BITCOIN IS BETTER THAN WESTERN UNION ?

[Kprawn]

It would have been a lot better to use Bitcoin over WU if it was not for the problems involved with the development of a merchant network accepting Bitcoin. For Bitcoin to be

better than WU, you should keep with Bitcoin and not convert back to fiat. If I send Bitcoin to you and you can spend it immediately in it's current form, you would rather chose to

use it over WU or MoneyGram. This is not the case, most 3rd world countries have no established merchant network that accepts Bitcoin and most of their services has to be paid

in fiat, so they have to go through more complicated 3rd parties to convert back to fiat... and that is where the problems start... 3rd parties.    

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[christycalhoun]

Keep in mind that bitcoin may not be convenient to cash out in certain areas. Western union is found everywhere.

[ATguy]

if i want to send BTC to my family in Vietnam, what are they going to do with it? of course they need to exchange it to local fiat (and that's super hard) because they don't give a shit of the-purpose-of-bitcoin, they just want to buy food and stuff like that 

Obviously Western union fees are incredible high, I used it few times in the past. The only advantage is easy way to receive cash (if you live nearby). But if you had to use it more often (like foreign worker sending money back to family regularly), then its worth figuring out cheaper alternatives, and Bitcoin is definitively cheaper. And I understand not everywhere it is easy to change Bitcoins to local currency, so give it time and check periodicaly whether this option pop ups, because it might save you money...

[lemipawa]

The answer to this depends to what Country is being talked about.
If if it's in my country, yes much better than WU since there's always a long queue for those who want's to cash out with WU, while with BTC, all I have to do is go to the nearest ATM and its cash already.

[Raimonn]

For countries that isn't easy to pay with bitcoins or change it for cash and if you can pay everywhere with card, a solution could be the prepaid credit cards ( the ones that can be refilled with bitcoins). There is a fee to reload the card but will be lower than Western Union or similars.

[maokoto]

The real problem here is that you cannot buy everything in everycountry with Bitcoin, so you have to involve a fiat conversion.

Let´s say that the sender is in USA and the receiver in Italy. Sender wants to send 100$. He has to convert dollars to Bitcoin, then send, then receiver has to convert bitcoin to euro. All these conversions are not as trivial as going to a western union shop and just withdrawing the money. Futhermore, those conversions have fees too.

In order for this to work flawlessly, Bitcoin has to be accepted as a payment means so you do not have to convert them to be useful.

[ATguy]

The real problem here is that you cannot buy everything in everycountry with Bitcoin, so you have to involve a fiat conversion.

Let´s say that the sender is in USA and the receiver in Italy. Sender wants to send 100$. He has to convert dollars to Bitcoin, then send, then receiver has to convert bitcoin to euro. All these conversions are not as trivial as going to a western union shop and just withdrawing the money. Futhermore, those conversions have fees too.

In order for this to work flawlessly, Bitcoin has to be accepted as a payment means so you do not have to convert them to be useful.

But in this example you have to pay the dollars to euro conversion as well. I understand this conversion is hidden in the huge Western Union fee already, but you still need to pay it. Even though you have to do this conversion twice with Bitcoin (if you dont find a way to spend Bitcoin directly instead), the transaction cost itselves is minimal - compare it to Western Union or International bank wire transfer fees and it should be not too hard to find a way how to transfer money between different countries cheaper with Bitcoin (though it might be necessary to learn how to do it and it might be not the easiest process everywhere, but potentionally cheaper)

[chalkboard17]

Guy who used to use paypal and western union at least every month here since 2007. Never ever used any of them again for a single second the very instant I first heard about bitcoin. Been happily like that for a few years already

[Eastwind]

One of the reason for the high cost of Western Union is that WU has to meet the regulation of various countries. With the direct transfer of bitcoin, WU will be out of business.

[dothebeats]

One of the reason for the high cost of Western Union is that WU has to meet the regulation of various countries. With the direct transfer of bitcoin, WU will be out of business.

Yes I agree with the regulation part, but WU gonna run out of business? I think not in the next decades to come. People still have to cling on fiat on their expenses because most are still bought with fiat. Direct transfers with low fees could be an advantage of bitcoin, but after it has reached to its destination, exchanging it to fiat would be tricky for people who doesn't know where and how to convert it to their own local currency.

[ronald98]

One of the reason for the high cost of Western Union is that WU has to meet the regulation of various countries. With the direct transfer of bitcoin, WU will be out of business.

Yes I agree with the regulation part, but WU gonna run out of business? I think not in the next decades to come. People still have to cling on fiat on their expenses because most are still bought with fiat. Direct transfers with low fees could be an advantage of bitcoin, but after it has reached to its destination, exchanging it to fiat would be tricky for people who doesn't know where and how to convert it to their own local currency.

