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Scotspine:
Hello Forum

I am fortunate to have recently been dumped by my wife - we have sold our house and split it 50/50 - sad as I worked hard to pay for the place and its contents - but hey it gives me the opportunity to make my long awaited  move to the Philippines. Time for a new chapter in my life. There have been a few I may add.

Anyway - I about to take the plunge and make my move to the Philippines. I am currently UK based -retired, reasonably  fit and active for my age. Financially fairly stable with the proceeds of the house sale- supported by healthy monthly pensions. My children are successful in life. So no ties to UK anymore. Seek a new life.

I worked in Singapore for two years- had a few holiday trips to Malaysia and made several trips to Philippines. Tagaytay, Manila, Batnangas and Mindorro. So I have a good idea of life in Philippines- perhaps still a little bit green quite yet as all my trips to Philippines I was accompanied by my Filipina "maid" who "looked after” me whilst I was based in Singapore. Met up with her a few times since I retired four years ago. I am going to be based in Mindorro- with her

My question to the forum is - Banking.
Currently I use the Royal Bank of Scotland where my pensions get paid monthly and where my savings are held. I will need to have access to money in the Philippines - which I think  means opening a Philippine Bank account [ probably in London]- prior to moving then do internet transfers for ready day to day living. 

Any advice would be helpful - not only for banking but anything at all.

Regards to all

Peter:

--- Quote from: Scotspine on October 09, 2018, 12:09:46 AM ---........................
.......................

My question to the forum is - Banking.
Currently I use the Royal Bank of Scotland where my pensions get paid monthly and where my savings are held. I will need to have access to money in the Philippines - which I think  means opening a Philippine Bank account [ probably in London]- prior to moving then do internet transfers for ready day to day living. 

Any advice would be helpful - not only for banking but anything at all.

Regards to all

--- End quote ---


Hi Scotspine.

If you inform your bank, you can use your debit cards in the ATMs here. But the exchange rates are not too good and there is always the security aspect to consider as well.

I have a Bank of Scotland (Edinburgh) account where my UK pensions are paid into and I have a Metrobank Philippines account in the Bataan, which I've had for a number of years.

Metrobank Philippines have their own remittance centre in London < http://www.metrorem.co.uk/home.html  >.
Important note. Do not confuse Metrobank Philippines London Remittance Centre, with the Metrobank PLC in London. Two different entities, which could cause problems if you aren't careful.


Using the (free) UK banking "FasterPay" service I transfer Sterling from my HBoS account to their London based account, which they then transfer in PhP to my Metrobank account here. Their exchange rate is the "Inter Bank" Rate", not what you'll see on line.

The remittance only  takes a few hours, as the FasterPay transfer is checked by their office staff before they will action the remittance.

Remember that the time difference with the UK is either 7 or 8 hours and their office staff start at 10 am London time. So I do the transfer online from here, go to bed and wake up the following morning with a credit in our account. The money is credited to our account is around midnight Philippines time (close of play Uk office) sometimes a little later, but not by much.

The charges are on their web page, but for what I do every month, it's only GBP 5.50 per transaction.

This a service which is meant to be only available to UK residents, so you should have a UK address when/if you contact them.

I did at one point, use BoS's own international bank transfer. I sent a nominal sum (PhP10,000) and that took 6 working days, passed through 2 other UK banks, then another 2 banks in Manila, before it appeared in my account. Each handling bank took a percentage, BoS charged me GBP 15.00 to start with, on top of whatever PhP 10,000 was at the time, and I got the princely sum of PhP 7,200 credited here. Now that was 15 years ago, so things may, or may not, have changed since then.

MetroBank works for me. Others may have a different way.

Hope this helps.

Peter

Scotspine:
Peter - just what I wanted to read. Perfect- Thanks. I will look into your suggestions particularly as I want to travel to Philippines for a short period [59 days] in the first instance -so the ATM would give me cash.


cheers
Bill

Peter:
Bill.

You're welcome. My daughter and hubby have just paid us a short visit from the UK. They brought a fist full of US$ to tide them over for the first few days. Sterling £s can be changed in the larger towns, but US$s can be changed nearly everywhere out in the Provinces.

Check your UK bank's policy. NatWest told her they would send a verification text each time she used her card over here. That would mean : she puts card in atm, inputs PIN and amount required. NatWest send additional verification code to her UK mobile. She inputs that and money comes out. Too much faff for them, so they used Bank of Dad instead. LOL!

HBoS allows direct pull, as long as you tell them beforehand that you're here.

Have a great trip.

Peter

mikbal:
Just fyi, pulled 10000P from the metrobank atm this morning.  There was a 250 fee and the rate was 54 to a dollar

Mike

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