Who to use sending large amounts of money abroad

[stevewool]

I’ve used western union and remit to send small amounts of cash overseas but if sending large amounts who do you use , I’ve seen the adverts for currencies direct and others but not to sure how all this works , so can anyone advice on this matter 

[craftbeerlover]

1 hour ago, stevewool said:

I’ve used western union and remit to send small amounts of cash overseas but if sending large amounts who do you use , I’ve seen the adverts for currencies direct and others but not to sure how all this works , so can anyone advice on this matter 

no idea what you consider a large amount of money, but I have used western union and wise quite successfully for many years.   A bank transfer is another possibility, just contact your bank (its probably more expensive though). 

[Possum]

For large amounts I used wire transfer which is bank to bank. The transfer fee used to be $35-40 in the US. In the UK when I transferred it was cheaper but not by much if you pay for tracking. Come to think of it that might be competitive with Wise once you consider the exchange rate, accepting bank fee etc.

I would never use wire transfer for a GBP or USD to a peso account. They screw you on the exchange rate.

[earthdome]

When we bought a new car we did a USD international wire transfer from our US bank to a USD account at BPI. Then did an FX at BPI to peso which gives an excellent fx rate. Cost was approx $35 USD. This was almost 2 years ago. I think it took 2 to 3 business days to complete.

Edited October 22 by earthdome

[Old55]

During covid father in law ran up large hospital bill. We did a wire transfer from US bank to a BPI dollar account. It cost ~$25. 

[Mike J]

Quite a few years ago we sent $18K to buy land.  We did a direct bank to bank transfer into a dollar account in the Philippines.   I think the fee was probably reasonable because I do not recall how much they charged.

[BrettGC]

It may mot much help right now Steve but for larger sums I have a Citi Bank Australia account and Citi Philippines account.  The last time I did it it was $25AUD and the rate was competitive.  Many of the other international banks have a presence in PI as well such as HSBC, ING, Deuthsche Bank etc.  The crunch is that it may be difficult to open a peso account from the UK but it might be worth shopping around for one that'll let you get away with it. I opened the account years ago when they were far less stringent about these things.   It's only ever used for transactions of a larger scale.   

Anyway, just a thought and perhaps assist in the future. 

[scott h]

10 hours ago, stevewool said:

sending large amounts who do you use

Like the others for large amounts, we have used bank 2 bank transfers and just paid the fee as the cost of doing business.

Depending on what you have in mind. When we first moved here, we knew that we would be building a house. For a couple of years prior we did our research and found an international bank with branches in the US and Manila (Citibank in our case). Then we were able to transfer the large sums between accounts we needed for the build at no cost. But we could not do that until we were actually boots on the ground here to open the account.

[BrettGC]

49 minutes ago, scott h said:

we were able to transfer the large sums between accounts we needed for the build at no cost

Interesting that I was charged a fee.  I wonder what the situation is now. 

Edited October 23 by BrettGC

[BrettGC]

3 minutes ago, BrettGC said:

Interesting that I was charged a fee.  I wonder what the situation is now. 

Never mind, it depends on the type of account you have.