Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• MONEY ORDER
  
  an instrument of exchange purchased for a fee from the U.S. Postal Service or from a financial institution. The instrument is an order to pay on demand a sum of money specified on the face of the order to a party (the payee) named by the purchaser. Since the purchaser has already paid the face amount of a money order to the issuer, the payee presenting the order to an agent of the issuer is sure of collecting the funds. Thus, money orders are easily converted to cash anywhere in the United States, or anywhere the issuer has agents.
  
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