10 Common Problems of MoneyGram: Everything You Must Know

What is MoneyGram?

MoneyGram is an American cross-border person-to-person money transfer or payment company. This company is rated as the second-largest payment in the world. 

MoneyGram allows you to transfer money from one part of the country to another in just minutes. It allows you to directly send money to a bank account or money wallet of someone in other countries too!

Not only that, but it also helps people who don’t have a bank account but wanted an alternative to transferring money, bills payments, mobile top-ups, money orders, and many more.

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How Does It Work?

1. To Receive Money Through MoneyGram Online:

• The amount is sent to the account after the transfer is submitted and successfully processed. 

• The credit will be applied to the receiver’s mobile wallet account associated with the mobile number specified by the sender.

• Transfers of money to mobile wallets are available and they can be transferred online and/or at MoneyGram agent locations.

2. To Receive Money in Person:

• Find the MoneyGram agent location near you.

• Complete the form and check the reference number given to you by the sender.

• Receive your funds sent by your sender.

3. To Send Money in Person:

Step 1: Visit a MoneyGram agent location near you.

Step 2: Prepare requirements like ID, recipient’s details, money to send plus fees.  

Step 3: After the transaction, notify the recipient about your successful transfer. 

4. To Send Money Through the MoneyGram App:

Step 1: Log in or Sign up for the MoneyGram account.

Step 2: Enter your personal information to verify your identity.

Step 3: Select the Country where you live.

Step 4: Use a promotional code.

Step 5: Select the designation country where you wanted to transact money.

Step 6: Complete the transaction.

6 Top Features of MoneyGram

1. Bill payments –  pay bills for different service providers online or by visiting the nearby MoneyGram agent location.

2. International money transfers –  you can get existing MoneyGram exchange rates when you carry out spot transfers.
   
3. Cash pickup – Recipients can quickly collect cash by visiting MoneyGram agent locations.
   
4. Mobile airtime and mobile wallet top-up – Depending on the location of the recipient, you can top up mobile wallets and mobile airtime.
   
5. Transfers to prison inmates – send money to inmates who are serving time in American correctional facilities.
   
6. Regular transfer – You can set up regular transfers by using the recurring send option.  

10 Common Problems of MoneyGram

MoneyGram is a well-established money transfer service that has been in operation for more than seventy years. Its website is verified because of the identity it has and the management security software that is used by big financial institutions worldwide. 

However, although MoneyGram has so many advantages, there are even some drawbacks and common problems in MoneyGram that you will encounter as you use this service.

1. Limitations

Unfortunately, MoneyGram limits how much a sender can send at one time. 

Anyone who wants to make an online transfer of more than $10,000 at a single time or send money again within a month won’t be possible with MoneyGram.

It limits the money you can send and also the time period of the transaction. When it comes to the amount the maximum is $10,000 for online transfers, every 30 days. This means for users who want to transfer more than that amount in a month can run into a serious roadblock quite quickly.

2. Transfers Through Phone Are Not Available 

You can only make money transfers online or in person by reaching the MoneyGram agent location near you. 

These are the only two possible ways to transfer money. It will be more convenient, though, to transfer money by phone. Unfortunately, this feature is not available in MoneyGram. 

With our smartphones, it’s so much easier to do anything. If you thought that sending money through your phone is very convenient, that is not the case with MoneyGram. 

Being able to send money through your phone via an app has already been offered with other money transfer services, so, with MoneyGram not offering this feature is kind of annoying. This is one of the main things that upsets the MoneyGram users. 

Related: Who Accepts Google Pay? (A General List)

3. Payment Needs Only Cash

In most cases, your cold, hard cash is the only form of payment that is completely accepted by the agent location for the transaction. 

You have to bring enough money to cover the total amount of your transaction plus the additional fees required.

As there are no fixed fees, the fee varies for each payment and for each amount. So, in case you only brought the exact amount based on your calculations then it turns out the MoneyGram agent also has a different calculation, and they will be in trouble.

