Well, Christmas is just around the corner. Just got done helping Bob with his gig as the Santa for one of the companies here in the Philippines. Now, we are getting so busy with our other on-line businesses, which means we are needing cash for every time we go to buy what we need for the orders. So it means to say also that I had to go make a trip to the bank or ATM (automated teller machine) here. We do have local and international cards.
I just saw someone posting something on Facebook about the banking days here in the Philippines during the holidays. Looking at it, it didn’t look good though. For us anyway who depend on our income through the ATM. From December 23 to January 4, theirs just 1 day that the banks will be open. The rest of the days were weekends and paid holidays that were declared by the government. My gosh for us people that live through ATM it will be a problem. They might not (likely they won’t) put enough money in the ATM machine, or keep it refilled during the holidays. I’ve seen too many people in line for it. During the holidays I’m pretty sure nobody will fill the machine again.
Just last week the ATM machine that I go to most of the time didn’t refill the machine over the weekend when they were out of money. I went Monday early morning. When I got there, the guard said that they might fill the machine at 9 am that day. So I went again at 9 am, as soon as I got there the guard informed me again that they’re still working in the machine and they also had the thorough check of the machine and it might be ready that afternoon. So instead of going back that afternoon, I went the following day instead, the machine was working but the guard informed me that all through the week the bank will continue on on checking thoroughly with the machine (maintenance time). So they said they might have the machine be out of service anytime too. Which means it’s a bit hassle going through and looking for another ATM. I just can’t believe that they are thoroughly checking and repairing the machine this time of the year and it’s busy time for their machine. Too many people withdrawing money. I’ve seen other foreign nationals withdrawing money there and they will be in the machine for awhile stocking up. 🙂 Just in my opinion they should do the maintenance around October or early November. Just a thought anyway.
With in this week expect long lines on the atm or the bank. Have you seen the off days of the bank after the 23rd of December?
Here’s what I know so far:
December 24, 2014, Wednesday – Additional Special Non-Working Holiday, bank closed
December 25, 2014, Thursday – Christmas Day – Regular Holiday, bank closed
December 26, 2014, Friday – Additional Special Non-working Holiday, bank closed
December 27, 2014 – Weekend, bank closed
December 28, 2014 – Weekend, bank closed
December 29, 2014 – Only day banks open
December 30, 2014 – Rizal Day – Regular Holiday, bank closed
December 31, 2014, Wednesday – New Year’s Eve (Special Non-Working Day), bank closed
January 1, 2015, Thursday – New Year’s Day, bank closed
January 2, 2015, Friday – Additional special non-working day (Special non-working day)
January 3, 2015 – Weekend, Bank closed
January 4, 2015, Weekend, bank closed
January 5, 2015, Bank and school resumes for the year 2015
What does this mean?
For a period just one day shy of 2 weeks, the banks will be opened only 1 day, all of the other days the banks will be closed.
So for all of you that live through ATM, better stock up on cash before the bank and ATM close down and run out of money. The machine might not be filled up until next year. I might see you guys at one of the machine. LOL
Keep in mind also that while this article focuses on ATM and Bank closures, it is likely that many other types of businesses will be closed many (or all) of the days listed as well. Malls will be open most of those days (many malls in the Philippines are even open on Christmas day, starting at Noon), but smaller businesses are likely to be closed. Be prepared!
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone!
Time to clear the balances off the credit cards as these will come in handy to get basic stuff like Groceries at SM.
I’m going to Immigration Davao today to hopefully beat the rush for visa extensions.
Good idea Stephen. Malls are getting crowded now, so many malls having midnight sales.
Hope not much people at the immigration office.
Happy Holidays!
Stephen didn’t mention what type of VISA he’s renewing.
If it’s a permanent VISA (ie. with ACR card), then I was under the impression that must and can only be done Jan/Feb. Is it possible to do it in advance? That would be good to know.
Yes Feyma, ATM downtime is typical in the Philippines especially in Minadanao, perhaps 50% uptime, impossible to guess for good timing, and yes the Christmas season just exacerbates that downtime.
We can’t expect ATM’s to dispense cash *when* needed. I’m learning not to try to get cash at 1pm on a normal work day to pay the electricity bill when Cotelco closes at 4. Very boring waiting in the heat for hours, eventually run out of things to banter about with the guards. Got lucky last time, cash at 3:55pm and made it down the street to Cotelco just as they were locking the door. Now I start the get-cash process a few days in advance.
Unlike prior years, banks even when open no longer to “over-the-counter” cash on credit-cards, they just point you to their “offline” ATM outside.
