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You don’t see much change in the Philippines

Philippine Progress / by

Recently, my friend Randy visited the Philippines.  He was in Davao.  I hope he had a good time while he was here.

After returning to the States, Randy wrote an article on his site about Change in the Philippines.  Randy made a point that is very true, change is not  very common in the Philippines.

Oh, I’m not talking about change as in things changing, improving or being different,  The Philippines has changed and improved dramatically in the time I’ve lived here.  What Randy is talking about is change, like small bills and coins.

Things have improved a lot

In the years I have lived here, the need for small money and coins has improved a lot in the cities.  When I first moved here, if you wanted to pay for something with a P100 note, it could be hard to do so, even in the city.  But, it is still a problem to an extent.  For example, if you are out in the middle of the Province somewhere and you go to the Sari Sari store to buy a drink or some peanuts to snack on, and all you have is a P1,000 bill… well… frankly, you might as well forget making that purchase, because the odds that the store can make change for a P1,000 bill are virtually zero.

Now, if you are in the City and you are going to the mall, or to some decent sized store, if you have a pocket full of P1,000 bills and nothing else, you should have no problem.  But, 10 years ago, you would have been lost and basically it was like you had no money, because you could not spend a P1,000 even at the malls.  Back in those days, you better be carrying some P100’s, P50’s and P20’s, plus some loose coins too, or you may not be able to make a purchase.

Do you remember a couple weeks ago, I wrote about my attempted trip to CdO via the jeepneys?  Well, before attempting that trip, I stocked up on small money.  We were going to be spending the vast majority of the trip out in the Province, in Bukidnon.  Also, being on a jeepney, you need small money or you will be in trouble.  Want to get a coke or a bottle of water?  Out in the Province if you have nothing smaller than a P100 you might not be able to buy a bottle of water, you better buy a half dozen bottles so that the clerk will have change!

As I prepared for that trip, I collected about P1,000 worth of P20 bills, about P2,000 worth of P50 bills, and maybe P5,000 worth of P100 bills.   I was prepared for the “small money challenge” or the “no change” challenge!

But how do you get that kind of change?

One of the things that Randy wrote in his article was that he was a bit unsure of how he would build up a supply of change for his daily needs.  I have a few suggestions on that.

The most ingenious idea that I ever saw in action, in regards to having change was from a fellow expat in Iligan, about 10 years ago.  I have forgotten the fellow’s name, but he was the friend of a friend, and I met him while I was visiting Iligan.  The fellow was from the UK.  He owned a donut shop in Iligan, and he needed to have plenty of change.  Believe it or not, you cannot even get an adequate supply of coins at the bank here.  So, this enterprising expat put a plan together and it worked.  Bright and early every Monday morning, he scoured the City to get a supply of change for the week.  What was special about Monday mornings?  Well, Church is on Sunday, right?  See, a lot of people who go to Church put coins in the collection.  This huge supply of coins was a bit of a hassle for the Churches to deal with, they literally had heavy bags of coins to bring to the banks on Monday mornings!

So, before the banks opened every Monday morning, Mr. UK expat would go around to all the Churches and buy all of their change!  So, if the Church had a supply of P10,000 worth of coins, suddenly my friend would have the coins and the Church had ten nice P1,000 bills.  Much easier for them to deal with, perfect for my friend too!  What a great solution.

Another great source of change is at the gas stations.  You see, the Jeepneys and other Public Utility Vehicles go to the gas stations several times per day and buy small amounts of gasoline, paying with coins for P20 bills.  So, the gas stations have huge lots of small bills and coins.  When I was getting ready for my jeepney trip, Feyma and I went to a couple of gas stations and bought change from them.  They got rid of all of those small bills, and I had the small money that I needed out in the Province.  Perfect!

