Western Union

The main advantage of using this service is confidentiality. There is no need to give your personal account details to companies or people you are buying from, as Western Union acts as an intermediary. This means that your personal banking information does not have to be given each time you make a payment, thereby reducing the chances of internet fraud and identity theft.

The history of the Western Union company is an interesting one, as its current major role as a method of transferring money electronically is in fact a bit of a departure from its original function. It is in fact a venerable old American institution, having been originally formed well over a century before the internet had even been conceived, in 1851. Its original purpose was to provide a nationwide means of sending telegraph messages across the nation, and it grew rapidly, through mergers and acquisitions until by 1861 it had achieved nationwide coverage. Later the same decade, it achieved its first link with Europe. By the turn of the century, the company operated around a million miles of telegraph lines and had laid two international undersea cables.

Western Union’s money transfer service was first introduced in 1871. As the years progressed, the telephone quickly replaced the telegraph as the primary means of communication. This meant that the importance of the money transfer service grew in importance, eventually becoming the primary revenue earner for the company. But throughout most of the 20th Century, the telegram remained a reliable means of ensuring urgent information could be reliably transmitted, perhaps reaching a high point during the Second World War, when telecommunication line disruption meant that the telephone was often not a practical method of communication.

By the early 1980s however, the communications side of the company was suffering badly as alternative technologies became more and more efficient and the old fashioned telegram became increasingly outmoded and old fashioned. The company began a worldwide money transfer service and this became by far the biggest revenue earner for the business. Competition from other communication services and the advent of e-mail and instant messaging meant that the traditional telegram was becoming increasingly redundant. By the early 2000s, only around 20,000 telegrams were being sent each year. Therefore, in 2006, the inevitable was finally acknowledged, and Western Union withdrew from the telegraph business altogether and its history of over 150 years of delivering telegrams was over.

Today, it remains one of the primary means of transferring funds electronically across the world. For online bingo players, it is an efficient and convenient way of making payments for your favourite game. Nowadays, there are many online bingo operations which accept Western Union as a means of payment. And if you are unsure which of these numerous titles deserve your hard earned cash, you know that you can rely on our site reviews here at Busy Bee Bingo, to help you decide.