Money Transfer

I used WorldRemit for smaller amounts because much easier to get approved, reciever have many more places to pick up from and reciever dont need bank acount.  Fee 24 SEK = less than 3 USD.   I believe the max allowed they have is 150 000 pesos. 

For biger amount I used bank to bank. Fee  395 SEK = roughly 40 USD.   A lot of hazzle in both banks before they approved.

USA has made it much harder to transfer LEGIT money - to stop terrorists, but I doubt they have stoped any terrorists       by making it hard for us others 
E g I had to show where I had got the money from!!! Inspite of I have reached retirement age, so I have had many years to save and it wasnt that much money I tried to send. Luckily I happened to have incoming money recently from I sold my house in Sweden and an heritance, which I could show them.  Otherwice I dont know if it would have been approved.  I had to tell too  what to use them for and I had to show business contract!!! It took months to get approval!!! 
Because USA fine - or ban - SWEDISH banks if they dont do exactly as USA tell them!!!   

Or Remitly for small amounts (takes a few minutes) and Wise for larger amount (can take up to 4/5 days for larger amounts)

https://www.moneygram.com/RAF/RAFSDULR5N my referral moneygram. Highest exchange rate

Remitly takes less than a minute and Worldremit may take several minutes to hours (if using a credit or debit card).  Paypal is almost instantaneous but has the highest fees (using a credit or debit card); you will need to open a Philippines Paypal account to link to a GCash account.  Open a GCash account (app or play store) and order a debit card for less than $5.  Anyone in the world can send money to GCash using Remity, Worldremit or Paypal.  If you send money via a checking account you will save money on fees but will need to wait about a week to get your money.

Thank you

Hi I use B of A and have a Navy Federal Credit Union account.  I can zelle money to NFCU then Western Union to the PI.  I have a friend that has been doing this.

lcdrski wrote:

Hi I use B of A and have a Navy Federal Credit Union account.  I can zelle money to NFCU then Western Union to the PI.  I have a friend that has been doing this.

There are so many ways, I prefer to keep it simple, by transferring from Citibank USA to BDO.
I use Wise, sometimes the transfer is in minutes and sometimes in days. The fee is approximately 1/2 percent.

Many use Charles Schwab with no fees. I signed up and have several pieces of mail from them sitting in my US Global mail account, so I will know more when I have the mail FedEx'd to me. (waiting for my mail to accumulate.)

YMMV

Thank you for the feedback.

If you have a Philippine bank account to transfer to, you can use PayPal to transfer money.  That's what I do.

I'm not from the US but for GBP, I have used and recommend Wise. I note that Wise has been mentioned in an previous reply. Their service is very open and honest. If they can't provide the cheapest rate, they will often volunteer a list of options with corresponding costs.

Wise (transferwise) gets a lot of happy sounding mentions on many of this forum's sections.
I have never used them but reports here suggest they are worth looking at.

Yep- Wise is the way to go if you can wait a couple of days. Every other service charges too much IMO.
You do have to send the money to a bank account as far as I know there isn't a cash pick up service.
Charles Schwab reimburses all fees at the end of the month. With CS you are allowed 20000 peso per day from ATM. Thats 10000 x 2 - not 20000 at one
transaction. I get 10000 and if no one is in line behind me I do a second transaction for 10000 if needed. I would suggest using ONLY well known bank ATM's during daylight hours.

199p fee card to bank card

jpeelersr wrote:

If you have a Philippine bank account to transfer to, you can use PayPal to transfer money.  That's what I do.

Are you recommending Pay through the Nose Pay Pal?

Paypal and Remitly are the best ways for money transfer now a days.

Bianca Evans wrote:

Paypal and Remitly are the best ways for money transfer now a days.

Whoa there Bianca,

Your Bio is an advertisement for the company you work for. Nothing about you in your bio except you live in Armenia and wish to live in the US.

Do you want Mayo or Mustard on your Spam Sandwich? Since you recommend Paypal could you please tell me the fee for sending $1000 USD?

Another vote for Wise - I've used it a few times, quick, easy and very efficient

We use Wise and Remitly now, no complaints. Used to use Xoom years ago but switched to save on fees.

I get SS benefits direct deposit to a dedicated BDO peso passbook savings account.

Billy

for very large amounts use your bank. Chase bank in the USA charges 40 dollars to send up to 150k USD. and you will be taxed for sending anything over 10k USD.  for small amounts in my opinion use Western union online service paying with your debit card or withdrawn from you bank.  make sure you transfer to a bank account here in the philippines because the fee is only 2.99USD to send to bank account in the philippines.

Bukidnonkane wrote:

you will be taxed for sending anything over 10k USD.

Why taxed?
Taxed by which country?

Is it the silly* taxing ALL* transfers TO the Philippines suggestion to catch them, who try to avoid income tax at incomes from internet work?   
I thought it was a suggestion, which was skipped or adjusted to not include allready taxed savings.

*The info I did read a while ago was some fuzzy, so unclear IF it include more than the internet earnings not taxed elsewhere,  which decide if its very silly or not.

