My MS work flow has me keeping my receipts and money order receipts for a year or more in a bag. Then when I get the urge, I go through the bag and then trash out any old money order receipts just because I don’t think they are necessary anymore since the money orders have been deposited and the store receipt already covers the purchase. Anyway, as I was going through the bag a few weeks ago, I found 3 money orders that I never deposited. Two of them were only a few months old and I had no issues depositing them. One money order however was 13 months old.
If you read the back of a Western Union money order, it says that after 12 months, they will charge a $1.50 per month dormancy fee. I deposited the money order anyway and was expecting my bank and WU to figure out how much money I had left on the money order. A few days later, my bank sent me a letter saying the deposit was returned back to me without much detail except to say “Refer to Maker.”
I then called up WU and after trying to explain to the girl what happened, she eventually told me to Google “Western Union money order refund.” Apparently WU will hit me with a $15 fee, but hey at least it’s better than nothing. Luckily I kept the money order receipt and expect to get this resolved.
I do wonder if at the ATM, I would have said the depsit amount was $497 if it would have gone through. I think it’s better to do that than to have typed in the $500 that is displayed on the money order. This way, it would match up with the current value of the money order.
So lesson learned here is that if you have a money order that is over than a year old, call up WU and ask them what the current value of the money order is and try to deposit it with that value. Better yet, don’t forget your money orders. At least the money order refund process is painless.