Wells Fargo And Bpi Bank Express Send

[Mr Lee]

Art2ro had sent me an email because I had failed to update a thread somewhere on the forum about this but before I left I had promised I would, so here is my opinion based on my experiences with trying to send money via Wells Fargo to BPI, in short do not waste your time but your experience may vary.First of all I called Wells Fargo and got the run around and then told that I had to call another number to set up the direct send. I called the other number only to be told by the employee that I had to go into the bank to set it up, why didn't the first woman tell me that, I have no idea.I spent about an hour yesterday in Wells Fargo to set up the Express send but the representative never bothered to tell me that I had to do the first send from the bank, even after I told her that I wanted it set up and then would be going home to send a test amount. So upon arriving home I signed into my account and tried to send, only for it to tell me online that it needed to be done in the bank. I attempted to call the representative with the phone number on her business card that she had handed me and all it did was ring, so I waited until the morning and then I called the number again, only for it to just ring, so I called Wells Fargo's 800 number and they gave me the correct branch phone number and transferred me to the branch and told me that only the branch could do the transfer. I then spoke to the lady who had set it up and now she said I had to come into the branch and deal with a teller to send money, why didn't she tell me that when I was in yesterday.So I go to the branch and go up to the teller window and the teller has no idea how to do this and calls over a manager. At no time did anyone tell me it could only be sent if converted to pisos or I would never have even bothered, so my bad for not doing more research online recently because in the past it never said anything about exchanging the money, but one would think the branch or the main office would have known that. So I ask to send a test amount of $100 to my dollar account in the Philippines, again no one said a word and both of them were learning on my attempted transfer, it was sort of the blind leading the even blinder. Finally it is done only to get a receipt showing they were going to give me 41.27 when the exchange rate online shows 42.82, so it appears they also charge a conversion fee of about 3.5% on top of the $5 fee they claim they only charge, so I told them to cancel the exchange if it was not in dollars because I had it sent to my dollar account, so they would then have to convert it back to dollars to deposit it, so I would have paid two conversion fees and the $5 charge, so better to cancel. Now comes the fun, the manager has to call the main office to figure out why it did not go in dollars, after 15 minutes, she and two others put their heads together and then call me back to the window only to tell me it would have to be in pisos, so I again said cancel it and so after another 10 minutes or so they got it canceled.Now comes the kicker, they took the $100 plus $5 out of my account but they said that they could not put it back in for 7 days, so I wasted lots of hours and got nothing accomplished and I may have to follow up to even get my money back. I am seriously considering doing business with another bank such as HSBC since it seems everyone at Wells Fargo that I had to deal with was learning even when some said they had worked there for years.My advice would be, if you wish to set something like this up, be sure to set it up with the money going to a piso account and while this may be worthwhile for some to do to send money to their relatives, I prefer to just deposit my US check and wait the 3 weeks it takes for it to clear.Hope that saves someone some time but one size does not fit all, so possibly others might be happy with Wells Fargo and have had a better experience with them than I did. More power to you if that is the case.

[Call me bubba]

The US branches bank system it seems is not set up or "understands" the "remittance" concept.only in the past few years have they "woke up and smelled the coffee " of how much money they was losing, NOW in an attempt to play catch up, they have the "express"send (remittance)policy,maybe the branch (state) your using is "new" to the system,compared to California which would use more of the "express send" .Your FEEDBACK and experiences are much appreciated from at least me,as i am always wish to know what is a better way to send/refresh my funds. We know here in the RP if you make a complaint that it seems to fall on DEAF EARS,or more sorry sir (BS), Would it be effective to "complain" or send feedback on your experience since your presently in the US? Do you think that "they would actually care" (or gives a rats axxs) about the "ineffective"service you had? from my experience here they just dont give a rats axxs. The US customer service when i have had issues regarding International transactions,esp involving the RP, they do seem to care and want to assist (no sorry sir BS) excuse if I went :) but customer service or the lack of , is a small problem here in the RPwhich does affect most of us who live here.Since Mr Lee has lived here for many yearsI am sure his feedback will be of use to others , :thumbsup:

Edited February 15, 2012 by Call me Bubba

[Jollygoodfellow]

Since Mr Lee has lived here for many years I am sure his feedback will be of use to others ,

Mr Lee does not live there other than 3 or so months a year, he lives in Florida :thumbsup:

[Art2ro]

Since Mr Lee has lived here for many years I am sure his feedback will be of use to others ,

Mr Lee does not live there other than 3 or so months a year, he lives in Florida :thumbsup:

Lee and his wife also owns a condo in Cebu as their vacation home 2 to 3 months out of the year, which maybe an envy of a lot of members including myself in maintaining 2 households where as most of the retirees here in the Philippines can only afford to maintain a single household due to tight finances! I appreciate Lee's effort for taking the time for his finding out the answer to my question concerning Well Fargo! Thanks Lee! Edited February 15, 2012 by Art2ro

[Jollygoodfellow]

Great now we can keep it on topic now that we are all clear of the facts :thumbsup:

[Art2ro]

It seems that Wells Fargo Bank does have the on-line feature to remit or transfer funds to one's peso account here in the Philippines at a cost of $5 per $3,000 and at a low exchange rate and a service fee of 3.5% which is totally unacceptable and a rip-off IMHO when they are already giving the low exchange rate! Only those desperate enough will pay the total $110 per transaction of $3,000. I won't and I'm sure the average retiree trying to save money won't either! So, I guess it's back to square one or stay with my "free banking system" as I call it with BPI which hasn't cost me a dime in 13 years of whatever transactions I've done, like U.S. check deposits, dollars & peso withdrawals at their ATMs or over the counter and they even gave us a 12 yr mortgage loan which we already paid off in full! You won't encounter too many banks now a days that does that for a foreigner! Yes, even though I'm a Fil/Am and a Balikbayan on a BB stamp, I'm still considered a tourist and it says so on my ACR I-card!

