Wire Transfers from US to Philippines

[TheMason]

Greetings to the forum! Old time member here, but I've been dormant for years while living in the US with my wife and family. I have a banking question that I'm struggling to solve and hope someone can help me with current information.

We're getting ready to purchase some property in the Philippines and I need send about $35,000 USD to our family in Manila to fund the purchase. I've checked with Metrobank and BPI and it seems like they only accept international transfers if you go to their remittance centers in the US. My son has checked with the banks in Manila and been told the same thing. They told us to go their US branch to send the money. Problem is, I'm in Arizona and there are no Filipino banks anywhere nearby. 

Can anyone recommend a bank that will accept an international wire transfer from a non-customer to an account holder at the bank?

I'm trying to avoid a remittance service due to their transfer limits and the exchange rate hit...but will go that route as a last resort if I have to.

Thanks in advance for any info you have.

Edited February 1, 2017 by TheMason

[Happyhorn52]

You might try something like Bank of America.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/wire-transfer.go

 

[Jollygoodfellow]

Welcome back

As far as I know all banks accept deposits. If you have online banking you usually have international transfer and just fill in the details. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

Depending on your time limits, write a check.  Have the recipient open a US$ account and deposit the check.  A month to clear and another month to get here through the mail but its cheapest and easiest.

[TheMason]

So..this transaction is completed now...but it was not easy to accomplish. I ran into a host of issues, most of them related to anti-money laundering laws and bank fraud detection.

On my side of the transaction, Chase locked my account for potential fraud when the wire transfer instructions were submitted.  I had even notified them in advance that I would be wiring funds to avoid this situation, but they still locked it. They required me to show up in person at a Chase branch with 2 forms of ID to get the account unlocked. I was in Manila at the time they locked the account. Fortunately, the condo seller was a friend of mine and was willing to wait for his money until i got back to the US to straighten things out.

On the recipient's side, BPI held the funds because the person sending the funds (me) was not the same person listed as the buyer on the deed of sale (my son) They required proof of relationship between me and the buyer before releasing the funds.

Some other miscellaneous issues along the way were that 2 banks (BPI and Metrobank) refused to open a dollar account for my son in the Philippines. They told him that he didn't need one....just use pesos. 

All in all...it was a typical Philippines experience....it took far longer than expected, was more difficult that it should have been....but everything worked out OK in the end.

[JJReyes]

You may have to file IRS Form 3520 or some other form since the amount is larger than $10,000. Documentation is now required for any large sum inward or outward money transfers.

[roddavis]

Have you tried Remitly.com. Transfers from US to Phil is only $3.99 for transactions upto $6000 a month or upto $3000 per day. Deposit at many locations and usually only takes 10 mins for the transaction to complete. Been good to me.

 

[Happyhorn52]

I had the same type of problems wiring funds using Bank of America. First BOA blocked my account because the 4 star hotel I was staying in in Makati did not meet their sucurity standards. I got around this by giving my brother in the US my username and passcode. Wires also require use of a safe pass which is a little card that gives you a six digit code that is synced with BOA system and only lasts a few seconds. Since I have card in my possession and my brother was making the transfer we both had to set up Skype so I could give him the code as he made the transfer. We finally got it to work but the whole thing was a giant pain in the ass, and overcomplicated in my opinion.

[i am bob]

Glad I'm Canadian dealing with a small branch in a small city and that my dad banked there for many years...  If I have problems..?  I call my manager (VoIP Fongo with a true telephone number) and ask her "what the f¥ck!"...  Usually corrected while we are on the phone...  And I've only needed to call twice in the early days...  :D