Another recent ATM downtime recollection. At midnight, wife says she needs cash first thing in the morning (when it’s time for me to try to sleep after working). Starting at the closest ATM, then a tricycle ride to the furthest, I walked up the main street trying all until finally I got lucky to get the 8th one (I counted) to spew me 8000 pesos. Fortunately it was cool and just humid in the middle of that night hike. Good that, because there weren’t many ATMs left to try!
So, Feyma, like you said. 🙂
Hi Ed – Luckily we have hundreds of ATM machine here in the city. If one machine goes down, just go around town and you will find one that works. 🙂 Really, I’ve done this before so it’s not new to me. Honestly I didn’t experience having problem withdrawing money after 1 pm. Knock on woods… Lucky for us here I guess…
Wow, you’re lucky you got some money out. Good thing you got it after midnight, it’s already count for the next day. Since you always had problem getting money after 1 pm. If it’s really needed, just come to the big city near you and do the money thing there then.
Have a good holiday season!
Thanks for your suggestions Feyma, but even with Bob’s advisement that commuting time is now drastically cut, between leaving the house and returning would at best still take the better part of the day and greatly increase the cost of getting cash from an ATM (public transportation may be relatively cheap, only a few hundred pesos each way to Davao) but that greatly increases the cost of an ATM visit and there’s always the hour-or-two wait before the van actually leaves – twice, once to go and once to return.
As for noon vrs. midnight, my withdrawals are from NorthAmerican banks in the Eastern timezone there, so summer time it’s the next day there come noon here, and winter time it’s midnight there come 1 in the afternoon here. Other TZ’s corresponding vary. Easy reference – if the sun isn’t blazing high in the sky, it’s still nighttime “yesterday”, it’s not midnight (today) yet there. 🙂
Feyma;
Mayang and I were in town yesterday, she asked me to stop at our bank and she came out with a fist full of pesos. Then I remembered what you just pointed out about the banks and smiled, like you she knew and was just being prepared. Excellent advice for all LiP readers here in the Philippines!!!.
Hi Paul – See, Mayang knows too. LOL :-)… She’s a wise lady Paul.
Yep, I like to share this information because I know lots of our readers here gets their money through the ATM machine every month.
Thanks Paul and have a Merry Christmas to you and Mayang!
Mrs Feyma,
Thanks, Your article was timely. I forgot all about it.
Thanks PapaDuck. Now you and Ann will stock up. LOL.. 🙂
Have a great Holiday Season to both of you!
Feyma,
I’m surprised that as business owners you guys don’t have cash on hand at all times.Everyone I know in Manila that owns a business has to have a decent amount of dough on hand for supplies,payroll,and everything else.Cash is still king and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Your article is a good reminder of how important it is to always have pesos in your pocket, and some stored away in a safe place that you can access anytime of the day.
The fact that banks will only be open for one day during a two week span is absurd. Be prepared and remember It’s always more fun in The Philippines ! Haha.
I don’t think anybody said that we have no cash on hand, why would you think that? But, as cash is used, it must be replenished. Right? 😉
Bob, I expect you’re pointing out that there’s a limit to how much “cash on hand” is normally kept. We typically arrange for various high-need payments, so it’s unreasonable to expect normal “cash on hand” to exceed a week or two normal cash needs since most household expenses are paid for by credit or debit card and one doesn’t normally need short-term cash anywhere close to multiple 5 digits for unanticipated palengke purchases, the water bill or maybe a cash pizza (Shakeys and McDo – if any in your area – take cards and all groceries take card payment).. I can buy a lot of tricycle rides and carrots with 1000 pesos. Large business payments are ETF, cheque, or otherwise pre-arranged, *not* household “petty cash”. In our case, a few thousand in cash is the most we usually prudently have on hand, and any more would invite nasty people to look our way. Yes, we do need to pester an ATM when we concurrently run out of cash and gulay or bigas or when todays whole tray of eggs mysteriously evaporates.. As you point out, that’s the purpose of banks and their ATMs, yes?
Bob,
Yes, cash does need to be replenished and hopefully there is always more incoming than outgoing 🙂 I was thinking about our businesses both here in SoCal and Manila which are cash based.We never use an ATM nor have the need to.I forgot that your businesses rely on electronic payments therefore visits to an ATM would be a necessity from time to time 🙂
Hi Bobby,
One good thing for us is that all except one of our businesses do not really require much cash, since they are sales of digital goods that we do not have to buy. Our gift delivery business, though, can’t operate without some daily cash outlay! 🙂
Hi Bobby – This post is really intended for those readers here that gets their money through ATM. Just a reminders that during this time of the year ATM might be offline because no cash inside. The banks are closed lots of days. Too many off days on this time of the month.
Thank you for your comment. Good to see you here.
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Feyma, great article! Thanks for the heads-up!
