Just looked at the clock and calendar and realized I have been sitting here blogging and neglected a trip to the bank … I have to go and fit that in pretty soon, I guess right after lunch before I take my usual siesta.
Many people have talked to me before and I have written a bit about how foreigners typically handle their money here when your home, and sources of income, are far away “across (one of) ‘the ponds.”
My income (from some pension funds and from my Internet entrepreneurial efforts) is all US based. I’m blessed with a comfortable income … but when your money is 7,000+ miles away there is a definite problem in spending it here in the Philippines. Here’s what works for me. Others may have some different methods top contribute, which I’ll be happy to hear about.
Have a Home Country Bank:
Actually, I have use a federal credit Union … SSFCU, I’ve been with them for years and they offer great customer service and a fully-staffed 24 hour help desk that has always given me the right answers the few times I needed to seek assistance. I’m lucky enough to have a US mailing address here in the Philippines because of my military retired status so the address for checks, paper statements and such is no problem. If you will have to use a Philippine address you’ll need to contact your current institution directly and see what their rules are.
I get paper statements sent every month strictly for paper trail purposes .. I do all my banking with SSFCU’s excellent online banking services. Many other banks and credit unions today equal or exceed their level of services … so for bills you may have back in the US and such it’s very easy to make and manage payments online.
Have a US Address:
I’m very lucky because one of my sons still lives in the US and let’s me use his mailing address. this make sit very easy for me to actually deal with individuals and businesses in the US as if I were still a resident there. If you don’t have a family member you can count on, there are a number of commercial mail receiving/forwarding services that you can set up as an alternative.
Have a US Phone Number:
In today’s world the telephone is really a key to all sorts of personal business. There is also no reason at all not to have a US phone number and do basically all your business via the phone. Vonage, Skype, Yahoo! and dozens of others all have plans that let you have a US number that people can call that will ring in your home in the Philippines … either on a ‘regular’ phone, your computer, or both.
Have a Philippines Bank:
It would certainly be possible to live without my bank here in the Philippines (I use BDO, Banco de Oro … the bank of gold) but I find it very convenient to have a local bank and wouldn’t care to be without them. I do have American friends here, though, who have been here long-term … some nearly 30 years … and have never had a Philippine bank account. They live off their ATM cards from US banks, mainly. If you shop around there are a number of US banks that do not charge at all for ATM use, so this method can work for many of you.
Write Yourself Checks:
The reason I personally won’t rely on ATM card use alone is because even as a dyed-in-the-wool Internet enthusiast I don’t trust the ATM network to be ‘up’ all the time. If you read the news today you can imagine there are a lot of people in India, as just one example, who are getting a lot of “Unable To Dispense Cash” messages. (This article was written a day after a big banking network failure in India had knocked out access to hundreds of thousands of cash machines) I do have an ATM card from my US Credit Union and I do use it a few times a year to withdraw cash (Philippine pesos at that day’s current exchange rate). This is my back-up, secondary means of getting cash to live on.
My tertiary (third) backup is a US-based credit card with a high credit limit. I use this card only a few times ayear, just to keep it ‘alive”. The purpose behind this card is strictly an emergency … a sudden hospital addmisison or a sudden need for an airline ticket home. I keep no balance on it, and it has no yearly charge. If it was used for a cash advance, the fees would be steep … 3% or $50 USD per cash advance (loan), but that’s OK, becuase with a little luck I’ll never need it.
My primary method? The first of every month I write myself a check from my US credit union and physically deposit it in my local BDO dollar account. Aside from a trip to the bank … which is easy, since it is in the local mall … the inconvenience of that method is, the checks take 25 banking days to clear. That is, if I write a check today, 1 February, it is not going to be available for withdrawal for my account until the beginning of March. Sometimes it takes a little less time .. in December the check I wrote on 1 November showed up about the 8th as I recall … but it’s not really an area of concern … I keep more than a couple months living expenses in the dollar savings account so I am never hanging around the bank, breathlessly waiting for my check to clear.
Of course I mentioned these transactions are in dollars. As required I just ask my bank to transfer dollars to my Philippine Pesos savings account, which takes just a few minutes … and with BDO i get a tiny ‘sweetener’, something like an extra .05 Pesos per dollar changed to help make up for the atrocious exchange rate.
