Best way to access funds.

[craftbeerlover]

2 hours ago, jimeve said:

PNB seems okay for me, It's the useless Bank in the UK who are closing my accounts down in a few weeks time. I phoned them up and asked why closing my accounts down, they said We don't know why.

So now I have to wire all my funds from the UK to Philippines PNB. I was going to use wise but they wanted an extortionate fee but their rate is very good. 75 - 1 gbp

My UK bank fee is 25 gbp but their rate is only 71-1gbp.

Can anyone give me some advise about wiring money over to the Philippines? fees etc.

My experience (no idea how much you are sending), even though the fees are higher with Wise, the fair exchange rate more than makes up for the fees (comparatively of course)

[Mike J]

10 hours ago, jimeve said:

Can anyone give me some advise about wiring money over to the Philippines? fees etc.

Maybe the cheapest way would be to open a British Pound account.  Then do a direct bank to bank transfer.  Fees are very reasonable and you could convert pounds to peso when you wanted.  Here are several banks (according to Google) where you can have a pound account if you do not currently have one.

• BPI

  Offers a British pound savings account, along with other foreign currency accounts. Account opening requirements may vary by currency. 

   

   
• Security Bank

  Offers a Third Currency account that can be opened in British pounds. This non-interest-bearing account is designed to keep foreign currency and forex exchange safe. 

   

   
• Philippine National Bank 

  Offers sterling accounts that require an initial deposit of £100. To open an account, you'll need to provide a valid passport or UK photo driving license, as well as proof of address. 

[hk blues]

18 hours ago, jimeve said:

PNB seems okay for me, It's the useless Bank in the UK who are closing my accounts down in a few weeks time. I phoned them up and asked why closing my accounts down, they said We don't know why.

So now I have to wire all my funds from the UK to Philippines PNB. I was going to use wise but they wanted an extortionate fee but their rate is very good. 75 - 1 gbp

My UK bank fee is 25 gbp but their rate is only 71-1gbp.

Can anyone give me some advise about wiring money over to the Philippines? fees etc.

I also lost my UK account earlier this year so I sympathise.  Luckily, I still have a couple of UK "offshore" accounts so I can keep most of my GBP there and only send over here what I need.  

I usually send over once a year as the fee is hefty i.e. 35GBP.  I send to Metrobank and the fees don't seem that high and the rate is OK.  My only advice is DO NOT convert to peso in your UK bank - get them to send over here in GBP and let your Philippines bank do the conversion to peso.  I've found it's always better to convert GBP to peso here rather than in the UK. 

You could also get a GBP account here but they're not easily available i.e. only 1 branch of 1 bank in my city offers it.  I'm not sure what advantage that would give you at the moment as the GBP is doing OK against the peso so you may as well convert now.   If the rate was low maybe it would be a different story.

All just my opinion though.

[jimeve]

On 11/5/2024 at 9:47 PM, craftbeerlover said:

My experience (no idea how much you are sending), even though the fees are higher with Wise, the fair exchange rate more than makes up for the fees (comparatively of course)

Thanks for your advise. I used wise and indeed the fees are high but the exchange rate is very favorable to my UK bank.