Do Americans use USPS Postal Money Orders?

[indicasteve]

Here in Canada, Postal Money Orders are a fairly cheap and secure way to send money.  They can be bought and cashed at a post office, no need for a bank.  They cost $6.00 to buy and it's free to cash them out.

An interesting point is that in Canada, we can also accept and send USD international Postal money orders and they still only cost 6 bucks.

I've never really used the international USD postal money orders so I went looking for some info, and it seems that the USPS recently revamped they website and everything I google turns up a page not found...http://lmgtfy.com/?q=usps+money+order

So anyway, I was just wondering what the costs were for Americans to buy international postal money orders.

I was also wondering if anyone actually uses them, and if anyone has had any bad experiences with them.

Thanks

Steve

 

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[MoonShadow]

I haven't bought any in a long time, decades even, but when I did they were 99 cents.  Which was on the low end of competitive with other such money orders.

[xunker]

Yes, people still do.  I don't know about them online, but you can get them at any US Post office, obviously.  I used to use them all time for eBay orders, though that was over 10 years ago and I don't know what they cost now.

Good to note that there are other companies besides the USPS that offer money orders for the US (and some for Canada).  Western Union can do them (as well as money wires) and the 7-11 Convenience Store chain does them, though you can only cash them in at another 7-11 store (or Western Union office for WU Money Orders).

People still use money orders in the 'States a lot because USPS Money orders are one of the only forms of payment accepted for a lot of government transactions, too, the other being a Certified Bank Check/Cheque.  For example, getting your US Passport requires you send the payment in either a USPS Money order or Certified check (no cash or personal checks are accepted for that).

[WiseOldOwl]

Yes they do,
They are cheap too.
Be careful accepting them, lots of fraudulent prints from Africa out there. Always call and verify.

[lowlevel]

I used to accept them from eBay'ers, but occasionally I'de get a green domestic one and not the pink international ones despite explicitly stating that the green one is no good outside of the US and I require the international/pink one. *shrug*
I haven't had any problems accepting them otherwise.

[indicasteve]

Thanks for your feedback guys!

I really can't see a problem with accepting them as long as you can ensure they are not fakes...but with a bit of due diligence, that shouldn't be a problem.

I found some more info that deals with fraud and found it interesting.  https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/radDocs/consumer/mofeatur.htm

If anyone else has more info or stories to tell, I would love to hear them!

Cheers!

Steve

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I've accepted them on rare occasions for eBay auctions in the past, before eBay decided to crack down on anything that wasn't PayPal. I also paid rent with them for a whole year once, a few years ago.