# Banking in Philippines



## greenstreak1946 (May 28, 2017)

I am wondering what all the expats are doing about keeping large amounts of money there? When I lived there 8 years ago I opened an account with BDO bank. My rep told me there is no insurance if my account gets hacked, so I was afraid to keep much money in the bank account. Also, I got a credit card with them and was told the same thing. So, I worried all the time about my bank acct and credit card. Here in the USA we are protected from that problem. The bank or credit card company will refund loss.

I use to transfer money all the time from my USA account to BDO. That got to be expensive. Has anything changed there now in banking? Any suggestions? I will be moving back there in about a month.

thanks

art


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

I too bank with BDO, you are correct very limited about claims for fraudulent withdrawal/CC charges. Each account you have is insured for php 500,000 with PDIC. Cheapest way to send money is deposit a check to your dollar account and wait 20 business days for it to clear, that now entails a $5 charge per deposit. Option 2. withdraw using ATM card from US bank, this will cost foreign currency conversion fee(1-3%), plus local bank fee of php 200 per transaction, plus US bank charge. ATMs here have withdrawal limits from php 4000 to 20,000 per transaction, depending on the bank and location of the ATM. HSBC has a php 40,000 limit per transaction but most of those ATMs are in the manila area. People use Xoom, WU, Remitly, etc to transfer funds, but they normally have poor XE rates and a fee. I personally use Transferwise because they use the current XE rate at the time you initiate the transfer and the cost is less than 1%. Transferwise I can only send Php to my local account, which is what I need here. If I want dollars I would deposit the check. If you want to try Transferwise you can use the following link and your first transfer would be free.

https://transferwise.com/u/charlesr45

Chuck


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## greenstreak1946 (May 28, 2017)

HI Chuck,

Thanks for all the information. I used ATM's before when I lived there. Got expensive. I am going to look into the transferwise you are talking about. that might be an option for me or I will just do like you said. Write a check to my us dollar account and just wait for it to clear. 

Where are you from in the USA? I live in Florida but I am originally from Ohio. I lived in a little city north of Davao called Tagum when I was there. It is a real nice town. National hwy goes right through it. I really enjoyed it there and very safe place.

Art


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

Art, 

I am originally from San Jose, Ca but left there when I joined the USAF retiring 22+ years later. Lived in Clearwater/Largo Fl until 2010 then moved to General Trias, Cavite. The money transfers if I do it about 2-3 pm on a banking day here are in my php account by 7-8 pm here. If it is a weekend or bank holiday here it is in my account at opening the next business day.

Chuck


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

I used to use BDO, then BPI. I liked the service at BPI better, but still never kept much money here in the PIs. Now all I use is my USAA bank, in the US. The BPI machines allow p20,000 per day withdrawals, but charge a p200 fee - and USAA refunds the fee! I get a pretty good exchange rate, it is set by USAA, not BPI. Last week I got 49.22:1. 

For any large purchase, or online purchase, I use my Barclay MasterCard. It is a special "travel friendly" account that has double points for all purchases, and no foreign service fee.


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## Condobloke (Feb 27, 2017)

I am currently in australia, but will soon be in the philippines. I will transfer money from australia to a philippines bank account via [URL="https://www.orbitremit.com/ 

The exchange rate is shown as you fill out the transfer, and that is the rate which will apply. ....and the "fee" is approx $4 AUD !

Simple.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

Tukaram said:


> I used to use BDO, then BPI. I liked the service at BPI better, but still never kept much money here in the PIs. Now all I use is my USAA bank, in the US. The BPI machines allow p20,000 per day withdrawals, but charge a p200 fee - and USAA refunds the fee! I get a pretty good exchange rate, it is set by USAA, not BPI. Last week I got 49.22:1.
> 
> For any large purchase, or online purchase, I use my Barclay MasterCard. It is a special "travel friendly" account that has double points for all purchases, and no foreign service fee.



Actually the rate is set by either Visa/MC depending on your card brand. They usually set the rate for a 24 hour period, so if the rate went up a few hours later you would not get the increase. Using Transferwise you get the rate at the time you make the transaction, so you might gain a little. USAA does charge a 1% foreign currency transaction fee so the cost would be the same as Transferwise and I don't have to leave the house to do it.

Chuck


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Tukaram said:


> I used to use BDO, then BPI. I liked the service at BPI better, but still never kept much money here in the PIs. Now all I use is my USAA bank, in the US. The BPI machines allow p20,000 per day withdrawals, but charge a p200 fee - and USAA refunds the fee! I get a pretty good exchange rate, it is set by USAA, not BPI. Last week I got 49.22:1.
> 
> For any large purchase, or online purchase, I use my Barclay MasterCard. It is a special "travel friendly" account that has double points for all purchases, and no foreign service fee.