So, while it is not as important as it was a decade ago, having change here is an important part of life.  Getting stuck with a wallet full of P1,000 notes can be quite a stress, and leave you unable to buy anything!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bob,
    This reminds me of last year in Davao. I had a taxi driver and supposedly the only 2 words of english that he knew were “no” and “change”. Great article Bob.

  2. Even in big cities change can be a problem, so before going to the palengke (our open air market), the news stand and to our bakery for our morning fruit, newspaper and bread I’ll stop by 7-11 and buy a diet coke with a P1000 bill. If my asawa has lots of errands for me throughout the day, believe me i drink a lot of diet coke.

    • Hi Scott – Yes indeed, change can be a problem in the cities, but it’s at it’s worst in the province. I’m just glad that it’s not nearly as bad as it was 10 years ago. Things are getting better! 😉

  3. Hi Bob, last year I got caught with taxi drivers short-changing me with my P500 peso notes. On a fare of P150, they only gave me P200 back coz “no change”. I was hit a few times with this in Manila. I just returned from last week and this time I was wiser. I hoarded P100, P50 and P20 notes. So whenever I’d get into a taxi, he gets the correct fare. 🙂

    • Hi Khristine – If I have nothing smaller than P500, I usually ask the taxi driver when I enter the vehicle whether he can make change for that size bill. If he says no, just tell him to stop along the way and get some change! That way he knows, and will take care of it in advance. It is a racket that the taxi drivers try to pull on you, though.

    • Yeah… most of the time, they just say they dont have change… The truth is that they keep them.. And when they say they don’t have change.. you have no choice but to say ”Okay.. gimme how much u have!” Sucks! isn’t t?…

  4. Bob..this post reminds me of a very close post just like this one You all ready did, but a few years ago…is this a rerun..like in the movies? But!,it was fun to read it again.

    • No, it’s not a rerun. I wrote this a few days ago. I’ve written about change before, but based on Randy’s article about change, I just thought a new article was due. Many topics get multiple write-ups.. how many times have people written about Peso-Dollar exchange rates? 😉

  5. Oh!..After reading it again..its a partial rerun..because the 1st edition did not say any thing about a trip going by only Jeepney, Or its a oldie with some newbie added to it…

  6. Thanks for the advice on ways to get change. I had never thought of either option. I remember about 4 years ago when I was visiting my wife’s family in Samar. We had an early morning flight out of Calbayog so we hit the Jollibees before we left for the airport. The total bill was something like P520 and I gave them a P1,000 note and they could not make change. I was stunned. How could a business like Jollibees not have change? We were the first customers of the day so you would think they would have been better prepared. I had to borrow money from my mother in law to pay the bill.

    • Hi Gary B. – You got that right.. how could a big business like Jollibee not be able to make change for P1k? It’s crazy! But, it happens here every day!

    • I usually try to eat in Jollibee and other similar places right after peak times such as instead of battling the crowds from noon to about 1:30 PM, I’ll go in about 2 Pm, pay with the biggest bill I have on me like a 1000 peso, and I have not had problems with change as they still have all the smaller currency notes they took in from the noon rush hour.

      Similar at dinner time.

  7. I have been living in Angeles City for four years now and when I first arrived I experienced the same problem with big bills. My solution is a coffee can in my office full of coins. When clerks ask for coins for change I always say sorry no coins. Also I save all P20 notes. They are for short trycycle rides. You can be sure no trike driver will ever admit to having any change.

    • That’s very true, Ray, without a doubt! I wonder what a tricycle driver would do if you tried to pay with a P1k note? ha ha… Like you, I always pay with the biggest bill possible, and I never admit to having smaller bills. ha ha.. it’s the only way you can survive here! Thanks for stopping by an commenting, Ray!

  8. Great article, Bob! My wife Menchu changed my currency for me when I was in Davao and I wondered to myself the first time why she was getting small bills. It didn’t take too many taxi and tricycle rides for the light bulb to go on over my head!

    Oh and I LOVE the ingenious Iligan shop owner story! Necessity is the mother of…change!

