Chile Forum

WESTREN UNION
To help the victims of Chile's devastating earthquake, The Western Union
Company, a leader in the money-transfer segment of global payments,
today announced a "No Transfer Fee"(1) money-transfer program, starting
Saturday, March 6, 2010, and concluding Friday, March 19, 2010, for
money transfers sent to Chile from participating Agent locations in the
U.S.

The "No Transfer Fee" program also is available through westernunion.com
from the U.S. Western Union Money Transfer® services to Chile are
subject to network, service and currency availability.

For more information about operating Agent locations in Chile, consumers
may visit http://www.westernunion.com <http://www.westernunion.com> or call in
the United States 1-800-325-6000 (English and Spanish).

This is great news for us.

o.k., guys the weather has cleared. we are set to take off in about an hour from LA. Zandra found an aid organization that has a warehouse in LA, and we are going to load up the plane. If we get a window we are flying direct to isla mocha, and the island has been cut off for some time.

If the morning fog is still on the coast, zandra and I are going get out in Temuco and the plane will then go on with the doctors to isla mocha from there with more aid.

we are working on setting up two alternative towns to work with and two alternative airports to allow us to keep flying when one has bad weather.

we also found another 6 or so planes in LA that are willing to fly aid.

As soon as we get back to Temuco, I will sort out all the wiring and transfer problems.

As I understand you need to use the web site westernunion.com to send wires for free to Chile. Will confirm all of this today now that offices are open in Temuco.

Pay pal was not all that much cheaper (1-3% transaction fee), and more critical was over two weeks for us to get the money in Chile. So, western union although more expensive, appears to be far more effective. For a longterm, none emergency, we definitly will find a cheaper more steady method. Under the circumstances time is the issue. As soon as I get back to Temuco I will see about lighting a fire under pay pal to get everyone´s money back to them. 3 days, is an absurd amount of time to wait for a refund.

It rained last night in the 8th and 9th regions, but luckily it is sunny today. We are looking in to doing airdrops of things like tarps and other supplies that can not be damaged to areas without landing strips. We are also getting use of several unmapped private landing strips. Yesterday an airforce plane and us were grounded on a private landing strip owned by a forestery company. No one new that it was open and availble for aid, we just heard a rumor. We have been given a few more of those by people we have run in to that know of these strips that are activated for aid use in the emergency, but are not getting out to the pilotes flying aid.

So, if all goes well I should be back in Temuco late this afternoon and working on getting more resources and organizing more planes, while vince´s plane and the doctors keep operating. We have some critical ill patients in one town that neither us or the airforce could evacuate yesterday because of weather. We are going to see about getting in to that town.

Tonyakaserg, Dagny is correct. If you would like, you can send it to my paypal link and I will forward it on. I will be probably using wire or WU for it in the end as I can send it through my business bank account for $20 to Chile since I do many transfers to Chile. Thats on any amount so I hope to get a few more bucks plus what I had sent prior to paypal for Charles.

any aussies wanting to transfer can PM me, I am an aussie in chile and have a way of transferring money fee free, for this situation only.

Fotografía de ayuda humanitaria desde Los Angeles a Isla Mocha

Fotografía de ayuda humanitaria desde Los Angeles a Isla Mocha

For those of you using Western Union from the US.....from my experience in 2008 when i sent funds to my girlfriend, you don;t need to specify a specific office for the recipient to pick up the funds. you just need to get the country right. theoretically, charles should be able to go to ANY WU office in chile and get the cash you send. of course it helps a lot if all the details are correct....correct spelling, correct address, correct phone numbers, correct code numbers etc. double check all of that and you should be fine.

true, just sent some a month ago, no specifics needed in terms of address, etc.

Steph, thanks for your PM offering to transfer the money via your bank account here in Oz. I am waiting for the refund of Paypal and the transfer from my friend which should be another 24 hrs max. Yes, please PM me your account details.

I can't say good luck with today's mission to Charles and crew because I just woke up and they are getting ready to go to sleep, but I hope you are pleased with your days work. You're the man !!!

Cheers to all

A

I send money regularly to our ministry in Colombia and also to Brazil from USA by Western Union. They charge you a % fee based on the amount. Example: $1,000 US costs $40.00 (Next Day) fee to Colombia from Arkansas. This may seem high but is the safest way to transfer cash, especially to Colombia.

All you need is the country designation; name of peron receiving donation (make sure you have the spelling of their name as on their ID or passport) and whether it is to go "In Minutes or Next Day" Next day is cheaper. You will be given a receipt which will show an MTCN Code and number in the upper right hand corner. ++++++++++++++. The person will need to give the Western Union agent in receiving location that confirmation number. Those are the two requirements needed.

So sending it "FEE FREE" is the way to go prior to March 16 or whenever.

Give me a shout if you need clarification.

Stang

Stang wrote:

I send money regularly to our ministry in Colombia and also to Brazil from USA by Western Union. They charge you a % fee based on the amount. Example: $1,000 US costs $40.00 (Next Day) fee to Colombia from Arkansas. This may seem high but is the safest way to transfer cash, especially to Colombia.

Yes, I think we already worked out that from the US it is cheaper - specially if you're sending from a religious organization that pays no taxes like the rest of us tax slaves - but my problem is sending from Australia. I am not sending anywhere near US1,000 and getting slugged US 20. I find it outrageous!

A.

I just got home. over 48 hours working on the aid project. Good news, just to tired to type.

---isla mocho done
---two doctors, 1 week, on their way in the morn
---WE NEED A BOAT, A BIG BOAT!!!!!
---- details in the morning


Sooooooooooooooooo TIRED!!!!