Consumer complaint received 2022-11-21
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem — 
Company: MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE INC (CA)

I have been a MoneyGram customer for several years. I use MoneyGram to send money to my Parents, Brothers, Sister, Neices and Nephews in XXXX XXXX and the XXXX. My family in is very poor and I do everything I can do support them in times of need, because I am able to do so. I usually send money once per month but sometimes if they need money urgently I send them multiple times per month. In the month of XXXX XXXX I sent money on multiple occasions because I shipped boxes of items ( food, clothing, shoes, etc ) to my family in XXXX XXXX and I had to send money to my Nephew to pay the customs duties to collect them. This transfer was outside the monthly schedule where I send money at or close to the end of each month to help my parents pay for basic necessities like electricity, medicine and food. The monthly transfer I send is usually sent to my younger brother and he collects it and distributes it according to agreed to parameters between my mother and father, who do not live together. Along with sending money on a monthly basis to support my parents, I am also helping one of my Nephews pay the application fees, visa fees, medical testing fees and other fees he needs to pay during the application process to optain a job working for XXXX XXXX XXXX. My Nephew has been in the process of applying for a job with XXXX XXXX for the last few years but the process has been delayed because of Covid-19. Thanfully he is has been approved to work on a XXXX XXXX ship and should be joining the ship in early XXXX  I have been sending money along the way to my Nephew, as well as my younger brother. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I sent a tranfter to my brother which he was able to collect, then on XX/XX/XXXX I sent a tranfer to my Nephew, which he was able to collect, then on XX/XX/XXXX I sent a transfter to my brother wich he was NOT able to collect. On XXXX brother informed me that he was not able to collect the money because he was told by the local agent that the transfter had been blocked. I called MoneyGram to find out why the tranfter has been blocked and I was told that my account is under review and I will likely not be able to use the platform going forward. I asked why but I was not given a reason, only told that my account is under review. I suspected that the reason the transfer was blocked was because of the multiple transfers I sent in the same month. I tried explaining why I sent multiple transfters and that my family is very poor so I need to send them the money, but that I was told there is nothing they can do. A few days later, I tried to login to my MoneyGram account but by account has been locked by MoneyGram. I made multiple attempts to get MoneyGram to unblock my account but I as not successful. 

Since my account has been blocked by MoneyGram, I have switched to sending money to my family via Western Union but Western Union is much more expensive than MoneyGram so I am losing money every month using Western Union. Instead of sending more money each month to my poor familyd to help with their basic needs, I have to pay higher fees each month.