Sell me on using Western Union

[Elwar]

As someone who has started working in a foreign country getting paid in dollars...I have seen first hand how Bitcoin is a huge advantage over wire transfer and currency conversion.

For example, my mother came out to visit me here in germany. She exchanged $1000 to 715 euros before she came out through her bank. That is not including what it would have cost to wire it over here if she was not flying.

I sold roughly 3 bitcoins for 900 euros through localbitcoins, then I bought that same amount of bitcoins on CoinBase for $1024. The straight conversion should have been $1000 for 750 euros (at the time). I charge a 10% margin but could lower it if I needed to.

Why would I use anything other than Bitcoin? Sell me on using Western Union.

[Elwar]

As someone who has started working in a foreign country getting paid in dollars...I have seen first hand how Bitcoin is a huge advantage over wire transfer and currency conversion.

For example, my mother came out to visit me here in germany. She exchanged $1000 to 715 euros before she came out through her bank. That is not including what it would have cost to wire it over here if she was not flying.

I sold roughly 3 bitcoins for 900 euros through localbitcoins, then I bought that same amount of bitcoins on CoinBase for $1024. The straight conversion should have been $1000 for 750 euros (at the time). I charge a 10% margin but could lower it if I needed to.

Why would I use anything other than Bitcoin? Sell me on using Western Union.

Last year I would have agreed with you.  However, now I'm a lot more skeptical.  If bitcoin is simply a means of money transfer, then why not use Ripple?  Or any other alt coin for that matter.

It's true, bitcoin could completely replace Western Union and related services, but that bitcoin usage is not unique to bitcoin.  It's also not dependent on the price of bitcoin.  

Another problem is, while Western Union charges a slight percentage, as you noted, moving bitcoins between currencies is also not free.  If it was free, there would be no business opportunity.  Sure in a Utopian society we may volunteer our services, but in the real world, transferring bitcoins to fiat will never be free.  

Lastly, there is the issue with security.  Western Union is more secure than bitcoin at this current time.  I've had my share of experience with being scammed, right here on this forum out of many BTC.  I'm a programmer myself, and even with all the technical know-how and knowledge of cryptocurrencies, I've been scammed.  Do you really expect the public to understand how to protect themselves against BTC scammers?

Sure Coinbase is deemed 'safe' but you should read their Terms of Service.  No exchange is 'safe' and we're a very long ways from create an environment safe enough for ordinary people to use bitcoins, whether as a money transfer protocol or other uses.

So I should drop this whole Bitcoin thing and go with Western Union because there are scammers, there are other options and you don't trust CoinBase.

Which alt coin can I do an online money transfer to? How many ripples can I sell on localbitcoins for euros?

[DannyHamilton]

So I should drop this whole Bitcoin thing and go with Western Union because there are scammers,

That won't help.

There is a huge amount of scamming and theft through Western Union.

there are other options

Not very good ones.

and you don't trust CoinBase.

I wouldn't leave my bitcoins with them for any length of time, but if I didn't have access to better places to buy and sell bitcoins (such as localbitcoins) then I'd trust them enough to make a purchase or sale.

Which alt coin can I do an online money transfer to? How many ripples can I sell on localbitcoins for euros?

Yes, none of the other attempts at a digital currency have the infrastructure that bitcoin has.  Bitcoin really is your best option as long as you know what you're doing and are careful to avoid scams, hackers, and malware.

[chenka563]

it's good ,using the BTC cheaper than the WESTERN UNION . you can try it to ues the BTC in a foreign country!

[cyberpinoy]

Western Union for international transfers HAHA sell it to you, Not possible when put up against Bitcoin. Western union gives you the lowest absolute exchange rate they can possibly forge, then take a percent to exchange the funds, as well as charge another fee to send the funds. And a lot of countries like where i live you will also get a charge when you pick the funds up. Sometimes they charge us sometimes they dont its really weird. It does tell me that maybe there are a few unethical WU owners out there who are adding an extra fee, I dont know. however all 3 of these fees are eliminated with bitcoins Finally Someone with an apparent demand for Bitcoins. Now if only we could get this information to spread like a virus in the 3rd world countries who do most of the money transfers that would be great. Just Imagine how much money WU and other places like Xoom and Money gram make and then think even farther as to how many bitcoin could be purchased with those funds. How can we spread this like wildfire. we need buyers right now to throw this downward slump out of motion.