    • Hi Jason – Yep, that fellow in Iligan really had a genius of an idea! Perfect for him and for the Churches too.

      You are right, Jason, Menchu did the right thing by getting lots of small bills. Those are very important to have here!

  9. Hola Bob! It is long time we non talk. You very right, always no change in the Philippines. Always need coins, need 20P. Never can find!

    • Good morning, Carlin! Yes, for sure, it’s a long time since I’ve heard from you, I hope you are doing well.

      Yes, you really have to stay on the ball to keep enough change here! Don’t get caught with nothing but P1k and P500 bills! 😉

  10. Thanks for the link to my site and follow up article, Bob.

    Yes, I had a great time in Davao and the region, but VERY busy. I’ll tell you about it sometime.

    Sorry we did not connect (my fault), as I knew before I went that it was likely I was not going to be able to catch up with many friends. Circumstances were a little different this time.

  11. The church collection idea was truly brilliant. I have long used and advised the gas station idea, it has saved my bacon more than once.

    In fairness to businesses, unless you spend much time at the bank watching what goes on with business people there, you don’t really understand.

    In the US you can just go to your bank, pass paper across the counter and get change, normally as much as you want.

    In the Philippines there is just not enough change. In fact, my bank, BDO, runs “Bounty promos” all the time when they pay 5% or 8% bonus to anyone who will bring in a certain amount of coins. They can’t get enough coins through normal channels, they just have to do what they can to try to have enough coins to do business.

    You can go to the bank and ask for change, but whether or not you can _get_ any change is problematical. And this is just outside the NCR, I can only imagine how much harder it is in provincial towns.

    No one knows this any better than the Philippine Central Bank, who is in charge of making the money … but requests for coinage production are routinely turned down.

    In my area now there is also a lot of problem with P1000 notes. A new version is being printed, but distribution is slow. In the meantime., the banks can’t get enough notes to keep the cash machines reloaded, so the choice is leave them empty (out of service) or give P500 notes instead …

    We keep an old orange purse on the kitchen counter. The ‘family rule” is, whenever coming home, empty all small bills and coins into that “household purse”.

    You have to guard your change diligently here in the Philippines, that’s for sure.

    • Hi Dave – Thanks for sharing your thoughts, valuable they are. Comparing your region against mine shows similarities and differences too. Coins being in short supply? For sure. The new 1,000 notes? We have plenty of those here. It’s been several months since I’ve seen one of the old design ones.

      There was a day when a lot of ATM machines would be out of service due to a lack of money, but it’s been a long time since I have seen that happen. I can remember the day when, if there was a 3 day weekend, or for example, Holy Week, you better stock up on cash, because the ATM machines were going to run out of cash quickly, and when that happened, you were SOL for the rest of the week. I’m glad that times are changing, and there is a lot of improvement.

  12. Bob,

    Good info about needing small bills. I don’t understand if there is a demand for coins, why wouldn’t they make more. Take care, be safe.

  13. Hi Bob. When getting peso for our trip last year we told them we wanted mostly small bills and 500’s. We were lucky it worked.

  14. As a visitor I usually get a certain amount of cash from the currency exchange right at the airport so at least I am certain to have ” local currency ” on me before leaving the place. I know, many times I have read that you will not get as good an exchange rate at those airport currency exchanges as you might get elsewhere. For me, it is a matter of convienience over slight additional cost.

    The currency exchange gives me big bills like 1 K notes. I push some of them back across the coounter and ask for a certain amount of 20 50 100 and 500 bills and they usually comply.

    I primarily visit Iligan City and a few days in Cagayan De Oro. In CDO I have no difficulty with most of the ATM’s there. In Iligan as of my last visit and the previous ones, my USA issued ( major name ) card does not work in the ATM’s there. I have heard the same from other USA visitors trying to use their USA issued ( major name ) credit cards too.

