Welcome to the forum and hope you enjoy and also contribute. Please introduce yourself further to help with your OP. Please search here on this forum as there is plenty of info with regards to your question and asking/giving info will reveal all, plenty of UK expats here to help I'm sure.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Hi Vickey and welcome to the forum so hopefully someone from the UK can give a better insight on your issue, we do have members from UK living here permanent.

Some immediate things to worry about would be your Immigration status that will be your main concern if you want to live her permanently so it's either going to be an SRRV or a 13a Visa unless you're employer is bringing you an setting up a work Visa, hopefully a UK employer if not I'd worry about any job offer from the Philippines. Without any of the Visa's it'll be tough to open a Philippine Bank Account, or other services.

So if you have a credit card I guess you could withdraw money from an ATM, living off plastic is difficult in some area's especially away from major cities as this is still a 3rd world and you'll be dealing with coins and paper money again. Steve has a good point we need more information on your marital status are you going to or are you married to a Philippine citizen or are you a returning Philippine citizen, what brings you here, that's the kind of stuff that will help us give you much more information.

 

Here's a lnk to look at. In another forum, someone was using PayPal to transfer money.

https://www.quora.com/What-banks-support-PayPal-in-the-Philippines

 

Xoom, owned by paypal is quite effective.

 

Lots of options.

Quick cash, simply make a withdrawl at an ATM. I found it is the ceapest way to get peso in hand from your foriegn bank, limited funds available daily may be an issue.

You can use a remittance firm for on line transfer. I have used worldremit.com with success but there are others as well, some fees and not as good an exchange rate but it gets around the daily limit. I do my pick ups at a bank, I have found that picking up at LBC can be a problem since they ay not have a lot of cash on hand, expecially at small outlets in a mall for example. They can also transfer directly to a bank account and offer cash delivery but I have never used it.

If you have a long term visa and can get a local account then you can simply wire transer, some costs but still not much especially if you transfer sufficient funds for 6 months or a year at a time.

I bank at HSBC both at home and in Canada. I simply move money from my Canadian account to my Philippine account with no issues, it is as easy as moving between saving and chequing accounts at home. I don't know if other abanks offer simular services but worth looking into if you already bank at HSBC.

 

Im from the UK orig been here since 2011 i have a nationwide account with a UK ATM card which one of my private pensions is paid into Every month its only £58 which = 3600 pesos i draw 5000 every 2 months from a BDO ATM
And it only costs me around £2.50 ! Nationwide send me a new card before the old one expires.
I can still login to my nationwide acct and transfer money to my sons and daughters accts for birthdays and Xmas
MY UK pension and my yearly private pension goes direct to my BDO bank.

 

I used to use Western Union and Xoom, but found the ATM gave better exchange rates. Also, my bank refunds the ATM fees. So I gave up on all local banking and just hit the ATM twice a month. Foreign cards can take p20,000 out at a time, on BPI machines.

 

Tim, which bank do you use for the ATM refund fees? I know USAA used to do it, but they cut back the number of allowed transactions. The other bank I know refunds all of them, as I understand it, is Charles Schwab. Thanks in advance as we are setting up soon for our move back to the RP there.

 

I established a dollar account with my wife when I moved here permanently from the US. I transfer dollars from the states to the dollar account every month. The cost is very reasonable 7.99 USD for ever 1000 dollars. Then my wife goes to the bank and transfers the USD into her operating pesos account. There are many exchange rates but the bank usually gives us above published rates which has a lot to do with my wife's charm. You also can send direct to a pesos account but XOOM uses a very low exchange rate and makes their money on that windfall. That same 1000 usd dollars will cost me 40 USD when the exchange rate is compared to what is really available in the Philippines. There is paperwork mandated in setting up the dollar account because of money laundering etc And there is a "FINCOM" report mandated for US folks every April 15th in which you have to report when any of your Philippine accounts went over 10,000 USD during the past year. Not sure what the British tax folks would require. For what it is worth I even use XOOM to send my daughter and granddaughter sterling in N Ireland for special occasions. XOOM is now owned by PayPal. Isn't that a british entity?

 

Vickb17,
The key on local banking is your visa status, if you hold a SRRV or 13a (maybe other types) you can open a local bank account. No visa no local account. Lived here 3 months before my SRRV was issued so got to know the ATMs. As Nickleback99 pointed out Charles Schwab is the best. You can go to any ATM, get 10K or at some 20K as many times as you've set your daily max cash withdrawal and no ATM fees charged. True, the statement lumps the withdrawal and a ATM fee together as a single transaction then shows another entry where the ATM fee has been refunded. Every time. Even better is you get bank rate exchange rate. I checked a couple times with xe.com, at the moment of withdrawal and the rate Schwab gave was a tiny fraction above the xe rate, hard to believe but true. So now I have BDO peso account and I withdraw pesos from the ATM in the bank lobby walk over to the banking counter and deposit them in my peso account, at a better exchange rate than any of the local street money changers. I think Schwab is available in the UK, not 100% sure but it is the best deal I've found. Also interesting is xe.com, they claim no transfer fees and bank rate exchange but I've not used them.

