I am back again today with another Expat Answer Man Podcast. Today it is episode EAM0007.
For today’s Podcast, Tim called in to ask some questions about the financial side of moving abroad. How do you get your Social Security, and just in general how do you get money overseas from your US funds? Tim had questions, and luckily, I had answers for him! Tune in to the Podcast to find out all about my suggestions.
Please give the podcast a listen! I hope you enjoy it.
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Thanks again for listening, everybody!
When using my USA issued card in ATM’s there while I am on vacation, as I recall I think many ATM’s have a limit as to how much you can withdraw. The figure I remember is 10,000 PHP. Not sure if that is per day or per transaction. Of course you can try a different ATM for more or, if you have more than one card use another card in the same ATM for up to another 10,000 peso. This may not apply with every bank or ATM it is just my experience. Additionally with a USA issued card it might not work in every ATM that you see. Obviously actually residing there and having a Philippines bank account is entirely a different situation.
The two occasions I have made a bank to bank transfer from the USA to a Philippines bank to someone elses acct ( not mine ) it cost me $40 USD service charge. Of course this fee may vary depending on your bank etc.
Hi Bob, that is a per transaction limit, so you can just keep putting the same card in over and over until you reach your bank’s daily limit.
There are Philippine banks with a transaction limit of 4,000, some have 10,000 and some have 20,000. HSBC has a transaction limit if 40,000 and they charge no fees, as other banks do. I recommend HSBC if at all possible.
Hi Bob,
I enjoyed listening to your pod cast. I found it very informative. On vacation I ended up paying 200 pesos for ATM withdrawals. I felt this was high so I always got 15,000 pesos out to avoid paying the fee over and over for small amounts of money. I don’t remember this fee on previous visits. Is this standard? Are there some banks that charge a lower fee that you know of? I think I used BPI and BDO atm’s.
Thanks again for the information!
Hi Jay, yes that 200 peso charge is standard at nearly every bank in the Philippines now for ATM use. Actually, I believe it is 250 pesos, not 200. There is only one bank that I’m aware of which does not charge that feed, and that is HSBC. Funny that you should mention that, I have an article in the works about that very issue. They started making this charge a few years ago now.
I need to learn to type faster while I was typing you two Bobs asked and answered my question. Next time I will go to HSBC if they have an ATM in Tagbilaran City.
Hi Jay, HSBC is an international bank. As far as I’m aware they only have branches in Manila, Cebu and Davao.
Hi Bob,
Yeah I did not remember seeing one in Tagbilaran. For someone living in the Philippines I would think the idea of writing yourself a check would be the best idea.
I thought about bringing a certified check or money order to deposit and open an account in a Filipino bank to cover expenses. Do you know anything about whether major banks like BPI or BDO would accept a money order or certified check or how long it would take for the money to be available?
Hi Jay, yes a certified check or money order will be accepted. However, it will take the same amount of time to clear as a regular check.
Hi Bob,
This is how I transfer money to the Philippines. I’m retired and my State Pension is deposited into my UK Bank. I live here in the Philippines but before I came here with my Filipino wife we opened a remittance account with a Philippine Bank in London who will transfer any money I deposit there overnight for a £6 charge for up to £2000 transfer. My UK bank will transfer up to £10,000 free of charge. If I want to transfer £10,000 through the Philippine Bank it only costs maybe a total of £10 but I only transfer £2000 as it’s cheap to live here. Also I check the exchange rate to try and get the price
that’s good to hear, those transfer chargers are very inexpensive, so that makes a good for you.
Atm’s in Dumaquete are still 200P per transactions
I’m glad to hear that Lenny, thank you for letting me know.
Would it be possible to include a written version of your podcasts on this site? Some people prefer to listen to the information. Others prefer to read it. I am of the latter persuasion. Thank you for your consideration.
Hi Jamie, the first 3 weeks that I did the podcasts I offered complete transcripts. I spend a fair amount of money to get those done. Not a single person downloaded those transcripts though. Because of that I decided that the cost if doing the transcripts was simply not justifiable. If I get enough requests I will do it again, but would need to see that people are actually using the transcripts.
Great Podcast Bob
Just like everything in life you have to watch the fees and the cost. Pay attention to the additional fees that your USA bank charges for transactions for international use. And other hidden fees like exchange rates. For services like Zoom or Alli.
When I started my Philippine adventure in 2007, my bank didn’t charge these fees, so the 200P per use charged by the bank in the Philippines wasn’t as much of a deal if I really needed the money. But it seems like those days are over, at least for my bank that is.
Bob as you mentioned there are daily limits on your bank in the USA to consider too. And those limits are on USA time not Philippine time. I learned this the hard way. The last time I was in Cebu I was planning a little Holiday in the city after about a month in the Provence. I didn’t want to drive the 2 hour trip on my motorcycle when the sun was the hottest so I headed into the city really early and my wife and child was going to ride a bus later in the morning.
