rhliki

Hello everybody.

In the process of trying to send money back to the UK.

Have set up BPI account here in the Philippines, and when I return to the UK I will be looking to set up a BPI Europe account.

Does anyone here have experience doing this route for sending money back to the UK? Ive tried searching online, asked at local BPI branch, but can't seem to find a definitive answer if its even possible to send to the UK.

If this route is not possible, what other way have you expats used to send money back to the UK?

mikemike

I made this enquiry as well through BPI quite a while back. I was left with the conclusion hat I could easily transfer us dollars from a dollar account here to a dollar account at the UK BPI branch . On receipt they would then convert to sterling and place in the Uk sterling account. Not straightforward then

I also seem to remember that they have some BPI branches here that you can have a sterling account and transfer direct, you may wish to try that approach

Gazza-d

Opening a Sterling account sounds like a good plan, the problem with the peso is that it's not a portable currency. If you dumped a load of pesos into a UK account you will get a terrible rate because they can't sell it on through the high street. You will suffer the bank getting a cut and what it costs the bank to send the pesos onward.

David Mashael

Whichever way you do it its gonna be bad news on the exchange rate. Peso to steering is probably the worst its been for more than at least 10yr, which is as far back as XE goes. Can I ask how much money approx. you are talking about, perhaps you might find somebody on here looking to transfer money to Fils and maybe sort out a deal with them.

mikemike

He is transferring from Phils to UK . So if he has pesos and wants to go to sterling he is getting a good deal on the exchange rate,

mikek1

I was lucky, needed PHP 3.75M for house purchase.A friend of ours just sold his Philippine property and wanted to repatriate the PHP back to the U.K.Used the then current XE website rate, transferred Pounds from our U.K. Acccount to his U.K. Account, and he transferred the Pesos to our BDO account.

In total we saved PHP 102k.Our friend probably saved more!

David Mashael

Oops of course you're right Mike, sorry for my dumb comment, I should make sure I have the conversion going the right way...!

rhliki

Thanks for the info lads.

In the end I exchanged my pesos to dollars on the black market. Got an exchange of 49.95PHP per dollar, which is fantastic. On monday I will wire this to an online brokerage then on to my UK account. The brokerage also have fantastic conversion of USD > GBP as well.

All in all the loss from the transfer fees and exchange rates is minimal, compared with a bank to bank wire or through WesternUnion, absolutely daylight robbery those mobs!

When I get back to the UK I will still set up a BPI Europe account and try to see how transferring that way compares with using a broker.

Stokkevn

I have never sent Peso to the UK but I have converted it into GBP to take with me, at the time the GBP>Ph was 77 to 78. With the same exchange places as well as HSBC the best Ph>GBP I got was 102. Best suggestion is keep your ears open for anyone arriving in the Philippines with GBP and wanting Peso

David Mashael

Not just anyone arriving with £, but anyone with a UK bank account that could do with some Pesos paid into a Philipinnes account.

Stokkevn

Call me old fashioned, but I like to see the colour of their money before I hand over mine. I have lived here too long, a promise of "I will transfer tomorrow" does not cut it, as I am sure that "I will transfer today and you pay me tomorrow" works round the other way.

JohnSurrey

I use BPI Express Online to transfer from UK (BPI Europe) to Phils and then I regularly top up the BPI Europe account from my BPI Filipino account - all online - so don't see any problems for you.

Having said that - I don't know how you can transfer the money from BPI Europe to a high street bank - you may have to enrol your account with BPI Express Online ... or use the Phone App... which strangely is a bit more accommodating than the web app!

Gazza-d

I Suspect the exchange rate is going to be atrocious. You my need to do the transfer in US dollars.

JohnSurrey

I don't transfer much from php to gbp (or PHP to USD to GBP is what they give you I think as they don't quote a PHP to GBP) - I'm basically gbp to php and I get good rates compared to the rate quoted by google...

BPI Europe rate today is 63.1 compared to 62.75 on google

JohnSurrey

Another thought - if you've got quite a bit it's probably worth you hunting around the forums for other expats that would buy it off you; that way you can split the rate between you and there are no winners or losers.