So that, in a nut shell is how I live. Write myself a check from my US bank every month, deposit that check in my Philippine bank, and spend money (either cash or Philippine ATM card) that’s in my Philippine bank to pay my bills and buy my lechon manok 
Popularity: 24% [?]
Philly,
It’s costing us $25 every time we send money to the family via Western Union. There must be a cheaper way. I read your post above but got a bit lost when you said:
“As required I just ask my bank to transfer dollars to my Philippine Pesos savings account, which takes just a few minutes.”
Is this a transfer between 2 Philippines bank accounts i.e. USD and Peso, or a transfer from US bank to Philippines bank ?
Western Union? You let those so-and-so’s in? I thought Australia had strict immigration laws? I dislike those rascals immensely.
Indeed the transfer you are talking about Laurence is between our Philippine BDO US dollar account and our Philippine Peso account in th same bank. There is no way I know of, yet, to have an account in your home country and in the Philippines that you cna just transfer in between. Many folks suggest, CitiBank and HSBC to name a couple, but they are two separate businesses and transferring funds from an account based outside the Philippines to one inside the Philippines is still going to incur charges. Much of this issue is caused by international money laundering regs and it is going to get tighter, not looser, I fear.
To address the issue with the family, sending money from Australia to the Philippines the quickest, fastest and bt far cheapest mehtod I could think of is, open a separate savings accout there in Oz … make sure it can not automatically withdraw from you primary account(s). Send, via DHL or some other traceable means, the ATM card for that account to a family member here. Call them and tell them the PIN after they have the card in hand. Deposit what you what them to have in the special account, they can draw as they need to. The $AuD to PhP rate the bank will charge for conversion won’t be any worse than what WU charges and you cna shop around there to find a bank with low or no ATM fees. When I use my US-based ATM card here, the exchange rate has always been within a peso of the published rate and there is a $1.67 USD MasterCard ‘cross border’ fee and something like a $2.00 USD ATM fee from my CreditUnion. Some US Banks have no ATM fees.
Philly,
Thanks. Your idea of giving an ATM to my brother-in-law is good, although I think I’ll hand deliver it at Xmas.
In the meantime, I’m gonna give this outfit a try:
http://www.technocash.com/pages/remittance.cfm
There are a number of much more economical services in the US … I use one called http://www.remithome.com as well as the majort banks, like PNB and BPI. But they do not seem to have branches in Australia … so best of luck with that technocash outfit, I’m sure there are others from Oz with the same issue.
For anyone in Australia who might be interested, here’s the Technocash fees:
Remittance Delivery in Peso to Philippines Bank Account $7.00 AUD
Remittance Branch pick-up of Peso cheque or cash^^ $9.00 AUD
Remittance Delivery door-to-door of a Peso Cheque $10.00 AUD
Remittance Delivery door-to-door of Peso (cash) $10.00 AUD
Remittance Delivery in USD to Philippines Bank Account $20.00 AUD
Thank you Laurence, that should help the other Australian readers. I have to go look and see if that company has an affilaite program
Thier prices seem decent … I pay $8 USD for delivery for transfer from a US dollar account in the US for deleivery to a Philippine peso account … certainly a heck of alot better than those exspensive folks at Western Union no matter which home country we live in.
I have been sending money to my girlfriend in San Carlos and have found xoom to be pretty good. I send from my credit union account to her peso account we set up in Metro Bank. I can send 1,000.00 dollars for 4.00 dollars plus the peos exchange which is usually about 1 peso difference. So for the 1000.00 it costs me about 6.00 dollars. Thanks for all the good info Phil and i plan to move to San Carlos in October.
Jim
Hi Jim,
Thanks for you comment and your report on Xoom. Xoom certainly has abig part of the remittance market. I never used them myself becuase they don’t do busi8ness in all the US states, and my ‘official’ state of residence is one of them. I have no idea why, many other services are licensed in all 50 states. I use http://www.remithome.com myself. They are licesnsed in all 50 states and have been very leliable for me … but thye do not have Xoom’s feature of a dedicated ATM withdrawal card.
Best of luck on your move, and pray tell which “San Carlos” are you talking about? October is a great month here in the northland.
Hi Phil
I am planning to move to San Calos in Megros Occidental. The girl i have been writing to for 4 years lives there and when i visited in March i liked it very much. I have fibromyalgia and 3 bad bones in my neck and back yet while there did things i can not do here. I live in Maine and the weather effects me badly. When i was there i did a lot of walking and had to take my pain killers about4 times the whole 3 weeks here i take at least 2 a day.Can’t wait to be there and settle in. I have shipped 10 b boxes and need 2 more and i will have everything i want there. Thanks for the e-mail and i enjoy reading every day here and on the other sires for great info has helpedme plenty.
Jim
Thank you Jim. for faithfully reading and participating. I’m sure I am not alone in wishing you well on your move. Keep us posted.
By the way, somehting I didn’t mention when I was talking about shipping via balikbayan boxes. The standard size you get at the Filipino stores is not the only size you can ship. Visit my freinds at Manila Forwarder
and check out their ‘oversize’ box programs and also their ‘eBoxes’ which let yu ship at balaikbayan rates (plus a UPS fee) from any address in the US … no need to live within easy rnage of a fixed-base box agency.
HI DAVE
I FOUND SOMEONE ABOUT A 75 MILE DRIVE WHO SHIPS AND SHE USES THE LARGE BOXES AND IT IS 85 DOLLARS. I FOUND ANOTHER A LITTLE CLOSER BUT HE WANTED 135 DOLLARS FOR THE SAME BOX SO WE TAKE A DRIVE AND TAKE 3 TO 5 BOXES AND I HAVE 2 MORE TRIPS AND I WILL HAVE SENT ALL I PLAN. THANKS FOR THIS SITE AS IT HAS HELPED IN MANY WAYS. I AM EXCITED THAT SOON I WILL BE THERE AND START MY NEW LIFE. MY LAST BOXES WILL BE MOSTLY COMFORT FOODS TO KEEP ME GOING FOR AWHILE AS I AM PRETTY FUSSY IN MY EATING HABITS. THANKS AGAIN DAVE
Jim – Best of Luck to you and your gal on your upcoming re-location. I am hopeful the transition from Maine to PI will be successful!
I am bookmarking the ManilaForwarders website for future use. I have used Atlas Shippers in the past with great success as well. I noticed the address for ManilaFowwarders is over in Eagle Rock California so I will have to stop by to see them the next time my wife and I go shopping at Eagle Rock Mall…where they have a big Seafood City Market, Chow King, Jolibee’s, Goldilock’s and other Filipino/a
stores and businesses…tis a wonderful place…hehe
Marshallmellow
Thanks for the words the people i used are GM global forwarding and they have been nothing but great. Sent a Tv and they actually made a wood crate for nothing to put in as they wanted to make sure it would not get damaged. i had it in a foam mattress pad but now i know it will be fine. THANKS FOR THE WISHES.
That’s cerrtainly service above and beyond the call, isn’t it?
A little note to anyone who might be traveling 45 miles or more each way to ship boxes. My freinds at Manila Forwarder ship virtually any size box from any road-reachable location in the US. They use UPS or other package carriers to pick up from your doorstep. Typically this ads $30 or $40 to the cost of the shipment … if you drive 150 miles round trip at today’s gas rates you have likely spent $45 already, so if it will help do the math and dhip from your door if it works out cheaper.
Dave
Good idea for many but from here to L.A. would have cost me an extra 55 dollars a package with fed-x. I did find an Manila Forward agent here and he wanted 50 dollars more a box to ship with him or 135 dollars versus 85 dollars and i would have had to drive 50 miles each way to get to him. I took 3 boxes per trip and it cost me 25 dollars in gas or about 10 extra a box. It helps that my brothers car gets 35 mpg on the highway so it made my decision easy. Like you said check your options and find the best and cheapest way especially if you are shipping many boxes. In three months i hope to join my boxes there and start my new life. Thanks again Dave for the good info here.
@Jim: Hi Jim, agreed if you are in someplace like the Los Angeles area. You have tons of options to ship boxes there, with a number of different shippers.
An awful lot of my readers, over the years, have come from places like “Alonalot Kansas” and such … and the Manila Forwarder program can help them a lot. I aprently didn’t make one thing clear … you don’t ship the boxes yourself, using someone like FedEx ..or using any local agents … you contact the friendly folks atManila Forwarder’s office direct and they will set it up for you … big shippers can get substantial discounts from UPS … and UPS is almost always cheaper for domestic shipments.
Bottom line I wanted to point out is, everyone in the US is within BBBR . Balik Bayan Box Range