Bitcoin Forum

Does Bitcoin require this much Western Union documentation before sending ?

Western Union continually monitors the use of its systems to understand its customers’ usage.

We have received your communication and require additional information in order process your request.
 
In order for us to review your information please complete the Consumer Questionnaire Form below, please complete each section or it could delay your review. Then attach any additional documents, and return the completed Questionnaire to wukycreview@westernunion.com. Upon receipt of the completed Questionnaire and documents, we will review your information along with your transaction history. The review process takes between 10-14 business days. Upon completion of the review, we will inform you of our conclusion.

 
Please provide documents to support your use of Western Union Money Transfer Services.  Below are examples of various documents that you may consider providing, however any other relevant documentation to support the purpose of your transactions would be useful:
 
•           Business License or other business related documentation
•           Tax identification information
•           Business registration information or permits
•           Invoices
•           Property Title or other property evidence
•           Loan Statement
•           Mortgage Statement
•           Receipts for goods or services purchased
•           Medical bills or certificates
•           Not for Profit documents (501C3 License, etc.)
•           Letter of Explanation (For example, a letter on company letterhead explaining your
position in the organization and why you are sending on their behalf)
 
Customer Questionnaire
Date:

 

I. Please provide your information:

Full Name:

 

Address:

 

Phone #:

 

Date of Birth:

 

Occupation:

 

 

 

Recent MTCN:
 
 
 

 

II. Please provide the following information for the people that you have sent to or received from over the past 6 months:

 
Name

How do you know this person? (Relationship)

What was the money used for?
(Purpose)

Have you met him/her in person? Y/N

1

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

 

4

 

 

 

 

5

 

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

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9

 

 

 

 

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III. What is your primary source of funds?    
(Examples: Job Income, Retirement/Pension, Family/Friends, Trust Fund/Inheritance, etc.)
 
IV. Third Party Details
Are any of the transactions being conducted on behalf of a third party?      
 
If Yes, please provide the information below:
 
Full Name or Business Name:

 

Address:

 

Phone #:

 

Date of Birth:

 

Occupation or Business Type:

 

 
VI. Please list or comment on any documents that you provided?
 
 
V. Please include any additional information that will assist in our analysis
 
 
Sincerely,
Compliance Department,
Western Union Financial Services, Inc.
PO Box 7000 Englewood, CO 80155-7000
wukycreview@westernunion.com
 
 

That's just crazy!

now I understand why Max Keiser and Co are shorting this Company to Death, never realized that this is the kind of information they had on WU,

If any customer knows this I don't think you have to be Gordon gecko to realise the regulatory burden and fees with western union will be undermined by bitcoin.

Hi
I think rather than kill off western union, bitcoin may cut into its market but as i understand it western union and other services like this offer a recourse it things go wrong. so to minimise that happening or helping solve it when it does it gets info upfront. its cumbersome but it works.

Bitcoin offers no comeback. (some commentators see it as bitcoins fundamental flaw to ever being big)

I see over time the western unions of this world will react if bitcoin gets market share by offering a very low transaction priced product that also has no comeback on them. If there is no comeback they will not want you to fill in any forms as they will not 'care' just as bitcoin by its very nature does not (cannot) care if you send bitcoins off to the wrong person.

I had problems with Western Union way back in 2000. All I wanted to do was accept a couple hundred from someone in America (from UK) for a web design (his payment choice). Had to make 4 trips to the office because they kept sending me back asking me for different stuff, and every time I went they were clueless and I had to explain everything over. Was one of the worst customer experiences I ever had.

WU is often used by over seas workers with little education. Bitcoin may be better, but WU is still more user friendly since you go there and just do what a person tells you to do.

My workplace's customer (I'm a programmer) recently asked me to disable all validation in one of our programs - which could cost lives I guess - but our customer is too stupid to fill out correctly and can't be bothered.

One reason why bitcoin is bound to succeed is that the alternatives are services like WU - expensive, inconvenient, time consuming, and limited to set amounts per day.

Western Union WILL DIE no doubt, it's an aging dinosaur with no will to adapt to the future.

The only way to save themselves is to adapt bitcoin.

sadly we may see questions like that on exchanges once all the regulations are in place.

If western union just do this all the time to customers, They are Just Dead.

No kidding. Western Union execs didn't just wake up one day and think, "hey, wouldn't it be great if our payment process was like being pulled over by a policeman for suspicious activity?" Government's lazy and incompetent, so law enforcement is offloaded onto businesses (banks and payment processors may's well be a proper law enforcement agency, which is wonderfully ironic given recent events), though this is okay in some ways... ensures costs are more usage-based rather than blanket fees subsidized by everyone (taxes).

Western Union ask all these questions in order to comply with Money Laundering Regs. It's crazy to think they'd voluntarily place such onerous demands on their clients, they're interested only in completing transfers with the minimum amount of red-tape + overhead. Bitcoin circumvents all this as no 3rd party is required, how will governments impose their Money Laundering regime on two individuals completing a transfer with no intermediary??

Western Union will be throwing everything they've got right now to put pressure on governments to regulate Bitcoin into obscurity!

The other day at the grocery store I stood next to a gentleman from Egypt that wanted to WU $200 to his family back home for Xmas.

The total cost was $256.

This is another reason they will be dead once these customers figure out they can do it with bitcoin faster and easier.

