I like in the US and need to send a small sum in Pounds Sterling to a University in London. Sounds easy enough but the USPS, Western Union and my bank tell me I’m shit out of luck. I’m at a loss. A wire transfer or cashier’s check isn’t an option. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
JHE1967
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I live in Shanghai and use Western Union to send USD into the US every month and have never had a problem.
I have a friend here who could not send pounds to his family in the UK, but the problem was with the currency and not the country. He instead sent USD to them and then his family converted it into GBP and had no problem.
Perhaps they do not deal in GBP?
Of course, I’m in China and we have some pretty wacky currency controls. It might be different depending where you are.
The USPS told me they can issue Intl Money Orders but not to the UK. I called BS but the list they showed me had 30 odd countries and the UK wasn’t one of them.
I just received a western union money transfer from the US to Yemen. I can’t imagine that if they do it to Yemen, they won’t do it to the UK.
There’s a misunderstanding somewhere. Either the people you have asked haven’t understood what you are trying to achieve, or you haven’t understood their replies.
Western Union can send money from anywhere to anywhere they have an office. That’s the whole point of the service. WU aren’t VERY well established here in the UK, but they DO have offices and it IS possible to send money to people here. I live in the UK, and I’ve used WU both to send and receive money.
At the sending end, you specify how much you want to give in your local currency, and they tell you how much that will be in the recipient’s currency. If you use their online service, the two amounts show up side by side automatically. It’s very easy. When you hit the button, the service generates a key number that you will need to send to the recipient. The recipient goes to whichever their nearest office is, quotes the number and offers proof of ID, and collects the money.
You pay for the service, of course, but the amount you pay is shown before you commit to payment. Some people think the commission is rather high, but that’s a judgment call… for the speed, convenience and security they offer, I think they provide a pretty good service.
Dollars, pounds, yen, euros, shekels… it makes no difference. You pay in your currency at your end. The recipient receives the equivalent amount in their own currency at their end.
Long shot: they didn’t by any chance have the constituent countries of the UK listed separately (i.e. as England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)?
The USPS only does money orders in US dollars, so they can only send them to countries whose post offices are interested in doing business in US dollars, which doesn’t include the UK (or indeed the post office of any EU country, AFAIK).
Could the problem is in the terminology? Maybe they will transfer funds anywhere but they don’t issue “money orders” some places?
It sounds to me like the OP is trying to get an actual physical note of some sort which can be mailed to the university rather than any of the various means of electronic transfer. Is that correct?
This is correct. Thanks for the help everyone!
Have the local branch look under United Kingdom. I just checked out the WU website, and while Great Britian isn’t there, the United Kingdom is.
Call the University and see if they will just charge your debit or credit card for the amount needed.
It’s the US Post Office who told him they couldn’t transfer money to the UK. Western Union certainly can, but from the post from ianzin above it seems that the recipient has to physically present himself at a WU correspondent office and establish his identity to collect the money. That may not be realistic if he wants to send a modest amount to a university to pay some fee or charge.
JHE1967, you say in the OP that a cashier’s cheque won’t do, but lower down you say that what you want is a piece of paper that you can send through the mail, which is pretty much what a cashier’s cheque is. Surely a US bank will issue you a cashier’s cheque denominated in sterling, and drawn on a London bank - even on their own London branch, if they have one? Why won’t that do?
Thanks again for the advice guys. I’m not sure why but the library states they require “Intl Money Order”. I’ll have to see if they really mean “anything piece of paper that you can mail”.
I called Western Union looking for an explanation and they recommended sending a regular money order in US currency will be fine as it will automatically convert to Pounds Sterling. They assured me that when the library states “Intl Money Order” they are referring to a standard money order you get at Circle K and all I need to do is figure out the conversion.
Although they say they want “international money order”, almost certainly what they want is any kind of paper instrument which they can negotiate for cash (or value), and which is denominated in sterling. An instrument in US dollars can be converted to sterling when negotiated, but neither you nor the university will know exactly how much sterling until the instrument is actually negotiated, since it will be converted at the prevailing spot rate. Since you (presumably) need to pay a specific amount in sterling, this is no use to you.
Just as the US Post Office participates in a dollar-based international money order network, so the UK Post Office participates in a sterling-based international postal order network. But ne’er the twain shall meet, it seems. So that’s no use to you. However it’s probably exactly what overseas students from any of the 50 or so countries participating in the sterling-based network need, so that’s why the university points people towards it.
The UK Post Office also participates in the MoneyGram network (just like Western Union, only not actually Western Union), but (just like Western Union) this is electonic, not paper-based, and requires a payee to present himself and his identification at a post office. So that’s no good either.
I’d send them a bank cheque denominated in sterling. I’d be astonished if they sent it back.
Thanks much for that! Excuse my ignorance but would “bank cheque denominated in sterling” be the same as a “cashier’s check”?
thanks again!
My bank assured me an “international cashiers check” would be accepted but no dice. The library can’t accepted anything not denominated in sterling because of excessive processing fees by UK banks.
I would do terrible, terrible things for a check or money order denominated in sterling (wire transfer won’t work). Local banks, USPS and Western Union tell me they can’t do this. I’ll paypal money to anyone here that can point me in the right direction. Seriously.
I can help. Contact me using the email address in my profile.
Well, this thread is an eye opener.
I thought that postal money orders were universal, another wonder brought to you by the Victorian wizards behind the Universal Postal Union. I look at the UK post office and see that they don’t send to Canada. Or France. I look at the US one and see that they don’t send to the UK, but they do send to the British Virgin Islands. What a mess.