Sending Money to the Philippines

[ronnsb]

I use Remitly (remitly.com) to send money to the Philippines and I plan on sending myself money just before I go. Here is an example of their rates:
Sending $330.00 (U.S) = P14,412.3 (current exchange rate of P43.6736 = $1 )
Remitly will send at exchange rate of P42.77 = $1
It will cost P303 ($6.90) + Remitly service fee of $3.99 = $10.89 (P475.6) which works out to approximately 3.3%
So sending $330 plus $3.99 service fee ($333.99 total) will give you P14,114.10
My daily limit to send through Remitly (which I hope to never go over!) is $2,999 You can request a higher send limit.
The person you send money to can pick up the pesos within seconds of sending it at various places including Cebuana.
If you decide to send money and the person does not need to pick it up for 3 days, then there is no service fee which is approximately 2.1%
I hope this helps! 

[Lee2]

I bring enough cash for at least one months living and then write a US check and deposit it into my Philippine bank dollar account and wait the 21 business days for it to clear, that way I then withdraw that when it becomes ready and at the same time deposit another US check and that has worked for us for approx 20 years, although I have changed banks a few times.

Also I call the money changer to meet us at the bank or use their off site money changer if they have similar rates to those I can find around town and thus never leave the bank with any cash. Once the exchange is done, I deposit most of the pesos into our Philippine ATM account and then live of that for the month.

My way costs me nothing in exchange or sending fees, and if just doing it for a visit, then no big deal paying the extra but if doing it over a long period of time, then I would rather that extra money is in my pocket to be used for a night out on the town or many nights out on the town over the years time, all depending on how much is to be sent.

In the example you used above, the savings is $13.73 if my math is correct, thus x12 that comes out to $165 a year, now I can think of a lot of things to do with an extra $165 or thereabouts.

[trev.]

We are living in the Philippines since 2009. Both my pension checks are deposited in our U.S. bank. B of A. We used our ATM. for withdrawal. Which is quite expensive. B of A charges $5.00 per transaction of $200.00. The bank here in the PH. then charges another $2.00. so that is $7.00 per. transaction. Recently i notice that the Ph. bank is now charging $7.00 per transaction. The bank here in the province only allow a limit of P10,000. per withdrawal. But the limit for the day is P20,000. At present we are in California and we sent money to pay bills. Cost us $8.00 to send $600.00 by money gram. We did this via the internet. So my plan is . When we return to the Ph. I will send money to myself using money gram.
 

[Lee2]

Or you can open an account with USAA Bank who supposedly refunds up to 10 fees a month, or Charles Schwab bank who supposedly does not charge fees or Fidelity Investments who is supposed to reimburse fees but does charge 1% exchange fees. All these might be for you or others to check yourselves as I have read online of many people living in the Philippines who are doing that but have not bothered to do it that way since my way is totally free and seems to be the easiest for me. 
https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/bank_main?akredirect=true
http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/pricing_services/fees_minimums
https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/atm-debit-card

[Gray Wolf]

We've been using Xoom for the last few years.  I sent $1500 the other day to help pay for the funeral and burial expenses for my father in law.  The fee was $4.99.  The exchange rate on this transaction was 42.7005.  The money is ready for pickup immediately.  The family uses the local Lhuillier office for the cash pickup.  Too easy.   

[ronnsb]

My way costs me nothing in exchange or sending fees, and if just doing it for a visit, then no big deal paying the extra but if doing it over a long period of time, then I would rather that extra money is in my pocket to be used for a night out on the town or many nights out on the town over the years time, all depending on how much is to be sent.

In the example you used above, the savings is $13.73 if my math is correct, thus x12 that comes out to $165 a year, now I can think of a lot of things to do with an extra $165 or thereabouts.

That is great! Sure, I can think of a lot of things to do with that extra money too! Thanks for the info. I tried opening a bank account when I was there in May, but they would not do it, because I did not have a local address and hmmmm....possible other reasons!

[ronnsb]

We've been using Xoom for the last few years.  I sent $1500 the other day to help pay for the funeral and burial expenses for my father in law.  The fee was $4.99.  The exchange rate on this transaction was 42.7005.  The money is ready for pickup immediately.  The family uses the local Lhuillier office for the cash pickup.  Too easy.   

I meant to put Lhullier in my message, but I forgot about it!  I tried Xoom, but they would not let me send money, because it was not being sent to a relative. It's ok though...I understand. I'm glad it works well for you though!

