Banking in the Philippines
 

Retiring from the UK to Philippines. Which is the best bank to use in Manila to get my funds transferred to from the UK, as and when I need them.
Thanks in advance

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

HSBC would appear to have the best links, with ease of fund transfer! Plenty of branches in the UK, and expanding in the Philippines.
British Banks don't want to send credit or debit cards to the Philippines. On top of which security has become tight. Using a foreign issued card, you can only get P49,900 over the counter in one transaction. Theoretically that is in one day, but the foreign issued cardholder soon stops the card if you try another transaction, before the first has cleared the banking system.
Procedures were tightened in August, further in September, and tighter still in October!
HSBC say that you can transfer the money between accounts online. No problem. The only reason I haven't changed over is that they cannot set up the UK account from here (money laundering prevention). The bad people, certainly make life difficult for the honest ones!
Deposits are guaranteed up to P250,000.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Thank you very much for the information. I am in the UK now, so I guess what I need to do is open an HSBC account in England and then when I go to Manila in March, I should open one there too. Do you know what the requirements would be to open a bank account in Manila, for example proof of ID such as passport etc. But would I need an address in Manila. Thanks for your help.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

They have become a lot stricter these days, because of money laundering regulations. Your passport would be the prime ID, with a secondary one needed. Like a drivers licence, picture, and foreign address.
On the form, you will need to put your thumb prints! A standard procedure here!
Start the ball rolling in UK, to set up the Philippines side of things!

As I say security has become tighter here, and the once P200,000 limit over the counter, against a foreign card, has been whitled down in less than three months to under P50,000.
The ATM's dispense a maximum of P10,000 in one transaction, and although theoretically, you can make two transactions for that amount, in practice you can't! Many of the ATM's send out strange messages at the moment, as they will not accept certain foreign issued cards!
That is not a valid amount. Enter an amount between P200 - P10,000, but whatever you put, it will not accept!
HSBC state that if you use a foreign HSBC card in their ATM, there will be no charge. I have spoken with them, but as I say, they cannot arrange the UK side of things from here!
HSBC has branches all over Asia, so rendering all things easier!

A friend from England has a HSBC account in UK, and is now retired in Manila. They have no problems at all with fund transfers! Or ATM transactions!

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Thanks for your advice any information.
Best wishes
David

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

amazingly, given their past, they are rated as one of the strongest banks in the world (before dubai anyway).

not sure where they are located offshore, but that might be another option if you want to get interest tax free if you leave the uk

i would not transfer serious money to the PI, too dangerous

and mail is unreliable so you will need a correspondent address in the Uk for your offshore acc if you go for one

you don't mention currency but a multi-currency account would be useful as currency is going to be very volatile and unpredictable over the next year or two

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi, I'm a bit late on this, it seems that most of your queries have been answered,,When I lived in Manila, HSBC wanted £1000.00 just to open an account, I had an HSBC account in Hong Kong which was any amount to open but banks irrespective of having the same name operate under the law of the country they are in and it didn't seem to carry any weight when I waved my Hong Kong account details to them in PI..I enquired recently in the UK about moving funds from UK to same abroad and rcvd some vague answers..Barclays International in Channel Islands seems online user friendly with Sterling and U.S. give them a call..
I ended up going to "Allied" in Manila to set up a Peso debit card account and Dollar account; Ramon Yabut at the Adriatico is the GM there and super helpful. If you PM me I can send you his bank e.address. They also have a branch in London and can answer some of your questions. There are a lot of Filipino's in the UK, my wife of 17 yrs is originally from PI. Just IMHO, as a kick start I would buy Dollars here if the rate is favourable, make sure notes are in good condition, no tears or nicks or you can't exchange or bank them; when you get to Manila? convert some to Pesos at a reputable money changer (much better rate) for a peso account, good one on Mabini and whack the rest into a Dollar account. There are a lot of Filipinos here in the UK, my wife of 17 yrs is originally from there..PM me if you want some more info or just want to yarn..

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi Sport 350, have you decided in which part of the PI you are going to live?
This may influence your bank choice decision, ie, is there an HSBC or whatever handy for your locale?

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Equaliser makes a very good point, you will only find HSBC branches in the major cities in the Philippines as they are a foreign bank they are limited to the number of branches they can have. They have taken over a smaller local bank and rebranded HSBC savings bank which gives it more presence but still only in major cities.

