Online banking in 2018

This topic might have been covered already in this forum but I'll ask anyway as technology seems to change rapidly. I am mostly interested in finding out if I can use online banking for fund transfers back to Australia, what the limitation is, what fees are involved and how fast (or slow) the trasfer is.

I'd like to determine which bank offers the best online service, best options for remittances, online payments, security etc. I hear BDO, Security Bank and Metrobank have 21st century online banking web services. In addition, I've been told that if you have an HSBC account in Australia and one in the Phils the international transfer back and forth is quick, simple and cost effective. However I don't have any personal experience with banks in the Philippines and would like to hear yours.

Cheers

 

FYI, I use PNB online banking and have done for over 10 years I get all I need from them in and Out. (money in and out that is)

 

I'll say this. I've been a BPI member for a long time and do NOT recommend it. Its online site is sh*t to be honest and its just now trying to catch up with other big banks in various ways. I'll probably switch to BDO begining of may more then likely.

As far as sending money I think most prefer to do it through a 3rd party service like Xoom. Bank costs to do such is just to high unless your foreign bank account possibly gives you a free wire transfer every month or two. I use Xoom bank to bank transfer myself and it takes about 30-60 minutes for it to go through now. The first few times are slowly as they verify things more though.

 

Online banking saves time and money obviously. I do it even if my bank is just a three-minute walk.

Japan side: Zero service charge for transfering money to a third party (BDO Remit Japan) which sends the money to my BDO Dumaguete account or to any of my registered beneficiaries charging me ¥750 ($6.9) for an amount not exceeding ¥100,000($916.6). The receipt is ready in five minutes. It takes 15 to 20 minutes for existing recipients and one hour for a newly registered one.

Philippines side BDO e-banking: I get two OTPs for every transaction delivered as a text message to my phone in seconds and an email in a couple of minutes that the transaction is being processed. No service charge to send to any BDO account but limited to 10,000 pesos/day. Money received in a few minutes—shorter than international remittance.

I haven’t sent money from the Philippines to Japan yet except a long time ago when online banking was non-existent.

 

Yep...I’m a certified HSBC fan. Easy to use, you can painlessly transfer funds between multiple countries as long as you have an HSBC account at your destination. Think the limit is GBP50k before they start getting anxious. Obviously they are worried about money laundering. (sigh) - if I only had 50k to transfer...

If I did I’d probably notify the bank, organise a transfer through their channels etc, just in case some Pulis force or overzealous employee did a double take and make life difficult. Large amounts are always going to attract attention in this day and age.

Probably need to mention rates. I’m probably losing a penny or two for this type of service. But for security, ease and plain laziness I’m fine compared to other services/banks. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things - and night or day I can transfer between here, the Uk and where I work (UAE). And boy, the local banks in the UAE treat you like a criminal just for thinking about transferring money. Hence, HSBC all the way. Don’t know if Australian, Canadian, US etc banks offer similar services. I just shopped about in the UK before becoming an ex-pat.

Cheers.

C

 

I'm also with HSBC, they're quite expensive (but then again banking here in general is, where else in the world you pay nearly $3 when sending money *and* the receiving bank deducts another $3) but online banking and android app are up to current standards. When I transfer money from my Hong Kong HSBC account to the one here it usually takes just a few hours.

using a service like transferwise is usually cheaper than the banks but often slower as well. Recently I was suggested Uphold.com as a potential alternative to transferwise. Didn't look into that yet.

 

(the $3 fees I mentioned obviously are for local transfers - intl rates are much higher and usually composed of a fixed fee and what they earn by giving you a worse exchange rate than e.g. transferwise).

I recently did a comparison and for a transfer of around PHP 200K from HK to here where hsbc had cost me PHP 5000 when compared with the market exchange rate, transferwise quoted just fees of PHP 2000 at the same time.

 

I am an American ex-pat living here 11 years as a tourist, with a working partner who makes many times over what my monthly SS is. I maintain a US bank account which receives my SS. I have no other income, here or in the US.

My working partner is a bank officer, with many accounts some of which I was a signatory until the anti-money laundering agreement with the US IRS. By agreement Philippines banks have to report back to the ex-pats IRS, account information etc periodically. In order to avoid audit questions by the IRS my partner removed me as a signatory.

Per Philippine banking law wire transfers above P200,000 are held up by the Central Bank as suspicious until the sender proves that the funds were obtained legally, morally and ethically.

BPI ATMs work fine for me since you can get P20,000 each time up to your daily limit determined by your home bank in the US. For example if you select P20,000 whatever bank who owns the ATM gets P250 so the withdrawal is P20,250. The banking network charges 1% in US dollars and your bank adds the fee they charge for using the card outside of their ATMs.

I hope you get a better understanding of what cost to use your debit card to withdraw from a US bank at a Philippines ATM.

 

Is that a new law? Because in 2007 and 2008 it was common for me to transfer a million pesos at a time and even withdraw 1,00,000 pesos and put it in a paper sack. (That was back when I had money and part of the reason I don't any more

Anyway, the point is there was never an eyebrow raised, at that time. If you loan me a million I'll test it again for ya

 

In 2016 the Philippine anti-money laundering amendments went into effect. This is were the amendments went into effect. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER requirements are required for banks to vouch for where the funds come from, you transfer to others nationally or internationally.

2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9160, as Amended

While the amendments for Suspicious Transactions are higher, bank employees bonding is much smaller but will wipe their earnings out and everything they own as punishment by the Central Bank.

Don't lie to your banker. Banks won't accept your account if the funds come from gambling, money from immoral purposes or unethical activities.