Well I got into Cebu tried to use my card in the ATM at one bank, didn’t work. I know I had money in there. I walked across the street to use a different bank, didn’t work. OK?? I guess I should have stepped back and thought it out, but when you are somewhere with only a little bit of pocket money. You can get paniced and do something you shouldn’t do. I TRIED IT ONE MORE TIME. Stupid me. This time the ATM kept my card. And this was Saturday morning. Talk about panic. LOL.
I texted my wife and told her not to get on the bus. Luckily she hadn’t gotten on the bus yet, she was waiting on mamma front porch. I had visions of my family sleep on a distance aunt’s floor we haven’t seen in a few years. Then I headed to the closest cafe to check my balances in my accounts. OK the bank website was doing some maintenance at that time. Wasn’t available Online. What!
OK what can I do? Fill my motorcycle up with all the money I had in my pocket and head home. Got home a few hours later, looking like a red lobster. Got off my bike told my wife I need to check our account balances. That is when she informed me we have a brown out, and the internet is down.
OK honey… I am going to take a nap.
So the only thing I could figure was that when I used the card the night before I was too close to my Bank Card Daily Limit. And when I went the next morning it was technically on the same day USA time.
I did still have my holiday just did it on Monday, had to pick up my card from the bank anyway.
Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself and say “We are not in Kansas Anymore ”
I don’t know if they are available there in PH, but if you can, you might want to consider a pre-paid debit card to have as a standby in case your usual card does not work for any of probably 100 reasons. On my first and second visits for me it was like playing ATM Roulette trying to find one that would accept my USA ( famous brand name ) card ! Then there was another time where just about every ATM had a line of people waiting to use it. My friends informed me that it was the day after a holiday or something like that where many people were trying to get their money at the same time. I think the entire ATM network crashed. ATM’s were on again – off again in 5 minute intervals. I waited and waited only to find out my card was not accepted. I finally got so frustrated, I burst out laughing. When my friends asked me what was so funny I exclaimed ” I have had better luck at the slot machines in Vegas than I am having with these ATM’s here ! ” LOL.
On visits since then things have been working out better for me and I have a different card than I did on those first two visits. One thing to avoid though is not to let your cash get too low before trying to get more from an ATM LOL.
Going into a bank and trying to get a cash advance, that was another ” experience ” for a future comment. That is the first time I ever saw 4 rows of about 8 chairs per row in the middle of a bank. It’s good to have local friends, I was able to bypass all of those chairs.
Yes, you can get prepaid debit cards here.
Wow, James, if it wasn’t for bad luck you would have no luck at all! You are so right that you have to remember on ATM use that you must use the USA clock to work out what day it is as far as your daily withdrawal limit goes! The good side of that is that you can take out your daily limit at 11:59 AM, and then take out another daily limit at 12:01. Sometimes that is really great! 🙂
Hi Bob, that is not always the case with North American banks. In some cases you MUST wait until 15:01 hrs.
In my case I do not do any banking between 11:59 until 15:01 hrs Philippines time.
Yes, of course, it depends on your bank’s time zone.
After hearing all these astonishing stories about ATMs in the Philippines, and about cashier’s checks and money orders clearing 30 days after deposit, I plan on carrying only cold cash with me in $100 bills in my waist pouch, plus a credit card for use only in renting a car when I visit in December. I don’t plan on using ATMs or dealing with banks except to exchange dollars to pesos. Is it safe to carry all that cash in your waist pouch? No, but I think I’ll take my chance on that than take a chance on using an ATM or a bank to get funds when it’s not available when you need it the most.
Hi John – Feyma and I use the ATM network at least a few times per week, and sometimes it is for a fairly major amount of money. There have been times we have experienced problems, but in recent years things have improved a lot, and problems (in our case at least) have been quite rare. I would not shy away too much. Carrying a huge wad of cash on your person could be asking for trouble, and if you run into that trouble it could leave you in dire straights.
Hi John,
I like you so I am going to give you a little friendly advice that I hope you take the right way. Don’t advertise that you are going somewhere carrying fat stacks of $100’s. I feel safe in the Philippines, but some things are best kept quiet. I really hated shelling out 200 pesos when I made my withdrawals from the ATM plus my credit union charged another 1% foreign transaction fee, but if you get pick pocketed, or mugged or something you will feel a lot worse. I think I would take a little more cash than I did this summer, but I would not want the stress of carrying a huge amount of cash. I used traveler’s checks a few years ago, but my credit union stopped carrying them. I think they are sill available somewhere. I hope you have a fun and safe vacation.
Take care!
I’m with Jay!
Money belts are available online and will hold five or six hundred in back-up cash.
Yes, money belts can be great for carrying back up cash.
