Saving (money for that rainy or Hot days)

Money Transfer - Send Money Online | WorldRemit
check this one. i use it since 5 years. exch.rate & service 0k and within minutes i have my money to pickup at mhuiller or others.

 

You sure your bank is refunding you the 200p the local ATM is charging? There is a double fee usually one from the local ATM where its vendor gets the 200p and your own bank having its own fee for using a non bank atm. I have a platinum account with my US bank which refunds their atm fee's ($2.99) but it doesn't refund the fee charges seperately by the local atm. I'd go check on that as when I got my account upgraded to platinum I had a mix up on that as well as my bank's own exchange rate through an atm isn't that bad.

$4.50-5.50 per 10k peso's (200-250 peso's) is a pretty big deal to me. 50k a month would be $20 and 100k would be $40. Not much difference when your looking at xoom after your thinking your bank is taking care of you.


I think Monday or Tues I'll be out bank account shopping for a US dollar account though and also looking to see which bank will let me have a double account I can instantly transfer online. Such as having a dollar account and a peso account at xyz bank and being able to transfer online between the accounts and exchanged directly through the bank as getting dollars and then hunting for the best exchange isn't always so easy and a number of the banks here have an alright exchange rate compared to feeling a 1.5-2p per dollar loss using a US bank or when figuring in xoom or atm fee's.

 

Yup, 100%. They refund all withdrawal ATM fees. I only make withdrawals so after my monthly refund of BPI withdrawal fees I pay no fees whatsoever. If I checked my balance or whatever else, those fees are not refunded. At BPI I can withdraw p20,000 per transaction, Schwab daily withdrawal limit is $1,000 and I have on a few occasions made 2 withdrawals while at the ATM for p40,000 total with no problem. I have checked the exchange rate several time on XE - The World's Trusted Currency Authority and every time I have gotten a better rate from BPI.

The only 'downsides' I see are 1)You are required to open a brokerage account to open a checking account no minimum deposits of fees though. 2)You can open the accounts online but need a US address and when your ATM card comes, someone there you trust to Fedex/UPS it to you here. 3)It does require a trip to an ATM machine 4)Online transfer (no fee) from my primary US bank account to Schwab shows up same/next day and earns interest but funds are not available for ATM withdrawal for 3-4 days usually

 

Have it sent via courrier. Fed Ex is called Air21 locally and to send from USA to here is about $35USD for your debit/credit cards. Expensive I agree but invaluable in times of crisis like this. My two cents worth anyhow... Hope your problem gets resolved in and adequate and timely manner.

DaveD

 

That's interesting as BPI is supposed to be a 10k a transaction cap unless its a BPI account then 15k. I got this first hand from managers at the main BPI here in Dumaguete when they changed it while I could take out 15k from my US account no problem. I can take out $1k a day atm from my US account so 20k should be no problem. I've also been told while I don't believe this bit is that all banks here are supposed to now be a 10k a transaction limit if a foreign account. I was told that by Citi as well when I used to be able to take 20k out in a single transaction, then they lowered to 15k, and then 10k and I asked and that's what they said.

I'm also curious how you know that 200-250p was reversed? To my bank (US Bank) it doesn't even show while my bank charges me their $2.50 atm fee and then reverses it. The 200-250p these atm's here charge seems to be wrapped in the amount you withdrew and as its converted not saying the exchange rate you were given it becomes quite hard to see without a lot of guesstimation and crazy math. Curious because technically those fee's with my bank should be reversed as well due to my Platinum free veterans account but they couldn't do what they can't see.

 

There is a sign on the ATM saying xyz cards now have a p10k limit, I tried 20k anyway and it worked. Might be best not to ask the bank about it or they might "fix the problem" and make sure the limit is lowered.

Yes the p200 is added to my withdrawal which shows up on my monthly statement as a $20-$30 (depending on the number of withdrawals I made that month) ATM transaction fee reimbursement. This is the reason I got the Schwab account.