Remittance/Money Transfer to the Philippines

I send money to myself from my US bank account to my Ph bank account (Dollar to dollar) for almost 5 years now with Xoom with no problems. Are they not letting you send money from your US bank account to your PH bank account? Maybe some how I just slipped through their system. I set up Xoom from here in PH after arriving. At first I sent my money to myself, having to pick it up at pawnbroker or BDO. Now I send it right into my account at BDO. I am very happy, and hope the system does not change for me.
Shawn44

 

When i used xoom which was 2 years ago i was attempting to send to pawnshop. I gave thought about setting up a bank account in the ph but ut does not seem worth it.

 

I have tried USD to USD before but always the pawnshop says they dont have any available. What pawnshop in dumaguete has USD on hand? I like xoom i used them for several years but once i tried remitly then i just stayed with them... Lower or free transaction fee and always has higher rate....but if i could find reliable pawnshop that has usd on hand i will certainly try that.

 

I think it could be worthwhile to have a local account as sort of a contingency, a few months living expenses, emergency medical cushion and disaster/acts of God fund. I believe there are non-interest bearing accounts so there is no tax requirements.

Of course it could be a hassle, many worthwhile things in the Philippines are. When I opened an account I had two photos I brought with me and I was told I needed three so I went out and got 4 photos and handed the 4 new photos to the accounts manager and they handed me two photos back...I think a Filipino may have needed 3 photos, possibly for tax ID page? So I had a little side trip for nothing. I used the photos for immigration later on, waste not want not.

 

Xoom right now is telling me to send USD to USD its $14.99, not $7.99. $7.99 is what I saw if paying using credit card rather then bank account sending USD to PHP.

From my math what I figured out was... assuming a local currency exchange loss of 0.5 on the exchange. Sending $2k to PHP you lose the equivelent of $20 or about 1k peso's. That is assuming the Xoom USD to USD transfer at $14.99 a transfer and a local exchange loss of 0.5 compared to xoom doing all the work. Extra work would be having a seperate USD account with whatever it requires to maintain (monthly charges possibly or minimum balance held). Also the work in getting USD from the bank and bringing it to wherever you exchange and whatever rules they have as some of the places require extra paperwork and you to write down the SN of each bill (least I had to do that as a tourist when I exchanged my USD years ago). Further if you let the bank do the exchange for you they would likely give you a little more loss on the exchange rate.

Now it all comes down to is it worth the extra hassle and extra work for 1k peso's extra out of every $2k. Some yes and some maybe no. But their is the math.

 

Good analysis Chris, let me take it a little further, as you peaked my curiosity. I think I posted a while back that I was paying $7.99 USD (7.550 rate for $1,000 USD. Chris I think you started out sending $2,000 USD and got quoted the $2,000 rate of $14.99 - 7.5%. The fixed amount rates on Xoom vary depending on how much you send but not by much as a percentage rate. You have to check out the amount on each transation amount as you did. If you had put in the that you were sending $1,000 USD you would have been charged $7.99. Recently I have sent (all transactions dollar to dollar, bank to bank) $1,000 USD for $7.99- 7.99%; $1,300 USD for $10.99 - 8.45%, and $1,500 USD for $11.99 - 7.99 %. $1,700 for $12.99- 7.64%. Interesting rate structure but it looks like they are charging about 8% as the amount being sent varies, but not always exact from my bank records. Your rate for $2,000 usd would have been 7.5 %. If you add in your local exchange rate cost of 0.5 then the full cost to transfer money is about 8.5% at the high end to get to spendable pesos here, a good percentage rate number to keep in mind.
Paypal bought Xoom a while ago , so it would not surprise me that they make some changes to effect their bottom line and pay for the purchase. It does surprise me that sending small amounts really does not make a change percentage wise on the charge, of coarse large amounts does not cost them more to send, unless they are charged themselves by the keystroke numbers .
Like most transfer companies, Xoom has their "teaser rate of $4.99 if you want to send dollars to peso, but they make a huge amount on the exchange rate as most other transfer company do also. Beware of sending dollar to peso if you want the best rates. Always check out the "real costs" when using the transfer company to make the exchange transaction also.

 

I did Western Union sending bank to pickup location, WU USA Branch because my bank is in the USA. My US bank would probably decline with WU Philippines. $2.99 for up to $2,999 USD. Location pickup upstairs Robinson's mall next door to the exchange.

 

WU sounds interesting now as they have made some major changes. 4 days wait for a bank account to bank account transfer but it says $2.99 or even 3 days with WU Pay if you set it up with your bank account. The 4 days sucks in ways as many of us are used to *right now* but considering the costs. The worry I would have is a major one plaguing WU a number of years ago over here and that was that they may not have USD (and probably don't have) on hand to fulfill the order. Hence before they would say they would have to exchange it for you but also had a nasty exchange rate as they would use WU's in international exchange rate to do it which as this post sending $2k a month would lose you 4k in peso's in their currency exchange rate vs current rate or when figured to the current local likely exchange rate you'd still be down 3k peso's making it worse then Xoom (IF they can't supply you USD).