Philippines — Sending Money
Philippines Experience
How to Send Money To The Philippines
A Free E-book By Rusty Ferguson
Sending Money to the Philippines, a How Too Guide.
This five page book is totally free. The eBook is now close to 30 pages and it may not remain free much longer. You can download it here. You don’t have to sign up for a thing, for now. That might change down the road! This has changed but it is still FREE. To get this book you’ll need to join my mailing list or just join this site. You can un-subscribe if you decide I’m wasting your time. So I wont do that. Get this free guide detailing how to send money overseas now.
In this book, I discuss the ways you can send money to yourself or someone else living in the Philippines. Its pretty easy and you wont have a lot of problems. For most, using an ATM is not recommended but there are exceptions to that.
Need your cash fast? I’ll tell you how but it is best if you don’t wait until you need it. If you do, it will cost you more.
As an expat, I can share some secrets that will make your money transactions proceed more smoothly. I learned them the hard way. You can learn them the easy way, from my mistakes.
The books also discusses some of the issues you might run into. You’ll not know all the problems you might encounter until you are in the area where you will be settling down. In Manila, you’ll have more options and few problems but security will likely be more of an issue. In Cebu Province, you’ll run into other issues, even the city within the Philippines will have its own peculiarities Where you can pick your money up or maybe you can have it delivered to your door.
You may pass this book along to your friends. Post it on your website and share in anyway you wish. Just don’t take credit for it nor are you allowed to change anything in the book.
Sometimes the situation changes and what was a good choice at one point may not be the best option at another point. That’s one reason I created this book. I have made several blog post over the last couple of years about how expats get their money. People continue to ask and the situation continues to evolve and I continue to learn more. So you may wish to check back from time to time to see if there have been changes to this book. If I find a better way to send money to the Philippines, I will update this book.
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This free book discusses some the ways I have used to send money to myself while living in the Philippines. It can also be used to send money to others already in the Philippines. Remittance companies are often used to send money to the Philippines.
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As a matter of ease and convenience, I do use WesternUnion. I know it is costly-about 12.00-but I can send money to the Philippines and it is ready in minutes. I can also have it sent and received as USD and then they can get the current exchange rate there. I will look into XOOM tho.
TY
I sent about $500 with Western Union from the USA to the Philippines about five years ago and the cost was around $40. So I wasn’t very keen on that any more.
I tried to use WU once from within the Philippines ad do it online but I never managed to get it sent. That was three years ago.
I might be able to do it now using my VPN which gives me a US IP (computer address) but many banks pick up on the VPN and block it for that reason alone.
With Xoom, if you send to the same places that use WU it takes about 10 minutes. Though the first time I used them it took days.
I send to my bank and it takes less than four hours and that’s at any time of night. I can pick it up, small parts of it from the ATM.
So I don’t have to carry large amounts of cash on me.
I can go out and eat some nice BBQ for the $7 or so I save using Xoom. Actually, I can go out twice. ha ha
It didn’t take me long to start thinking of what things cost valued at what it cost for me to live in the Philippines. $12 is a little more than P500 and P500 is not something I consider cheap any more.
Now if you’re in the Philippines and you want to send cash to someone, WU is a cheap way to do it, or so I’m told. I’ve never used them. I use a local pawn shop. The name of which is next to impossible to spell, even for most Filipino.
After I had trouble with WU, I just never tried them again. That was at a time when Bogo had been hit by a typhoon and all the bank ATMs as down for three days or so. Was broke and out of food. Not my most pleasant few days in the Philippines.
I had money in the bank but couldn’t get to it. The land lady was on my case and no matter what I tried to do, for those few days I was totally unable to send money to Philippines.
I already have my direct deposit in place, I believe a bank,in the philippines has an office in Las Vegas, since the Philippines, is a cash only country, I recieved an email from the bank telling me that I can open an account there in Las Vegas……I just opened an account with a credit union.
There are more and more places now that are taking Western credit cards. the malls mostly. That has changed, when I first arrived four years ago, I couldn’t use my credit cards any place. Now I have a credit card from a Philippines bank. Interest is staggering. haha
Happy Turkey day, Rusty….. a medium size fish roasted over a fire will do me good…….with some fresh veggies, outstanding!!!!!!!……I like turkey but I’m trying to change my life style……..lol. You guys have a good day……
Thanks Champ, Thanksgiving is pretty much a non event here. It is an American Holiday and it’s already Friday.
