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A bit of an emergency, my prepaid Euro card has broken and the company Travelex has sent a money gram with the balance of the card to a Post office in Merebel ski resort which is in the valley next to me in Val Thorens.

The question is can I collect it at another closer post office to my location which would save me buying a ski pass to get over to Merebel?

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  • Are you sure that it is a Moneygram? La Poste has no partnership with Moneygram, only with Western Union.
    – mouviciel
    Jan 15, 2013 at 16:33
  • I'd spend the 53 Euros to ski to Merebel and get it.
    – DJClayworth
    Jan 15, 2013 at 19:17
  • It is western union, sorry I thought they were the same thing
    – tomaytotomato
    Jan 15, 2013 at 19:21
  • With Western Union, any post office should be OK. I Didn't see any constraint about this on the site of La Banque Postale/La Poste[fr]
    – mouviciel
    Jan 15, 2013 at 19:27
  • Check my answer :)
    – tomaytotomato
    Jan 18, 2013 at 15:56

2 Answers 2

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To answer my own question after my experience:

You can collect Western Union payments in any "La Poste" that does Western Union.

From my experience do the following:

  • Write the Reference number in a clear and neat way on the cash receival form, from what happened to me the women mistyped the code and then said it was not her fault.
  • Take more than just your Passport , have a drivers license there as backup incase they think you are a fraud.
  • Have some French phrases prepared as the La Poste staff do not speak English very well and do not mess around, they will not go out their way to try and help you even if your a tourist.
  • Prepare some French phrases and anticipate what they will say, for instance when they accused me of having the wrong Western Union reference number I said, "J'ai confirme sur la telephone avec Western Union", roughly translates to that you confirmed the validity of the number.
  • Go early, less people and queses and the staff will be less grumpy.

I got my money in the end , but it was a stressfull experience. It really makes me appreciate the Royal Mail back in the UK.

Hope this helps!

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  • 2
    You should accept your own answer! Being French I can confirm the reality of the user's experience in a post office. The way I deal with it is: be kind, make people feel important and avoid rush hours (morning, noon and late afternoon). And going there with a french speaking friend may be of great help.
    – mouviciel
    Jan 19, 2013 at 9:29
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The office locator of La Poste tells there is a post office in Val Thorens, so you can give it a try.

According to Moneygram website, it seems you can receive money in any Moneygram agency. But I am not so sure about Moneygram partnering with La Poste. You can try and if it does not work, use Moneygram office locator.

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  • Thanks, I went to the post office but they do not do Western union, I will have to go down the valley to Les Mouniers.
    – tomaytotomato
    Jan 15, 2013 at 19:22
  • weird that they do not do Western Union in every post office. But it's good if you could finally get your money
    – Vince
    Jan 15, 2013 at 23:00

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