How Do I Send My Pension To The Philippines Each Month?

[Art2ro]

This is getting off the main topic again, but it's an important issue! Just read and heed the BIR link concerning the availment guidelines and taxes under the RA 9994, especially on page 11 & 12, Section 13, paragraph 4 under Penalties and Other Sanctions, which is clearly written under the BIR guidelines and if taken at face value, no one will be sorry later on, saying that they didn't know about the law! I couldn't copy and paste that portion of the pdf file so you'll just have to read it for yourself or anyone who may be interested in understanding the laws governing this RA 9994. I will not go any further into this RA 9994 because it is clearly written what the law says coming from the BIR. The use of these Senior Citizen Discount Cards are traceable to the users, because every and all business establishments have to record and file all customer business transactions with the BIR! And if the BIR or DSWD ever decided to do random audits, guess who's name they will find on those cards? Maybe quite a few foreigners who are not suppose to have them in the first place! ftp://ftp.bir.gov.ph...RR%207-2010.pdf

Edited July 27, 2010 by MrBBtheFilAm

[Art2ro]

I never stand in line at the bank but that is a BDO bank policy extended to anyone age 60+ regardless of nationality .

I was just in a BDO bank the other day and I had to stand in line just like anyone else there, even with my gray silver hair standing out!

[daisy]

I never stand in line at the bank but that is a BDO bank policy extended to anyone age 60+ regardless of nationality .

I was just in a BDO bank the other day and I had to stand in line just like anyone else there, even with my gray silver hair standing out!

You need to approach them and tell them that you are a Senior citizen. Filipinos don't usually presume your age by just looking the color of your hair....as you notice Sir, most Filipinos take it as a compliment if mistaken that they look younger than their age....:lol:

[MikeB]

I never stand in line at the bank but that is a BDO bank policy extended to anyone age 60+ regardless of nationality .

I was just in a BDO bank the other day and I had to stand in line just like anyone else there, even with my gray silver hair standing out!

You need to approach them and tell them that you are a Senior citizen. Filipinos don't usually presume your age by just looking the color of your hair....as you notice Sir, most Filipinos take it as a compliment if mistaken that they look younger than their age....

No Just for Men over there?

[gapotwo]

Anyway, this is a topic in how to get one's pension to a local bank in the Philippines and what I stated above works just fine for me until I can find a better way to transfer funds without having to write out checks each month! I have one option I'll be checking into while on vacation in California the end of this year to see if it's viable on-line where I can transfer money on-line from my U.S. bank to my dollar account here in the Philippines. I can only initiate it while in the U.S. for security reasons, because my U.S. bank can not send security pass codes over the internet or via air carrier while in the Philippines. Previously, 5 years ago, I had all of my U.S. government pensions direct deposited into my Philippines dollar account with ATM and internet access, but they changed the rules since then where internet and ATM access is no longer available, except for a dollar passbook account in my name only, which is a U.S. government directive to the Regulatory Central Bank of the Philippines! No passbook for for me! So, I just rerouted all of my U.S. government pensions back into my U.S. bank account and just wrote out our U.S. personal checks for deposit into our Philippine dollar account every other month for our monthly living expenses here in the Philippines. It's not a perfect system, but it works just fine for now! Anyway, it's only 1 trip inside my local bank every other month! No big deal, it's only 2 blocks away from our front porch door steps! I'm not too concerned about gaining a 3% interest on my money, because at the end of the year we end up paying taxes to IRS anyway! IRS gets us all sooner or later! So, I'd rather hide my money from the prying eyes of the IRS! Anyways, at age 70, I'll be tax exempted and won't have to worry about paying any taxes all together, if I live that long! :thumbsup:

very well said, art, i will just go to the bank with my passbook every month, but only after i get my PTC permit so my new friend, ported .40cal GLOCK can legally acompany me on these special outings..............tanks ej.

[Art2ro]

Yeah, my plan didn't pan out concerning on-line money transfer from my U.S. bank account to my Philippine dollar bank account, because one can only use the system if one has a U.S. cellphone number where my U.S. bank will send me an SMS password codes to authenticate my requested on-line transfer transactions! So, that was out of the question for me! I guess it's back to writing out my U.S. personal checks every other month in the Philippines for deposit! It's OK, it works fine and I have never paid any maintenance service fees or ATM charges! So, it's actually free banking for me for them to use my money sitting in their bank! I only keep the minimum balance in my accounts for PDIC insurance purposes on my money! Laki ako sa gatas.........ng Nanay ko!

