Internation Wire Transfers?

[StayAtHomeDad]

Hi Guy. Was wondering if anyone here has any experience with large wire transfers from U.S banks to accounts here in the Philippines - particularly RCBC if you bank there? Have received many 4-digit transfers to my account here in the past, and they cleared within a banking day or two. However, recently had a company wire me a substantially larger sum to my PI account and it has been several days and still no joy in my account. Have any of you had large transfers held? If so, what were the reasons you were given for them being held. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Yes and Yes and it had to do with the name on the transfer not being exact. Previous transfers had said David. Then someone wrote Dave. Big hold up. Another time it was my Canadian bank miss transcribing a number on the transfer. It took a month to sort that out.

Good luck.

[StayAtHomeDad]

Thank you. I will check with the US bank and inquire about the information they entered. Thanks again for the reply.

[StayAtHomeDad]

Has anyone had an issue with a middle initial being used instead of the middle name? For instance, my account is listed in the :"John James Doe" format. If the sending bank used "John J. Doe," would that cause an issue you think?

[Dave Hounddriver]

The RCBC is very fussy about the name on the wire transfer matching the name on the account exactly. No experience with middle initials but if its not the same as on the account they will bounce it back OR hold it in Manila until your RCBC bank manager phones them to check. It does not hurt to try that first. Just tell the bank manager the amount of the transfer and they check for transfers of that amount which have problems. They did not find mine that way but they tried. Mine got stalled at or sent back to the US bank where it sits in limbo. (The US bank is the intermediary where my transfers go before going to RCBC in Manila. I forget the name of that bank.)

[StayAtHomeDad]

Thanks so much for your help. By the way, do you use the RCBC online banking? Also, have you noticed that electronic deposits usually show up at 9PM, or is that just for me? I get a lot of transfers from Paypal, wires, etc, and about 99% seem to post to my account at about 9:01 pm. I am hoping to see one tonight for sure.. but not holding my breath.

The RCBC is very fussy about the name on the wire transfer matching the name on the account exactly. No experience with middle initials but if its not the same as on the account they will bounce it back OR hold it in Manila until your RCBC bank manager phones them to check. It does not hurt to try that first. Just tell the bank manager the amount of the transfer and they check for transfers of that amount which have problems. They did not find mine that way but they tried. Mine got stalled at or sent back to the US bank where it sits in limbo. (The US bank is the intermediary where my transfers go before going to RCBC in Manila. I forget the name of that bank.)

[Dave Hounddriver]

My experience with RCBC online is that the deposits show up sometime during the day, never have been able to pinpoint when but they do not happen at night, for me.

[StayAtHomeDad]

Wow.. weird... I am exactly the opposite. Never had one show during the day for me..Only at night. Maybe it's a regiopnal thing.

[StayAtHomeDad]

Oh Dave. Just curious, but about how long do most of your wires through RCBC take when no problems?

[JJReyes]

Wire transfers can be expensive. I would recommend visiting the RCBC website, which includes a page about their Philippine remittance centers. There is a list of places you can go to remit. The price different is wire transfers can cost $60 or $65 per transaction, while remittances are around $7.00. I also use Philippine National Bank since both banks have Honolulu offices. The bank-to-bank confirmation of deposit takes less than two minutes.