Suggestions on transferring my money to me from the states

I'm moving to the Siaton area next week from the states. Anyone have any good suggestions on getting my money transferred from the states to the PI?

 

https://wise.com/

Works well for me and Europeans I know. Set up a Phil bank and use it. Best exchange rate other than writing a personal check and waiting 30 days.

 

"Wise" works well for me. They give a very good rate and low charges. (from UK, but I assume they work in US as well)

 

OPTION 1
Open two accounts at a local bank here in the Philippines. One will be a peso account and the other will be a US dollar account. The banks here are on the SWIFT network. You will then be able to transfer US dollar funds from your account in the US to the US dollar account here. Some banks and credit unions in the US perform this service for free. Once the US dollars are here in the Philippine account you can transfer them to the peso account. The exchange rate at the banks here is usually very competitive with Wise.com.

This is similar to writing a check except it uses the ACH transfer service which is quicker. Similar to @soup464

OPTION 2
Use Wise.com to perform the transfer and convert the funds. From the US bank dollar account to the Philippine bank peso account. Wise.com will charge an ACH transfer fee in addition to the revenue they get from the exchange rate.

 

If you have an acct with Wells Fargo, they are partners with BPI.

You will need a BPI account first of course to fill out the form. Money is in the local acct in moments.

$4 for a transfer up to $3000 at a time. Wellsfargo.com also lets you moch up an exchange to see what the rate is.

 

Wise.com is an excellent service, I use it often to transfer 5000 AUD at a time, and the rate is the same as XE.com daily rate with a very small fee.
Transfer to BDO can take anywhere between 1-4 hours which is sensational service for an international transfer. I use the PAYID system in Australia to instantly pay Wise from a bank account in Australia, they update on their site and email to say they have received it within minutes and that they have already made payment to BDO.
They request a reason for payment from a drop list and I always pick general living expenses.

 

If looking for a large one time transfer, like money to purchase a house, wire transfer from your bank to a PI bank account. You could do $100k USD for less than $50. It's there in one day or less depending on when you initiate the transfer.

 

Wise formerly TransferWise are excellent, good rates, and secure and never let me down. Multi currency accounts, technically an on line bank without the silly fees.

Avoid WorldFirst.

 

Fess may only be 50 USD but the rate can be up to 3% markup on the day rate so your costs are way higher and smaller tranches over a few weeks using Wise would make more sense (Wise max looks like is 480K PHP receive).

See the Wise calculation below, savings of up to 2,979 USD even after your fees of 532USD. the fee is not the selling point of Wise its the market rate they offer. Most banks globally will kill you on this.

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