4. Variation of Fees

There is a small fee with every transaction on MoneyGram. These fees vary depending on the location of your money transfer, the amount that is transacted, payment methods, and others.

There is no fixed fee structure, it varies for each payment method and transaction amount. 

As you noticed, there are too many factors for the amount of the fee added. And users can’t help but feel irritated with the varying fees.

5. Specific Currencies Availability

The good thing with MoneyGram is it allows you to send money from practically all parts of the world. So, you can only imagine the should-be number of currencies available in the service, right?

However, payout in specific currencies is only available at selected locations. Some MoneyGram agent locations resist some currencies and the transactions are not available in those agent locations. 

With that, users are forced to find an alternative like changing the location or changing the currency, or making the transaction online.

If you are in this predicament, it’s such a hassle to look for options just to go with your transaction, right?

6. The Name Arrangement Rule

MoneyGram agents ask for an ID before you can go with your transactions. Let’s say my name is John Michael Smith, John being my first name and Smith my last name. 

If you send a MoneyGram transfer to Micheal John Smith, the payment will not go through. The same goes for any other variations of the name that aren’t on your identification –– though it only sounds fair, right?

In some cases, what happens is when people transfer money to someone who has at least two names (or themselves), they only tend to write the first name only and they don’t match with the ID anymore.

So essentially, the name given to the ID should match the name to which the money is sent.

7. Not the Cheapest Option

Due to market dominance, the measure of the strength of a brand, service, or firm that is relative to competitive offerings is exemplified by controlling a large proportion of the power in a particular market. MoneyGram tends to bill higher than other transfer agencies. Plus their exchange rates are also quite unreasonable.

As MoneyGrambills is higher than other transfer agencies, some users go to other services that have little to no transaction fees. This relatively reduces the traffic of this payment method.

8. Arbitrary Voiding of Transactions

MoneyGram sending agents tend to void transactions due to various reasons without informing the sender. This often results in conflict between sender and receiver.

If they acknowledge the transaction as a suspect they can stop it from the start of the transaction rather than process everything before completely voiding it.

Again, this common problem makes users look for an alternative service, where they will be informed ahead of time that their transactions are to be voided. Another thing is that they can quickly look for remedies and still get their transfers on time.

Also read: What to do when Google Pay payment fails? (Full Guide)

9. Cancellation Time

The cancellation of a transfer or transaction can be done in only thirty minutes. If you do so, you will be refunded the full amount including the fees.

But cancellations that are done after 30 minutes and up to 180 days are different. You will be issued a refund for the amount you send excluding the fees. 

In case of any network issues or server problems during the cancellation period and you didn’t reach the allotted time, the amount of the fee is unnecessarily wasted and it will not be refunded by MoneyGram.  

10. Pick Up

The major drawback of MoneyGram is you can only pick up the money which is sent to you and can be only collected physically from the MoneyGram agent location near you. 

It cannot be transferred to a bank card or account. In many instances, this is the major common problem faced by the users.

The process of collecting money in person is too complicated if there are no MoneyGram agent locations near them. 

The receiver has to spend his/her time searching the agent’s location to get the money which is such a big hassle. This makes users use other payment options instead that offer the services they need such as being able to receive money straight to their bank accounts or their application’s e-wallets.

10 Common Problems of MoneyGram

MoneyGram is the second-largest money transfer player globally. They have a pretty good system, and in most cases, it is safe to use them. There’s no denying the kind of comfort when you know that the money you worked hard on is safely received by loved ones.

Every payment system has its drawbacks with some alternatives and the ones listed above are that of MoneyGram. Yes, issues can happen, but compared to the millions of transactions they process; it is not significant!

Also read:

• Best Payment Apps: PayPal – A Detailed Guide
• 5 Best International Payment Apps for Android
• What to do when Google Pay payment fails?

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