[JoeLP]

We've been using Xoom for the last few years.  I sent $1500 the other day to help pay for the funeral and burial expenses for my father in law.  The fee was $4.99.  The exchange rate on this transaction was 42.7005.  The money is ready for pickup immediately.  The family uses the local Lhuillier office for the cash pickup.  Too easy.   

This.  xoom.com is all I use also.  A flat $4.99 fee for up to something like $2999 or maybe just $2000.  Anyway, free to pick up at any of a large number of places.  All I use to ship my monthly supply of money from my US bank account. 

[Gray Wolf]

We've been using Xoom for the last few years.  I sent $1500 the other day to help pay for the funeral and burial expenses for my father in law.  The fee was $4.99.  The exchange rate on this transaction was 42.7005.  The money is ready for pickup immediately.  The family uses the local Lhuillier office for the cash pickup.  Too easy.   

I meant to put Lhullier in my message, but I forgot about it!  I tried Xoom, but they would not let me send money, because it was not being sent to a relative. It's ok though...I understand. I'm glad it works well for you though!

I wasn't aware there were any restrictions on who receives it as long as they have an ID to prove who they are.  All they required from me was a US bank account (check), the name of the person receiving the money (check) and the person must have a valid ID (check)

What did they say exactly when you tried to register?   

[ronnsb]

The main thing I remember them saying was that I was not related to the person. They said this service was only to send money to relatives. They also asked if I had ever met her in person, and of course at that time I hadn't.

[Art, just a re(tired) Fil-Am]

Long ago when Xoom opened their office in N. California (probably only a call center), I was able to join for a short period, because when I tried sending money to myself to our RP bank account, they closed out my membership! They said sending myself money violates the RP's "Money Anti-Laundering Act".
They got stricter with their membership policies thereafter! Since we no longer live in the U.S., we couldn't use our RP address to rejoin Xoom even though we have a U.S. mailing address and besides I couldn't provide them with utility receipts in my name, which was one of their other requirements! So, I was S.O.L.! 
Anyway, I don't rely on anyone to send me my own money here to the Philippines from our U.S. dollar account, because I just write out our U.S. joint personal USD checks for deposit into our RP USD account and have been doing so for the past 15 years without any issues! 

[JoeLP]

ronnsb:
You talked to someone?  I didn't know xoom.com even had offices.  I only ever used it online.  Never a problem.  Send the money every month.  $4.99.  I just send it to Tina every time.  Technically, we are not married.  She is not family.  Never had a problem.  I just went online, attached my checking account to it, and send it monthly.(to be safe, I have multiple checking accounts and the secondary account is not an overdraft protection account.  I also have no "overdraft coverage" on the primary.  So if someone did get my info, they won't get more than $5 and the bank will refund it.
Anyway, it's that easy.  Each month, transfer money from the secondary to the primary, then send it via xoom.com from the primary to Tina.
Whatever you find that works best for you I hope does what you want. 
But seriously...there's xoom.com offices?  Sorta beats the point....doesn't it?
oh well........

[Gray Wolf]

Yes, that's the way we did it, too.  I registered online, gave them my bank routing and account number and the name of who will be picking it up. 

Ron, have you tried to register online?

[ronnsb]

There is a toll free phone number on Xoom at top under "Customer Service". I actually did call to talk to someone on the phone, who asked me about the relationship to the person I was sending it to, and also asked if I had met her in person.

Yes, I did register online.

I just looked at the transaction I tried making last October. Maybe they didn't like the credit card! Maybe she was trying to protect me...who knows? I have to send money soon, so maybe I will try it again.

By the way...todays rate on Xoom is 42.8005 and on Remitly its 42.93  So sending $2,500 through Remitly instead of Xoom will get you PHP 323.75 more and Remitly service fee is only $3.99  I'm not pushing Remitly...merely showing the difference!

[BudM]

Unless Xoom had a policy change, you do not have to be related.  Back several years ago, I wanted to send a deposit on a place to spend a vacation at.  After checking out the ways to do it, I decided to sign up on Xoom.  They called me to ask several questions and get me set up.  One of the questions was, who are you sending the money to?  I gave her name and they asked who she was?  I said, "What do you mean who is she?  She's my girlfriend."  Yeah, I had met her and had known her about a year already by then but they never asked if I had met her or anything else.  They just said, "OK".