    Taxis in Iligan are 70 Peso ( a 50 and a 20 ) and I think that flat rate within the city proper includes a 10 peso tip. A few times I have just had to give them a 100 Peso note but as I am on vacation to enjoy myself I try to forget about it soon after getting out of the cab. LOL

    With each visit I feel I am getting better at ” Juggling The Money ” in knowing where and when to pay with the 1 K and 500 Peso notes and where and what time of day change should bee available.

    Filipino Time has been discussed so many times I think meal time there in restaurants could be something you could accurately set your watch to LOL. Even my friends will say ” we have to eat now ” and sure enough it is within + / – 5 minutes of Noon. For me, as a visitor I’d rather enjoy a lot of these places without battling the crowds at peak meal times. I’ll go in after the crowd dwindles while there should still be plenty of smaller bils in the register til. That usually works for me most of the time.

    Before I visited The Philippines for the first time, I never would have thought about something like this but with experience I am getting better at it. Visiting and vacationing is one thing, I can just imagine how it must be dealing with something like this on a day to day basis if living there and yet that is what the people do. The ” art ” of having the appropriate cash denominations ” .

    • Bob, you taught me something that I did not know…. I had no idea that taxis in Iligan were a flat rate like that! I never heard of such a taxi anywhere in the Philippines. Thanks for sharing that.

      • That is as of my last and previous visits. In fact it was that flat rate that clued me in to having a supply of 50’s and 20’s.

        To clarify, that flat rate is for within the ” City Proper “. I remember many of the taxis had a near bumper sticker sized sign on the lower passenger side of the windshield or on the dash board.

        One of my most memorable taxi rides in Iligan was when I got in the first taxi in a taxi queue. The driver turned the key as if to start the cab and then signaled drivers of some of the other cabs who had to push the cab to get it started. I could not help but to be somewhat amused and I got where I was going with no problem. I gave the driver a 100 Peso bill, told him to put the change towards a new battery or starter motor, which ever he needed first.

      • The taxis in Iligan charge a flat rate because the distances are short and there are a lot of cabs around. They can’t make any money if they used a meter. Also when they go back to the rank, they are waiting in line for a long time for the next fare. My normal metered fare when we go from the mall to back home is about 35 pesos but most times they don’t want to take you if they have to turn the meter on. Also the majority of the times they got no gasoline in the tank and go straight to the petrol station to fill up, once they know they got a fare.

  15. Bob:

    If you are in a no change situation, I’ve found that the fast food places will usually change 1,000 or so into smaller bills, especially if you buy something. Every Jollibee always has at least some change, and they have always been willing to help me, at least, in a bind.

  16. Hi Bob,
    I noticed even at the airport when you’re exchanging dollars for pisos, they’re reluctant to give you a good supply of small bills…even if you ask.

  17. Bob,

    Not sure if its still a problem, but when the new US Dollar $100 and $50s first came out, some of the money changers outside of Manila would not take them as never seen a “Big Head” note before. Also, wanted only crisp dollars, no crumpled notes.

  18. Bob;
    My friends over there always tell me theirs change for the locals and no change for the Kanos. By the way do the money exchangers round up or down?

  19. I’m back in Indianapolis after a 6-week visit in the PI, in Luzon. I had some old Philippiine coins that I brought with me, they were mostly 1 peso and smaller values. My relatives giggled and commented that they were no longer in use. In the US, I have an old coin collection that I inherited from my dad. I recently sold a collection of 120 old silver quarters for $760. Note that these were primarily priced for their silver content, not do to their condition, as these were circulated and not in pretty condition. My collection also includes some 1880’s era Morgan Silver dollars that probably will be worth over $29 each. I have never heard of coin collectors handling Philippine coins. Is there any coin collecting, buying and selling in the Philippines?

    • Hi Larry – I am sure there must be coin collecting here in the Philippines, but to be honest, I have never heard of any coin collectors. Interesting question.

      I hope you enjoyed your time in the Philippines!