Philippine National Bank

[Balisidar]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experiences with the Philippine National Bank (PNB)?

I see that they have branches here in Seattle and numerous branches in the Philippines.

I'll probably talk to them in person but I want to see if anyone else has banked with them.

 

[scott h]

Things might have changed since 2012, but before we moved here I asked at a PNB bank in San Diego if I could open an account there and use it for pension direct deposit and the like. I was told that that (particular) branch was just used for remittances and money transfers.

Since we moved here I have learned that most (maybe not all) banks are not interconnected as you find in the states. If you transfer between branches you sometimes have to pay a fee.

We use PNB here and are quite happy. But we keep the bulk of our money in a US bank stateside.

If things have changed, please let us know. Be useful info for future members 

 

[Tommy T.]

35 minutes ago, Balisidar said:

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experiences with the Philippine National Bank (PNB)?

I see that they have branches here in Seattle and numerous branches in the Philippines.

I'll probably talk to them in person but I want to see if anyone else has banked with them.

 

I have two accounts here at PNB - a US$ savings account and a Peso ATM account. The service is very good. I transfer US$ between here and Seattle sometimes with no problems at all. I cannot access the dollar account online, but can access the peso account online...

My only complaint is that my accounts are branch specific. That means that I cannot do some withdrawals or other transaction in any other branch - a bit annoying. It's like the branches are independent banks and don't interact. It may be a bank thing or a Philippine thing? I don't know.  But other than that, I am delighted with their service.

[Balisidar]

59 minutes ago, scott h said:

Things might have changed since 2012, but before we moved here I asked at a PNB bank in San Diego if I could open an account there and use it for pension direct deposit and the like. I was told that that (particular) branch was just used for remittances and money transfers.

Since we moved here I have learned that most (maybe not all) banks are not interconnected as you find in the states. If you transfer between branches you sometimes have to pay a fee.

We use PNB here and are quite happy. But we keep the bulk of our money in a US bank stateside.

If things have changed, please let us know. Be useful info for future members 

 

Thanks Scott.  In looking closer at PNB it's as you mentioned.  There are only remittance centers here in the USA except in Los Angeles.  And that branch isn't covered by the FDIC and requires a minimum deposit of $130,000.

I'm now looking at Metrobank which has a branch in NY.  I sent them a message asking if I could open an account there and withdraw from the branches in the Philippines.

I would love to find a bank where the accounts are linked and you don't have to worry about 1) money transfers 2) Having an account locked due to having a foreign address. 

I've also seen that Charles Shwab, citibank, and HSBC also bank in the Philippines.

Sorry that I'm all over the board here.😉😀.  My wife says I think too much.😂

[robert k]

I was trying to bank with PNB. My first deposited check had still not cleared in 6 weeks, or so they told me, so the next week when it cleared I closed the Dollar and my peso accounts and never looked back. Seven weeks is just too long.

[Balisidar]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

I have two accounts here at PNB - a US$ savings account and a Peso ATM account. The service is very good. I transfer US$ between here and Seattle sometimes with no problems at all. I cannot access the dollar account online, but can access the peso account online...

My only complaint is that my accounts are branch specific. That means that I cannot do some withdrawals or other transaction in any other branch - a bit annoying. It's like the branches are independent banks and don't interact. It may be a bank thing or a Philippine thing? I don't know.  But other than that, I am delighted with their service.

Yeah Tommy, I get you.  That's why I'm trying to cut out things like wire transfers.  I want to keep my money here in the US and just withdraw from the same bank account in the Philippines.

[Tommy T.]

19 minutes ago, Balisidar said:

Yeah Tommy, I get you.  That's why I'm trying to cut out things like wire transfers.  I want to keep my money here in the US and just withdraw from the same bank account in the Philippines.

I use Charles Schwab in USA and PNB here in Phil... I regularly access ATMs here and Schwab refunds all ATM fees, regardless how much or where or with which institution. The exchange rate seems fair and there are no exchange fees.

Wire transfers take only a few minutes to arrange - but they must be dollar to dollar transfers. Schwab charges $25 and PNB charges $8, so I make any transfers large to keep the effective fee rate lower.

They are processed quickly and I always see the cash here within 24 hours - except on weekends or holidays... The staff at the branch aren't always the most knowledgeable, but they contact the main office in Makati whenever they don't understand or have an issue and it always has been solved. They really are into customer service (at least at my branch) - so different from most places where I shop or bank. They offer me water (delivered in a clean glass on a plate!), candies, newspaper to look at if something takes a while. I never take a number or wait for a teller...

It may not be the cheapest way to go, but the whole system works well and painlessly for me so I am willing to pay a bit extra for the service and convenience. Not necessarily what everyone might do...

After reading in another topic about HSBC, I also think that may be worth researching some time. I really like to be able to do everything online - transfer money, pay bills, etc... PNB is not so good for that as I would prefer.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Tommy T.

[scott h]

33 minutes ago, Balisidar said:

find a bank where the accounts are linked

citibank

Here is my story 

When we first moved here our first task was to build our house. Our bank in the states is Citibank. There happened to be a Citibank branch near our Phil location. We opened an account in the Phil. So we could transfer large sums between the two accounts. I can not recall if there was a fee or not but all transfer went with out a hitch and took like 3 business days.

After the house was built the Phil branch moved locations and was no longer convineet for us, so we closed the Phil account.

[OnMyWay]

28 minutes ago, Balisidar said:

Yeah Tommy, I get you.  That's why I'm trying to cut out things like wire transfers.  I want to keep my money here in the US and just withdraw from the same bank account in the Philippines.

I looked into this before I moved.  I gave up.  Citibank and HSBC have branches here but only in Manila.  Not convenient for most of us.  That was 2012.  I'm assuming your goal is to keep all fees to a minimum.

If you use Schwab like Tommy, using an ATM to get pesos from a U.S. dollar account, they will get their fee on the exchange rate.  My Fidelity brokerage has the same setup as Schwab.  If the exchange rate is 1-2% less than optimal, for a 20,000 peso withdrawal, they will get $4 to 8$.

If you want to avoid costs, dollar to dollar check writing remains the best way to go.  You have a dollar checking account in the U.S. and you write dollar checks to yourself in the Philippines, and deposit them in your Philippines dollar account.  Mine is BPI.  It used to be completely free but now most banks including BPI added a $5 service charge.  Then you wait.  After 21-30 days at BPI, your dollars are available.  You can exchange them at the bank (BPI actually has decent rates) or take them to a money changer for a higher rate.  The check amounts are unlimited as far as I know, but at BPI larger amounts go through an extra approval and may take a few days longer.

In an "emergency", you can wire transfer.  I have only had to do this when I bought my house.

[robert k]

3 hours ago, Balisidar said:

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experiences with the Philippine National Bank (PNB)?

I see that they have branches here in Seattle and numerous branches in the Philippines.

I'll probably talk to them in person but I want to see if anyone else has banked with them.

 

I generally don't recommend Western Union anymore because sometimes they are a pain in the posterior but I can and have sent $3000 for $3.99 direct from my bank account to location pickup which most likely you will have to give the location a day to get 30 pieces $100 bills. Cheap as it is, and being able to get a really good exchange rate, I hate to give up on it totally.