[Envrin]

Let's see, this is going to be a tough decision here:

Western Union

• Search out the closest Western Union office to me, and head into town.
• Wait 10 minutes for clerk to appear
• Fill out form with full contact information of myself, and the recipient of the money
• Provide photo ID such as passport
• Pay around $530 to send $500
• Wait 15 minutes for clerk to process everything
• Come home, and inform recipient of MTCN#, my name & country.  Recipient then must do same steps as above, except instead of paying $530, they get $500 in cash.

Bitcoin

• Ask recipient for bitcoin address.  Relax in my comfy computer chair at home while waiting.
• Login to wallet, and send funds.  Takes about 20 seconds.
• Pay $500.04 to send $500.
• Recipient has money confirmed within say 30 mins, and can easily cash out in a multitude of ways, whichever suits them best.  For example, via localbitcoins I can turn BTC into cash within my hand within an hour tops.

Geez, tough decision.  Not sure which I should go with.

[Este Nuno]

 A lot of it depends on your access to a reliable Bitcoin exchanger where you're sending and receiving the money.

At this point in a few countries you might be able to buy and sell Bitcoin with a reasonable spread and even though you have to go fiat > BTC > fiat you might beat out other remittance services.

But often enough in many countries your only choice in this type of situation is to make your fiat > BTC > fiat exchanges through localbitcoins traders, some of whom charge around 10% on the spread. And this is in many of the countries where having a Bitcoin as a reliable method for remittance might actually take off. Unfortunately for now we'll need to wait in many cases for traders to become more competitive and lower their spreads if we really want to see Bitcoin compete in the remittance sector on a global scale.

If Circle goes worldwide and people all over the world can buy and sell Bitcoin directly from their local bank account then that might do it. It's heading that way, but it's still mostly localized for the US market at this point.

[efreeti]

it's good ,using the BTC cheaper than the WESTERN UNION . you can try it to ues the BTC in a foreign country!

While the statement is true, it is kind of misleading.

Yes, sending btc from country A to Country B is cheap. But the conversion fee in country A and country B could exceed the cost of simply using western union.

[Velkro]

Western Union is pure evil, its scam that is legal

[Beliathon]

As someone who has started working in a foreign country getting paid in dollars...I have seen first hand how Bitcoin is a huge advantage over wire transfer and currency conversion.

Easy peasy. You're one of the 99% of human beings on this planet who doesn't know about bitcoin and/or has no idea how to use it.

Now I don't need to "sell you" on anything, do I? Bitcoin is an infant technology, wait some months/years and there won't even be any argument, Western Union will simply cease to exist.

[malaimult]

ive used WU to send money to friends/fam in Asia but the fees were always outrageous. however, this was before i actively used btc. unfortunately some of my friends still do not use btc or know about it and simply prefer cash which is what WU is good for.

personally i would not use WU unless i had no choice to. their fees are only just a bit less than international wire fees

[ANTIcentralized]

As someone who has started working in a foreign country getting paid in dollars...I have seen first hand how Bitcoin is a huge advantage over wire transfer and currency conversion.

For example, my mother came out to visit me here in germany. She exchanged $1000 to 715 euros before she came out through her bank. That is not including what it would have cost to wire it over here if she was not flying.

I sold roughly 3 bitcoins for 900 euros through localbitcoins, then I bought that same amount of bitcoins on CoinBase for $1024. The straight conversion should have been $1000 for 750 euros (at the time). I charge a 10% margin but could lower it if I needed to.

Why would I use anything other than Bitcoin? Sell me on using Western Union.

Whenever you accept someone else's offer on LBC you are not going to get a favorable exchange rate because you are paying for the ability to conduct business right away instead of waiting for someone to accept your offer (the opposite is true as well).