Banks

[i am bob]

The first 2 months you probably won't worry about the ACR that much...  If you want to rent right away, just let the landlord know you can't get the bank account until you get the ACR and that won't be until you do your Visa renewal for your third month...  This is when you would normally fill out the paperwork for the ACR.  Of course, you can always apply for it earlier...  I was talking to someone at BDO a while back and they told me that, as long as I had the receipt for the ACR, they can open a bank account at that point.  Will that work at all banks and branches?  Who knows!  All you can do is ask the bank you want to deal with.  Anyway, going back to the potential landlord...  Usually they will accept that your ACR and bankcard are coming...  Some will ask for a cash deposit to cover this time...  Some will just accept cash as due - like mine does.  Every situation can be and probably will be different than the one you looked at 5 minutes ago.  You just have to learn to be flexible!

 

:tiphat:  :rolleyes:  :mocking:

[Adam Lee]

ah okay, thanks Bob. I'm probably worrying too much about the whole thing but just want to avoid any obvious pitfalls.

[Adam Lee]

Actually, having a look at my situation again and ignoring the pre-dated cheques thing for the time being, essentially what I want to be able to do (and sorry for hijacking your thread here Steve) is transfer funds from a UK current/checking account (HSBC) that has a balance to fund my stay in PI for a couple of years, into a peso checking account once opened to be used for paying bills, ATM withdrawals etc., once living in Phil. Transfers would probably be no more than £2000 at a time and only as and when needed.

 

I know VirginPrunes has mentioned about the BPI Europe sterling account but would there be any need for this if I could just go direct between the UK account and the peso account or am I missing something here? Is one way cheaper than the other in respect of exchange rates etc. or can I not go direct and have to have the intermediary sterling account?

[earthdome]

Actually, having a look at my situation again and ignoring the pre-dated cheques thing for the time being,

 

I don't know how common the whole pre-dated cheque thing is for rentals here. In my limited experience having rented in two different locations and looked for rentals in two different locations, I never ran across this practice. More likely is requiring first and last months rent plus 1 month deposit. So you need to pay 3 months rent to move in.

[virginprune]

Actually, having a look at my situation again and ignoring the pre-dated cheques thing for the time being, essentially what I want to be able to do (and sorry for hijacking your thread here Steve) is transfer funds from a UK current/checking account (HSBC) that has a balance to fund my stay in PI for a couple of years, into a peso checking account once opened to be used for paying bills, ATM withdrawals etc., once living in Phil. Transfers would probably be no more than £2000 at a time and only as and when needed.

 

I know VirginPrunes has mentioned about the BPI Europe sterling account but would there be any need for this if I could just go direct between the UK account and the peso account or am I missing something here? Is one way cheaper than the other in respect of exchange rates etc. or can I not go direct and have to have the intermediary sterling account?

I believe you may need to have an ACR card before you can open a peso account here, however mileage can vary depending on branch managers discretion. Maybe if you turn up at a bank with £2000 that may be sufficient for them to open an account for you.

Another option if you will be here on a temporary basis is to transfer via WorldRemit for cash pickup from a bank. Their exchange isn't too bad and the fees are only £6.90 per transaction. This can all be done online while you are here. Good luck in whatever way you wish to go on this.

[Dave Hounddriver]

I don't know how common the whole pre-dated cheque thing is for rentals here. In my limited experience having rented in two different locations and looked for rentals in two different locations, I never ran across this practice.

 

I have only been asked in one location and when I explained that it is difficult for foreigners to get a checking account they relaxed the rules for me.  Most landlords that I have dealt with like foreign tenants.

[Adam Lee]

Okay thanks guys.

 

I guess ideally I'd like to open a peso checking account asap after arrival (if I can get around the whole ACR -I card business) as I want to be able to limit ATM withdrawals on my UK debit card to as short a time as possible. I'm figuring it's going to be cheaper to do a bank transfer every now and again from my UK bank to a peso account (or if needs be from my UK bank to a BPI Europe sterling account and then on to a peso account although this seems like a step I could do without) than having to rely on my debit card every five minutes to pay rent, bills, etc., or even World Remit transactions in place of my debit card for that matter.

 

Does anyone have any experience of doing bank transfers from their native countries straight into a peso checking account by any chance? Are there any obstacles that exist that I should know about or is it just like any other bank transfer? If it is straightforward and doable, are the charges and exchange rates liable to be that different than what you'd incur by going the UK bank > BPI Europe > BPI Peso route?

 

Apologies for all the questions but this is proving to be slightly more puzzling than I expected it to be.

[scott h]

Does anyone have any experience of doing bank transfers from their native countries straight into a peso checking account by any chance?

 

Yes........I believe, at least what I was told at my bank, I could only transfer between like accounts, dollars to a dollar account, pound to a pound account etc.

 

You want to do this anyway. IMO it is best to go to your bank, withdrawal your pounds, then go to an outside money changer. You will get a much better rate of exchange. Same goes with ATM cards.

[Adam Lee]

Okay thanks Scott.

 

You can open a sterling acc with them in UK and transfer money into that, they will then open a peso acc for you in PI you then transfer how much and whenever using internet banking into that acc which eradicates charges at the atm. Their ex rate is very good too

 

 

Just out of interest VirginPrune, is it a remittance transaction you make from your BPI Europe STAR account into your BPI Peso account?

[Dave Hounddriver]

I'm figuring it's going to be cheaper to do a bank transfer every now and again from my UK bank to a peso account

 

I find that to be correct when the cost of the bank transfer is smaller than the cost of multiple ATM withdrawals.  ATM withdrawals of 15,000 pesos cost me about 300 pesos (all in) in transaction fees while a bank transfer by wire would cost me about 1000 pesos.  Thus for me it becomes cheaper when I am sending more than 45000 pesos.  I find currency exchange rates to be very similar when comparing ATM withdrawals to wire transfers that include currency conversion.