About 6 years ago, not long after I moved from General Santos City to Davao, I met a young man. He was the brother of a friend, and had just moved to Davao himself. This young man, his name was Omar, was half Filipino, half American. Omar had grown up in the USA, and had never been in the Philippines before, but had decided to come and live in Davao, and attend College here. I think it was sort of a combination of wanting to connect with his Filipino heritage, save money on college expenses and just get out on his own that brought him here. Frankly, having never been in the Philippines, Omar was quite confused about many aspects of life here. One thing that complicated his life here was that he looked to be 100% Filipino. Because he looked Filipino, people here treated him as a local, yet emotionally he was really 100% American.
This unfamiliarity with Filipino culture lead to a lot of misunderstandings for Omar. Not being able to understand the local language at all made life even more difficult, because since people thought he was a local, they would not speak to him in English. When he would try to explain that he could not understand, they thought that he was just joking, and some people would get mad at him. Because of this, Feyma always did a lot to help Omar in these situations. If Omar was out in public and had a language problem, he would always call Feyma on his cellphone and she would help him through the trouble.
One day, I was planning to take a trip out of town for one night. I asked Omar if he wanted to come along with me to see some other areas in Mindanao. He readily took me up on my offer, and was excited to get out of the City and see the countryside a bit. When we were ready to head out of town, Omar asked me if I would mind stopping at an ATM machine so that he could get some cash for the trip. Of course, I was happy to make the stop for him.
I stopped at a bank with an ATM machine that would work with his US ATM card. After a few minutes Omar came back and got in the car. I could tell that he was troubled by something, or had something on his mind. He wasn’t very talkative, and seemed to be focused somewhere else. I just let him have time to work out whatever was bothering him.
When we arrived at our destination for the evening, and we were having dinner, Omar opened up to me. “I want to talk to you about something.” I replied “No problem, what’s up?” “Well,” Omar said, “remember when we stopped at the bank? I checked my balance on the ATM machine, and it said that I have more than $25,000 in my account! Now, I was pretty sure that I had only $500 or so. What do you think I should do?”
Inside, I was kind of chuckling, but I didn’t let on to Omar about that. I explained to Omar, “you see, the ATM machines here don’t work in US Dollars, they are in Pesos.” “What do you mean?” Omar asked. “Well, Omar, when you do a balance inquiry, the amount is automatically converted from US Dollars, which you have in your account back home, into Philippine Pesos.” “So,” I continued, “If you have $500 in your bank account, and the exchange rate is P50 for every dollar, the balance shown will be P25,000.”
“Oh,” Omar said, “I thought that the bank made a mistake, or maybe my Dad put in money for my schooling or living expenses!” We had a mutual laugh, and enjoyed our dinner.
So, keep in mind, if you use ATM machines here in the Philippines, no matter where your bank account is, or what currency the account supports, the amounts shown by the ATM machine are in Philippine Pesos!
cute story
Maayong Buntog Bob
To bad that ATM was not the dollar multiplier. All we would need to do is guard the ATM machine and the 3 of us (you me and Omar) 😉 could have a real good time with the money multiplier.
😆
I had a friend who was in the Philippines and his ATM card balance read 1900 Peso, but really he should have had 1900 US$. Well he was very upset and had me wire him some money. He thought someone had hacked his account or overcharged him. When he returned to the US, it was 1900 US$. Apparently that ATM machine worked differently. This was in CDO.
Hi Larry – Wouldn't that be great!
Well timed story too, Bob, it's getting to be a good time for travel for those wihtout children in school to worry about … the rainy season is basically gon eup here in the Northland and it'll be coler every day as we now hear into the "ber" months.
When you have only worked with dollars your whole life it's only natural to think of yourself as a "dollar person", but ATM's normally deal only with local currency. There are a couple branches of CitiBank in Manila, I am told, that have special ATMs inside the lobby that dispense US dollars, but aside from a rare, special purpose situation it's smart to start thinking in Pesos … besides, being filthy rich is fun, it's easy to be a millionaire here 😉
Hi brian – Yes, I remember the event clearly, and I also thought it was a cute thing when it happened!
