Finally Opened A Bank Account

[FlyAway]

My wife and I were able to open a BPI account here in the US. The local "Seafood City" market has a BPI remittance office. They will gladly open a peso or dollar account for you. All that was needed were passport size photos, ID and proof of joint residency. (For us it was our automobile insurance policy and the car registration). They will ask what branch you want the account based out of.That branch is where you will pick up the ATM cards in the Philippines. There is a small service and courier fee involved, I do not remember the exact amount because it was minimal. They also will setup the online banking for us here but we have not done that yet. This service was offered because they want the remittance business.

[Art2ro]

My wife and I were able to open a BPI account here in the US. The local "Seafood City" market has a BPI remittance office. They will gladly open a peso or dollar account for you. All that was needed were passport size photos, ID and proof of joint residency. (For us it was our automobile insurance policy and the car registration). They will ask what branch you want the account based out of.That branch is where you will pick up the ATM cards in the Philippines. There is a small service and courier fee involved, I do not remember the exact amount because it was minimal. They also will setup the online banking for us here but we have not done that yet. This service was offered because they want the remittance business.

That's good news! I've been banking with BPI since 1998 and find them a reputable bank! You might check into on-line banking where you can transfer funds from your U.S. bank to your BPI bank in the Philippines so that you won't have to deposit U.S. personal checks into your local RP BPI bank each month to just top off your funds. Also think twice before you consider doing Direct Deposits of your U.S. Government pensions to your bank in the Philippines, because they only issue passbook type accounts without internet or ATM access. I keep all of my U.S. Government pension direct deposited into my U.S. bank just for that reason, been there and done that with the passbook type account, don't do it unless you don't mind going to your RP local bank each payday and manually withdrawing, converting your dollars and or transferring your money from one account to another because you don't have internet access having a passbook account!

[Jake]

My wife and I were able to open a BPI account here in the US. The local "Seafood City" market has a BPI remittance office. They will gladly open a peso or dollar account for you. All that was needed were passport size photos, ID and proof of joint residency. (For us it was our automobile insurance policy and the car registration). They will ask what branch you want the account based out of.That branch is where you will pick up the ATM cards in the Philippines. There is a small service and courier fee involved, I do not remember the exact amount because it was minimal. They also will setup the online banking for us here but we have not done that yet. This service was offered because they want the remittance business.

Thank you Eric for the heads up. I found the nearest one located in West Covina, CA. The PI branch that we are going to select in the future is primarily for the purpose of picking up our ATM cards, correct? Could we use any other BPI branch in PI for normal banking transaction?Respectfully -- Jake

[FlyAway]

Thank you Eric for the heads up. I found the nearest one located in West Covina, CA. The PI branch that we are going to select in the future is primarily for the purpose of picking up our ATM cards, correct? Could we use any other BPI branch in PI for normal banking transaction?Respectfully -- Jake

We were able to open the account with no issues. The representative said it was a service they provide to get the remittance business. The only way I will know for sure about everything is when we go to The Philippines this coming January. They are telling me that the cards are kept in a file at our primary branch ready for pickup. I still need to get the online banking setup. Seems the wonderful customer service one gets in the Philippines often follows here. Last few times I went to the place that opened the account, the lady working was clueless about to many things and I did not have time to deal with her. She was saying something about additional fee's and such. I was not about to pay the same fee's twice. I need to speak with the manager that opened our account.Will keep all posted about what transpires.

[No name]

The situation for opening bank accounts has changed a great deal in the last three years.The wide spread availability and even requirement to get one made a huge difference.All I got years ago was no, no, no....Of course, bags of money would have helped. :)I can't seem to find my leprechaun.....Oh well, I'll have to settle for Filipina.... Now that's real gold.

