# Canadian Banks while in Philippines



## fruitcop2 (Sep 1, 2016)

Well HSBC has done it to me again. They are closing all their Canadian banks. I haven't moved to the Philippines yet, but this is a problem. With an account in Canada and the Philippines it is just like the same bank. Go online and see all your accounts worldwide and move funds from one account to another. free. But with this option gone are there any Canadian Banks with partner banks in the Philippines. Thanks, Robert


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

I'm not familiar with HSBC but I've heard talk on the forum about this bank and it appears they are turning into Citizen bank. So couldn't you continue on?

Link to the HSBC banks Philippines for contact HSBC Philippines


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## pagbati (Apr 9, 2014)

fruitcop2 said:


> Well HSBC has done it to me again. They are closing all their Canadian banks. I haven't moved to the Philippines yet, but this is a problem. With an account in Canada and the Philippines it is just like the same bank. Go online and see all your accounts worldwide and move funds from one account to another. free. But with this option gone are there any Canadian Banks with partner banks in the Philippines. Thanks, Robert


Robert, I’d say that’s more of an inconvenience than a problem. Many of us don’t have a bank in our home country that partners with a bank in the Ph. Rather than transfer money from our home country bank to the Ph (as banks are notorious for giving poor exchange rates), we tend to use a middle transfer company such as Wise. Once you’ve opened an account with Wise or the transfer company of your choice, and registered that company with your local bank, you can make the transfer of funds within 5 mins. If you’re sending money to a Peso account here, Wise tell you what the exchange rate is so you can decide the best time to transfer funds. The funds then arrive direct to your Ph bank account, for a very small *transparent* fee and certainly lower than any bank transfer rates I'm aware of. In my case, from start to finish, signing in to Wise, selecting the amount to transfer, signing into home bank account and selecting amount to send to Wise, that's the part that takes 5 mins. The money then arrives in my Ph account within another 10 mins, usually less and sometimes a little longer. Nor does my Ph bank charge anything to receive the funds.

Of course with your existing HSBC system, you say you could move money for free; although that’s always questionable as in general, banks do very little for free. Whether it’s through high fees associated with maintaining your accounts or less favourable exchange rates, banks are good at subtley squeezing money out of their customers. When transferring money, you’ve also got to compare like for like, not just the exchange rate but the amount that actually arrives in your Ph account, that’s key. Like I say, once you’ve set up an account with a money transfer company, the whole process usually goes like clockwork. The good news is that with this small adjustment, you're not dependent on HSBC for the foreign transfer.


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## freebiefan (Nov 11, 2020)

HSBC does allow free transfer within the HSBC system.... just today moved money from my HSBC accounts HK to Manila, HK to Jersey all for free. Sent money from HSBC HK to BPI Manila.. and that was US$ 7. No fees to maintain accounts, as long as the minimum balance is maintained . Just fyi.. if Wise also works well then good but it doesnt seem to cover all currencies as reported on some boards.


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## fruitcop2 (Sep 1, 2016)

M.C.A. said:


> I'm not familiar with HSBC but I've heard talk on the forum about this bank and it appears they are turning into Citizen bank. So couldn't you continue on?
> 
> Link to the HSBC banks Philippines for contact HSBC Philippines


I only wish. No, they have sold all their US assets to Citizens Bank, which doesn't have the overseas connections.


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## fruitcop2 (Sep 1, 2016)

freebiefan said:


> HSBC does allow free transfer within the HSBC system.... just today moved money from my HSBC accounts HK to Manila, HK to Jersey all for free. Sent money from HSBC HK to BPI Manila.. and that was US$ 7. No fees to maintain accounts, as long as the minimum balance is maintained . Just fyi.. if Wise also works well then good but it doesnt seem to cover all currencies as reported on some boards.


Yes, that's great, but now HSBC has closed US branches and are in the process of selling off their assets in Canada to RBC


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## fruitcop2 (Sep 1, 2016)

pagbati said:


> Robert, I’d say that’s more of an inconvenience than a problem. Many of us don’t have a bank in our home country that partners with a bank in the Ph. Rather than transfer money from our home country bank to the Ph (as banks are notorious for giving poor exchange rates), we tend to use a middle transfer company such as Wise. Once you’ve opened an account with Wise or the transfer company of your choice, and registered that company with your local bank, you can make the transfer of funds within 5 mins. If you’re sending money to a Peso account here, Wise tell you what the exchange rate is so you can decide the best time to transfer funds. The funds then arrive direct to your Ph bank account, for a very small *transparent* fee and certainly lower than any bank transfer rates I'm aware of. In my case, from start to finish, signing in to Wise, selecting the amount to transfer, signing into home bank account and selecting amount to send to Wise, that's the part that takes 5 mins. The money then arrives in my Ph account within another 10 mins, usually less and sometimes a little longer. Nor does my Ph bank charge anything to receive the funds.
> 
> Of course with your existing HSBC system, you say you could move money for free; although that’s always questionable as in general, banks do very little for free. Whether it’s through high fees associated with maintaining your accounts or less favourable exchange rates, banks are good at subtley squeezing money out of their customers. When transferring money, you’ve also got to compare like for like, not just the exchange rate but the amount that actually arrives in your Ph account, that’s key. Like I say, once you’ve set up an account with a money transfer company, the whole process usually goes like clockwork. The good news is that with this small adjustment, you're not dependent on HSBC for the foreign transfer.


From HSBC branch to another country's HSBC branch is done without fees and as long as you keep the required balance . If you transfer into an account with the same currency, there is no conversion to worry about. However, none of the helps now, The problem is being in the Philippines and being able to send money to yourself.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

fruitcop2 said:


> From HSBC branch to another country's HSBC branch is done without fees and as long as you keep the required balance . If you transfer into an account with the same currency, there is no conversion to worry about. However, none of the helps now, The problem is being in the Philippines and being able to send money to yourself.


HSBC Philippines has now removed the maintaining balance requirement on their Advantage account, used to be 100k.


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## Tanstaafl (Oct 28, 2009)

Robert, I would be interested in any alternatives you find. I was just in the Philippines for the first time and am looking at it for retirement. One thing I found out is that the Canadian banks don't send 2FA to numbers that are not Canadian or U.S. This really created a problem as my discounted phone plan (Lucky mobile) doesn't even have international roaming and using Cebu Pacific's website with a Canadian credit card needs a 2FA code entered.

I found RBC's help desk useless. CiBC was great 3 times out of 4, seems their daytime Canada agents aren't well trained but night time was right on the ball and very helpful.

I had hoped to be able to use HSBC in the future but the RBC buyout will negate that option. I will be very interested in any alternatives.


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## Howard_Z (7 mo ago)

When you are back in Canada,

1. Sign up for free Google voice - get a new free number
2. In Google voice settings, have it email all received texts to your Google voice email address
3. Tell your banks to use the new Google voice number.
4. Test that it works well

Then you will be ready for your next trip to Philippines


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