I sent $1,000 USD to BDO dollar bank account on June 1 with Xoom (currently owned by PayPal). It was a dollar US bank (Chase) to dollar transfer (BDO dollar) account. The cost was $7.99 USD. Typical transfer time is about 10 minutes or less. I get email notifications. I never let the transfer company exchange dollars for pesos, as that is where they make most of their money. Then I go to money changer in Rob Mall and get the current exchange rate they are giving. I have not had problems with them for years, but setting it up was a little difficult because they seemed concerned about the amount I would be transferring. I would recommend starting with small amounts and the increasing a you need, so they do not give you a lot of problems at the beginning. .
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Best Posts in Thread: Remittance/Money Transfer to the Philippines
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Last edited: Jun 10, 2016 -
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Had a look at all the remittance/money transfer website's fees and exchange rates a couple days ago. I didn't actually send any money so I'm not recommending any of them at the moment. Many of them had different requirements and the few that I did look into a bit further and try to make a transfer didn't work out. My US bank address+billing address+actual location seems to raise some eyebrows and get my transactions flagged.
Might be worth noting that many of these websites primarily deal with US banks. The transaction fees might be different or transferring money might not be available at all for Europeans. Here's what I came up with:
"Conversion USD" prices for all websites were figured using the current exchange rate: 46.13 (7JUN2016)
All fees listed were for a Bank-to-Bank (US to Philippines) transfer of $1,000.00.
Transfer Wise
Transaction fee: $9.90
Receiving PHP: 45,742.62
Conversion USD: $991.57
Cost to Transfer: $18.33
Note: My US bank is not cooperating with TransferWise for some reason. There seems to be an issue with the login credentials on the last step to send money.
Xoom
Transaction fee:4.99
Receiving PHP: 44,932.50
Conversion USD: $974.01
Cost to Transfer: $30.98
Note: This service was my go-to money transferring service for years until I saw these numbers.
Wells Fargo
Transaction Fee: $5.00
Receiving PHP: 45,602.70
Conversion USD: $988.54
Cost to Transfer: $16.46
Note: It appears you will need to or create an account (which should be able to be done online if you have a with Wells Fargo before you can transfer money. On top of that is a $10/month service fee.
World Remit
Transaction Fee: $0.99
Receiving PHP: 45,468.00
Conversion USD: $985.62
Cost to Transfer: $18.37
Note: Unable to add a US bank account to transfer money from and they don't accept Discover debit card; the only debit card I have that hasn't expired.
Western Union
Transaction Fee: $0.00
Receiving PHP: 44,400.00
Conversion USD: $962.47
Cost to Transfer: $37.53
Note: WU has always been a last resort for sending/receiving money for me. Dealing with WU online, at least for me, almost always results in me having to give them a call to verify the transaction or my account.
PayPal
Transaction Fee: $0.00 (
)
Receiving PHP: 44,068
Conversion USD: $955.70
Cost to Transfer: $44.30
Note: No charge to send money from the US PayPal. Receiving in PH PayPal costs you 3.9% or 4.4% plus P15 and their exchange rate is not great.
OFX
Transaction Fee: $5.00
Receiving PHP: 44,092.90
Conversion USD: $955.56
Cost to Transfer: $49.44
Note: I was not able to get my account verified with OFX. To send money to myself the website requires me to send them a certified copy of a utility bill showing my name and address here in the Philippines (which I just don't have) that has been verified and signed by a notary or "professional" along with notarized copies of my passport/drivers license.
No real loss with this company after having a look at the cost to send though.
Sendvalu
Transaction Fee: $16.78
Receiving PHP: 45074.70
Conversion USD: $978.66
Cost to Transfer: $38.12
Note: Don't see anything good about this one. Maybe Europeans would have a lower transaction fee since this is a Swiss company?
Transfast
Transaction Fee: $4.99
Receiving PHP: 45,050.00
Conversion USD: $976.00
Cost to Transfer: $28.99
Placid
Transfer fee: $0.00
Receiving PHP: 46,250.00
Conversion USD: $1,002.60
Costs to Transfer: +$2.60
Note: Not sure what they were thinking with the name but this was the best deal I could find. This company is currently running a no fee promo. Not sure what their normal fees and exchange rates are but they were the only company that said in the small print "we may or may not make money off of the exchange rate". Even without the promo these guys are likely the cheapest. You do need a US cell phone number to verify your account. I used an Android app call "Talkatone" to get a free number and receive texts. Unfortunately they do not accept transactions from all US states for some reason. I will check back in the future.
Ria
Transfer Fee: $0.00
Receiving PHP: 45,307.12
Conversion USD: $982.16
Cost to Transfer: $17.84
Note: Can only register and send money from a US IP address. Problem easily resolved with Chrome proxy addon. However, if you had a transaction flagged for review you might run into some issues for circumventing their location restrictions.
Lucky Money
Transfer Fees: $3.00
Receiving PHP: 45,120.00
Conversion USD: $978.10
Cost to Transfer: $21.90
Note: Site looks kinda shady and I don't care for the word "Lucky" to be in anything involving money transferred. Mixed reviews online about their service. (All of these companies receive mixed reviews online though.)
PNB Web Remit
Transfer Fees: $3.98
Receiving PHP: 45,220.00
Conversion USD: $980.27
Cost to Transfer: $19.73
Note: You do not need a PNB account to transfer money with this company.-
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I picked up some money from Western Union the other day and they snatched P30 from the amount I was supposed to get. It said it was some sort of "document preparation" fee. I couldn't find anything on their website that explains where that fee came from (the only P30 fee I could find online is for cash deliveries outside of their office but I sat in their office for 45 minutes waiting for the ONE PERSON in front of me to have their transaction finished....and for them to stop shooting the sh*t with each other). I'd rather pay an extra $6 and do the USD to USD through Xoom and pick up at a pawn show than deal with Western Union's 5-7 day wait period, excessive paperwork/information requirements and extremely slow service. WU will remain an absolute last resort for my money transfer needs.
That 30 day clearing option isn't really for me either. I'm far to irresponsible and forgetful and would end up begging for food for 29 days waiting for my money to clear.
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Just be aware that there are many holidays here. I wrote a check December 1, one year.... got my money 20 working days later.... January 4 the next year (35 calendar days later) . Put extra days with months that do not have a lot of working days here between the holidays.
December will be here soon. There may be other months too. I gave up the 20 working day check programs after that December.
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