Bank of America has no fee to transfer in a foreign currency, I don't know how the exchange rate is, I talked to a person at the bank they had no idea there was no fee for transfer in a foreign currency, but it does and is stated on the online bank desktop

Bank of America has no fee to transfer in a foreign currency,

No or low fee's should be a huge red flag, look at the exchange rate plus fee's.

Run an experiment- choose 3-4 money transfer services (e.g., bank, remitly, wise, western union) then act like you're going to transfer $1000 bank account to bank account. Compare the actual amount's received in your philippine bank account. You decide.
Personally, I think banks make lawyers look good, I may need to deal with them but my radar is on full alert when I do.

Thank you

If you open a savings account in the Philippines in your home currency (not many are available...) and transfer directly to it from your bank, the exchange rate issue goes away and you can choose when to convert.

I have had a USD Metrobank savings account for years. The minimum to keep it open is high.....$500 USD....but the option of converting when I see the rates in my favor make it worthwhile to me.

Check with your bank of choice in the Philippines for the exact requirements.

If you are not here yet, the 3 largest banks are BDO, Bank of the Philippine Islands (commonly called BPI) and Metrobank. BDO has an advantage of having ATMs in most SM malls (largest chain of malls in the country). Proximity to your chosen location should also be addressed.

BDO ATMs are ubiquitous. BPI ATMs are mostly inside the bank at the front entrance where I live. BDO is the largest bank here I believe but BPI has been in existence since about 1850. I use both.BPI for my soc sec monthly direct deposit and BDO for cash withdrawals when I need cash. I also have small peso savings account with BPI that I can use to pay bills online or use my debit card. Keep about 50Kpesos in it. Mostly use my BDO debit card for supermarket and other cash purchases. Can also use BDO to pay utility bills online.

I Use Wise. Transfer to BDO and GCash. Transfer to GCash for a few hundred dollars usually takes a few minutes. Bank transfer generally within 2 hours, although sometimes it takes 2 or 3 days.

I just transferred Pesos to a hotel from BofA for 50.39 rate and no fee,  it will cost me 45$us to transfer my SRRV fee to my account in the BDO.  is this a good deal to tranfer money from us to my BDO account?  Thanks

Personally, i can recommend Wise.
payments from clients for the work i do for them takes less than a full 24 hours to be transferred to mybank account, however,  compensation that was expected on the 1st, took almost 3 days. I  am just assuming this somehow might be due in part because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine at the moment but i can't be sure..

anyone else experiencing similar delays when making transfers on platforms like Wise ?

kristopherryanwatson wrote:

Personally, i can recommend Wise.
payments from clients for the work i do for them takes less than a full 24 hours to be transferred to mybank account, however,  compensation that was expected on the 1st, took almost 3 days. I  am just assuming this somehow might be due in part because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine at the moment but i can't be sure..

anyone else experiencing similar delays when making transfers on platforms like Wise ?

Some banks in the Philippines have delay - and with extra fees! -   between head office and local same bank.

kristopherryanwatson wrote:

Personally, i can recommend Wise.
payments from clients for the work i do for them takes less than a full 24 hours to be transferred to mybank account, however,  compensation that was expected on the 1st, took almost 3 days. I  am just assuming this somehow might be due in part because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine at the moment but i can't be sure..

anyone else experiencing similar delays when making transfers on platforms like Wise ?

I've been using Wise for several years, only twice money has been delayed (several days). Usually have the money in several hours.

When making the transfer they will tell you when to expect it. After so many transfers I just assume it will be smoothly, so if checking their quote of the arrival you can gain your expectations.

@Okieboy hi. I just talked to B of A the only transfer they had at manager level was $45 transfer fee!  I looked in line said I could transfer to another bank acct with router number and account with no fee? I am confused. Have the app on phone. Can u help? Thanks. Jim I'm living in Barretto have my SRRV and going to open peso account this week. Have been using NFCU western union.

@Okieboy Hi can you tell me terminology to go US to Peso account from b of a . They are telling me it's an international wire transfer. 45$ fee. I thought I could go is to pesos for a cut on the exchange rate. Thanks. Jim.

I have been depositing Monthly from Wells Fargo Directly into BDO (Pesos) via Western Union.

Western union only charges .99 per transaction Bank to Bank...BDO charged nothing to deposit, the WU Rate is on average .5 less then the actual so on average if rate is 57 I will get 56.5-56.6

No other fees, this works for me, I can process from home on mobile and never have to go stand inline at the WU office, Money Changer or BDO as I use to do before

I use to use Xoom. Then I began researching by watching my favorite blogger "Vlogger Grandpa" by reviewing his video channel here.

youtube.com/watch?v=d-ky-3Meo1g

And when I visit the Philippines, I use the Charles Schwab debit card with no ATM fees. Tested successfully for ATM fees being reimbursed at the end of the month.

youtube.com/watch?v=5pBIvE3XElc

I hope this helps.

Lonely Wolf Out!