the time there was an issue of they part either they couldn’t take the money from my account for who knows what reason since other times they didn’t have any problem and later on I’m getting calls and mails from risk collections that I need to pay them or they hold on my transfer saying they need me to send an email with my ID and I am skeptical to send information but I I did one because i did need to send the money to my mother so I was surprised month afters the same happened again and it does get annoying because the service supposed to be fast and easy well I called and their customer service and they are rude and don’t help at all the instead the girl accused me and said there was a reason I didn’t want to send my information and of course there is I don’t trust them I don’t trust sending information in this days plus my fiancé had problems with WesternUnion as well since he is paying his car the Kia company uses WU or something like that well the point is that one day he was making a payment over the phone and later that day his bank notify him of some weird transactions 100 dollars for pizza and another transaction for 1000 in different places thankfully his bank helped and the person never got to use the 1000 and we were sure it was the person from WesternUnion customer service because he had a bad interaction with them since they horrible. It was just after that call maybe 2 hours after.
Well by the second time WU asked again for my ID and that rude girl accused me of something I cancel the transaction to which I had no choice that to send the copy of my ID -.-
No longer willing to use WesternUnion they HORRIBLE