Bill
Hi Bill – Thank you. You might have to go to the bank early… :-)… Bill, if you want to go to the bank, better to go early morning. No people lining to get money. Just a reminder….
Take care and Merry Christmas to you!
Hehehe, yes Feyma, *very* early in the morning to join all the other people queued waiting for the bank to open and bring the ATM back online. 🙂 As you point out, that’s a very long wait on days the bank is closed.
On the subject of banking. I am planning on buying some property in Mindanao. My bank will give me a very poor transfer rate. Is there a better way to send money to Phillipines.
Sorry, I know this is a little off topic. But it’s a dilemma I’m imminently having to deal with.
Thank You
Jonathan, after my first inquiry at my (overseas) “home branch” in 2000 where they gave me a ridiculous low exchange quotation (less than half the proper exchange rate), I just got dollars for my first trip to the Philippines and (*carefully*) found an honest money-changer who gave me almost exactly what the official exchange rate was. I used him for the next few years, and if he offered me less than the proper (very fluctuating at the time) rate, I’d say “call them”, he would, and then he’d give me the proper momentary rate.
Eventually my stock of paper cash disappeared. I started doing wire-transfers, which still work and much easier and faster in recent years. Send dollars from there, the bank *here* converts, takes their (about 2.5% fee set) and deposits the balance to my local Phils bank account from which I can then withdraw whatever I need OTC without additional penalty or fees. Note also that the greater the amount you convert, the better the exchange rate you’ll receive.
These days, I preferentially deposit smaller amounts (a few thousand $ per need) to my overseas credit-cards that give me the proper and full momentary exchange rate. All cards are **NOT** the same! Some give you a lot less and some give you the lowest exchange rate of either the previous banking day or the moment you withdraw, try to avoid those. Find which card works best for you. In my case right now Capital One gives me the best and full proper momentary exchange rate.
Also be aware that when withdrawing cash from a card via ATM, it’s not free. As of about 2008 you will be charged 200 pesos by the Phils local bank and $5 (or more) by your home bank. That’s *per*transaction*. If you add that up, you quickly realize that you want to find a bank with a 40k peso withdrawal limit and pay just *one* fee set (though hard to find, HSBC is perfect and their ATMs almost always work). BPI has (at some of their ATMs now bumped their limit to 20k pesos per withdrawal – do as many and pay as many individual withdrawal fee sets as you like. All the rest are still 10k pesos max, so do the math – do you want to pay one fee for 40k pesos or 4 fees to get the max overall 40k/day limit? Note also that your “home bank” imposes a daily limit on your withdrawals, but if that’s too low it’s easy to get them to increase that limit on your overseas account.
I’ve used the latter method over the last couple of years for some major cash requirements, timing withdrawals using multiple cards over as many days as needed. If you need 1 million pesos for something major, you can arrange to have that within a week at as minimal-as-possible cost, with a bit of effort and acumen on your part. Of course, at 1 million, a wire-transfer (your local Phils bank converts your $ to pesos here) with much less effort that works out about the same as numerous multiple ATM withdrawals for anything over about half a million.
Hope this helps, and if you or anyone has better info, please do tell.
On the subject of banking. I am planning on buying some property in Mindanao. My bank will give me a very poor transfer rate. Is there a better way to send money to Phillipines.
Sorry, I know this is a little off topic. But it’s a dilemma I’m imminently having to deal with.
Thank You
Why not transfer in dollars – or whatever your home currency is – then choose a better place to exchange than a bank?
Hi Hon – Thanks for the answering to Jonathan/John’s questions.
I’m transferring money from UAE dirhams. Western Union pay 12.1 and the banks rate is 11.5
I’m exploring various options at the moment. Thanks for the advice Bob.
Hi John – Thank you for the questions. I hope Bob’s info help you out too.
Merry Christmas to you!
thanks for the article. i seemed to have missed that locally important news!
Last time was in the Philippines for Xmas, I simply gave up on the ATM’s What worked better for me was to XOOM money to myself and go pick it up at SM Hypermart or quite frankly any SM store or many of the National Pawn Shops.
sometimes I have also simply sent the money as US dollars to avoid the exchange drop from Xoom, then if they do not have enough US dollars I just tell them to convert it at the counter into peso. Works every time.
they always have plenty of cash and the small fee for XOOM is bearable, especially around Xmas time. Those lines are too much at the ATM
I’m quite familiar with bank wire-transfers, shipping companies and pawn-shop services like “padala”, but what’s “XOOM”?
XOOM is a major money transfer company. http://xoom.com – remember, google is your friend! 🙂
Yes, thanks Bob, I’m quite familiar with Google.
Prior to migrating to the Philippines, while familiar with Western Union overseas I had never heard of XOOM before 2000 – until just now, so I was hoping that those familiar with it might post something a bit more than what the web site tells, for example their own experiences remotely depositing money from their bank account for transfer, do they also pay fees picking up the transferred funds here locally, etc.
