Finance & Legal Best Posts in Thread: Money Changer (competitive)

As a businessman, you should be keeping up on the rules regarding currency. Read where the Banko Sentral says:

You should not be accepting them but they can still be cashed at the bank. Read more at Old banknotes good up to December 31, 2015 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

 

The money exchange in Lee Plaza downstairs, downstairs in the back by handyman in downtown Robinsons, and the one on the second floor near the food court are all affiliated some way.
The one in Robinson downtown was slightly higher when it first started up but soon became the same as the other two. The exchange rates are posted, they are sent the out of Cebu. There are easy, attentive (someone is always there) and fair.
The one in Check Inn money exchanger has a reputation for a good exchange rate but it always negotiable, and his start of rate when give to me was always slightly higher than anyone else. I do not like negotiating things here, but you know what ever you accept you may have been able to get better, I hate second guessing myself so I go with posted rates.
If you want to find out the "gossip" on exchange rates go to old McDonald in the morning and you can hear guys bragging about get 1 centavatos better here or there ("last liar wins" rules applies to these types of conversations). If I have to worry about a few Pesos per hundred dollar exchange rate then maybe I can not afford to live here at all.... I am still at the "blow and go" speed I was use to in the US.

 

Thanks on that, I guess I missed the first part as where I got my info it wasn't showing that. Good to know we can start rejecting those now.

 

I've been told and read the old bills are fully retired already and banks are currently collecting them up for destruction. Come Jan 2017 they are worthless and won't be honored. They are currently though still worth full face value and a business can't reject them as illegal tender (not that some business's may already be doing that).

I'd say start watching out towards Nov. if not before for anyone trying to hand you old bills. I also expect a lot of small business's in 2017 being fooled into taking old worthless currency. A lot of poorer and older locals are going to be losing out I bet come 2017.

On that note I better find one of those new currency signs sometime in the next number of months for my business to make sure we aren't taking in old bills come end of the year.

 

Every store I go in these days has a sign that the old bills are no longer honored and must be taken to the bank for exchange or they will be worthless (they actually say "no monetary value") as of Dec 31, 2016. So if anyone is not in country and has some old bills they better mail them to relatives to cash in.

 

The Philippines did start minting new supposedly harder to counterfit bills with the intention of retiring older bills. I think the new bills started in 2011 with 1k bills. Not exact date but somewhere around there. At some point the older bills may not be honored by retailers. It doesn't mean you can't still exchange the bills for new bills but the bar will become higher, having to do it at a bank. Philippine money is not like US money that can always be exchanged at it's face value no matter how old it is. I used to make sure my bills were 2013 and up by spending the older bills first, problem solved.

 

Went to the FX Place at the back/basement of Robinson's/Handyman. Got just under 45/$ so good rate (slightly higher as I was exchanging a reasonable amount). I agree with all comments vis-a-vis .PH Banks - and I have actually written on DI about that very subject previously. This instance it was simply me removing some Rental monies from Thailand & repatriating the Cash - so handy to know there's a fair place to do this (ad-hoc).

 

Years ago I used to use ( below ) for changing sterling. Security at entrance, so always felt safe changing large amounts.

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