This may not be any issues as you can access money via several of the major atm networks and HSBC have an excellent online banking facility.

Depending how much you are transfering I would suggest at maybe looking at setting up an HSBC account here and also in somewhere like Singapore and keeping the bulk of your assets there, and transfering what you need to the Philippines. Again the online banking system is great with near instantaneous transfers between accounts.

Any questions PM me.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

I understand the difficulties of opening a UK bank account while living in another country, so can you not open an 'international' account with your current bank ? You also get better interest rates.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

My bit ... HSBC are great for starters, we walked in with Barclays cheque book and few thoussand $ cash. Accepted a UK cheque for 40,000 that took about a month to come through and we opened a dollar account on the day with my UK driving licence and passport. Telephone banking and internet banking was arranged at once, returned the next day for passwords etc. the little security dongle is a wonderful thing for accessing your account from any internet cafe, its a "one time" password issue that makes your account inaccessable even if someone stands over you! You need a resident visa to open a peso account or use your wife and make it a joint account.
The branches are few and this makes thing awquard, we moved to BPI after the first year and they are fine. First names with the BPI bank in the UK and good rate exchanges because they have their own forex. BPI also have on-line access to sterling accounts in the Philippines and the UK plus a separate Teller for the wealthier clients, (over a certain amount, not enormous)

In Manila the HSBC and BPI are on opposite sides of the road...you can compare rates even!

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi. I am possibly going to settle in the PI with my Philippines wife and I set up a HSBC account in both the UK and PI. The problem i then have is that they would only open me a Premier account to allow for easy transfers between accounts. The main problem was that it has to be maintained above 50k or account charges apply, or they will close it, and then lose the main feature of being able to do the international transfers for free.


Jeff

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi Jeff,
A premier account in the Philippines or UK ? Can't see the reason for opening an HSBC account in the Philippines if you are not here. It is easy enough to do when you need it. HSBC seems more for business type users than personal use. I recommend it for interim use and security with the security"Dongle" that provides secure access even from internet cafes. There is only one branch in Manila and Cebu I think which means access is not easy. At least when you arrive (if u do) you can deposit a lump sum for house building (if u do).
We closed ours after using it for a couple of years and went for BPI. Internet banking for third parties is also very easy with HSBC using the dongle and you can pay people through local bank accounts on-line without a visit to the bank.
BPI Europe in London I'd recommend for a "Star" account and for transferring money, approx 6 pounds a transfer and they do have there own Exchange company making them very competitive.
We opened a Sterling account with BPI in Manila with passbook, it is a means of dropping a UK cheque into for use when needed. After two years of none use we get a notice to use or they will charge. Whoops, another cheque goes in.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

I am in Tagaytay at the moment and visited both Citibank and HSBC in Alabang yesterday. Keeping it simple seemed the way to go. I had a Premier account in the UK which needed 50k as a minimum to avoid any account charges. Downgrading that one to a simple current account is easy and costs nothing. Just the re-issue of a new debit card, but the account details stay the same. Here in the Philippines a simple option is either the Current/Time deposit account or the Advance account. The latter has some conditions attached, but both allow free transfer of money between UK and Philippines accounts on-line, plus ATM card with no charges for use at any Philippine ATMs with any bank (charges apply if used overseas of course other than at HSBC ATMs), plus a cheque book. It seemed pretty easy to me and only needs a Driver's licence and passport to open the account (No ACRi required) here, plus an opening balance of 2,500php for the simple account or 1,500php for the Advance although you have 1 month to put that into your account after you open it.

Anyway, will go through the actual opening process over the next day or so. So will find out if it as easy as the Account manager says it is.

Jeff

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Good luck Jeff,

Sometimes easy solutions at the time seem the way to go, choose a large bank and remember the bank guarantees on your money is much less than the UK.

Also you are returning to the UK and you may need access to the account here and that also needs some thought.

I thought of citibank because it has a branch in London and some nice banking thinghis but the one here is in the business area of Manila and not easy to access.

Peter

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi Peter.