Plus you and the receiving party have to physically travel to the WU offices to send money....bitcoin you can do it from the privacy of your own home.

We're not quite there yet with seamless international transfers. I live in the UK, if somebody sends me £1,000 in BTC I need to change this into fiat money. Right now the only way I can do this is by registering on an exchange, providing all my ID + verification (sound familiar?), then listing the BTC for sale. I suspect the same is true in most countries. So Western Union still has a place until such time that BTC can be converted to and from fiat effortlessly OR there are 1000s of retailers accepting BTC as a valid form of payment. I'm really hoping for the latter!

I'm not so sure we're "not there" anymore - at least not everywhere. Overstock's acceptance is pretty huge in the US. They have a wide-enough array of products (from food to cell phones to PC hardware to bath towels to large appliances to furniture) to make Bitcoin "directly convertable" to just about everything you'd need, though it won't pay the taxes or utility bills unless your landlord accepts gouda. Makes taking a second job for BTC much more reasonable.

B&M acceptance is still negligible unless you're in a major city (sometimes even then, still), though, but I don't use B&Ms except for fresh groceries, medical care (I think I just visited a doctor ~4 years ago), and gas. -And dog food. Unsure if there's much reason to worry about B&M adoption... going the way of landline phones and dedicated television service. By the time Bitcoin's relevant there, many of the stores won't be.

I keep cash from local BTC sales on property, but rarely have to dip into it. Hoping I can go a full year without having to buy more fiat, but property taxes make it hard. :(

Funny you say that. In Egypt they don't celebrate Xmas. *cough*muslims*cough*

Yes, i needed to do a payment with WU
There was no way, they couldn't release the money because I needed to give a lot of data. Then they eventually refunded me.
I then discovered the joy of bitcoin, transfering money saving hundreds of dollars in WU fees  ;D

What if his family back home didn't have a computer?

Bitcoin is a Western Union killer.

Sounds good to me :)

The unintelligent of the world, will still use WU, until someone can use create an idiot-proof way of transporting currency in BTC. WU could send BTC overseas for less than USD, but they would likely charge the same fees anyhow.

When i involved in Bitcoin World I also didn't have any computer and Android or Apple Phone but still i could use it, Its not compulsary i need a computer to hold my bitcoins or to transfer my bitcoins.

Open localbitcoins trade, proceed with face2face handoff or bank transfer, send bitcoins remotely and directly to the initiated transaction escrow. "Family back home" doesn't need a computer to receive the paper money.

WU is the worst they are charging super high fees which make you unprofit from your business

i used WU before and really hate the fees

Funny responses here....I didn't even think that was weird about Xmas and the predominantly Muslim population in Egypt.

My big point was that the fee's were shocking...$56 to send $200? Holy Shit that's a lot.

I would also think in Egypt that many people have a computer, it isn't exactly the stone ages there.
Internet penetration is about 36% there as of 2011...I found no newer data.  (That is about half of the US stats.)

Well, you should already know why the fee is so high. And If I remember, the Internet penetration of Egypt is actually 44% or about 36 million people. Compared to the US which is at 81%, or about 250 Million people. And I still know people who don't use a computer or a smart phone regularly here in the States....

I'm not implying it's the Stone Age there, not at all. Just saying, not everyone uses computers

According to Andreas WU is a crook company that takes around $74billion/year from charities and they charge higher fees to transfer money to poorer countries.  8)

Western Union is going the way of the Pony Express.

not only WU ,so does VISA MASTERCARD & damn Paypal  >:(

Paypal has a chance to become a wallet and exchange company for BTC

that sounds like an interesting story

Western Union fees are indeed shocking. The fact they've gotten away for it so long shows there has been no competition. Thank the Satoshi Nakamoto there is now :)

20% of Egypt's population are Christians *cough* ignorant americans* cough*
A simple google search could tell you that *cough* ignorant americans* cough*
Egypt is in Africa, not the middle east *cough* ignorant americans* cough*
A world atlas costs $0,99 at walmart *cough* cheap people... *cough*
Christmas is not even a Christian holiday. It was the Roman pagan festival called Saturnalia, early christians adopted it to convert more pagans. Bible's Christ was not even born in December *cough* ignorant americans* cough*

A google search also reveals that it costs maximum $10 to WU $200 to Egypt as of now.

... And yet the Nigerian Princes STILL GETS YOUR MONEY from Western Union. How come you can't get your money back from them? I am assuming they asked the same questions to the Nigerian Prince. Obviously they need to protect WU and not their clients.

WU normally charges 10-15% commission for international remittance. Soon normal people will dump their service.

But in a pure bitcoin economy, you would only need to exchange to pay your taxes. And you never know if bitcoin becomes huge, the governments of the world may accept it of taxes, although I would never give the government any of my bitcoin. Just feels wrong.

I've seen people on here get paid in bitcoin, some people pay their rent in bitcoin and some food and clothing can be bought with bitcoin. You could survive on it right now without needing fiat, although choice is limited.

Seems logical - just get every Wal Mart, grocery store, and bodega to drop Western Union and pick up bitcoin.

Remove any fraud controls whatsoever, yeah, sounds good!

Side note:

I am accepting BTC payments for fractional shares of the Brooklyn Bridge.

http://pics1.ds-static.com/prodimg/453225/300.JPG
 ;D