It’s Your Money > Banking

Wise for Money Transfers

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Kano:
  I have been using Xoom to transfer money from my bank directly to my wife's BdO account in the Philippines.  But, I checked their exchange rate lately, and it's P3 lower than the official exchange rate.  They are only exchanging P53 per $1 instead of P56.

  So, I've been looking for other exchange/remittance services, and came across Wise.  I even heard a YouTuber mention this service.

   Has anyone here used it, and is it legitimate?

-Mike

Hestecrefter:
I have used many different ones over the years - Xoom, WorldRemit, IRemit, and no doubt some I cannot recall.

These days I am using Wise and am content with it.  I use it to send money to myself when I am there.  I don't bring a lot of cash with me.

Steve & Myrlita:
Yes, I also was using Xoom and the exchange rate was horrible not to mention their transfer fees. I switched to Wise when it was still Transferwise. Much better cost wise. At 1st I thought they took too long to transfer but I since learned through trial and error that as long as you start the transfer before 10 AM Sat PHT or sooner, it usually transfers in 1-2 hours and sometimes faster. The trick is not to start the transfer after that time. If you do, the soonest it will finish is Monday afternoon between 1-3PM PHT. This is due to EST going past midnight Sun night / Mon morning EST. In other words, money doesn't transfer weekends. I think maybe Xoom will transfer but it's costly and should only be done if it's urgent. Just my P2 worth.

Kano:
Thanks Hestecrefter and Steve,

   I will transfer to funds to my wife's BdO account before we arrive.  Wise has a much better exchange rate and transfer fee than even the local BdO remit center here.

-Mike

starrt:
Kano,

You can always just use the ATM's to get cash as you need it. I have no idea what exchange rates they use. There is usually a withdrawal limit of 10,000 Php per transaction, and depending on which bank it is, you can do that 5 times for a total of 50,000 Php.
Just keep in mind the transaction fees at both ends.

Thomas

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