I am off to Alabang in a short while to open a HSBC 'Advance' account, which needs to have 1.500GBP deposited into it within 1 month of opening. I have a HSBC account already set up in the UK and can transfer electronically between them. They are a major international bank so that gives comfort and they have plenty of branches. As mentioned previously, they only need a Passport and Driver's licence to open it and no ACRi, which saves me time as I do not have an ACRi yet.

Citibank have two in Alabang also, and the rest are in and around Manila.

Regards

Jeff

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi Jeff,
When we opened our power vantage with HSBC I gave them a cheque for 40k pounds sterling. It arrived in the account a months later as expected but I had to justify the origins of the cheque before they would credit my account.
I asked for an internet terminal in the bank (empty office) and the girl allowed me to log on to my Barclays UK account where my cheque could be seen as being withdrawn. They were happy with this (told them it was from a house sale). After logging off the account I deleted the "history" of my Barclays account just for safety. Don;t think you can beat HSBC as a starter and there rate of exchange is not bad.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

It was a little frustrating today, as we got delayed in getting to the bank and they had closed 10 minutes before we arrived. Anyway, I managed to get a pack of application forms from one of the girls who was packing up, but she couldn't actually do anything further because their terminals had been locked down. Anyway, She took photocopies of my documents and I have to go back on Monday to finalise the account. They will give me an ATM card and cheque book on Monday too. I can electronically transfer from one account in the UK to the new account in the Philippines for 17GBP and it will be almost instant, no clearing necessary. What I have to decide before Monday is whether I want to open it as a Peso or a dollar account. If I choose dollar then surely my UK pounds will be converted to dollars during the electronic transfer, and then again from dollars to pesos every time i withdraw cash from an ATM. That seems messy to me and fraught with losses due to currency fluctuations. If I just have the peso account then I can choose when the transfer is done to hopefully pick up when the rate is good and from that point onwards it is straight peso transactions.

Any thoughts on this?

Jeff

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi Jeff,

We cannot open a peso account unless our Filipino wives have it in their name. ........be careful on this one!

Suggest a sterling account, when you draw pesos from it the teller will tell you the rate on the transaction, ...rest up to you but we don't have a better option than this 'cos we need the local money :D.

If or when you live in the Philippines and obtain one of the visa choices then the bank will open a peso account in your name.

When you go back to HSBC you will be offered telephone banking services and most certainly an online account so have a user name and password for that, one that you can remember !!!! (aunt Mauds birthday or something?) Think that you can share the password with your wife if you go down that road.

when Mila and I did this we got 2 sets of everything, lots of paperwork etc and of course 2 dongles. We stored one set in a safety box in a BPI Bank.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi.

It all went smoothly enough today. I opened he Advance account and they automatically gave me a peso and a US Dollar account. The USD account will close automatically if I do not use it within 1 month. I have to credit it with 100,000 pesos within a month, which can only be done from foreign cuyrrency. i.e. I couldn't walk in to the branch and pay in over the counter in pesos, even if I wanted to. They gave me the Debit/ATM card and a cheque book at the branch and I was able to set up the on-line banking at the branch and change my password on the ATM card at the branch. They will supply me with a personalised ATM/Debit card in 4 days time. I have only opened it in my name at present. All very easy so far.

I only ever do on-line banking from my own laptop so don't use a dongle. They didn't even offer it to me, so not sure how important that is.

The next fun bit is to transfer some cash from the UK into the new Philippines account. Fingers crossed!



Jeff

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi Jeff,
You sound happy with what you have and a peso account as well in your own name, wow. When we were going through the SRRV system we had to transfer dollars into a Philippine bank for the "time deposit bond" that was a requirement. We had to arrange the transfer of money to come direct into the branch from abroad. It could not be paid over the counter. Took some phone calls but managed it in the end.
Shame about not getting a dongle, it gives you lots of peace if mind. Without that input to your on-line account no one can get access, ....even with giving your user-name and password.
A UK neighbor of ours used an internet cafe to transfer money from his Isle of Man bank. One day they rang him to confirm large transaction and it turned our to be from an attacker who'd got his details off the computer. There are programmes available to copy website pages and also "Keystrokes". You must delete "History" when logging off to avoid simple attacks, but the special software will store the details never the less. A "one time" security code machine input to your account will be very secure and the bank allow more actions for the account owner to do on-line. Ie Barclays offer Pin security using a small electronic device that you use with your connect card to log on to their accounts. More transactions on line can be done using this system. For you and you laptop, keep your firewall and virus protection up to date. You might consider a Bios password to protect you if the PC gets stolen.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi. You are totally right about the security issues. I have just come back from 7 months travelling around Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India. Without my laptop I would have been stuck with Internet banking as there is no way I would trust a majority of net cafes. As I am new to HSBC and their options I will contact them about getting a dongle. I have to go back within the next week or so to collect my personalised card anyway, so should be able to collect the dingle at the same time.