Hi Richard D – I am not saying I don't believe you, but I have used literally hundreds of ATM machines in the Philippines, and I have never seen one that shows the dollar amount in your account. Anything is possible, perhaps a glitch in the machine.
Hi Dave Starr – Ah, yes, I think I have heard about those CitiBank ATM's too. Regarding "thinking in Pesos" I totally agree with you, it's a good thing to do. For me, though, I pretty much have to ignore my advice, because most of my businesses deal with people overseas, and are based in Dollars. I always kind of feel "caught in the middle" between thinking in Dollars and Pesos. 😆
Morning Bob,
One thing people need to be aware of is to warn their bank that they are travelling to the Philippines. If not your card will likely be stopped very quickly by your own bank due to the perceived/actual fraud problem in the Philippines. The millionaire feeling would be great for that elusive few seconds, but as you have discussed repeatedly in your columns in recent times, it is no longer a real cheap place to live so those pesos will evaporate quite quickly!
Hi AussieLee – Yes, that is very true. It is a good idea to notify your bank that you will be in the Philippines, so that they can flag your account, and activity from the Philippines will be accepted on your account. Thanks for sharing that!
I believe you have to reach a set amount before your company would close your account. I have used my card in the Philippines for small amounts and they went. Then again it may be different for different companies.
Hi Dan Mihaliak – In my experience, if your bank suspects fraudulent activity on your account (when they start seeing transactions in the Philippines), they don't close your account, but rather will just freeze it until they are able to make contact with you and check to see what is going on. Like you, I don't think they jump the first time they see activity, but will wait for a few transactions to pass, or if a large one comes through, the will place your account on hold.
Hi Bob,In addition to Aussie Lee sound advice,its also a good idea to make sure your bank and credit card companies have your cell phone number as they will contact you to verify, if your card is blocked on suspect fraud,then its easily sorted.Sometimes when you notify banks and c/c companies that you are travelling,they dont always feed the info into the automated system,regards Chas.
ha ha ha i have had a atm eat my debit card at the manila airport so i was stranded ..no cash no plane . took me 5 day to straighten it out , go figure..Phil R.
Hi chas – I would say that is good advice too.
oh yea i enjoyed manila for a couple of days don't tink i want to live there. to many people ..Phil R
Hi Phil R. – Oh my goodness! That would be a terrible thing to happen! I can't even imagine having my card eaten by the ATM and being left with no money!
Hi Phil R. – I agree with you on that. I do know that we have a number of people on the site, though, who love Manila too. It's just a personal choice, I guess. 😆
Hi Bob,Off Topic but may be of interest.Malaybalay City has appointed 18 new female traffic enforcers to patrol the Highway thro Bukidnon in effort to reduce the apalling RTA fatalities.They will focus on,non wearing of motorcycle helmets,non working warning lights,delinquent registrations and cargo trucks without covers.They state all offenders will be aprehended and prosecuted,no favours.Apparrently the reason for employing female enforcers is that they are less likely to accept bribes.Sounds like a Zero tolerance,regards Chas.
Hi chas – It sounds like a little bit of a "Duterte" influence has reached Malaybalay! That's a good thing!
My wife has asked that before – if only the Peso balance was in Dollars. I ask for nothing, well more specifically zero, well actually just a few zeros between the balance and the decimal point 😎
Hi Gary – I can go along with you on that one! No doubt! 😆
Hi Bob there is 1 small exception and that is Chinabank which gives you your balance in your own currency. Everything else is done in pesos, I found it very helpful always to start with my balance in UK pounds so that I could then work out the exchange rate that I was getting. I found this to be true of every Chinabank ATM that I used.
cheers
Hi gerry – That's good to know! I have never used Chinabank, and was unaware of that, so thanks for sharing it!
Hi Bob
Nothing to do with the Philippines…. But I once deposited a cheque, the cashier deposited my bank account number 😀 . Was that fun. Ok they found out in a few days but it was so good seeing that balance
Hi carolynn – I bet that sure looked good on paper!