 

I have used transferwise to move money to the Philippines at a great exchange rate and very low fee. Works well for what I need it to do.

 

I have lived off of my VISA Debit card in 4 countries… with the same US bank account. I learned to notify my bank when I was heading to a "foreign"country… just so they did NOT STOP my card a "theft or fraud"!!! The ATM often gives better exchange rates than an "money exchange house' MAKE SURE you have a "normal" telephone number to call you bank as often "toll free" calls will NOT be processed in a "foreign country"... My bank in the USA is RABOBANK... a Dutch argribank… with limited offices outside of agricultural areas … They have even sent me a NEW card in China!... WHICH makes me say... GET A NEW CARD..good for 5 yers or more... BEFORE you go..

 

Hi there

Currently have a nationwide account in the uk. Can anyone give me any advice as to how they have managed money in the phillipines etc and transferring money.

Thanks

Hello Vickyb 17.
You don’t say whether you’re in receipt of a pension.
I came here in 2014 on a tourist visa, and was able to open an account with the Bank of the Philippine Islands, without too much red tape, within a month. I had to prove my income by presenting three month’s Nationwide statements.
Thereafter I would use my Nationwide debit card in a local ATM, drawing ₱20,000 in a single transaction, for which Nationwide would charge me 2·75% plus £1.
Later the local banks started charging ₱200 per transaction, and Nationwide charges applied also.
Later still the local banks raised the charge to ₱250, and reduced the maximum withdrawal amount to ₱10,000, so nowadays if you want to get ₱20,000 you have to make two ATM withdrawals. The last time I used my debit card in an ATM I withdrew ₱20,000, and at the then exchange rate I should have paid £316; with the charges levied by the local bank and Nationwide it actually cost me £335: the charges amounted to 5·62% of the amount withdrawn!
In 2016 I decided to have my RAF pension paid into my BPI account, but the payer paid it via a US bank — for which I had to pay a fee — and the BPI charged me a fee for receiving the money! And it took a week to get here. Consequently, I had the pension paid into Nationwide again.
At about that time Nationwide changed their mailing policy; up until then they would never send cards, statements, etc, overseas.
Since leaving the UK in 2003 I have lived in Australia, Malta, Spain and now the Philippines, and my cards were sent to a relative’s home address. My relative then forwarded the card by registered post.
Nowadays they will send items overseas, but my cards “got lost in the post”, so I now have them sent to my relative’s address again, The postal service here is most – uhm – shall we say unreliable!?
For the last year or so I have been transferring my funds through World Remit. A transfer of £850 cost £5·99 [as opposed to £19 for £335! at the ATM] and arrived in an hour; no charge by BPI for receiving it! I’ve heard that if one transfers to a BDO account it is almost instantaneous.
Manitoba suggests the HSBC, and that’s a great idea; if there was a branch here in Angeles I would switch to it. But there isn’t. See https://www.about.hsbc.com.ph/ It depends on where you want to live.
And may I suggest that if you have only one Nationwide account, open another? Then if your card gets lost or stolen you can go on line and transfer your funds to the other account. [I hope I’m not teaching Granny to suck eggs!]

 

.....
Manitoba suggests the HSBC, and that’s a great idea; if there was a branch here in Angeles I would switch to it. But there isn’t. ....

HSBC has branches only in Manila, Cebu and Davao. However they pay the ATM fees for using other banks so it is like having a huge ATM network. If you have a HSBC account at home, you can link it to your HSBC Philippine account and transferring is as easy as moving from savings to chequing accounts at home.

I went to the Makati branch and transferred from my Philippine USD account to my Peso account, I checked through the HSBC Canadian web site and saw the transfer showing in about 30 seconds later. ( I have not gotten around to having the initial restriction on being able to transfer from USD to peso accounts on line. It was in effect for a year.)

I can also have a Philippine Canadian dollar account here so when I have to spend CDN instead of my USD I will set that up to make life easier.

At an HSBC ATM you can get 40 k p at a time and up to 100k a day.

There is also a easy transfer system for transferring peso from one bank to another, You could have HSBC at home, transfer to HSBC Philippine then to your local account. This would be less than the fees for a remittance company, especially when you factor in that they make a large part of their money on a bad exchange rate.

HSBC is the only bank I know of that has both Canadian and Philippine branches, depending on your home country their may be others, may have different names but may be somehow affiliated.

 

PNB have a branch in London but it appears to be treated as any other foreign bank, any transfers between the UK PNB and your Philippines PNB account is treated like any other remittance.