Bitcoin will put WU out of business when there are more Bitcoin ATMs than WU offices. It will most likely be a slow process, but I remember the first Bitcoin ATM announcement a few years ago. Now they are appearing in countries all over the world. In a few more years there could be one in most cities, and at that point Bitcoin could put WU out of business.

[Bitcoininspace]

Funny story about this actually, my brother has a friend who has relatives in those oil countries with big fiat wallets. But the problem was that he kept complaining that WU would take fucking 15-20% off the total amount for the transfer, imagine sending someone 5000€ and all they get it 4250 and that's just their regular 15% fee. Holy shit that's a lot, how the fuck is that shit still in business in the year 2015.

It's sad tbh, I read an article on reddit a long time ago as well that explained how over 60 billion dollars are sent into Africa each year by normal people who want to send money to relatives, etc since they are working outside the continent. And the biggest problem there was that WU and other similar companies were making billions on fee's from those poor souls. Bitcoin would eliminate all that cancer and I'm sure the Gates Foundation was working on some exchanges in Africa to help people use bitcoin as a sending method of wealth with low fee's even thought he receivers or senders don't know how it works or what it is.

[Nahl]

i'm totally agree with you bitcoin is more better than western union because we could use it anytime and anywhere
and bitcoin have a low fees for every transaction

[OROBTC]

It is ridiculous Western Union still exist, they were most expencive 15 years ago and they are still now. Why people don't open eyes and use other ways to send money worldwide? They really dont care, for huge fees?

Convenience. It may cost like a mofo but there really aren't too many other options in certain scenarios.

Yes.  Over and over I read above that BTC is better (low costs).  While that (low cost) is true, in places I care about (in Peru, in my US city, etc.) dealing with BTC -- buying and spending -- is very clumsy.

Again, it looks like we need the "Network Effect" to kick-in, once enough players are doing BTC, then it will win vs. Western Union, etc.

Unless BTC is badly flawed...  Then you will have to pay WU the fees.  You want money transferred somewhere?  Pay up.

[funkenstein]

I prefer to be paid in Western Unions, thank you very much. 

[Mickeyb]

It is ridiculous Western Union still exist, they were most expencive 15 years ago and they are still now. Why people don't open eyes and use other ways to send money worldwide? They really dont care, for huge fees?

Convenience. It may cost like a mofo but there really aren't too many other options in certain scenarios.

Yes.  Over and over I read above that BTC is better (low costs).  While that (low cost) is true, in places I care about (in Peru, in my US city, etc.) dealing with BTC -- buying and spending -- is very clumsy.

Again, it looks like we need the "Network Effect" to kick-in, once enough players are doing BTC, then it will win vs. Western Union, etc.

Unless BTC is badly flawed...  Then you will have to pay WU the fees.  You want money transferred somewhere?  Pay up.

Well that's why we are here and that's why we are working hard that in a foreseeable future everybody can use Bitcoin everywhere. I mean we do need time. We are just over 6.5 years old. On the other side, Western Union has been established in 1851. That's over 160 years of experience and ripping people's skin of their backs.

We'll get there, we just need patience!

[Rumichbit]

I prefer to be paid in Western Unions, thank you very much. 

Then start thinking about changing your payment preferences. Western Union will dissapear soon.

[winguard]

Bitcoin is undeniably better than WU. Here in my country which has a sizeable population of overseas workers western union charges almost 12% from remittances while bitcoin is almost 0% in fees. But still many folks don't know how crypto works. Bitcoin still lacks mainstream adoption.

[Kevin77]

Bitcoin is undeniably better than WU. Here in my country which has a sizeable population of overseas workers western union charges almost 12% from remittances while bitcoin is almost 0% in fees. But still many folks don't know how crypto works. Bitcoin still lacks mainstream adoption.

This is the exact situations in many part of the world which makes western union still profitably running. All the works done by western union officials can be easily done by a bitcoin wallet. To spend bitcoin like a fat we must go for bitcoin debit cards which will do the rest of required things.

[CasioK]

Bitcoin is undeniably better than WU. Here in my country which has a sizeable population of overseas workers western union charges almost 12% from remittances while bitcoin is almost 0% in fees. But still many folks don't know how crypto works. Bitcoin still lacks mainstream adoption.

This is the exact situations in many part of the world which makes western union still profitably running. All the works done by western union officials can be easily done by a bitcoin wallet. To spend bitcoin like a fat we must go for bitcoin debit cards which will do the rest of required things.

Bitcoin is better than western union if you consider the transactions fees and time to transfer. But western union can pay in local fiats whereas bitcoin needs to be exchanged for fiats to make it ready to use. When bitcoin go main stream then we can see western union get replaced.