Hi John,
I just google searched traveler’s checks. American Express still offers them online and there are probably other options. I kind of wished I had taken some on my vacation. The only bad experience I had when using them was when I signed my passport I signed my full name and when I signed the traveler’s check I only signed my middle initial and one bank would not cash the check, but the hotel did, so just make sure the signatures are the same.
Travelers checks can be a nightmare in the Philippines. I would strongly recommend against using travelers checks.
Hi Bob,
Are they hard to cash now? I used them maybe 9 years ago and only had the problem once. I am not doubting you Bob just want more information.
Thanks!
Hi Jay, it depends how nice your location. In some parts of the Philippines they are nearly impossible to cash.
Hi Bob,
I’m with you on the idea of travelers checks being nearly impossible to cash here in the Philippines.
f John Reyes–you seem like a savvy Filipino and carrying cash is something my husband and I used to do without issue, so as long as you’re careful I think you’ll be alright.
Bob, We go the route of writing ourselves a check when needed from one of our US accounts from checks we had pre-printed with our new address in the Philippines. This works out well for us, as we have dollar and peso accounts.
I know that the new FACTA info is part of your paid content, but could you please just give a quick description without going into too much detail about what this will mean for us expats?
Hi Queenie, yeah, I would never recommend to anybody to bring travelers checks to the Philippines. Jay got lucky that he did not have problems, thankfully.
I may be posting some info here in regards to FATCA soon.
Thanks Bob,
We were in the bank last month and the bank manager said that this was all new to them too, but necessary for the future.
Hi Queenie,
On the issue of John carrying a large sum of money I have less of a problem with him doing it than the fact that he announced on a web site that is read by I am not sure how many people that he was going to do it. I agree that there is probably better than a 90% chance John will still be OK.
My problem is sometimes the downside is simply to great when you weighing it with saving a 200 peso fee. I don’t know. It is John’s decision and I am not going to say anymore on it, but I was honestly concern for John’s safety. I will now butt out because it is none of my business.
Don’t worry about it, Jay. I welcome and appreciate your input, as well as Bob’s and Queeniebee’s. I have to think about this real hard. I was just concerned about using ATMs after hearing so many horror stories about it, especially James Speight’s story above. I can’t be thinking about Philippine time and USA time, or being close to the daily limit when the need arises for immediate cash.
In any event, I do have to alert my bank that I will be using my debit card extensively while overseas prior to leaving the States, so that I don’t have to carry a lot of cash in my person at anytime. I want to be able to mingle freely with the crowd and enjoy the culture as much as I can without having to worry about losing everything in one fell swoop. Thanks for the heads up on this, Bob and Jay!
Hi Jay,
I agree that there is surely a down side to carrying cash, and it’s just one more thing to worry about when traveling, The convenience is nice once you’ve done it, but it is kind of nerve wracking I admit,
Any amount carried into the country over ten thousand dollars it is required you report this on arrival to the Philippines I believe.
John I didn’t mean to scare anyone, just thought it was a funny story of my adventure.
I wouldn’t have any problems to continue to use ATM in the Philippines.
The 10 times I have been to the Philippines in the last 7 years, I have used ATM maybe 100 times or more with no problems. But those stories is not funny, or interesting. And it is not that I didn’t know about the daily limits before. Like Bob said sometimes it can work to your favor. I have maxed my limit before at 11AM Philippines times and went back at 1PM and Maxed it again. So I knew about it just didn’t think about it that day. LOL.
And I have traveled with larger amounts of money with a Money Pouch with no problems too, when I wanted to pay for some land my wife and I purchased two years ago, just got to be careful. But then again I would try to be careful anytime I am traveling. Even with out large sums of money. There are more to loose then just money while traveling and not paying attention, passports, Ids, bank cards, Diver’s licensee, life, Ex.
As a recovering control freak, these types of experiences has had the most change in my attitude about myself and what I can and can’t control. Yesterday I thanked God for the hungry caterpillar I found in my wife’s tomatoes. Because It gave me a opportunity to react to him and that problem in a more healthy way then just getting upset.
But then again I now wished I didn’t tell my wife, about him, because she now will not pick the tomatoes.
That job is now totally mine.
Hi James and John,
I always think it is better to have multiple ways to get money or buy things just in case. I visited this summer and the most common way we bought things was with my wife’s debit card. They do charge a 1% fee, but no big deal. I used my credit card which also charged 1%, but I get 1% cash back at the end of the year so it was kind of a wash. I used mt ATM begrudingly maybe 5 times because of the fee for times I had to have cash. When I took the traveler’s checks in the past, I only took them as a back up. If I could not have cashed them in the Philippines I would have cashed them when I got home. I have not tried a prepaid debit card, but that would also be a possible back up source. I have had my credit card and ATM cards frozen at times, but they are from different banks and it has never happened at the same time.
Take care!
Hi Bob,
This was a very informational podcast. Thank you Tim for asking the question and to you Bob for fielding it and explaining it so clearly.
Bill
Glad you found it informative, Bill. Thanks!