# Wells farge Isssues



## fruitcop2 (Sep 1, 2016)

I recently asked this question.

What is the best way to access my WF account when I move to the Philippines? Express send Will not work as I will not have a Philippine bank account until I get there. I have also heard horror stories about WF not recognizing foreign computer services. Thanks for the input.



I received several links in reply that did not answer my questions at all. All I find are many horror stories about what WF has done to them. Freezing accounts, blocking emails, not replying, etc. After moving all my savings and pensions to WF because there were "supposed" to be easy to deal with in the Philippines it becomes worrying.



I will need to transfer one large amount for my wife to buy land/build a house and then want to get about $3000 per month. How do people with real knowledge manage to access funds. Will The partner banks of WF accept checks on the US bank, if there is no hurry to clear? I would like to set up a monthly transfer but WF doesn't seem to be able to do this. Is there a more client friendly bank that people use?



Please no more links, just real answers



Thank you

Robert.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

Do not bank with WF so I can offer no help there. Is your wife already here and if so does she have USD or Php accts or both? The US check to a USD account here is the cheapest form of transfer as long as you can wait 25 business days for it to clear. Many transfer companies most all have bad XE rates, fees and/or both if transferring pesos. I personally if I need USD write a check and deposit it since I do not use USD regularly here. If you deposit USD and want to exchange for pesos you can use the bank(normally not the best rate) or a money changer. I have started a couple of months ago using Transferwise to send php directly to my local php account. If I transfer on a normal business day the money is in my local account within 5-6 hrs from the time initiated, also the transfer is the XE rate at the time initiated(updated continuously) so you know the rate you will get in php. Total cost is approx 1% of the send amount(send $1000, cost $9.90, actual amount converted $990.10, XE rate 49.93450 php to $1, php received in bank account 49,440.15) one of the best rates I have found. You may prefer another company if you want to transfer this way but after try a few and being blocked after moving here by some(since they do not transfer to you if you live in Philippines) this one seems to work best for me. If you decide to use Transferwise you can go to the main site or use the following link which would give you a free send if you so desire. https://transferwise.com/u/charlesr45

Chuck


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

You'd want a bank that will be near to where you plan on retiring in the Philippines, the traffic here is a nightmare in Manila and I'm showing two locations there only.

Open up an account here that will accept if you have a pension a pension account it's direct so very little waiting I've been told or open up a US Dollar account checking, you have to wait 30 days including holidays for your check to clear, some banks require $200 or $500 deposit for US Dollar checking account so hopefully you have that Permanent Resident Card? If not that would be a much larger concern for you, if not done yet I'd get that finished stateside. I use PNB it requires a $500 deposit, I did some research with BDO and they require a $200 deposit for a checking account no interest or $500 and you get interest, so I'm not familiar with the other banks, I haven't researched in a long time.


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

For any problems with connecting from a Philippines computer I use a VPN (I use Private Internet Access). There are lots of services, some free, some not. It basically just tricks the other computer into thinking you are back in the US (or wherever you tell it to say you are). 

I had to use the VPN when I used Xoom or Western Union. They did not want me to send money to myself in the PIs form the PIs. The VPN would show me in Texas and I sent money to myself. 

Not sure what bank can help you with large transfers internationally. I use USAA and have been very happy with them, but I never had to send *that* much money at one time.


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## ldwand (Nov 9, 2014)

Hi, what i did is that i had my then fiancee open a transmittance account at BDO [ which is a bank that has a working relationship with Wells Fargo] and then i had to personally go to my Wells Fargo branch and tell them that I wanted to transfer money to her account and they set it up. Then i had to personally take money from my account, i used my debit card and had the bank do the transfer to her transmittance account. Once she sets up her account you will need the account number for Wells Fargo to set it all up.
There are a lot of Filipinos in California that send money back home and Wells Fargo is California based so they capitalized on this and make a little money on each transaction. It is about a half percent on each transfer plus a 5 dollar fee.
You are only allowed 3000.00 dollars per day to transfer. I'm not sure about a large sum to transfer, sorry can't help you there.
One more thing you will not have access to your wife's transmittance account as it is in her name only. But you can open an joint account and Wells Fargo will transfer to that account but you will personally have send the first amount of money from your branch in the States then you be able to transfer money thru the Wells Fargo website just have to create an account username password all that stuff ya know. Larry