[Mr Lee]

It is true that some branches will have much more experience with those transfers and my point was to make people aware that they could have issues if they do not know what to tell the bank that they want. I could call Wells Fargo to complain but the ladies I spoke to and dealt with were all very nice and I do not wish to get anyone in trouble, IMO it is not their fault that the company has not trained them properly or given them instructions to follow to accomplish those transfers and part of it was my fault for not doing a recent internet search and thus finding the updated pages that I believe were not there when I posted the original thread. Here is a page that explains some more https://www.wellsfar...remittance/asia but I believe this page was not online when I started looking into this or I never would have bothered to try. IMHO it should say everywhere that a person can send the local equivalency of up to $3000 and not that they can send up to $3000, but that is just how I have read Wells Fargo's past online sites and even the one above is not clear to me, but maybe I do not comprehend well. Here is the simple version.Go to Wells Fargo and ask them to set up express send.Be sure to give them a piso account number for it to go into unless you want the cash picked up at one of the pick up places.Have them do a test send for you into your BPI or other bank that they are affiliated with and that you have an account in.Then once you go online and see that the money arrived, then you can sign into your Wells Fargo account and send more money anytime you want to.Just be prepared for the $5 fee (no big deal) and the approx 3.5% or so for the exchange service fee that they seem to charge based on what they were shaving off the actual exchange rate they were willing to give us. So they do not charge $110 fee, it could be more or less depending on how much you would send and based on the amount of pisos they actually give you, due to the actual exchange rate, and that will vary based on the exchange rate you get for your dollars. 50 to 1 x 3.5%= 1.75 x $3000 = p5250 verses 42 to 1 x 3.5%= 1.47 x $3000 = p4410 as an example. I will not bother using express send because the limit is $3000 and at approx 3.5% exchange fee, that is $105 (at the exchange rate when I tried to do it) exchange fee plus the $5 they charge, so surely not worth it for me to bother with. It will probably be less expensive to use a US HSBC ATM card which I am told will charge no fee if used at a HSBC branch worldwide but will shave a little off the top, or just keep doing what we are doing, writing dollar checks and waiting for them to clear to make the exchange when we want to, which I have found is the best way if one can afford to wait to do the exchange based on how much is being offered and I can also pick the best date with the highest exchange rate, can't do that with money sent. So for those just visiting, a few dollars or pisos either way is no big deal and IMO should not be worried about and just enjoy your vacations, but for those living in the Philippines or spending a lot of time there, a few dollars with each exchange or transfer can really add up in a year or in my case in heading towards 18 years of exchanging money. To each his own and as Art always says, different strokes for different folks. As for us, we try to send checks to be deposited into our account in the Philippines to live on before we even go over, so I do not have to worry about doing it with Wells Fargo but wanted to have an alternative if an emergency would have come about.

[Lordblacknail]

We didn't have any problems with setting up our transfer account with Wells Fargo, because we kept asking if that was all the information we needed until they were sick of us. Even so, they didn't tell us we had to do the first transfer in person. Lucky for us Marie's sister was on the account so she was able to do so. The first time we sent money to BPI from Wells Fargo and I saw how they ripped us on the exchange rate, was the last time. We only paid $3 not five, and it took three hours. but the rat was unacceptable. We can send money from BPI to our credit union in the US for $14 or from our credit union to BPI for $15. Both arrive the same day if sent early enough. We get and send dollars. So far that is the best one I have seen, considering the limits on withdrawal from the ATMs.

[Art2ro]

I guess Wells Fargo isn't getting any business from me on our next vacation in California the end of 2013! I'll just stick to my so called "free banking system" with BPI and have been for the past 13 years! No sense in fixing something that ain't broke! BTW, anyone have an account with USAA Credit Union in the States? I just opened an account there and just wondering what on-line features they have by way of money transfers from USAA to banks in the Philippines! I haven't yet checked it out and that's why I'm asking! Just open a new topic about USAA if you can provide any info on the matter. Thanks!

Edited February 16, 2012 by Art2ro

[Higg-num]

I'll check with USAA but I am not holding my breath. I have other accounts I opened for this reason BUT the fine print and I am back in the same " Getting ripped off " situation as posted above with my local Military credit union. Soooooo I opened a Capital one on line account. They cover up to 25 U.S.D. per month ATM fee's.

Think I may be stuck with xoom till I can open a local account at a P.I. bank. Not certain if that is possible me just being a " visitor ".