sport350

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

tropicofcancer

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.

sport350

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.

tropicofcancer

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!

sport350

Thanks for your advice any information.
Best wishes
David

britishbull

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

Equaliser

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..

Equaliser

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?

manilaguy

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.

andrewrh

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.

sunnydays

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!

jeffbrad

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

sunnydays

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.

jeffbrad

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

sunnydays

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