Fintech Feature War: MoneyGram Launches New Money Transfer Option

MoneyGram is on the move to upgrade its digital capabilities. It’s all set to go beyond international cash pickup service with FastSend; the new feature will allow the customers to send money to recipients’ accounts using mobile numbers rather than using account numbers. The feature has been rolled out earlier this month.

Youri Bebic, Global Head of Product And Innovation at MoneyGram, said in his statement that the company is trying the address the pain points and offer convenience in service. FastSend in an upgraded tool for digital money transfer, from account to account money transfer type launched in September.

To provide better customer experience, the FastSend feature allows the consumer to experience money transfer features like Remitly and TransferWise. Customers can use FastSend by logging into MoneyGram using either mobile or desktop applications. Once the recipient’s phone number and the name is being entered, MoneyGram will send the recipient a text alerting that the funds are available.

The service costs $1.99 per transaction, and it’s cheaper than MoneyGram alternatives. Hence, sending $100 to a Spain bank account, for example, will cost $4.99, according to the company website. MoneyGram is a Dallas-based fintech company, which had historically offered traditionally cross-broader money-transfer services that allow customers to send funds to MoneyGram storefront at any other location for near-instant pickup.

The company has been on the path of innovation, improving the customer experience to accommodate digital-first customers. In December 2019, the company had partnered with Visa Direct payment system on account-to-account transfers. The system has improved on the transaction speed; hence now it doesn’t take complete business data, instead just takes a few minutes.

Users can use FastSend with mobile numbers within the US and from the US to Spain. MoneyGram is looking to expand the service to more than 10 to 15 countries soon, which includes various markets in both Asia and Europe.