BITCOIN IS BETTER THAN WESTERN UNION ?

[azeminjo09]

Yea since it is easy to send, without giving personal information... but people still using these services (bank transfers, etc)

[dothebeats]

I really believe that western union will be partner with bitcoin converting the bitcoin into fiat with a small fee instead the big one they charge at fiat,that will be a win-win situation soo wester union keep their costumers and bitcoin community can now easy send and receive and convert theri bitcoin into fiat,but well they must have this vision on the next years otherwise ,WU may be closing doors soon.

Something is clear, they have to reinvent themselves if they want to stay in business, and getting rid of Bitcoin will not work, so being collaborative is on their own interest. Im afraid they will not tho, and will put on a fight till the end, so interesting times ahead.

Yeah even I believe they will come up with something more realistic and innovative idea to outshine in the market because by now I am sure Bitcoin has become a threat to all these expensive money exchangers and now for WU the situation is either partner with BTC or pack up your old school techniques of looting money and come up with better and cheap exchange rates.

The thing is, most peiple still doesn't know how to use bitcoin nor have some knowledge about the basics of using it, so they would still probably use or utilize WU in order for them to transfer funds from all over the globe. WU is still one of the leading players in money remittance, and people would need to educate themselves first before they can shift to using bitcoins.

[Denker]

I really believe that western union will be partner with bitcoin converting the bitcoin into fiat with a small fee instead the big one they charge at fiat,that will be a win-win situation soo wester union keep their costumers and bitcoin community can now easy send and receive and convert theri bitcoin into fiat,but well they must have this vision on the next years otherwise ,WU may be closing doors soon.

Either this or they will have to come up with an own version of a blockchain or whatever makes them faster and cheaper.Fact is WU and MG have to do something.
And Bitcoin will definitely take some of their market shares.People would be dumb not to use it. But it will take time and lots of effort to achieve that goal.

[newcoins1978]

The way Western Union deals with their fees, makes them too expensive. People who make international transfer a lot will and know bitcon will never use them.
It's too much of an hassle, bringing ID going there and initiate a transfer.

Which bitcoin it's just a matter of seconds and it cost only a fraction of the fee.

[tn211]

I have never used western union and reading your stories i will propably never use them.
Even for international transfer by bank the fees are just too much.

Bitcon wins every time.

[franky1]

18 pages and counting and you are still debating how Western Union should not exist. It exist because it provides a service that Bitcoin can't. Cash in a window, few questions asked, that's it. Poor, uneducated people will use that for centuries. And there are a lot of them.

Go do your math and establish a local office/exchange with Bitcoins and see how it goes after fees and price volatility.

imo the only thing western union has over bitcoin is the prevention of price volatility. thats a huge reason why people choose not to use bitcoin.

hugroll
have you ever converted your taive currency using western union where someone the other end receives their native(different) currency.

bitcoin says there are 0 fee's.. but thast just juggling facts and hiding one hand behind your back.. EG the spread of buying bitcoin and selling it, is more than a couple percent. and the native currency conversion is gapped aswell.

and so i dare you to pick 2 countries and do a test (not with real cash, just using WU calculator).. then i want you to do that same 2 country test where bitcoin is the middleman. and show how much native currency the recipient will end up with.

[mtnsaa]

Finally some words of wisdom in this thread after a cataract of denial, Bitcoin might be an unique technology and disruptive idea but it's not as cheap or easy to work with for most people.

Bottomline is, the numbers just don't work, if they did Western Union would be out of business. Establishing a similar service with Bitcoin would cost much more I'm sure as I detailed in many of my posts. And remember Western Union even has brand recognition, so that's a huge plus.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I'd definitely like to weigh in on this. 

I work in an institution where we have clients living there for about a month or so, and often times they get Western Union transfers from their family for various expenses.  Cigarettes and toiletries, things like that.  They're not allowed to go out in the community themselves.  WU is such a pain in the ass that I usually recommend that family members send cash through the mail rather than deal with WU.  They need ID, a passphrase, and they take their fee of course.  And the amounts that get sent to our folks are fairly small, like $20, and it's crazy to pay fees for that.

Bitcoin would be so much cheaper and faster and has such an advantage over WU, except...once the funds are transferred, now what?  They have bitcoin on their cell phone and our local gas station doesn't accept it.  The grocery store doesn't take it.  What is my client supposed to do with it?  There isn't a way that I know of to convert bitcoin to fiat quickly.  And my point is that bitcoin has a great advantage over old school methods--it just needs to be adopted.

[lottery248]

 joke explicito. lol

western union is a restaurant, unlike bitcoin; it cannot directly carry the stuff.

[ashly]

Bitcoin is better than western because you can here your bills,

[iv4n]

"For" better and "far" better is two very different things. I tried western union and their fees are way to big. I think WU is just better in one way , when u need to take money they have many offices in many towns. I think that is what btc needs easier way to cash out.

[Oscoda]

"For" better and "far" better is two very different things. I tried western union and their fees are way to big. I think WU is just better in one way , when u need to take money they have many offices in many towns. I think that is what btc needs easier way to cash out.

Yeah like having ATM for bitcoin so that you can just cash out your money otherwise is not that good if you can't cash out.
Well I hope that in the future will happen that there will be just ATM for bitcoin. They are, but not that much.

[HostSurf]

Yes bitcoin is way better than western union.

I would pick bitcoin over any service that there exists.

[CrimBit]

"For" better and "far" better is two very different things. I tried western union and their fees are way to big. I think WU is just better in one way , when u need to take money they have many offices in many towns. I think that is what btc needs easier way to cash out.

You can cash out your bitcoin every day everywhere , You need only Bitstamp account and bank account.
If all people in the world use bitcoin we can send money without think about "office" in each city.

[TTMNewsMJ]

Yes.
It is better than Western Union.
Bitcoin is the best among them all.

[Bayuu]

Definitely... With BTC you don't need any ID documents as well, which you require for Western Union transfers... Also the recipient has to physically pick up the cash, while with BTC it's completely automatic and virtual.

The transaction fee of BTC can be lower than 0.0001 as well(can be zero too)... It's just that you bear the risk of a long confirmation time

[justspare]

Definitely... With BTC you don't need any ID documents as well, which you require for Western Union transfers... Also the recipient has to physically pick up the cash, while with BTC it's completely automatic and virtual.

The transaction fee of BTC can be lower than 0.0001 as well(can be zero too)... It's just that you bear the risk of a long confirmation time

Exactly. This is one of the reasons I love Bitcoin. The low fees and high payout amounts makes Bitcoin great for anyone.

[knowhow]

Western union acted at facebook to remove those images,i dont remember when but that is recent,wester is loosing some costumers to bitcoin,if those who left arent enought to they realize they need to change something well on the next years as bitcoins becomes mainstream we wont see wester union doing nothing besides cry.

[extrabyte]

Well western union transfers are almost instant comparing to bitcoin tx which can take from 10 min up to 3 days to be confirmed, but the low fee of bitcoin makes it better.

[nerFohanzo]

Well western union transfers are almost instant comparing to bitcoin tx which can take from 10 min up to 3 days to be confirmed, but the low fee of bitcoin makes it better.

Are you kidding me bro? Western Union transfers are not instant bro it takes 24 to 48 hours for the credits whereas bitcoins transfers only takes fractions of minutes and the most important thing is the transaction costs which WU charges heavily on their customers and bitcoins fees are the lowest as far as I know and the credits are instant, ofcourse faster then WU so I think bitcoins is always a better option for online transfers as compared to WU.