A money order is a check issued by an organization such as the Postal Service or sold by third parties such as grocery stores, convenience stores, or banks and other financial services companies, to allow individuals to make payments to each other or to pay bills such as utilities and rent.

A money order is purchased for the amount desired. In this way it is similar to a certified check . The main difference is that money orders are usually limited in face value to some specified figure (usually under $1,000) while certified checks are not. A money order is usually considered safer for payments from parties unknown to the payee, as opposed to a personal check drawn on the maker's bank account, since a money order is generally guaranteed cashable by the receiving party, unlike an ordinary check. In recent years, partly for this reason, and partly for convenience, money orders have also been much used as payment for goods bought over the Internet; such transactions more often take place between two private individuals than is the case for non-Internet transactions, which are most often between individuals on the one hand and commercial companies on the other.

See also

• cashier's check
• international money order