 

Schwab

Yes, Schwab bank refunds my ATM fees every month-end. That's how I get my money here, between that and use of a no-foreign-fee Visa credit card.

 

I fail to understand how a small, low, minimal or reasonable fee compares to zero (0.00). No charges, fees or commission, across the board, what could be better? From money into the Schwab account to pesos in hand from any ATM no charge or commission anywhere, if there is a better system please I'd like to know.

 

Wouldn't we all Gazza, I'm all ears. Mostly I watch exchange rates (interbank) that are offered, what my bank or broker offers around the time of a new transaction and also any fee attached, simple maths but I have found for larger sums (say AU 50K and upwards) the broker offers a better deal.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Visa, and probably Mastercard post their daily worldwide exchange rates online, always a good starting point when looking at the various remittance companies etc.

 

New Way For Me To Transfer $$

I have been getting my money via ATM from a Schwab account.

Recently I bought a car and needed a lot of cash, so I tried something different. I went through the verification process of my Schwab account with XE, and had them transfer the money to the car dealer's account. I got the instantaneous exchange rate--but the money didn't go into his account for about 10 days. So that's how they make their money, and it's painless for me. I can live with that delay since, after the first delay, the money will be in my account every 30/31 days.

Now all I need is my I-card so I can open a bank account to transfer the money into...

George

 

I have been getting my money via ATM from a Schwab account.

Recently I bought a car and needed a lot of cash, so I tried something different. I went through the verification process of my Schwab account with XE, and had them transfer the money to the car dealer's account. I got the instantaneous exchange rate--but the money didn't go into his account for about 10 days. So that's how they make their money, and it's painless for me. I can live with that delay since, after the first delay, the money will be in my account every 30/31 days.

Now all I need is my I-card so I can open a bank account to transfer the money into...

George

bizwizard, I've noticed that money transferred into my Schwab account is held as 'cash on hold' before being fully credited and accessible for 3 or 4 days. Not really an issue as I never need it that quickly. Holding the money for a few days is the only way on the complete transaction chain that I see Schwab can benefit on the deal. No hit on the transaction or exchange rate, zero. So I'm convinced their system works best for my situation.

 

I had both dollar and peso account with BDO when I lived in Tagum City. I only had an acr card when they let me open the accounts. I closed both accounts when I went back to the USA. I wonder if other branches of BDO can retrieve my information and open the accounts again without a hassle? I am coming back there but not in the same area. I will have to get my ACR card again since mine expired.

art

 

Banks in the Philippines are not joined up like we find in the west. Each branch appears to act as a private fiefdom of its manager. Many services are only available from you own branch so you need to be local to your branch.

 

While on money transfers; We used to get a good rate from my bank "westpac" in Oz using a system they called light pay, 5 bucks to transfer AU 3K and at a comparable rate......... All gone now as it appears skullduggery was afoot with these kind of exchanges, money laundering etc and the next best thing we find is good old WU. Lol, never thought I'd say that.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Yes Dave agree, their site has changed over the last 12 months, I used to go to their site and see interbank rates etc without logging in, now I have to log into my account to see what they offer within the market.
Perhaps set up an account with them/register, it should only take a few Pesos...... I mean minutes. I have had to do this on other sites myself to find the best deal.

BTW, how are things going down south after your move? I'm sure you are enjoying.

Cheers, Steve.

 

It's been a really busy time for us. It took a while to get our house furnished and the garden sorted. The next project was to buy a lot on Samal and build a beach house there. Its 95% complete, just finishing the tiling and electrics. Meanwhile the fishing boat that I've had built in Manila is finally finished and has been delivered to me here in Davao. We also decided to buy 1000sqm up in the mountains north of Davao, in Buda. It sits at 1200m so it nice and cold up there, rain and mist etc. and our own little waterfall. So now Im starting on that, getting a road built, the area cleared and fenced. No rush on that one though.

 

Several have discussed making a large purchase by transferring funds direct to the vendors account or through a broker.

When I bought my car, I got a Manager's Cheque or what we would call a teller's cheque back home. Cost was only 50 p on about 1 million on the cheque.

That way they did not get and could not get their hands on the money until I was happy with the car, its condition at the time and that they even had it in stock.

If you transfer the funds in a manner that you lose control over the exact time that they have access to it you are opening yourself to "Sorry sir, not available, come back next month. Sorry we cannot give you back the money but we promise that next month or perhaps the one after that we will have what you have paid for, within 6 months for sure""

 

Same here, I use managers cheques for all major purchases.

 

gives them the access to the float, that
time when it's between accounts in never-land for short term investments

 

That is fine, taking advantage of the float for these things is part of how a bank makes its money. I get next to nothing for interest on the account so if I can get a service like a manager cheque for next to nothing and it makes my life a lot easier, then I'm all for it.

Just don't get the cheque too far in advance.