Bank Exchange Rates

[johnrxx99]

I posted a short while ago about HSBC and weekend rates of exchange when using an ATM.I now find these poor rates are all the time. Clearly HSBC have increased commission without telling their clients and I thought I should post again to warn people that other banks may be doing the same in order to claw back some of the huge losses.It has always been the case that if you have a US $ or UK

[Call me bubba]

I posted a short while ago about HSBC and weekend rates of exchange when using an ATM.I now find these poor rates are all the time. Clearly HSBC have increased commission without telling their clients and I thought I should post again to warn people that other banks may be doing the same in order to claw back some of the huge losses.It has always been the case that if you have a US $ or UK� account, it was best to draw that currency in cash and exchange on the street. This is now well worth while, from HSBC anyway.Yesterday I withdrew 20000 peso and got a rate of 67.18 peso to the � whereas the money chnager in Ayala was giving 69,4 and that is far from the best rate you can get in the street. The official exchange rate is 70.29 as I write, having come back well over the last few days. The 600peso+ difference between the money changers and HSBC is a good lunch, well for me anyway.

.........I use my bank (usa)ATM DEBT card for my expenses, as i was unable to direct deposit my funds directly.I get a fair rate. how do i determine this.. I use YAHOO finance . currency converter. the rate I see posted I usually get 20c less. i dont use money changers as i 1. don't have any us dollars anymore 2. yes the rate they offer is good but always a risk of cheating or being robbed. ALSO MAY I add not Hsbc imposes a service fee but master-card or visa. since march 2010 BDO,BPI, and most if not all the banks now charge a 150 to 200 php fee for using a NON LOCAL ATM card (international-card) . that amounts to $3-4 each transaction but i only w/d 2x month. still lower than remitting . hope this has been helpful to you and others/

[Art2ro]

We never use our U.S. ATM or Credit Cards here in the Philippines! I just hate being charged all those service fees per transaction! We just write out our U.S. personal checks and deposit it into our BPI dollar account and when it clears after 25 days, We just withdraw our dollars in person or we just convert our dollars into our joint ATM peso savings account on-line and withdraw cash from any BPI ATM up to P20,000 a day and or pay our bills on-line, it's truly our free banking system here in the Philippines, because we don't pay any service fees for any of our BPI banking transactions! It has worked for us for 12 years now and all of my U.S. Government pensions, including Social Security pension are direct deposited into our joint U.S. bank account in California!Oh BTW, this topic was about bank exchange rates! BPI is usually about .20 centavos less than the going rates elsewhere with other money exchangers! I just go on-line to convert my dollars to pesos under $1,000 or withdraw large sums over $1,000 and find better rates with a few reputable money changers in town!

Edited March 1, 2011 by Art2ro

[Art2ro]

Anyone notice the dollar exchange rate recently? Just a few weeks ago I needed some pesos and had to exchanged my dollars at P41.99 and now the going rate is around P43.80! I just don't understand the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar to pesos lately when they constantly say how bad the economy is in the U.S.! Here's one opinion I got off another forum while just Google browsing around for an explanation as to why the abrupt rate increase, which sort of makes some sense to me! Sort of! The dollar trading in the Philippines has been flat lately because there wasn’t much to say. It bounced around 42.5 ever since the central bank of the Philippines rescued it after the ridiculous downgrade by S and P. Why do I say ridiculous?I say it because where do investors turn to when there is trouble in the world economy? They turn to the US dollar. Even with its troubles the dollar is still the most stable currency in the world. If the dollar fails everything fails. When investors are fearful, they turn to the dollar.Those that are into dollar trading on a regular basis call it “risk aversion.” Those must be the most over used words when it comes to talking about FOREX and investing in general.The long term strength of the dollar was best shown in what happened when S and P took that insane, unwarranted action. The downgrade caused a high degree of economic uncertainly in the short term markets. So how did investors react? They borrowed money from the United States Government!S and P took that action to try to regain some credibility. It should make them a laughing stock.The dollar will rise again and it may even do it faster than I have come to expect. The years of 2008 to 2010 saw dollar trading below 40 to higher than P50 to 1 USD.Sometimes people think that the dollar trading at 45 to 1 means your American money will go 45 times further in the Philippines. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I certainly wish it was true. I’d say 2 to 3 time further with it being mush closer to 2 times further. That depends on your needs. It also depends on how much cash you have. For most of us that live on a pension that means we must cut back.Your housing dollar will go about 2 to 3 times further. Maybe even higher than that. Now you’re electricity dollar will not but the cost of housing, especially rent will. Services are also cost very little in the Philippines. A trip to the dermatologist resulted in a doctor bill of about $2.50. Can you imagine that in the USA? I can’t. It cost more than that for a trip to a country doctor in Clinton Mississippi in the 70′s! It cost five times that. The dollar trading at P40 to 1 will make your money go further in some areas but not in all. In other areas it could cost you more. Don’t let anyone tell you it cost more to live in the Philippines. For those that is true for it is because they choose for it to cost more. It would require a lot of effort on my part to make that true, I’d go broke before I could get there.I am of course happy to see the dollar above 43 again. I’ve learned my lesson about thinking that short term rises, especially sharp ones like this is a signal of great things to come though. Investors or fickle and none are as fickle as Forex traders. Dollar trading could be at 41 next week and I would not be surprised. I don’t think dollar trading will be that low but if it happened it would only sadden me, not surprise me. The dollar is trading in the Philippines has been flat lately because there wasn’t much to say. It bounced around 42.5 ever since the central bank of the Philippines rescued it after the ridiculous downgrade by S and P. Why do I say ridiculous?The dollar is trading in the Philippines been flat lately because there wasn’t much to say. It bounced around 42.5 ever since the central bank of the Philippines rescued it after the ridiculous downgrade by S and P. Why do I say ridiculous?I say it because where do investors turn to when there is trouble in the world economy? They turn to the US dollar. Even with its troubles the dollar is still the most stable currency in the world. If the dollar fails everything fails. When investors are fearful, they turn to the dollar.

