Western Union Lowers Prices For Filipino Remitters
March 17, 2008
Western Union, the world’s largest money-transfer services company, announced on March 4 the expansion of its reduced fee of $12 to send money to the Philippines.
The new rate is now available to the Greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas and saves current remitters anywhere from $3 to $38 per transaction, depending on the amount sent.
“We realize the importance of offering quality service to our consumers when they send money to their loved ones,” said Karen Lithgow, vice president and general manager of Western Union, based in Englewood, Colo. “The expanded availability of our $12 transfer fee reinforces our reliability, speed and convenience.”
Guaranteed service, a tracking system, in-language customer assistance and “money in minutes” are among the benefits remitters will receive, according to Shirleen Velasquez, Western Union’s senior marketing manager of the Philippines.
“This is in response to the large demand from our Filipino community in the United States,” Velasquez said. “We are trying to make the lives of Filipinos a whole lot easier by providing peace of mind when they send money back home.”
As the third-largest Asian money-transfer market, behind India and China respectively, the Philippines saw an estimated $14.7 billion in remittances last year, according to the United States Agency of International Development and Department for International Development. The number equates to roughly five percent of the nation’s total GDP and has caught the attention of Filipinos worldwide.
“Of course I’m concerned about how millions of Filipinos back home are becoming more and more dependant on their families in the States,” said Javier Ayala Martinez of Daly City, after using Western Union’s services at a local convenient store to send money to his three children in Manila. “My children are grown up, but they don’t make the kind of money that you can make here. It’s tough, very tough.”
Thousands of Filipinos like Ayala Martinez use money-transfer services to financially assist and, in many cases, sustain their immediate family or relatives in the Philippines. On average, the Filipino American remitter sends $300 approximately 10 times per year, according to a study by Asian Development Bank.
“The market in the Philippines looks very promising,” said Erenay L. Jackson, director of marketing communications for Western Union. “As long as there is a demand for our services, we try to stay competitive and accommodate this demand the best way possible.”
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They are lowering prices in order to compete with Xoom. Xoom has become the favorite remittance service for Filipinos because thier rates have ALWAYS been low. And it’s easier than Western Union.
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