Money Order (redirected from International Money order)

money order

Certificate requiring the issuer to pay a certain sum of money on demand to a specific person or organization. Money orders provide a fast, safe, and convenient means of transferring small sums of money. They are issued by governments (usually through postal authorities), banks, and other qualified institutions to buyers who pay the issuer the face amount of the money order plus a service charge. Because they are exchangeable for cash on demand, they are a generally accepted means of payment. The American Express Co. began issuing money orders in 1882; the company also created the first traveler's checks nine years later. See also currency.

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Money Order 

a means of remittance used by enterprises, organizations, and institutions to settle accounts among themselves or with individual citizens; also used by citizens among themselves. Money orders are issued by banks and savings offices or by postal and telegraph offices. They are used by legal persons and individuals to settle accounts for payments into the budget, to pay off suppliers and banks, for payment of wages and authors’ royalties, and the like.

A distinction is made between intracity and intercity money orders, and the latter are further subdivided into postal and telegraph orders. If the remittances are made by legal persons, the credit institutions and communications enterprises make various types of noncash payments, usually drafts. Commissions are collected from private persons for the issuance of money orders, while legal persons are only charged for telegraph orders.

In addition to the conventional money order, there are special-purpose forms that are used when the sum transferred has a predetermined purpose. Such remittances are used for settlements between legal persons and are paid from a separate account set up, for example, to pay for goods and services.