Thanks though, thoughts are nice.
That’s right you guys are a day ahead…….I keep forgetting.
Many people forget that Champ, that’s really the only reason even mention it.
I always use Moneygram at Walmart. you can send up to $1000.00 per day for $8.00. It works pretty well and it is pretty fast. I think it is 10 minutes.
I like your add from Xoom. Sending $2900.00 is pretty cool, except for the one who has to send it!!
Randall,
Once you are in the Philippines, you will not be able to use MoneyGram. Many people ask how to get their money once they are here, this is more about that.
I tried to use MoneyGram online once i was here. My transaction was blocked. When I called to check on it I was told I couldn’t use money gram unless I was in the USA.
Plus with these services, I don’t have to go any place. I can do it from home. I have made 1000′s of transactions online they only place I’ve run into problem is with Paypal. I use them only as a last resort. You’re far more likely to get robbed on your way to Walmart.
RUSTY
Found lots changes – new rules remitting money to PI this year
many changes internationally
even the Catholic VATICAN bank been caught out and had $20Million USD held while they are investigated 4 money laundering
CHIKKA — SENDAH stopped and XOOM have minimum amounts
I HATE WU
I recently found this site and have used it in Europe
from Philippines National Bank
http://www.pnbeurope.com/Remittance.htm
The word borrow in a Tagalog dictionary means, “Money given to you to keep because the lender had too much”…
Based in UK LONDON
Hi John,
What kind of rules? UK rules?
Money laundering laws in the USA are way too easy to run afoul of.
Why do you like PNB? Its kind of pain to sign up for someone else but a company here might, in fact, do a faster job. Though Remithome is run my Filipino, I think…. Well, I might have assumed that after talking to them on the phone. But they may be outsourcing to a Philippines call center. Duh. LOL
I’d love to have more information.
Thanks for stopping by!
I use too use Chikka, they are expensive. VERY!
Yeah, Xoom didn’t always have that $50 minimum. That’s a bummer.
I had to have money fast this week and couldn’t risk any delays so I did it with ATM. cost me about $20 to send $700
Hi Rusty
Thinking about living on Bantayan and moving from UK.
my hobby is Golf –ok — can you advise me — the courses on cebu – do they operate a membership for foriengners — or is it just pay and play.
Hope to meet you when i come — ps — the beers are on me ??
I’m afraid I can’t help much with golf. I am not a golfer. I would like to be but the intense sun might just kill me. I’m pretty sure you can pay to play and it probably isn’t expensive.
There is a golf course near Bogo City. Bogo is in Northern Cebu Province. That is close to Bantayan Island. Fifteen minutes to the port then 45 minute ferry ride.
Bantayan would be a nice place to live. The only problem would be going to Cebu City. It is a 2 and half hour bus ride to the city from Bogo. Living on Bantayan would add another 2 hours to that.
If money is not an issue, there is a chartered flight service to Cebu City from Bantayan. I think it cost around P10,000 per person but I’m pulling that from memory. Maybe that was two people. They use to have a two person minimum. I would love to take that flight sometime.
Ok rusty — no problem about the Golf — Hope to meet you sometime in the New year.
Can i please compliment you on an Exellent Website and very very helpfull.
Please keep the good work going and look forward to sharing a beer or two with you .
Best wishes
Steve Stroud.
Hi Rusty,
Is there a way to get an email alert for ALL new comments on your site? I realize I can tick the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” box below but that only works for articles I comment on and tick the box. It would be better for me to get an email alert whenever any new comment is posted anywhere on your site. Thanks.
Lance, I will look for something.
Do you use Google reader? If so try this:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http://cebuexperience.com/philippines-sending-money/feed/
I’m not sure that like will work unless you’re already subscribed though. Let me know. I think I found something just now. I’ll put i t in the next comment.
This might work for you?
Twitter Toplist
You can sign up there and when a site changes you’ll get notified by email. I’ll look for a plug in.
Here is something else I found:
Rusty, that feed is only for comments on one particular article, I would have to subscribe to a new feed for each of your articles. Do you have a combined feed for all new comments like on the Philippinesplus.com website:
Thnn I would only have to check one feed instead of many for new comments. It would increase your page views I think, especially for new comments on old articles that readers don’t normally go back and re-read. I still prefer an email alert for all new comments instead of a feed but maybe that is difficult to do.
