Soon you will be able to walk into a Walmart and send money. The company today launched its new “Walmart-2-Walmart” service for which it has partnered with Euronet Worldwide Inc subsidiary Ria Money Transfer. This new service puts Western Union directly in the crosshairs as customers will be able to transfer money to and from over 4,000 U.S. Walmart stores. The company says that fees will be much lower than competing services, giving users an incentive to use Walmart-2-Walmart instead.
According to Reuters Western Union shares dipped 7.1 percent in premarket trading. Even MoneyGram International saw shares dip 14.6 percent following the announcement, while Euronet’s rose 4.2 percent. So the assumption that Walmart-2-Walmart might dent competing services seems to hold weight.
The only caveat is that Walmart’s service is only good for domestic money transfers. Folks who want to send money overseas will have to turn towards Western Union or MoneyGram. The latter already provides money transfer services for Walmart.
By launching this new service Walmart aims to boost its core business as well. The low fees on domestic transfers under $1,000 is basically an effort to bring in more shoppers into Walmart stores which would ultimately prove beneficial for its financial revenues. Walmart-2-Walmart will go in service on April 24th.
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