Western Union and Mpesa

[Omollo]

• Tweet

I have lately not managed to access this service. Today I was told it has been discontinued in some countries. i.e you can no longer send money to a phone in Kenya via western union. Anybody out there with the hard facts? Is this an attempt to sabotage Mpesa or what? Is GoK involved

[Kadudu]

WU is outdated and expensive. I used many years ago and now moved WorldRemit. Try it out. I have been using it for the last few years and never dissapointed. Also has a good customer service unlike WU.

https://www.worldremit.com/

I have lately not managed to access this service. Today I was told it has been discontinued in some countries. i.e you can no longer send money to a phone in Kenya via western union. Anybody out there with the hard facts? Is this an attempt to sabotage Mpesa or what? Is GoK involved

[vooke]

Omorlo,
I got this text from Safcon. Looks like their romance with Western Union was shortlived. Go Moneygram or Skrill. I like Skrill because it's Web based and they have an app. I can transfer funds right from my phone....but of course it takes some minimal skills to operate the app and some of your older recipients may find that bothersome.

[Omollo]

It's a very clever way of NOT saying the agreement with WU ended. I just found out WU have been fleecing me. The exchange rate they use is very low and then they collect a huge transfer fee.

I want to assume if they clashed with Mpesa it is all about sharing the loot. I always wondered why it was cheaper to collect the money from their agents and more expensive to send to a cellphone. It made no sense. 

Mpesa is here to stay. I have seen it in the future. I don't see WU in that future. A time will come when anybody anywhere can transfer money to anywhere with a few button presses on the cell phone. The recipient would buy tickets, food, gas, clothes etc using the cellphone. The so called ATMs would cease to be important just like the telephone kiosks were fights used to break out.

I had one old kiosk restored. I plan to install a modern cell phone inside and let my guests experience how it used to be.

[Georgesoros]

WU got outcompeted.