My son has a similar experience as Omar,( for a few minutes only) when he visited us four years ago. Then he realized that it could not be correct, went back to the ATM and check it was in pesos.
Similarly my son look very filipino, but grow up in the States. So when he stayed with us for 1 month in Marinduque, he has exactly the same experience as Omar. The locals talked to him in Tagalog. Since he does not understand tagalog, he just ignored them. So the locals think he is "mayabang" ( proud or haughty) and very unfriendly.
Anyway with that experience, he enrolled in the local junior college here in California taking basic tagalog conversation class for one year. Now he can speak a little tagalog with an American accent. He could also understand tagalog if you speak slowly.
Some of our friends asked us, why we did not teach our children tagalog when they were growing up. Well, in the first place, my wife is tagalog and I am Ilonggo. So we speak English at home. Second, we talked to our psychiatrist friend regarding talking to our children in tagalog. She recommended that since the kids were growing up in a totally american environment, it will just confused them. We found out now, this is a big mistake. Our kids are telling us now, they would have appreciated it, if they are bilingual or trilingual.( we also speak a little spanish at home).
Hi David B Katague – I really understand your son's experience when he came here. I think that for somebody like Omar, or your son, visiting or living here is harder than for a foreigner of another race. I believe this because for somebody like me who is obviously a foreigner, we are given a little more leeway by Filipinos. They know that we don't necessarily understand their culture, so they give us slack. For somebody like your son, he is expected to know how to act here, because he is Filipino. The truth is that he is not Filipino, culturally, and also needs to have time to learn.
Thank you for commenting, David.
Hi Bob, The term most people coined for my kids is " COCONUTS"
Why. they are brown outside but very white inside. Any bloggers heard of this term before? I do not think it is derogatory compared to other terms, for example "flips" etc… etc.. Good day to all ( it is night time here in California)
Hi Bob – No money here so no problemo! 😆
btw, while living in Hawaii, our two sons were lovingly referred to as "buk-les" (BOOK-LEES). In those islands, native Hawaiians (Kanaka Maoles) referred to the sakadas and early filipino immigrants as "buk-buks" (BOOK-BOOKS) – there's a little longer story as to why. White skinned foreigners were referred to a "haoles" (HOW-LEES). Early on, these weren't very complimentary nicknames but came to be acceptable later on. 🙄
Since da nanay was buk-buk and da tatay was haole, da boyz were buk-les! 😯 😆
Hi David B Katague – That's a good one! 😆
Hi Paul – Good one there! You and David have come up with some cute names!
I remembered being startled the first time I saw my balance in Pesos but it just took a moment to surmise that it wasn't dollars. If only!
Bob – Do you still always check your balance before withdrawing to prevent problems? I have been doing it since I have been here as you recommended in an old article just in case, but never ran into trouble the ATM's always work properly. Also did you ever find a bank that will give you more than 5k at a time still doing that at BPI, though I haven't tried more in a couple months.
John
Hi John H – Yes, I sure do follow the same procedure as I used to when using ATM machines. It is never wrong to be careful! 😆
I have found that at Union Bank, Banco de Oro and HSBC you can get P10k per transaction, and I recommend those, if they have branches in your area.
@David B Katague
COCONUT, Twinkies, FOB are the terms used to anybody who are brown, it is a "deregatory" word, coconut is infact an insult, basically, what it means is someone who's brown and trying hard to be white.
Hi dans – I agree with you. I don't care for those kind of names. However, since David is a Filipino, as are his kids, if he chooses to like the name, then it's OK with me. I wouldn't like my kids to be called by those kind of names, though.
LOL! 😀 AT least he suddenly became "rich"
And if you come to the USA and use the ATM your money will also become US$ in the machine so if you have 25,000 PHP ATM machine will show $500.
And I'm sure coz I went to ATM machine here in CA just to make sure hehehhe. I'm crazy I know, hehehe. 😉
Hi Cheryll Ann – Thanks for that first hand report! Are you in California now?
Hi Bob,
Yes, I am.
I'll be back home at end of the month 🙂
Hi Cheryll Ann – Have a good trip!