Best way to send large sum of money from Canada to Philippines

[loveiloilo]

Hello all,

I would like to send 200k CAD to the Philippines.

What would be the best way to send the funds to ensure I get a good exchange rate with no hidden cost.

Thank you!

[Dave Hounddriver]

In my opinion, the best way to send funds of that size is a bank to bank transfer.  You go into your Canadian bank, explain the reasons (to prevent money laundering), and ask them to do a transfer to your Philippine bank.  Most of the alternative transfer services will not accept transfers of that size (to prevent money laundering) so you would have to send it in multiple transactions if getting a great exchange rate is your goal.

If you do a bank to bank, open an account with a Philippine bank that gives good exchange rates on Canadian dollars.  Open a Canadian dollar account and transfer the money as Canadian dollars.  Then have the Philippine bank exchange the cash for you.  I know for sure that Metrobank has room to negotiate when exchanging that much cash.  I would check there, as well as other banks, to see what exchange rate they would give.

This is only my opinion.  There are many other opinions on this.  I have tried many different ways to transfer money.  I have found there is no perfect way.  Good luck with your decision.

[GeoffH]

I went a different way when I was sending money for the condo, I did many smaller transfers (some using World Remit and some using Western Union).

It took almost a month to transfer the money doing that but at the time I didn't have a bank account in the Philippines and we had problems trying to transfer a large amount to SWMBO's bank account in the Philippines.

[Arizona Kid]

I did $10,000 years ago with Western Union. If you do it this way make sure you show the Western Union receipt to the bank you want to deposit it in. Western Union painstakingly writes down every single 100 dollar bill serial number before they give it to you. It will go faster at the bank. They trust Western Union. 

[JJReyes]

In addition to your Canadian bank, make sure the Philippine bank knows the reason for the fund transfer, amounts and when. Nothing triggers suspicion more than doing the unexpected. Sending the money in "installments" like CND $10,000 or $20,000 a month means the exchange rate is an average. Philippine currency is expected to depreciate over the next two years due to the size of their foreign depth and the fact that OFW deployment has already peaked.

[Jack Peterson]

10 hours ago, JJReyes said:

that OFW deployment has already peaked.

 Has it JJ from what source did you glean this?

[Jollygoodfellow]

18 hours ago, loveiloilo said:

I would like to send 200k CAD to the Philippines.

Are you aware that the Philippines bank system will only guarantee you P500k if the bank should go bust. Probably OK in the big banks but risky is in one of the smaller ones. 

[GeoffH]

26 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Are you aware that the Philippines bank system will only guarantee you P500k if the bank should go bust. 

This is why we have BDO and BPI accounts and we keep the balance under the guarantee limit.

[Dave Hounddriver]

41 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Are you aware that the Philippines bank system will only guarantee you P500k if the bank should go bust.

The CDIC in Canada only guarantees $100K so it is risky everywhere.  

Spoiler

Before someone says:  Oh but that is Canada and the banks are safer.  Here is a quote from the CDIC.  On June 4, 1996, about 2,600 Canadians discovered that their savings were not immediately available from their financial institution. They had entrusted a total of $42 million in deposits to Calgary-based Security Home Mortgage Corporation, which had closed its doors for good.

 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Dave Hounddriver

[RubberChicken]

36 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

This is why we have BDO and BPI accounts and we keep the balance under the guarantee limit.

Geoff,

You feel comfortable with those amounts in a consumer unfriendly and digitally antiquated banking environment?  (I do find the banks ethical, I trust them in that context.)

I have something to learn from your response. 🙂