Western Union used to be very good method in the past. However, nowadays it’s unbearable rates and strict acceptable user policy made it much less attractive for the customers comparing to their competitors – RIA Money Trasfer and MoneyGram. Currently, Western Union denies way too many transfers on different reasons – they don’t like your IP, they don’t like your name, your card/account or your phone number. Furthermore, they often permanently block senders / receivers who made 3-4 transactions over a short period of time even if dealing with small amounts. As a result, sending WU transfer became like a lottery, you never know whether it passes through or you have to wait until money come back to re-send. Many people, whose WU transfer was denied switch to RIA and MoneyGram.
MoneyGram still has much easier policy, lower rates and they rarely decline. You may arrange transfer online or at any MoneyGram location, which includes many banks or ATMs in Walmart stores.
Another good alternative is RIA Money Transfer. This is relatively new and cheap system. Yes, it has low number of branches, however, it is already available for online transfers in US and we really advice to try it. People from other countries may try to find RIA offline location nearby.