.
Funny, you didn’t ask any of those questions, you just asked “What is Xoom” – and I answered. 🙂
Thanks Bob, yes, I made the mistake of asking quickly and simply, hoping for general input, and I now understand that this forum isn’t intended for such quick questions hoping for people to tell what they’ve experienced.
I’ve now had and taken the time to research “XOOM”. What I see is that it may be somewhat competitive *if* and only *IF*
– **** you already have US$ ****
– you let them additionally earn by exchanging to your target currency for you (which latter you need to pay anyway, but hey, just pay it *once*!).
Otherwise, their transfer rate is about double for US$ to US$ transferred vrs if you let them make money by changing USD to your ultimate target currency. Again, that’s *after* you first *pay* to buy US$ – can’t emphasize that enough!
Their per-transaction limit is USD2999 which means that you will incur multiple transaction fees to transfer any substantial amount beyond just petty cash. Note also that otherwise the higher the amount converted, the better the exchange rate you otherwise receive in *one* transaction doing it some other way.
If you transfer US$ then you will still pay the additional conversation cost to PHP locally here.
If you do NOT already have USD and your own currency is something different, then you will *FIRST* pay your overseas bank/card/whatever to change your currency *there* into USD before you even start with XOOM, which totally defeats the purpose and *doubles* your overall currency conversion costs. Only then will you start paying XOOM and all else down the line from there. You always lose double when you need to do *two* currency conversions, your money>USD>target_currency so that’s the #1 rule to avoid – double conversion costs. The XOOM web site clearly provides you no choice.
In summary, *if* and only *if* you already have USD then XOOM is perhaps similar cost as other methods previously mentioned here. Otherwise XOOM will cost you significantly more and you’ll wonder why you received way fewer PHP than you expected.
In contrast, here’s something I did just last week. An overseas client owed me professional fees. I gave them the choice of my billing them *there* and they pay large tax, or since I did the work from *here* (Phils) I could legitimately and legally just bill them from here with zero excess tax on top _there_. I even told them I’d bill them one extra $ so that I’d get a better exchange rate. They immediately chose their much more cost-efficient method, *they* paid the wire-transfer fee to wire me my fees to here and my Phils bank took just one single (large enough) conversion/transaction fee. That saved us both a bundle and I’ll make the landlord happy in the morning plus enough extra saved to also pay the annual PhilHealth premium. Big difference.
ED:
After reading that I wonder why you asked: “What is Xoom” if you knew all of that?”
Paul, I knew absolutely NONE of that at the time I asked, nothing about XOOM at the time, I hadn’t even heard of them until I saw someone mention them here for the first time. That’s why I asked.
Zoom advertises pretty heavy, including on this website. Surprised you never noticed their ads.
Bob, perhaps they do advertise online, especially to prospects who (unlike me) might have US$ to transfer instead of their own national currency. I also generally eschew frequenting web sites overpopulated with obtrusive in-your-face ads to waste my time with a commercial onslaught typically of less than zero interest. Almost invariably I’m already cognizant of things useful to me and I purposefully go looking should I need something new. If anything, I rely on recommendations of others in places such as here, real people with real experiences that I’m inclined to believe and respect. Bob, you provide a great forum for purposes intended. Similarly if asked, I’m happy to share whatever knowledge I might have, to the benefit of others.
For example and in contrast, from a preliminary heads-up in a private technical forum, I spent about 3 hours yesterday researching the new NTP vulnerability, locating documentation and assembling workaround info, testing, implementing, and verifying what works, finding answers to my own quandries, then writing it up (including useful URLs and what worked for me). then re-sharing that back there plus to clients, associates, and various other ways my efforts and compilation may help admins. If any participants here operate servers that might be vulnerable and ask here (though this isn’t a technical forum and thus would be WAY off-topic), I’ll be happy to share here too. Bob, since this is your forum set, you’re welcome to chime in if you also feel such technical security issues would be inappropriate in your venues.
As for advertising, I’d have to hurt my brain trying to remember the last time advertising induced me to purchase anything I hadn’t already otherwise identified.
Back on topic, while yes I respect there’s a difference, to me in-your-face obtrusive advertising is way too akin to SPAM which content I also ignore and constantly take active steps to preclude.
In the case of your web site – I’m replying by email, to your posting kindly received by email, so I thankfully wouldn’t see any ads you might have on your site since I’m not using your site(s) directly, and you’ve now clearly told me why participation by unadulterated email provides superior focus.
Since I’m already writing too much, I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone and families, here on Bob’s forums, a wonderful Christmas and may you all be blessed more in the New Year than before.
–ed