Edited September 23, 2011 by Art2ro

[Mr Lee]

If the world goes off the dollar standard for oil trading and other items, then we will probably see the dollar bottom out like we have never seen before. For those who can afford it, it is my opinion that they should hedge their bets with currency from other countries, so in our case we hedge with pisos and in doing so, we make sure we have enough to live for a period of time if all else goes to hell in the US. I think Canadian dollars might be a safe bet to hedge with, since Canada seems to be pretty stable, what do you think? The PDIC now insures for p500,000 per depositor on an account, so on an account with two people it would be insured for p1,000,000 according to the banks I have spoken to but I can not find that written on any PDIC site in that plain English, other than as it states per depositor, so to play it safe, and if a person can afford it, and lives in the Philippines, or intends to, then maybe :tiphat: it would be a good idea to put p500,000 or as much as one can afford, into a number of the top Philippine banks to hedge in case the dollar or other home currencies fail, after all the dollar has lost value every year since I was born, so it might be a good gamble, then again it might not if the Philippines economy goes to hell. :unsure: All I know is that we only exchange nowadays when we have to or want to, so I pick the highs and stay away from the lows when exchanging because of the reserve we try to keep. I also find Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays to usually be the best days to do exchanges. Anyone think it is a good idea or bad idea to hedge this way, to protect oneself against the fluctuations in the exchange rate? Anyone find it consistently better to exchange on Monday or Friday?

[Old55]

Great info Art!

[Art2ro]

Wow! P44.03 to the U.S. dollar and on a Saturday when the Philippines Stock Exchange and banks are closed! Every time I try to convert my dollars to pesos during the beginning of week the rate goes down and when I wait, it goes even lower! When least expected, it goes up, like on the weekend! And they said the peso would be down to P41! That just goes to show that experts don't know what they are talking about! Quotes from Yahoo Finance Sat Oct 1, 20111 U.S. Dollar = 44.031 Canadian Dollar = 41.93331 Australian Dollar = 42.53961 British Pound = 68.6186 BTW, GOOD LUCK EVERYONE ! This year October has 5 Mondays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This Happens once every 823years! This is called the money bags. So copy this to your status and money will arrive within 4days, based on Chinese Feng Shui and the one who does not copy this, will be without money. Copy within 11 mins of reading. (Can't hurt so I did it :unsure:! --- MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!

Edited October 1, 2011 by Art2ro

[Art2ro]

Today is Monday, Oct 3 and the dollar to peso exchange rate is now at P43.95!Didn't I say it's usually lower at the beginning of the week? Let's see what it's at this coming weekend! 1 U.S. Dollar = 43.955 1 Canadian Dollar = 41.9162 1 Australian Dollar = 42.3924 1 British Pound = 68.3129

Edited October 3, 2011 by Art2ro

[Steve & Myrlita]

Today is Monday, Oct 3 and the dollar to peso exchange rate is now at P43.95!Didn't I say it's usually lower at the beginning of the week? Let's see what it's at this coming weekend! 1 U.S. Dollar = 43.955 1 Canadian Dollar = 41.9162 1 Australian Dollar = 42.3924 1 British Pound = 68.3129

1st time I saw the US better than AU or CA in awhile.

[Inspector]

It was 44 today in Davao City...the last week I have been taking out the max using my Charles Schwab card. Some information on charles schwab...they refund the entire ATM fee of any bank you use, that NIGHT...and give a great exchange rate. I tested HSBC with my HSBC account, and HSBC ATM card, then used Charles in the HSBC and Charles at Metro. Metro was the lowest...Charles had almost 40 in HSBC for three days in that one HSBC ATM here in Davao. My plan of attack is taking out all my budget for the next 6-8 months and putting it in a BPI peso account. Lee gave great advice one time about having a peso account if you live here, in case of emergencies. Now with the great exchange rate, I am taking advantage of getting this cash with no ATM fees, while Charles still honoring the free ATM fees. Wow, the last time I remember it at 44 was 4 years ago when I lived in the Subic freeport zone.