Same here Tukaram, for large purchases I use my Dubai Bank credit/debit cards. I pay zero fees and the rate matches XE.


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

Even if USAA charges a 1% fee... no worries. I took out p20,000 and they charged me $410.40, which is 49.22:1. If there is a 1% fee built into that somewhere I don't care. For the convenience and pretty good exchange rate - it works for me. (that rate includes whatever fees they may or may not charge)


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

Tukaram said:


> Even if USAA charges a 1% fee... no worries. I took out p20,000 and they charged me $410.40, which is 49.22:1. If there is a 1% fee built into that somewhere I don't care. For the convenience and pretty good exchange rate - it works for me. (that rate includes whatever fees they may or may not charge)


According to my calculator Php20,000 costing $410.40 is an XE rate of 48.7329. Last week(1 Jun) I got Php 78,494.34 for $1600.00 which is a rate of 49.0589, the XE rate at time of transaction was 49.8025 and the total cost of $15.84 was included in the $1600.

USAA is good for those that are eligible(prior or current military and family) not all qualify. Also having considered USAA previously their daily ATM limit of $600 is a problem when trying to transfer a Mil Ret/SS check in one transaction. As stated before you need to go to an ATM to get your funds, I can sit at my computer and transfer what I want. If I need cash I can go to an ATM or make purchases with my BDO card with no charge while doing my routine activities. 

As I stated before the cheapest way to transfer money is to write a check on your home bank and deposit. The next best option for me is to transfer at the least cost approximately php 130K a month, which for me currently is by using Transferwise.

Chuck


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## pronse (Apr 3, 2009)

The NO fee access to Pesos from your bank in the US here would be if the US account is opened with Charles Schwab bank, period.
They refund your ATM charges and no exchange or transfer fees.

I have that and tried it. I went to 3 ATMs (BDO, PSN and BPI). I withdrew 10,000 Pesos to 20,000 Pesos. Those ATMs charged me 200 P each on each transaction. Charles Schwab refunded all of them at the end of the month. No exchange or transfer fees like they said.

The second best thing is to open a US based account with BPI (the only bank that allows online exchanges). You deposit your US checks to it then wait some 20 days to clear. After the fund is there, you do an online exchange from US to Pesos. I think BPI charges ~0.25 Pesos for each dollar.

The rest ... well you pay ... ATM fees, xchange rates and transfer fees ... It all depends on the situation.


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

bidrod said:


> According to my calculator Php20,000 costing $410.40 is an XE rate of 48.7329. Last week(1 Jun) I got Php 78,494.34 for $1600.00 which is a rate of 49.0589, the XE rate at time of transaction was 49.8025 and the total cost of $15.84 was included in the $1600.
> 
> USAA is good for those that are eligible(prior or current military and family) not all qualify. Also having considered USAA previously their daily ATM limit of $600 is a problem when trying to transfer a Mil Ret/SS check in one transaction. As stated before you need to go to an ATM to get your funds, I can sit at my computer and transfer what I want. If I need cash I can go to an ATM or make purchases with my BDO card with no charge while doing my routine activities.
> 
> ...


Using credit cards I have zero charges and ER matching XE. For cash I use ATM's and pay P200 per P10,000 transaction, again with no fees from my bank.


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## EuroBob (Feb 23, 2015)

hogrider said:


> Using credit cards I have zero charges and ER matching XE. For cash I use ATM's and pay P200 per P10,000 transaction, again with no fees from my bank.


Just know, that if one uses a "credit card" at an ATM, instead of a "debit card", one might instantly start being charged interest on the withdrawn money.


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

EuroBob said:


> Just know, that if one uses a "credit card" at an ATM, instead of a "debit card", one might instantly start being charged interest on the withdrawn money.


Yes agreed, never use credit card for cash advances, the interest begins immediately.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

EuroBob said:


> Just know, that if one uses a "credit card" at an ATM, instead of a "debit card", one might instantly start being charged interest on the withdrawn money.


Thanks for that reminder. I never gave it a thought, but you are absolutely right. I only use debit cards from the two banks in the US I have accounts with whenever I need some cash and keep a credit card with a very high limit on hand for some future emergency.

Whenever I complete my 13A and get the permanent card, I plan to open an account with BDO or MetroBank so I can just write a check once a month and thusly eliminate some of the fees that I now pay.

Fred


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

hogrider said:


> Yes agreed, never use credit card for cash advances, the interest begins immediately.


and runs until the bill due date, even if you put a credit balance on the card sufficient to cover the cash advance. ( plus a cash advance fee sometimes too.)


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