Hi Lance,
Sorry your message got sent to spam because of the URL. Normally it would only go to moderation unless other sites have been making the URL as spam.
I just found it now.
In m browser I have a feed icon in the URL title bar. You don’t have that?
Anyway, I dug this out: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CommentsForYourCebuExperience
that should give you what you’re looking for.
The best links URL I gave you will send a notification if anything changes on the site, at least in theory. Sometimes it seems to send notifications even when there has been no change.
But that feedburner link should work.
Thanks for letting me know.
Hi Rusty,
I have Firefox and NoScript was blocking some of the info in your earlier comment, but I can see it now. I don’t use the Feed button in my browser because then I have to display the Bookmarks toolbar and it reduces the space available for viewing webpages. But that Feedburner link helps, thanks. Feedburner has all your site’s recent comments on one page, but the comments are separated by article. This means the reader has to always scroll down to the bottom of the page to see if there are any new commments, and some people are too lazy to do that. On Philippinesplus.com, the comments are not separated by article so the most recent comments are always at the top, which makes it easier for the readers to see them.
Lance,
I really can’t do any more than I have. The site is setup the way it is for reasons. I prefer the feed the way it is. I’m sorry you’re not happy with the way the feed is presented.
I use to use noscript too. Most of the web is a script. If you’re going to use it, things will be broken. When I used it, I would disable it on sites I trusted. It is best used when visiting new sites. I also use to use it on myspace, they had so many scripts that their site would crawl. It helped a lot with that.
My antivirus takes care of malware threats. I use Eset AKA Nod32. I don’t need noscript, I think it creates more problems that it solves.
You’ll find most webmaster are not a fan of the tool. It breaks things and websites are free because of some of the things noscript blocks.
Hi Rusty,
No worries on how your site is set up, it is after all your site. It was just a suggestion to make things easier for your viewers. I will likely miss some comments on your site but such is life.
NoScript has has saved my computer more than once. I do disable it on sites that don’t load properly, but your site had looked okay so I didn’t notice it was on. I also use an anti-virus but if it reacts that means malware is already running on the computer, better to intercept the virus at the perimeter using NoScript, firewall, router, etc. Javascript, Java and PDF are now major attack vectors since Microsoft tightened it’s coding, and NoScript helps protect against many of these attacks.
Xoom cancelled my account with no reason giving despite num=merous emails and phone calls telling me to send email. I am now using WU, but need a way to send from my account with a debit/credit card, especially when I am in Philippines for my wife and children. Remit home takes a while, I like to send on my paydays and when in country send to myself. RemitHome also had low limits. Any suggestions?
Hmmm, cancelled you?
Try the BBB if you want to find out the reason? I’m curious as to the reason. I find that troubling. Glad you let us know about that!
Well’s Fargo has a remittance service. I may change to them at some point. Look into that.
I don’t recall why but I read some expats like China Bank but it isn’t an option for me. No branches here. They don’t cover all of the Philippines.
If Well’s Fargo doesn’t work for some reason, you might be stuck with Remithome. Their customer service is fantastic, well generally. I did have trouble reaching them via email recently. Probably just a fluke, never had problems with them before. Their email address kept bouncing. Perhaps they have server problems.
Hi rusty
i bought your books and thay helped me alot.
anserwed. many quistions,like to know if you pickup xzoom do thay charge you for that service. like the pawn shops?
also was wondering about girlfriends. my girl is there now but i have talk to other girls and thay say thay were married before
and don’t seem to care about that and want to marry again
well i know this can’t be without analment. well just wondering if theres detictives agent. that can check on this
like my girl has a son but says shes never been married. if she lying than there could be many problemos ahead
thanks again
sounds like you have great life there
looking forward to living there soon
yhanks don
Hi Don, thank you. Having people say things like that is the best advertisement I can get.
Honestly, I think most of the times the women just get married again and skip the annulment. In Filipino culture, as soon as you move in with someone, you’re considered married. That may be what the girl means.
Annulments are not a sure thing. The poor can rarely afford to get one. Divorce appears to be coming to the Philippines. It has been talked about for a while. There is a bill in the congress now. I don’t expect it to pass this year but I think it will eventually. The Philippines is the only country left in the world without divorce. I suppose, that could mean they are the only country that gets it right.
I wont give my personal opinion though, that’s for Filipinos to decide.
