Western union

[bastonjock]

On 06/02/2018 at 5:01 PM, Snowy79 said:

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. 

I've applied for one 

[robert k]

On ‎06‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 7:33 AM, roddavis said:

My question is, CAN you send money to yourself while you are in the PI? Some services don't like that. Can you send to yourself (VPN, so it looks like you are in the US). In other words (sender and recipient) same person? Also bank to bank dollar account PI?

I do with WU every couple months, from my US checking account to agent location. The trick with WU is log in in the country where your money is which in our case is USA. If it asks to track me, I deny it. It still goes through, no sense getting them confused.

[intrepid]

11 minutes ago, robert k said:

I do with WU every couple months, from my US checking account to agent location. The trick with WU is log in in the country where your money is which in our case is USA. If it asks to track me, I deny it. It still goes through, no sense getting them confused.

Sound advise. I have been doing just this at least ones every month without any issues.  One other thing we like to do is receive our cash in dollars and then exchange at the highest rate available as we need it.  IF you decide to go the route getting dollars, I suggest to check around at the different WU locations first in your area to make sure they do payouts in dollars.  Not all WU payout in dollars.  We went to at least seven WU before we found one paying dollars.

[robert k]

3 minutes ago, intrepid said:

Sound advise. I have been doing just this at least ones every month without any issues.  One other thing we like to do is receive our cash in dollars and then exchange at the highest rate available as we need it.  IF you decide to go the route getting dollars, I suggest to check around at the different WU locations first in your area to make sure they do payouts in dollars.  Not all WU payout in dollars.  We went to at least seven WU before we found one paying dollars.

Your availability remarks are too true. On the other hand my local SM gives such a high rate on the exchange, I let them convert it and pay in pesos on the spot. I think they are squeezing the other money changers on the rate.

[robert k]

I need to update this. Western Union used to give the "do not track option" but this time they tracked automatically and I had to get a VPN. I got mine from Avast Datasafe, it was 49 php a month, but you also get a 30 day trial. At this point I can NOT recommend them, but I was able to get my banking done.

[robert k]

New update. Had my first really serious boo boo with WU. I left money in the US for a family member to send me and I helped them set up the account and they knew to make sure the receiver gets dollars, not pesos. Western Union insisted that they do the exchange to pesos. I told them I decline. On $3k USD WU would have taken 6,750 php on the exchange. Might have been okay as a one time deal for a tourist but as I have recently changed about $20k, it seems a bit exorbitant. I think the problem was that particular pickup point but I will find out soon when I send myself some more money.