Banking

[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]

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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

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

[bigrod]

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

Mike

Not knowing what type/bank card makes it hard to determine if your final rate was 54.  Was it a card with no foreign transaction fee and no bank fee?  If not then then what actually received for a rate would be reduced by those fees.  For example if I used my BoA debit card I would end up paying the 250 php fee, $5 BoA fee and the foreign transaction fee 3%.  Very costly for 10k pull.  Now if you have a card that doesn't have those fees and refunds the 250 Php it is a good deal.  Cheapest way I have found is to deposit a USD check cost at most local banks for a $5 fee and wait the 20 banking days for it to clear.  My BDO manager waives the $5 fee for my deposits. If I were to use a card to withdraw then I would use an HSBC ATM since they are in my area and withdraw 40K per withdrawal.  Other option if I needed cash immediately is Transferwise which charges about 1% of the transaction total to deposit directly into my local piso account.  They use the mid-market exchange at the time you process the transaction, which changes constantly throughout the day.

Using foreign cards to make withdrawals is probably one of the most expensive ways to get money here unless you have a card that waives the various fees.

Chuck

[mikbal]

I wiil go into more detail.  I use USAA cards. USAA will refund the fee but will charge a 1% fee on foreign trasactions on debit cards. USAA does not charge a foreign transaction on credit cards. Since I used a debit card, the metrobank exchange rate was 54 but with the foreign transaction fee of 1% my effective exchange rate was about 52.25. We're only here for 4 weeks and would probably use a different method if we lived here full time.

[bigrod]

Mikebal you got a fair deal.  FYI if you were here full time this is what you would get with Transferwise right now for a $1000 send, fees are included in $1000.  Current exchange rate 54,26 you end up with rate of 53.58663.  I lose approx .67 centavos per $1, but don't have to fight traffic, line at bank, etc.  It is deposited directly in my local Php account in a few hours on normal business day.  Cheapest is still to deposit USD check to a dollar account and wait for it to clear. 

How much would you like to transfer?
You send

1,000
Show fee breakdown
- 12.41 USD  Total fees
54.26000  Guaranteed rate (24 hrs)
Recipient gets

53,586.63

Chuck

[sussexrob]

Scotspine,

I have just spent a few weeks in the Philippines , as I do at least twice a year at present.  Moving permanently in a couple of months time.   I never use banks to send money, it is far easier to send via a remittance company, the rates offered by the banks are usually very poor and by using a remittance company the rate is greater, and the charges are minimal, especially for a new user, they are very often free.  Last week I wanted to send an amount equivalent to over 19k in British pounds to purchase a new vehicle.  I split this via 4 different companies I use regularly.  When the rate went up to 70.75 by sending this way I averaged 70.50 after all charges ! I have used these companies for over 10 years and NEVER once had a problem.

Robert

[David690]

Scotspine,

I have just spent a few weeks in the Philippines , as I do at least twice a year at present.  Moving permanently in a couple of months time.   I never use banks to send money, it is far easier to send via a remittance company, the rates offered by the banks are usually very poor and by using a remittance company the rate is greater, and the charges are minimal, especially for a new user, they are very often free.  Last week I wanted to send an amount equivalent to over 19k in British pounds to purchase a new vehicle.  I split this via 4 different companies I use regularly.  When the rate went up to 70.75 by sending this way I averaged 70.50 after all charges ! I have used these companies for over 10 years and NEVER once had a problem.

Robert

I tend to agree Robert.  Up until now, I haven't faced any issues in sending amounts up to P2M, but my latest transfer is proving a bit more difficult.  Trying to send P8m and the bank here wants to know the source of the funds, plus other documentation.
Bit of a pain to be honest.

[Peter]

<
Robert

I tend to agree Robert.  Up until now, I haven't faced any issues in sending amounts up to P2M, but my latest transfer is proving a bit more difficult.  Trying to send P8m and the bank here wants to know the source of the funds, plus other documentation.
Bit of a pain to be honest. >

David.

This type of interrogation on source of funds, has been the "norm" on many international banking trensfers. This is part of the international anti-money laundering effort. I was even queried by my bank in Oman when I transferred GBP 5,000 from the UK, to buy a boat. And that was in 2002!

In the UK if the amount coming in from abroad is GBP 10,000, or above (it was that amount last time I checked, may have changed lately) it probably will be queried. Same as if you are carrying cash in/out of the country. You must declare it, or risk penalties if caught.

As the Philippines have, in general, aligned their financial security limits with the US, if the Philippines' bank receives US$ 10,000 from abroad, then it will almost definitely be queried.

But we all know these financial regulations, di ba?   

The sins of the few are visited upon all of us, unfortunately. 

Now, how do I move our 6/58 (PhP 1 billion plus) winnings to the Isle of Man tonight? LOL!

Peter