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## ldwand (Nov 9, 2014)

Hi Larry here again have a correction it is not a transmittance account but a remittance account.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

ldwand said:


> Hi, what i did is that i had my then fiancee open a transmittance account at BDO [ which is a bank that has a working relationship with Wells Fargo] and then i had to personally go to my Wells Fargo branch and tell them that I wanted to transfer money to her account and they set it up. Then i had to personally take money from my account, i used my debit card and had the bank do the transfer to her transmittance account. Once she sets up her account you will need the account number for Wells Fargo to set it all up.
> There are a lot of Filipinos in California that send money back home and Wells Fargo is California based so they capitalized on this and make a little money on each transaction. It is about a half percent on each transfer plus a 5 dollar fee.
> You are only allowed 3000.00 dollars per day to transfer. I'm not sure about a large sum to transfer, sorry can't help you there.
> One more thing you will not have access to your wife's transmittance account as it is in her name only. But you can open an joint account and Wells Fargo will transfer to that account but you will personally have send the first amount of money from your branch in the States then you be able to transfer money thru the Wells Fargo website just have to create an account username password all that stuff ya know. Larry


Just compared the WF express send to Transferwise. Transferwise $3000 dollar send I get php 148,041.24 total cost $3000. WF Express Send $3000 send I get php 147,533.40 total cost $3004. The XE rate for Transferwise was 49.8405 and WF was 49.1778. So using Transferwise I got php 507.84 more in local currency and I saved $4 on the total cost too.

Chuck


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## JRB__NW (Apr 8, 2015)

ldwand said:


> Hi, what i did is that i had my then fiancee open a transmittance account at BDO [ which is a bank that has a working relationship with Wells Fargo] and then i had to personally go to my Wells Fargo branch and tell them that I wanted to transfer money to her account and they set it up. Then i had to personally take money from my account, i used my debit card and had the bank do the transfer to her transmittance account. Once she sets up her account you will need the account number for Wells Fargo to set it all up.
> There are a lot of Filipinos in California that send money back home and Wells Fargo is California based so they capitalized on this and make a little money on each transaction. It is about a half percent on each transfer plus a 5 dollar fee.
> You are only allowed 3000.00 dollars per day to transfer. I'm not sure about a large sum to transfer, sorry can't help you there.


Thats what I did. I use WFB and my girlfriend has BPI and I transfer into it once or twice a month. She pays the rent. I pay the utilities and misc items locally with cash. It works fine. NEVER had a failure with Express Send. As Idwand mentions, a lot of OFW rely on that service.

I can also take money out of most ATM's with my WF debit card, but there's a $5 transaction fee plus the ATM's charge a couple hundred pesos so might as well always take 10,000P out to spread those fees out. That said, about once or twice a year there is a problem and WFB cuts me off. So it always pays to have a backup ATM card with another bank as a backup. 

Probably the easiest process is to have your pension or SS deposited directly into a BDO or BPI dollar account, and use their ATM card. I don't have that option as I'm not formally retired yet and still back in the States several months a year.

It does seem to me that the banks are starting to be a harder on those of us that are "living", as opposed to "traveling" overseas.. I notice my investment accounts occasionally cut me off also, and I have to call their customer service and complain.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

If you have your SS direct deposit here you will have a passbook only account, no online or ATM access. You personally have to go to the bank for transactions and with some/most banks only the branch you opened the account at.

Chuck


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## ldwand (Nov 9, 2014)

Yes, Transferwise does look to be the best, going to check into it.


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