Western union

[sonjack2847]

World remit,Azimo seem cheaper that xoom or WU for me 

[Clermont]

2 hours ago, Happyhorn52 said:

I tried using both Xoom and World remit but neither would transfer money into my US$ BDO bank account. They all want to translate from Dollar to Peso so that earn that extra commission from the translation rate. 

This will have to go through a moderator.

Step by step with worldremit, the Peso they quote is the amount you get in your account in Pesos. The bank you transfer to is a PI bank regardless of being in US, therefore you can't transfer US currency and expect to get US currency over there, doesn't matter which bank you use. Maybe there are money traders that will give you US money but it will outweigh the benefits of direct transfers.

First go through the registration process, all money traders require this by law.

Once registered, go to the web site and go to PI in send to box, make sure at the top is the countries name your sending it from ( eg, USA, or other country,)

Next select service, it will come up with options, choose the option that suits you.

Drop down box will come up, then choose payout network that suits you.

Another box may appear or it may be below the payout network page, fill in the amount you want to send: example, 20000 Pesos, then on the same page it will tell you how much it will cost you in your own currency, plus also the fees, this will be the total amount you pay and your recipient will receive the amount that you have sent. Below that amount will be the exchange rate, if happy with that exchange, hit send and fill out particulares.

Be aware it is a legal document and has a time out built into the process, have all your particulars at hand before you start. I think there is a limit of three attempts per day.

They have just lifted the amount you can send, Aussie $, 50,000, smaller amounts cost less, check out the fees, but a pittance for the service.

I hope this helps, good luck, their safe to use. 

 

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

14 minutes ago, Clermont said:

The bank you transfer to is a PI bank regardless of being in US, therefore you can't transfer US currency and expect to get US currency over there

Its done all the time.  Many US expats have a $US account set up in Philippines and have their pension deposited to that US$ account and are able to withdraw US$ from the Philippine bank.  It is the only currency where this is acceptable in practice.  Other currencies are supposed to work the same way but they do not.  The reason is that the US$ is the only currency in use worldwide so you can spend and receive US dollars just about anywhere.

[Clermont]

Thanks for that Dave, I didn't know they payed out in US dollars without transaction fees and currency conversions, thanks.

[Dave Hounddriver]

17 minutes ago, Clermont said:

Thanks for that Dave, I didn't know they payed out in US dollars without transaction fees and currency conversions, thanks.

Yep, I once went to my RCBC bank manager in Cebu and asked why I could not get the same deal with Canadian Dollars and he said (paraphrasing from memory):

Quote

Quoted as best as I can remember:  You can open a Canadian dollar account and you can transfer Canadian dollars to it from Canada or deposit a check here in Canadian funds.  But I can only pay you out in Canadian dollars when IF we have some in stock and we never have any in stock because if someone comes in to exchange Canadian dollars we remit them to head office daily.  We do keep US$ on hand so our US customers have the advantage of being able to withdraw their funds in reasonable amounts at most times.  And no we will not bring in Canadian funds for you to withdraw so your only chance of being able to withdraw them is if you walk into the bank minutes after someone has just exchanged a large amount of Canadian dollars and frankly, that never happens. 

So if you open a Canadian dollar account and you want to withdraw the funds, you must take them in Pesos at whatever the bank's conversion rate is that day.

I imagine Brits and Aussies would get the same speech but the Americans get treated much better in that regard.

[Clermont]

Thanks again Dave, I had a sneaky suspicion that US money was transferable to PI's, but at what exchange rate I did not know, that is why I put the original post in. Maybe an American can jump in here and tell us the bank fees, elect, for people wanting to transfer money to make a more informed decision. Always ready to admit I'm wrong, 

[Happyhorn52]

I have a US$ account at BDO and a bank of America account in the States.

1) Deposit a paper check, pay a $5 fee and wait 28 days for my money to become available. 

2) Wire transfer Dollars and pay a $40 - $50 fee and wait 4 days for my money to become available. 

3) Xoom and World Remit will convert the Dollars to Pesos for a small fee with a minimum wait time, but then BDO translates the Pesos back to Dollars because I do not have a Peso account. 

[intrepid]

3 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I imagine Brits and Aussies would get the same speech but the Americans get treated much better in that regard.

We still have a dollar account with BPI.  We were told when we opened the account that we must give them three day notice when we want to make a withdrawal.  But a side note to that, sometimes when we stop in to give the notice,  they will say we can withdrawal that same day because they have dollars on hand.

[Happyhorn52]

I chose to bank with BDO at the SM Mall in Angeles, figuring there would be a high probability of that branch having US$  when I wanted to make a monthly withdrawal than some of the smaller locations. 

[Snowy79]

Why don't you just get a Clarity card from the Halifax bank. You use it like a credit card but there are no bank fees and your money is converted at that seconds exchange rate. They charge monthly interest but all you do is draw money out then go-online and transfer money from your bank to pay off the balance.