Sending Money to the Philippines

Before sending money to the Philippines you need to do your homework to make sure that you don’t end up paying to much in fees. Not all transfers are created equal and you can lose a lot of money in transfer rates.

sending money to the philippines

There are certain things you need to do before you send money to the Philippines that will help to make sure you don’t pay too many fees. The first and most important tip is to make sure you specify what currency you want the receiver to get when they pick up the money after you send money Philippines.

It will be much cheaper for the recipient to receive dollars when you transfer money to the Philippines, and then they can take it to a money changer and get a good rate. If you have the company that does the transfer change it to Pesos themself they’ll include hidden fees in the exchange rate.

If you are sending it to a big city then there will be money changers around and using dollar when you send money Philippines is a viable option. However if you are sending it to a smaller city or province they may only be able to receive dollar.

Best Option for Sending Money to the Philippines

I was pretty shocked to find out that the cheapest way for me to transfer money to the Philippines was actually Western Union. That kind of shows you how scummy banks are when they charge more to do a transfer than Western Union does. It cost me about 1% to do my transfer with WU and the more you send the smaller the percent will be.

There are Western Unions all over the place in the major cities and you won’t have any trouble finding them. They will do dollar payout so that you don’t get screwed over on the conversion rate.

Moneygram was the second cheapest option and you can pick up moneygram pay outs at any BDO bank or many other locations. It was a little more expensive than Western Union but still cheaper then a bank transfer.

Other Options

I have recently changed banks and now the fees are only a bit more for an international transfer then what Western Union charges. Since the fee is nominal I just use it instead of going through the small risk and hassle of a Western Union pick up.

Check with your bank and find out what they offer and then compare it with the Western Union or Moneygram Fees. There are many other options, but they are all kind of a rip off and don’t want to promote them.

Side note on sending money to the Philippines, this blog post ‘should I send money to my Filipina girlfriend‘ is a funny read.

If it’s a transfer for a chick you just met on AsianDating maybe give that a read.

Bitcoin

You can also use a Philippines based Bitcoin wallet, Coins.ph.

5 Responses

  1. jspill says:

    what bank did you change to for cheaper PI money transfers?

  2. kick2dante says:

    I like BDO the best because there is one in every sm so you know where to find them

  3. Noah says:

    What is in your opinion the best city to live in the Philippines for a expat? I enjoy your blog keep up the good work!

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