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How to Use Three Names for AdSense Western Union Payments

08/2020 Update: As of early 2021, Google will stop disbursing payments through Western Union. You’re therefore required to select a different payment method before this date. You may as an alternative consider using the Wire Transfer payment method if it’s supported in your country.

AdSense supports paying earnings to publishers through various methods such as checks, electronic funds transfer (EFT) and wire transfer.

AdSense also supports sending payments through Western Union Quick Cash which is a quicker and less complicated compared to the other methods.

Payment through Western Union is however only available for some select countries.

To receive a payment through Western Union one only needs the Western Union MTCN Number. This number is included in the AdSense receipt and includes other details of your payment such as the recipient’s name, the amount, the sender’s address (i.e Google Ireland) and the Billing ID.

Withdrawing Payment With All Your Names

When withdrawing, one is also required to prove their identity in addition to providing the MTCN number. This is typically done by providing one’s national identification card so that the western union gent confirms the names match with the payee names provided by the sender.

One may also be asked to provided an answer to the secret question in which case you provide the Billing ID. Some agent’s will however just ask straight for the billing ID.

Now everything may checkout but with Adsense payments it’s likely that you’ll run into a problem with the agent regarding your names. This happened to me on two occasions, luckily in both I only got a warning to instruct the sender to update my names.

The exact problem is that the agent may decline to release the funds because the payee name from  Google doesn’t have the three names as displayed in your identification.

This might seem incorrect at first since the three names that you signed up with for the Adsense account will be displayed on the payment receipt along with your address.

Thing is the agent doesn’t see these names. Instead they see the recipient names that are provided in the Western Union payment options in Adsense Payment settings. This recipient name is INDEPENDENT of that in your account and you can actually use different names for it should you want to.

Google has to blame for this problem since there are only two fields for the recipient name in the Western Union payment settings i.e First Name and Last Name.

So naturally most people just comply by entering their two names: their first name followed by either their surname or middle name in the last name field.

Update to Use Three Names

1. To correct this quite simple just go to: Payments > Manage payment methods > Edit

payment method
Manage payment method

2. This will launch Update your payment method pop up window that has your current two names.

3. In the First Name field enter BOTH your first and middle as they appear in your ID. e.g JOHN DOE

enter names
Enter your three names

4. In the Last Name field enter your surname as it appears on your ID e.g. SMITH

5. Agree to the terms and click update to apply the new names.

What if the Agent declines to release the payment?

If the agent refuses to pay you because of this little confusion, you can wait for 60 days and the money for this payment will be refunded back into your Adsense account.

By the time this happens, update your name as explained above and in the next payment cycle your accumulated money should be sent with the updated three names.

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6 Comments

  1. Hi Muriuki,
    Thank you very much for the help.I still have a question though, with the updated names,can i then be able to withdraw the money from adsense using the same MTCN and Billing ID?

    1. Hi Josh,
      If you updated the names after the payment had already been issued, then the new names won’t be reflected in that particular payment. The updated names will be instead reflected in your next Western Union payments. You may still be able to withdraw in some places if it’s just the third (last) name that’s misssing.

  2. Hey.I’ve tried to add both my first name and middle name in the first box as you’ve said. I have a question though..Do you space the names or you just type them as one name, because if I space them I get an error message saying it can’t be saved and what not. Like, do you type in JohnSmith or John Smith? The latter does not go through and changes can’t be saved

    1. Kelvin Kathia Administrator

      Hey Kevin, you need to space the names. That’s what I did when I updated my names and it went through. Perhaps you can try using a different browser to see if that solves the problem.

  3. hello sir i have same problem i have 5 words name : ZAWAR ASGHAR with my FAther name ASGHAR ALI KHAN
    so my full name on my id is ( ZAWAR ASGHAR ASGHAR ALI KHAN ) how to write these words in first and last name fields please help

    1. Kelvin Administrator

      Hello Zawar,
      I’m not too sure for your case but since it seems that you’re using all your father’s names as your surname, I think you should enter your two names in the FIRST NAME field then your father’s three names in the LAST NAME field. Try and see if Adsense accepts. If it does you should have no problems with a WU agent provided the names match the ones in your National ID.

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Kelvin Kathia

Kelvin Kathia is a writer that's passionate about sharing solutions to everyday tech problems. He's the founder and editor of Journey Bytes, a tech blog and web design agency. Feel free to leave him comments or questions regarding this post, or by leaving him a message on the contact page. If you found his content helpful, a donation is much appreciated.