When you send money with Xoom, you’ll pay $5.99 at the current rate for a transfer of up to $2999. There is no fee to pick it up.
Don, did you get the bonus book, Sending Money To The Philippines? Many people fail to download it and I consider that a huge mistake. If you need it let me know, it is still small enough that I can email it to you.
There are detectives around. I could help you with that perhaps. You usually don’t need a detective for an annulment. Whatever gives grounds to the annulment must have been present at the time of a marriage. Things like adultery are not grounds for annulment.
PS If you need to contact me, my email is rusty@cebuexperience.com
Hi Rusty, loved the Ebook. Married my wife in Iligan city on Jan 4 and now working on the papers to get her to join me in Canada. 8yrs we plan on going back to retire there. I hear that canada pension can be direct deposited into a Phil account and not be taxed as it would in Canada. Have not checked into this yet but down the road I shall. Heading back in May and hopefully she will be her in the fall. Have not travelled too much in the Phils aside from Manila, Cagayan and Iligan city. Love the people, love the simple, basic caring life that is there. I was there 2 days after the mud slides and floods hit Iligan and Cagayan and was amazed to see how these people recover from such a disaster. If I ever make it up to your neck of the woods we will have to go for a couple of Tanduay’s, lol.
Take care and keep the updated books coming
Oh no, I wrote a long reply and lost it! I even have a tool that usually recovers that for me and it failed me too. Oddly it thought what you wrote was what I wrote.
Maybe it is here and I just can’t see it as I’ve not refreshed. I sure hope so.
Yes, this is the longest I’ve ever gone without updating the manual. Its longer now so I don’t have as much to add. I do plan on an update as soon as I get to it. I do have somethings to add. Something to revise too as it has changed.
If you happen to be up here, then let me know. Don’t come for me though, I may not be able to leave the house.
Hey Rusty, how are doing? Jessie and the kids……I just an update. I’ve to take a Mac fight to the Philippines, I don’t know if those u.s. airplanes go the anymore for sure they go to Guam and Hawaii. Since I’m a retired vet, I save $1,700.00USD. I’m going there for 7-10 days, maybe stay in Bongo City, so I can meet you and family. I don’t want to spend my vacation, traveling around……….I met a young lady, she work a accounting office, in Manila, she is also on Facebook, and we stay in touch, but I don’t want to stay in Manilla, but like the Cebu area, more. She works……:). So we’ll have work out some plans!!!!! She might take a vacation herself, which is great……because I’ll be flying on standby status. Active military, and families go first, I’m trying to find out if there are flights that go to the Philippines, the way I understand it, I have to fly to Guam or Hawaii. Mac fights are not for sure, it’s stand by but its free, for retired military……it’s not like commercial @ 1,700.00USD a pop, I have to do a lot of scheduling, that mean if I have spend a night or two in Hawaii, I can use the 1,700USD for that. So I’m not going to rent a hotel room,(I much rather stay at a resort),until get to the Philippines!!!!!! while I’m there, I’m going to open an Bank account for my future trips( just 1 to stay there)!!!!!!! This trip in June, is to setup a bank account, @ BPI, then till I get to the Philippines I’ll be making online deposits from my credit union account-8.00USD per transfer to BPI account……thats what I’ll need to know what BPI charges!!! Right now I need a passport, because I live close to Mexico, that should, oh and a Military ID. you guys, take care…..regards to jessie, and the kids(Hey, do they like to play Beisball?).
Hey champs, there are no American flights into the Philippines. I think there are two reasons. Until about a year ago, only Philippines based airlines could land in the Philippines. Also though, the safety rating for the Philippines is one notch below the top level. I think there are only three levels.
The PI can’t expand additional flights into the USA and I also think it means American aircraft still cannot land in the PI. Though I’m not 100% certain of that. I suspect once the PI gets that resolved, we’ll see more direct flights from more US Cities.
The USA regulators have been quite harsh about safety standards in the Philippines. I saw things like poorly trained mechanics and mechanics not properly calibrating sophisticated tools used to maintain planes. If you’ve watched Crash Scene Investigation type shows in a regular way on Nat Geo or Discovery, you probably know how important this kind of thing can be.
Hey man, please use some paragraphs, that’s hard to ready.
Just hit enter ever so often. I don’t know why its hard for me to read things like that. Odd, quirk in my brain I guess.