It’s been quite fashionable in the past week to talk about one’s experience with Google’s Western Union AdSense Payment option. For instance, here are several stories coming from the local bloggers:

• James has received $1,163.17 completely hassle-free and heartily recommends the Western Union option.

• Markku finds it was easier than expected and is infinitely preferable to losing his Google check to fraudsters in Dagupan.

• Michael shows that being nice, helpful, and witty makes the remittance an experience to smile at.

• Geri is happy because the arrival of Western Union couldn’t have come in a more timely manner because it was his first AdSense payment.

• Marghil got his AdSense payment and then treated his relatives all the way in Batangas.

Well, I finally got my AdSense payment a few hours ago. Receiving the payment is actually as easy as others have said it would be—it just took me about five minutes—but finding an open Western Union outlet is another story altogether.

Apparently there’s no accessible Western Union branch near Eastwood City that offers the Quick Cash program and I was unable to catch the closing time of the Sanry’s Foreign Exchange outlet twice (!) in Glorietta on the way home the past couple of days. The SM Makati Western Union outlet was open when I got there earlier tonight, but their Western Union connection was offline.

I was almost resigned to claiming my AdSense payment during the weekend until I tried looking for Joallier CBSC store at the Dusit Hotel Nikko. Thank God for hotels! The store was still open, even when the malls weren’t, and I finally got my $100+! Wheee!

Anyway, like Geri’s experience, the Western Union option couldn’t have come at a better time since this is also my first AdSense payment. I was ready to pay the $24 DHL secure delivery fee just to avoid the deplorable Google AdSense check fraud, but with Western Union, I didn’t have to. And best of all, I get my money completely free and without charges! Plus, it’s extremely secure! Aside from direct wire transfer to one’s bank account, nothing can get better than this.

A tip: Western Union’s peso-dollar exchange rate seems to be always lower than the market value. If you can help it, get your AdSense payment in dollars then go to a forex dealer to get better rates.

If you’re curious, I signed up for AdSense in February 2006. So it took me more than a year and a half to get my first hundred dollars. I would’ve wanted to snap a photo of a Google check (even if it wasn’t as big as this insane $133K check of Shoemoney), but the Western Union receipt forms (pictured above) is quite an acceptable alternative. Hehehe. Hopefully, I can get my next payment in February 2008, and my goal is to get monthly payments by the end of next year. Finally by the end of 2010, I hope to earn at least $1,000 per month. It doesn’t hurt to dream, right?