[FlyAway]

For the conclusion to those following this thread.... When we went to the branch to pick up the ATM cards.... they had no clue about it at first. After about an hour of waiting we finally got a response. Seems the packet with our signature cards never arrived. We had to fill out another application and signature card. Felt like we went through the whole signing up procedure all over again. We were told to come back the following week to get our ATM cards.Fast forward to the next week. We go to the BPI branch in Market Market again. This time the ATM card are ready for us. The bank rep took us out to the ATM machine to reset our passwords. They do not have a machine to reset like we have here in the US. After a few runs back and forth, we finally got the pass codes changed and were able to access the account with the ATM.Next the rep took us back in to register the account with the online services. I told him we already had access. He said it was not possible because we just setup everything. Well, I logged into it and he was surprised. Seems someone did not look hard enough for our paperwork. Everything was already there including the ATM cards!

[Call me bubba]

When I pick up my cash from the pawn shop, I wont even try to spell it... they count my money out loudly. Usually I send my cash as few times as possible to cut down on the cost.My bank charges me 5% plus $5 per transaction and I can only get P10000 here in Cebu so that gets expensive fast. I only use an ATM when I need cash fast.....I finally went to BDO and opened a bank account. I guess most of the workers don't know we all (maybe nearly all, I'm not aware of any exceptions) that we have to get an ACR card now. He seemed surprised I had one. I know that stopped me before and since I'm often a night owl, I don't get out a lot during the day.But, I went on down and got one today. No problem at all.

1.Yes BDO is a good bank to use but be careful of of those hidden charges(fees)I have had success with no hassle with BPI, have used them when my partner has needed her "support".using the ON LINE feature , i can monitor and transfer funds when needed2.I dont know what US BANK your using,My USAA bank doesnt charge a international fee only the 1% charged by mastercard,when using a OUT OF NETWORK ATM, I am reimbursed the 200php which equals out to $4.52Try using Citbank or HSBC as they dont charge a "FEE" and your able to withdraw up to 20,000 php. :)

[Art2ro]

I've been with BPI Bank 14 yrs now and I can withdraw P20,000 a day on each of my 3 ATM cards, savings, checking and dollar account and have never yet paid any extra service fees! That's P60,000 a day and with no fees as long as I use a BPI ATM machine! I never use my U.S. international debit/Visa card as to avoid paying those ridicules extra service fees, but only when I have to just in case of emergencies or if I really have to purchase something on-line that I really need!

[JJReyes]

I need to send pesos, from time-to-time, to someone in the Philippines. We decided to use the Philippine National Bank (PNB) remittance system since the banks charge $55 for wire transfers. PNB has an office in Honolulu and several other locations in the United States. First step was for the recipient to apply for a Global Filipino account by going to any PNB branch. After the account was established, I went to the Honolulu office and arranged the remittance. The exchange rate on Dec. 28th was PHP43.50 to USD1.00, which is pretty good. On that day, the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas official rate was PHP43.85 to USD1.00, according to an online Manila newspaper. The remittance fee was $7.00. The money is credited to the Philipppine account within one minute. I then phoned the recipient and he went to a PNB Branch ATM machine to withdraw. There were no additional service charges. The recipient is required to maintain a minimum P100 balance.By the way, the major credit card companies now charge a 3% "foreign transaction" fee. You have to be very careful. If I reserve a hotel room in Asia through Travelocity, Hotels.Com, Expedia, etc., the fee does not appear because it is considered a US transaction. I once reserved a room in Hong Kong using a Hong Kong based reservation system and the credit card company applied the 3% fee. For a trip to the United Kingdom earlier this year, there was no fee for the BritRail passes because the transaction was processed through their Chicago office. Our bus tickets from London Heathrow to Bristol had the 3% fee. The same for the online purchase of London theatre tickets. In addition, the exchange rate by the credit card companies were terrible.

[i am bob]

Also think twice before you consider doing Direct Deposits of your U.S. Government pensions to your bank in the Philippines, because they only issue passbook type accounts without internet or ATM access.

I'm trying to translate this into "Canadian" and I'm not sure if the situations for us are the same... Are you saying that US Gov pensions are deposited in US $ rather than pesos and only to a US $ account?Sometimes I feel soooooo :89: