Brian take a look at Jalandoni & Company http://jalandoniandcompany.com/#dialog1 have been using them for over 10 years from Oz was put onto them by a Filipina there and the service has been great. I EFT to their bank account and the next day they either deposit into my account here in Dumaguete or can be picked up at either one of the 2 largest remittance shops. The exchange rate is far better than being offered by banks and better than Transferwise with the advantage that the funds are available the next day. Cost is AUD 9. I usually accumulate and bring across AUD 9,000 to keep the admin and costs down. Now I live in Dumaguete all my communication is by email but they have offices in Manila and Laguna if I need to talk to them.

Hope that helps.

P.

 

Use TransferWise to exchange money with the google exchange rate and low fee. It is a respected safe service.

 

There is some stuff on here about this but as far as I know , the Philippines is not listed as a country that Centrelink will pay a pension into directly. It can be paid into an australian bank and you can do a transfer to a Philippine account but opening an account here has its problems. Lots of paper work usually but BPI is a good bank to start with. Also the bank to bank exchange rate and transfer fees can be expensive. Are you in Dumaguete now? if so, call into YNOT and talk to the Aussies there.