I have been using MoneyGram to send money every now and then to family members who are outside of the country. I liked the program because once you register online you can receive a discount on the fee every time you send money.
I had not sent money in a little while but last week I needed to send some money in a hurry. I would have had to transfer the money from my ING savings account into a local account and then withdraw it to take cash to MoneyGram. This would take me a few days and my relative was really in a hurry so I wondered if I could do it online instead.
I logged in to my MoneyGram account and found that not only could I send the money online but I could also use a credit card to make the transfer. This was a great discovery to me and I decided to use the credit card to send the money. There is a part of the online application that shows you what the fees would be so you can decide which route to take.
img from foundationsoffinance.com
- Send money via checking account: $X
- Send money via credit card: $X+2
It only cost me $2 more to send the money via credit card and it would be available in 10 minutes!!! I probably would not use that option in the future and save the $2 but this was an emergency situation and I wanted to get the money out as soon as possible.
I was pleased with the service and if I can earn some points from using it then I would be EXTRA happy.
Thanks for recommending Moneygram. I had been using Xoom till now so I will give it a try for next month.
-Jean
Sending money this way is very convenient since you do not have to go out to the local office of moneygram to send the money. Also, I think that such a service exists with Western Union, which has lower fees than moneygram.
Hello, I have a question. Did your credit card company treat the moneygram transfer as a cash advance ? I am a bit confused because western union is saying that the credit card company may charge cash advance fees totally discourages lots of people to use credit card for money transfers. Please let me know. Thank you.
No…it was treated as a purchase.
My credit company charges cash advance fees on Moneygram – those fees being 3.25% + base of 21% on top of 5% transfer fee. On top of the Moneygram fee, which is $70ish for amounts around $1000. All that totals to around $490 to send $1400.
uhhhhh…. yeah. O.o
What credit card have you been using. American Ex and Discover have informed me that online moneygram transactions would be treated as a cash advance.
I no longer use Moneygram so I am surprised by this.