What bank to have

[stevewool]

Having no experience of banking in the Phils but knowing there are banks here in England like BPI,

Would it be best to try to open a account here in England with that bank and just make transfers to the bank over in the Phils,

For the time being all our cash will be in banks in England and having just a little with us ,

Are there any banks that give you intrest too over in the Philippines too,

[Dave Hounddriver]

This probably won't help you because you keep telling us that you are poor  but a fellow I know used to talk about getting a fancy account at HSBC in England that required him to keep some large amount of money on deposit but allowed him to make transfers to Philippines free of charge.  Trouble is, the only HSBC banks I know of are in Cebu or Manila so if you don't want to live there then that won't help you.

[Jack Peterson]

59 minutes ago, stevewool said:

Having no experience of banking in the Phils but knowing there are banks here in England like BPI,

Would it be best to try to open a account here in England with that bank and just make transfers to the bank over in the Phils,

For the time being all our cash will be in banks in England and having just a little with us ,

Are there any banks that give you intrest too over in the Philippines too,

 Steve, there have been many Topics on this and the one thing that comes from all of them is That the PI banks in any other Country are NOT Linked. For me, Leave until you are here and then Open an Account. use you ATM from your own Bank until you have the lay of the LAND. To me this is far safer.

 I use a PNB savings account with a local ATM & credit Card and has quite a good Interest rate and will accept all payments from Abroad. + it has Online banking but so have others and no doubt others will chip in.

[Dave Hounddriver]

4 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

That the PI banks in any other Country are NOT Linked.

That's why I mentioned the HSBC, which I have reason to believe may be the only one that is.

This is from their Philippine HSBC site:

 

Quote

 

Move Money enables you to make payments and transfers in the same or different currencies with your HSBC accounts worldwide.

You can:

• Transfer money between your own accounts, even in different currencies
• Send money to an existing payee or set up a new payee
• Set up and edit recurring payments
• Pay bills (in local currency/PHP) and see your bill payment history

 

• And that concurs with what I mentioned in the post above and with what David Whittall told me he was doing, back when he had money. Perhaps someone else can confirm or rebut this thought?

[stevewool]

14 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

This probably won't help you because you keep telling us that you are poor  but a fellow I know used to talk about getting a fancy account at HSBC in England that required him to keep some large amount of money on deposit but allowed him to make transfers to Philippines free of charge.  Trouble is, the only HSBC banks I know of are in Cebu or Manila so if you don't want to live there then that won't help you.

We are all poor compared to others , but richer for knowing everyone here,

I too was going down that way years ago with HSBC, but why should they have all my money,

[stevewool]

14 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Steve, there have been many Topics on this and the one thing that comes from all of them is That the PI banks in any other Country are NOT Linked. For me, Leave until you are here and then Open an Account. use you ATM from your own Bank until you have the lay of the LAND. To me this is far safer.

 I use a PNB savings account with a local ATM & credit Card and has quite a good Interest rate and will accept all payments from Abroad. + it has Online banking but so have others and no doubt others will chip in.

Thanks Jack,

I am wanting to keep all my accounts here in England as i shall still have the house here and bills to be paid  from that account, plus if i am getting good intrest  for now

[Jack Peterson]

18 minutes ago, stevewool said:

I am wanting to keep all my accounts here in England as i shall still have the house here and bills to be paid  from that account, plus if i am getting good intrest  for now

That's fine just open a local Account for the things you do need one for just make sure you can Transfer in as the exchange rate is always better

[robert k]

2 hours ago, stevewool said:

Thanks Jack,

I am wanting to keep all my accounts here in England as i shall still have the house here and bills to be paid  from that account, plus if i am getting good intrest  for now

OMG banks in England are still paying good interest? Or did you lock in a 10 year certificate of deposit?

[stevewool]

Just now, robert k said:

OMG banks in England are still paying good interest? Or did you lock in a 10 year certificate of deposit?

Depends on what you call good interest compared to no interest,

The catch is you can only have so much in each account, 4% but only for £5,000, one bank, 3% for £20,000 in another bank, so if you play at it, you can get something,

The next plan is to open 2 accounts in one bank so you may get around £1000 in interest each year, not brilliant some may say but every little helps towards the dream, and the lump sum is still safe ,

Also remember next year you are not paying tax on your savings too, well up to around the first £70,000 or there abouts

[scott h]

19 hours ago, stevewool said:

Depends on what you call good interest

Here is a thought Steve, and not discussed much. Once you move here, check your local Barangay Credit Union. Ours offers double the interest rate that BPI does for savings accounts, and has a timed deposit of 5.5 % for 1 or 2 years I think. Down side is I do not think they are insured AND in the case of our credit union you must be a Philippine citizen to open an account. But in your case, long married etc. that shouldn't be a factor.

Just gist for thought