[Jake]

Yeah, my plan didn't pan out concerning on-line money transfer from my U.S. bank account to my Philippine dollar bank account, because one can only use the system if one has a U.S. cellphone number where my U.S. bank will send me an SMS password codes to authenticate my requested on-line transfer transactions! So, that was out of the question for me! I guess it's back to writing out my U.S. personal checks every other month in the Philippines for deposit! It's OK, it works fine and I have never paid any maintenance service fees or ATM charges! So, it's actually free banking for me for them to use my money sitting in their bank! I only keep the minimum balance in my accounts for PDIC insurance purposes on my money! Laki ako sa gatas.........ng Nanay ko!

I didn't realize that you need an SMS password for on-line transfer transactions. I will visit my local Wells Fargo bank and verify this. They advertise a direct affiliation with BPI (Bank of Philippine Islands) with a transaction fee of 5-7 bucks. My understanding is all I need to do is to provide positive ID for a new dollar account at the nearest BPI branch in southern CA(West Covina, CA). Jake

[Mr Lee]

Yeah, my plan didn't pan out concerning on-line money transfer from my U.S. bank account to my Philippine dollar bank account, because one can only use the system if one has a U.S. cellphone number where my U.S. bank will send me an SMS password codes to authenticate my requested on-line transfer transactions! So, that was out of the question for me! I guess it's back to writing out my U.S. personal checks every other month in the Philippines for deposit! It's OK, it works fine and I have never paid any maintenance service fees or ATM charges! So, it's actually free banking for me for them to use my money sitting in their bank! I only keep the minimum balance in my accounts for PDIC insurance purposes on my money! Laki ako sa gatas.........ng Nanay ko!

I didn't realize that you need an SMS password for on-line transfer transactions. I will visit my local Wells Fargo bank and verify this. They advertise a direct affiliation with BPI (Bank of Philippine Islands) with a transaction fee of 5-7 bucks. My understanding is all I need to do is to provide positive ID for a new dollar account at the nearest BPI branch in southern CA(West Covina, CA). Jake

Just as a thought if you cannot work it another way, then you can also have a US TMobile prepaid sim roaming in the Philippines if necessary while doing transfers and TMobile only charges $100 for 1000 minutes but would charge international rates if roaming, and that is good for a year and as long as you renew before it expires, then any minutes you still have left would carry over to the next year. That might help for visits to the US or any parts thereof such as Hawaii, Guam, US Virgin Islands etc, or instead of roaming then you can also get a uma phone like I have, and have it on while logged onto your wireless router in your home, and it would react as if you are in the US when making or receiving phone calls. I do that and I make calls from my cell phone while in our condo in Cebu or while logged onto another router and it shows up on peoples caller id just as if I was in the US. Some phones which are capable of uma TMobile Hot Spot @home service are the Nokia 6086, the Samsung Katalyst and some of the Blackberry Curves, such as the one I use which is the 8320. The only issue is that the router must be set for WEP security or no security at all for this service to work. Hope that helps some of you.

[softail]

This information is invaluable and what these forums are all about. Expats that have been thru the maze of logistics smoothing the way for others.Doug and Sally

[Art2ro]

Yeah, my plan didn't pan out concerning on-line money transfer from my U.S. bank account to my Philippine dollar bank account, because one can only use the system if one has a U.S. cellphone number where my U.S. bank will send me an SMS password codes to authenticate my requested on-line transfer transactions!

I didn't realize that you need an SMS password for on-line transfer transactions. I will visit my local Wells Fargo bank and verify this. They advertise a direct affiliation with BPI (Bank of Philippine Islands) with a transaction fee of 5-7 bucks. My understanding is all I need to do is to provide positive ID for a new dollar account at the nearest BPI branch in southern CA(West Covina, CA). Jake

I'm not a tight wad or a frugal type of person, but it irks me that there's a lot of financial institutions out there who will nickel and dime you to death on services fees or charges whenever they can find a way to do so! Remember long ago when there weren't any service charges on credit or ATM card usage, but now they are all charging a $5 flat rate fee on credit cards for every transaction and 1% fee of the total amount from where you used your card and P150 to P200 on ATM debit cards per transaction!!! That could add up with daily or weekly use! And some banks now charges service fees for deposits and or on early withdrawals and even paying of your bills! Well, at the present I don't have any of those ridiculous service charges, so why should anyone else if one can avoid them! So for me having to go to my local bank in person here in the Philippines every other month to deposit my U.S. personal check is no big deal, because I have developed a free banking system my way, just by not doing the things I mentioned above! Jake , those nickel and dimes the banks don't get out me, buys me a lot of Mojos!