Hi Folks, Sam,
Sam Ewalt wrote:
> Good for you, Ron. But were you the first person to get a refund from
> the Austrailian Post Office via Western Union in Denver?
Yes, I was. :) They used to use American Express, which
apparently worked just fine, but they recently changed to Western Union,
obviously without looking at the detail. But, then, they are only public
servants, one can't expect too much from them.
Because of my experience, and the fuss that I made, all post offices
are now instructed to instruct purchasers of these money orders that
they ae only for sending to payees residing in the USA.
Now, that is REALLY useful.
> I imagine
> everyone would be up in arms about this. If the US Post Office gave
> refunds in Austrailian dollars there would be holy hell to pay.
And the first one to get caught has to make the most noise. :)
> How much would a bank charge you to deposit and negotiate payment on
> that American check?
The money order for US$ 30.00 cost me $60.00 Australian. At the time
of refund, the exchange rate had changed to where the same money order
was going to cost $70.00 Australian.
My bank "estimated" that they would charge almost all of the face
value of the refund cheque to present it to an Americal bank, get the
money, transfer across currencies, administration fees, dog licence,
slush fund etc...
You have to realise that major Australian banks have a fee schedule
that would make a Mafia money lender wince. It can cost the bank
customer up to $3.00 for some transactions performed over the counter at
the branch that holds your account.
I start to have some empathy with bank robbers.
Regards,
Ron
Ron Clarke http://homepages.valylink.net.au/~ausreg/music.html
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