Large Money Transfers to Philippines

[Maxheadspace]

Shopping for my wife's house in the Philippines.  Any recommended ways to transfer money into the Philippines from the US that won't carry a hefty transfer fee?  Like around $100K.  Or am I just stuck with the regular bank-to-bank transfer?

[Guy F.]

I used Xoom 7 years ago when we bought a house. It was reliable and among the best deals back then. It could be different now, but it was the best back then.

Edit

My mind is starting to go. It wasn't Xoom, which Mrs. F uses for small transfers. It was Transferwise.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Guy F.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Every attempt I tried to transfer a sum of $50,000 exceeded the limits set by the transferring company.  I ended up using a bank to bank transfer.  Subsequently, I only ever sent a max of less than $10,000 and all the usual routes were open to me.

(Same in reverse, when sending money back FROM the Philippines I had to use a bank to bank transfer from the Philippines and there was much, MUCH more red tape.)

[gabgab]

I just checked the Transferwise FAQ and they hardly allow 10th of the amount, so the limit is pretty much the amount Dave mentioned above. The receiving bank may also ask a lot of questions when you deposit $100K. Better speak to a live banker at both sides before making such a transfer.

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by jimdones

[sonjack2847]

From the UK to here the maximum I was allowed to transfer ( from my bank in uk to PNB here) was 10,000 UK. Transferwise has a max of 2000 UK. It`s a toss up which is more costly as initially TW is dearer than the bank by 8 pounds but has a better exchange rate and is faster, Having said that it would have been a lot of messing about with TW.

Edited February 20, 2021 by sonjack2847

[fototek1]

We always used bank to bank ETF and it cost a few hundred dollars maximum. There was a fee in the US and then a fee at metrobank where we sent the money. The nice thing with Metrobank is they have an office in the US and you can do an ETF like its still in the US but money really goes to Philippines. We sent over 100k on multiple occasions and have also sent large amounts back to the US.  

[GeoffH]

I used Western Union in $5000 sends twice per day a few years back when buying the house in CDO, Australia has a limit of $10,000 per day for sending currency unless you fill in bank forms (which I'd have had to do every single day and that's slowww) so the limit wasn't a big problem.

[hk blues]

26 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

I used Western Union in $5000 sends twice per day a few years back when buying the house in CDO, Australia has a limit of $10,000 per day for sending currency unless you fill in bank forms (which I'd have had to do every single day and that's slowww) so the limit wasn't a big problem.

Whilst I understand the limit for bringing in foreign currency is $10,000, and that this applies to both cash and electronic transfers, I have sent 10,000gbp here frequently - I see another poster does the same.  I actually think the system here is set up for 10,000 and ignores the actual currency!   

[GeoffH]

20 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Whilst I understand the limit for bringing in foreign currency is $10,000, and that this applies to both cash and electronic transfers, I have sent 10,000gbp here frequently - I see another poster does the same.  I actually think the system here is set up for 10,000 and ignores the actual currency!   

You're probably correct about that but Australia also has a $10,000 limit and they're a lot more strict about it.

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, GeoffH said:

You're probably correct about that but Australia also has a $10,000 limit and they're a lot more strict about it.

I see.  The UK authorities have no such limit on outgoing transfers so we can send as much as we like.  Here, I'm pretty sure the $10,000 incoming limit is not accurately applied, but I will continue to stick to the 10,000gbp limit as I've done for the past 6 years with no issue and documentation required.