Here’s an irony passed on from Rakesh Sood, who trades as Handersons in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, regarding Western Union commission. He’s been an agent for more than a decade. Originally, he didn’t do many transactions because he felt he had to be on the premises. Then he decided to entrust his staff to do transactions, which upped the game to 300/400 per month.

A friend told him that there were several commission rates so he got in touch and the rep said, sure, you can make more, and his commission then moved from 14% to 18%. Most people using the service will send £100 or £200. Transaction fees used to be £4.90 minimum and Rakesh used to get 14%, but now the transaction fee has been dropped to £2.90, presumably because of all the competition out there. So if someone wants to send £100 they pay £102.90 and he gets 18% of £2.90).

“So it’s actually gone down,” observes Rakesh, “for the same amount of work.”•