I have one little niggle to resolve right now, but hopefully that will be fixed later today. I have no 'Global View' when I log on. I get the message that I have to log in and probably contact them during office hours in the UK to set it up.

Off to attack more things on my 'To-Do' list now....

Bye for now
Jeff

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi all,

just joined this forum and would like to give out a tip for keeping your banking or other financial details secure.

If you are using your laptop/cellphone/iphone at a paid or free public wi-fi, please try to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network)

They can be had for free but be careful of the Malware and loads of annoying ads that come with the free ones. The best I have found is from witopia.net and costs from US$40 to $70 a Year. No ads, no hassle and great security, I do banking and share dealing almost daily and although installing a VPN is a minor headache, the company help a user to install and get it set up to work well.

On to banking and transfers from the UK to Philippines, I tend to transfer money from Citibank UK to Citibank Philippines every 3 to 6 months using a FREE Global Transfer facility but using US Dollars as the currency.

I have both Sterling and US Dollar accounts in London and then have Peso and US Dollar accounts in Cebu. To get the best rate I use major currency exchange firms like Hargreaves Lansdown (FTSE350 Comapany) or Excel Currencies who also transfer from Sterling to Pesos if you want it easy with a decent rate. Most currency brokers will improve on the exchange rates they offer if you push them. Mostly I transfer Sterling to US Dollars with HL and then send the US Dollars to Cebu with Citibank (instant transfer). I leave the US Dollars in the Citibank account in Cebu until the rate for transferring into Pesos is looking good. Just don't leave it till last minute to arrange large transfers and then you can improve on the exchange rates.:thumbsup:

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

I posted this on another thread.

It's very simple to set up.I would advise you to open an account with H.S.B.C. Jersey UK.(where your pension can be sent)Then open a sterling a/c with H.S.B.C here in the Philippines..You can transfer funds on-line from UK to the Philippines with no charge.. in seconds.

You then can get a A.T.M. card (P.I. one) and withdraw funds any where in the P.I.through 'Banknet'.(exchange rate very good and no charge)

Remember... International bank card withdrawals are subject to a charge of up to 250p in the P.I...and as you know max withdrawals at a.t.m's are 10.000P per withdrawal.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

I opened a Peso bank account at BDO in Angeles about six months ago without any problems. I'm just on a tourist visa as I come and go so often.

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Surprise Surprise, ...and the peso account is in your own name or a Filipinos?

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

I did the same with BDO in Mega Mall Manila. All I needed was the ACR, and PHP 5,000! Peso Savings Account in my own name, with Internet Banking, and it pays a nominal rate of interest. I just used the address of a Philippino friend who I was staying with. The account comes with an Visa ATM Card which can be used Internationally. It's 'Basic' but it works! - Try doing that in the UK in less than an hour!

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

The ACR is connected to a visa of sorts though isn't it, we had no probs after obtaining our SRRV.
I'm surprised that just a tourist visa worked with BDO.
You have to a bit wary of opening a bank account with false information (address) because at some point you may need to prove the address to gain access.
Could be :o

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Very sound advice sunnydays i.e. wearing my legal hat !

Claudia

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

Hi
I know I have only just joined, I have an account with BDO which I opened last year I use orbit remit to transfer funds from NZ. To Ph They may be worth checking out as they also I believe have 2 offices in London.
Hope it helps

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

I know I have only just joined, I have an account with BDO which I opened last year I use orbit remit to transfer funds from NZ. To Ph They may be worth checking out as they also I believe have 2 offices in London.

I queued for ages in BDO Lemery to pay about 900 pesos into an advertising company account and was charged 50 pesos for the privelidge:ohmy:
BPI don't charge.:D

Re: Banking in the Philippines
 

It is in my name. That's what I mean when I say I opened an account. . :confused: