What Is The Best Bank For Foreigners To Use?

[Bundy]

We have been a member with BPI for a few years and find them excellent to deal with. Never had a single problem.Regarding online transfer of funds, it can be done from Australia bank to bank but the fee is the killer. What we do is to transfer the funds online to Ausphil Forex and they send it to our account with BPI in pesos. Never had any problem doing this and the fee is less than half what our Australian bank wants to charge for the same service. The money reaches our Phil account within 24hrs.I also was told that the Philippine banks do not have a swift code, i mentioned this to our Australian bank and they said it was not a problem.

[MikeB]

We have been a member with BPI for a few years and find them excellent to deal with. Never had a single problem.Regarding online transfer of funds, it can be done from Australia bank to bank but the fee is the killer. What we do is to transfer the funds online to Ausphil Forex and they send it to our account with BPI in pesos. Never had any problem doing this and the fee is less than half what our Australian bank wants to charge for the same service. The money reaches our Phil account within 24hrs.I also was told that the Philippine banks do not have a swift code, i mentioned this to our Australian bank and they said it was not a problem.

Thanks, I was thinking in terms of a bank to bank electronic transfer rather then going thru a 3rd party. If there are fees involved it's better to withdraw cash from the US acct and deposit into the BPI acct or write a paper check and wait. There are no fees on my CapitalOne cash withdrawals other then the local 200p charge for using a foreign card. I heard that HSBC and Citibank do not charge the 200 for withdrawals but haven't tried yet, perhaps someone has and can advise.

[Bundy]

We have been a member with BPI for a few years and find them excellent to deal with. Never had a single problem.Regarding online transfer of funds, it can be done from Australia bank to bank but the fee is the killer. What we do is to transfer the funds online to Ausphil Forex and they send it to our account with BPI in pesos. Never had any problem doing this and the fee is less than half what our Australian bank wants to charge for the same service. The money reaches our Phil account within 24hrs.I also was told that the Philippine banks do not have a swift code, i mentioned this to our Australian bank and they said it was not a problem.

Thanks, I was thinking in terms of a bank to bank electronic transfer rather then going thru a 3rd party. If there are fees involved it's better to withdraw cash from the US acct and deposit into the BPI acct or write a paper check and wait. There are no fees on my CapitalOne cash withdrawals other then the local 200p charge for using a foreign card. I heard that HSBC and Citibank do not charge the 200 for withdrawals but haven't tried yet, perhaps someone has and can advise.

Yeah, a bank to bank electronic tranfer from our Australian bank direct to our BPI account has a fee of $24 ! That's why i do it myself online through a 3rd party, it's a lot cheaper, the exchange rate is better than the bank as well.

[Art2ro]

Yeah, I haven't had to do any money transfers for a long time now, because service charges nowadays are just too much, especially using non BPI credit or debit cards, which are now P200 per transaction and an additional $5.00 from your U.S. cards per transaction! With us, just depositing our U.S. personal checks doesn't cost anything with BPI, it's what I call my "free banking" system as long one keeps the minimum balance of P3,000 regular Peso ATM/Savings Account, P10,000 for a Peso ATM/Checkbook Account and $500 for a Dollar Savings/ATM Account! I don't recommend going via the dollar Direct Deposit route, because one can only avail the USD Passbook type account with no ATM or internet access unless one has no other choice in the matter in how to get access to their money in the U.S.!

[Call me bubba]

HSBC is still NO FEE, CITIBANK charges 150. all others are 200php HSBC allows 20.000 per w/d BPI/Bdo/metrobank is 10.000 others not sure ( i only know about BDO.BPI.Metro bank.PS bank,Security bank )Art2ro, i dont know what US bank your using for those "FEES" but my us bank, USAA *,rebates me up to $15.00 a month on my debts, I am still charged a "foreign" transaction fee as all cards are but it usually runs under $13 usd a month for my withdrawals, when needed I do use the BPI/Wells fargo tie up to send funds if needed. its MUCH cheaper than a "swift" pr bank to bank.wire transfer..*member since 1988

[MikeB]

HSBC is still NO FEE, CITIBANK charges 150. all others are 200php HSBC allows 20.000 per w/d BPI/Bdo/metrobank is 10.000 others not sure ( i only know about BDO.BPI.Metro bank.PS bank,Security bank )Art2ro, i dont know what US bank your using for those "FEES" but my us bank, USAA *,rebates me up to $15.00 a month on my debts, I am still charged a "foreign" transaction fee as all cards are but it usually runs under $13 usd a month for my withdrawals, when needed I do use the BPI/Wells fargo tie up to send funds if needed. its MUCH cheaper than a "swift" pr bank to bank.wire transfer..*member since 1988

Thanks for the info on HSBC and, once again, there are no fees of any kind on CapitalOne ATM withdrawals (except the local bank's "foreign transaction fee") - anywhere in the world and the exchange rate is ok.

[Art2ro]

HSBC is still NO FEE, CITIBANK charges 150. all others are 200php HSBC allows 20.000 per w/d BPI/Bdo/metrobank is 10.000 others not sure ( i only know about BDO.BPI.Metro bank.PS bank,Security bank )Art2ro, i dont know what US bank your using for those "FEES" but my us bank, USAA *,rebates me up to $15.00 a month on my debts, I am still charged a "foreign" transaction fee as all cards are but it usually runs under $13 usd a month for my withdrawals, when needed I do use the BPI/Wells fargo tie up to send funds if needed. its MUCH cheaper than a "swift" pr bank to bank.wire transfer..*member since 1988

I can withdraw P20,000 per day from my BPI ATM debit card, but if one is a "preferred client", ATM withdrawals can be higher! BPI charges I believe P150 per transaction for non-BPI debit or credit cards! I had Wells Fargo and Bank of America before, but when I retired I closed out my Wells Fargo account and kept my Bank of America account instead which has the U.S. bank to overseas bank on-line transfer feature, but it's a hassle to use requiring a U.S. cellphone to receive the random passcodes. Bank of America charges $5.00 per transaction on ATM withdrawals from non-BofA machines! HSBC banks are just far too few and require a huge deposit to open an account, not worth the hassle of the long drive to get to their banks! BDO banks will charge you every service fee they can think of charging! Metro bank has I believe low limits on ATM withdraws, P4,000 per transaction! I've been with BofA since 1979! Wells Fargo banks are now few and far in between, I only used them when we had an IRA account with them long ago, didn't make any money on the IRA because we didn't keep it long enough. We're satisfied with all of our banking needs with BPI and BofA, it works for us and we haven't paid a dime for any service charges or monthly service fees in 13 yrs! Edited July 18, 2011 by Art2ro

[Call me bubba]

how i wish i had 20.000 in my BPI to use, :unsure: I do use the local BPI for my "us cash withdrawals" (not cash advance) but I am cheapwhen i can plan ahead I do use the HSBC near ATC just to avoid the 200php fee, ".I kill 2 birds with 1 stone "when i'm at ATC. perhaps someone can buy me lunch , :woohoo:HSBC,CITIBANK requires to much minimum deposit for me & sure most of us on the forum.Landbank has a low deposit requirement but it seems they always have a long line & here in sta rosa the ATM seems to be off line at night.

[Art2ro]

how i wish i had 20.000 in my BPI to use, :unsure: I do use the local BPI for my "us cash withdrawals" (not cash advance) but I am cheapwhen i can plan ahead I do use the HSBC near ATC just to avoid the 200php fee, ".I kill 2 birds with 1 stone "when i'm at ATC. perhaps someone can buy me lunch , :woohoo:HSBC,CITIBANK requires to much minimum deposit for me & sure most of us on the forum.Landbank has a low deposit requirement but it seems they always have a long line & here in sta rosa the ATM seems to be off line at night.

Our BPI bank is just a block away from our home walking distance and during when they have long lines, I just go to the Nuvali BPI branch less than a mile from our house because there is hardly ever a long line at their Nuvali BPI branch!

[Mr Lee]

We have been a member with BPI for a few years and find them excellent to deal with. Never had a single problem.Regarding online transfer of funds, it can be done from Australia bank to bank but the fee is the killer. What we do is to transfer the funds online to Ausphil Forex and they send it to our account with BPI in pesos. Never had any problem doing this and the fee is less than half what our Australian bank wants to charge for the same service. The money reaches our Phil account within 24hrs.I also was told that the Philippine banks do not have a swift code, i mentioned this to our Australian bank and they said it was not a problem.

Thanks, I was thinking in terms of a bank to bank electronic transfer rather then going thru a 3rd party. If there are fees involved it's better to withdraw cash from the US acct and deposit into the BPI acct or write a paper check and wait. There are no fees on my CapitalOne cash withdrawals other then the local 200p charge for using a foreign card. I heard that HSBC and Citibank do not charge the 200 for withdrawals but haven't tried yet, perhaps someone has and can advise.

Citibank used to not charge anything when using another Citibank ATM worldwide but now they not only charge the fee but it says they charge an exchange fee as well, so while my wife and I used to use our US Citibank ATM card in the Cebu branches to get money, we now do as Art does and just deposit a US check into our dollar account and wait the 21 days or in some banks the 21 business days, yet I have heard some banks can hold up to 30 days, what a rip off but got to go with the flow. As for Wells Fargo, there is supposed to be a way to do direct transfers from them to BPI but I have not tried yet because they would not allow it with our Wachovia account, even when Wells Fargo had bought Wachovia, but now they full transfer has taken place and all branches of Wachovia are now Wells Fargo, so there are many of them around the US so I will try a transfer later this year or early next year to see how it goes. HERE is some info I found about it.

Philippines -- In addition to Wells Fargo's Philippines ATM Remittance Account, Wells Fargo and the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) are offering an account-to-account remittance program. Customers in the United States can send the Philippine Peso equivalent of up to $3,000 a day to the Philippines for $5. BPI is the second largest bank in the country. Recipients can claim their funds at more than 700 BPI branch