Western Union says its remittance charges among lowest in Latin America
Disputes findings by specialist
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
December 16, 2002
Western Union Money Transfer in Guyana is disputing the findings of a report that its charges for remittances from New York to Guyana are among the highest in Latin America.
Country Director, Grace Kennedy Remittance Guyana Ltd, Anna Lisa Fraser-Phang told Stabroek News that contrary to the report prepared for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by immigration specialist Dr Manuel Orozco, the charge for sending US$200 dollars from the US is US$15 and for the sum of US$300 the rate is US$18. Grace Kennedy holds the franchise for Western Union in Guyana.
Dr Orozco in his report said that Western Union charges an average of US$31.60 for sending US$250 while the lowest charges are tagged at US$19.76 and US$21 for transmitting the same sum to Guyana from the USA.
At a seminar Dr Orozco held at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel recently, he said that the transfer costs at the money transfer businesses in Guyana are currently "high, not only in relationship to the value of the principal, but also in relationship to the amounts charged in other Latin American countries." He had noted that the cost of transferring US$250 averages about US$26, when considering the top four main sending businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Based on the rates for sending remittances to Guyana, this is the most expensive country after Cuba for sending US$200 from the USA, he said.
However, MoneyGram has also disputed the charge of US$27.68 for US$250 as quoted by Dr Orozco, saying that it was far less at US$20.
Apart from the low rates, Fraser-Phang noted that Western Union was always promoting activities directly related to contact with the homeland such as the current phone pin number which allows someone remitting a US$200 to get a five-minute call back to Guyana.
Western Union has outlets at some 36 locations including Rupununi, Bartica, Corriverton, Linden and the Essequibo Coast and, according to Fraser, the money transfer company plans to open at some other locations shortly because of the demand for the service.
Fraser-Phang noted also that Western Union was in the habit of converting some of its profits into worthwhile projects back in the homeland. For instance, she noted that in Guyana, the local Western Union main office funded the construction of three houses for the Habitat for Humanity project here while the returns from other overseas Western Union businesses funded the construction of three others this year. She said the funds spent on building the six houses were not an amount to sneeze at.
She added that Western Union has responded and continues to respond to the endless list of requests from every social service sector in the country, including education, health and sport. It has actively assisted the Guyana Red Cross Society and promoted the country's Mashramani activities both locally and internationally.
While Dr Orozco's report on `Remitting back home and supporting the Homeland: The Guyanese community in the US' recommends that bank to bank transfers would significantly reduce high transaction costs for those sending money back home, Fraser-Phang said that total charge would be higher.
She noted that in addition to the remittance fees charged by the bank sending the money there is also a local fee charged by the receiving bank.
She feels that if the banks were to take on the job of a money transfer business, they would have to open a separate unit or department to deal with it.
One of the reasons why remittance companies came into being, she posited, was because the banks could not, or, would not undertake to remit the small sums of money that low income workers may want to send back to their country of origin. The banks, she said, preferred to handle the bigger transactions.
