BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

BPI are stopping remittances to Philippines from UK.

" Effective 23 December 2019, we will no longer be providing remittance services to the Philippines through our Earl’s Court Branch and the BPI online banking platform. Furthermore, if you wish to retain your deposit account with us, we will be imposing a minimum amount to be maintained to keep your account open."

That minimum balance required is £5,000 so I can see a flurry of accounts being closed.

Has anyone good experiences with other banks/remittance companies?

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

It's a gigantic pain in the arse when your bank changes the rules on you like this :( They always go on about how providing good service to their customers is their only reason for existing, what a load of rubbish. This bank has obviously decided that they only want to bother with people who keep a chunk of money with them, when in fact it's the huge amount of smaller accounts that provide the most revenue from the fees they charge.

After that spray about banks, the only one I have experience with is Halifax. I don't have any problem transferring funds from that account to my Aussie one, but that's because I set that up before I left the UK. I can't make any payments at all from that account now (local or international) unless it's someone I sent money to while I was living in the UK. To do that, I'd need a mobile phone with a UK number so the bank could call me and verify, I think it comes under anti money laundering regs. Hope you can find a bank or similar that can help :fingerscrossed:

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Stokkevn
"Has anyone good experiences with other banks/remittance companies?"

I remit money from my UK bank to my Philippine bank using Transferwise.com
Better rates than bank to bank transfers. Total transaction time less than 4 hours usually about 2 hours.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

As for needing a UK mobile nr, if I have to transfer/pay bill etc I ring my brother on Skype and they send a text to my PAYG UK mobile that he keeps there and he relays the code over the phone. He uses it occasionally to keep the number active. Another friend brought his UK mobile with him and tops it up online, that works as well.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Ok ths is a disaster for us

I will have to get my funds send direct from my pension providers to here anyone done this as my only UK bank account is BPI

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I agree, Tranferwise are very easy to work with and offer the best exchange rates and minimum fees.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I have asked BPI Europe to provide my IBAN as I was going to transfer some money from my Swiss investments ( that they already knew about ) to transfer here. They have refused to provide it. I have now reported BPI Europe to the FSA which by their reply wording have taken a very dim view of BPI Europe actions.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

We have been watching a company called Kabayan Remit lately, they look to have the best rates at the moment.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

If it helps.....my UK Military pension comes direct to my PH BPI account. I just filled out a form which was available on line. As far as i can see a normal pension can do the same, just go on line to the pension pages for UK gov. (i will do this when the time comes)

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I have just used Transferwire, bit long winded but seemed very efficient, good exchange rate and low fee. They emailed me a special offer for anyone who transfers using a link in the email they sent me, a £500 fee free transfer so if anyone wants it pm me with an email address I can send it to. First come first served.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I want to cut out the middleman and get rid of any and all banks etc including transferwise i the process

Has anyone arranged a monthly pension transfer from a non uk government pension fund direct to a BPI account in the Philippines, in pesos?

Worst part is my stock broker funds are now locked away!! transferwise need a UK bank account as a source of funds. My £ funds come in from new york where the broker is based!! They went via Barclays international who were the BPI UK correspondent bank.

Thank you BPI for being a huge let down

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

If your broker is in New York why can't arrange for a dollar transfer to a BPI dollar account? Or any other Philippine Bank.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

because they have a base currency requirement which in my case is £, I am not able to use $ for this reason, nor transfer direct to here. UK expats broking restrictions are very harsh i have to use Interactive brokers a US based company as no UK company will allow me to open a broking account from here


I can open barclays account int with £25,000 and send funds there, then send to here etc but that is a lot of dead funds

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I know you are trying to get away from TransferWise but they do have an international banking system where you can set it up from just about anywhere in the World and have funds deposited and then use them to transfer to where ever, seemingly no fees or minimum deposit for bank account, just usual transfer fees for sending it on. I have not used it nor know much about it but might be worth a look.

If they do it I am sure there are others doing it as well.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I think it is because I just do not understand how Transfer wise works

I see how they transfer funds to here. i just do not see how i enter funds into a transfer wise account in the UK . They need to have a sort code and account number according to my stock broker who wants their IBAN/swift details

Be nice to have something simple.........like me:))

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I have an HSBC account both in the UK and the Philippines which are globally linked. I just drag and drop sterling from the UK to the Philippines instantly and no fees. When I use my PH debit card I just get the mastercard day exchange rate, again no fee unless I draw cash then the normal 15p fee per transaction.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Looking at their web site ( see below ) they seem to offer sort code and account number, unless of course I have totally misunderstood it. Which is more than likely as I have not read everything.

https://transferwise.com/gb/borderle...xplainer-video

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I will apply myself and do some homework


cheers

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

mikemike
I have a Swiss friend who uses Transferwise from his Swiss bank to his Philippines account. I'm sure that they have US accounts.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

As an afterthought why not make a Skype call to Transferwise. It may prove very fruitful.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Once homework completed any feed back gratefully received.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Transferwise and others can either suck the money directly from your account or if you bank is a bit fussy give you a reference number with sort and account numbers for you to make the online transfer from your end.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

guys BPI WAS my UK bank now that has been taken away

MY broker account in new york is in £ not $ so currency transfer into transferwise is not an issue.

The issue is getting the funds into transferwise in the first place as there will not be a UK bank account as the source.


I have yet to apply myself

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Set up a Transferwise account a few weeks ago from where I am living at the mo (Germany) for Euros.
I did this by downloading the Transferwise app onto my iphone.
When that was up and live I then was able to - all by my(not technical)self - create an additional GBP account simply, and this then withing seconds gives you a 'bank' account number and Sort code!
I needed this so that I can transfer some money from the UK to Germany without the big fees hit!
What I have subsequently also done is create a Thai Baht, PHP, Vietnamese Dong, and Malaysian Ringgit accounts - as I will be leaving Europe just after Christmas and finally heading to S.E.A for the forseable future.
I also received a Transferwise debit (Master)card which is also contactless (= just hold it in front of the cashiers scanner, - don't need to stick it in!).

Here is a Youtube video that some random guy has created that shows you basically all you need to know:

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Very helpful I have now applied myself by watching the video. I will change my on line stock broking account to transferwise IBAN and get my other uk payments sourced this way as well.

cheers

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

I have used Transferwise several times to transfer funds to my bank here in Philippines. Both £ and $ from different countries. I find them fast, efficient and reasonable with the fees. The exchange is usually better than XE by a few points.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Thanks for the info we did open a transferwise account today and sent their sort code and bank details to those who will remit funds. The account opening process is straightforward just took some time for me to get my head around the process up to the point they provided sort code and bank account number.

Now we have to get the funds in there and then try the transfer

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Looking at alternatives to BPI here as there are two in the nearest town, one can not park near unless very lucky and the other is at the other side of town. Has anyone any experience of Robinsons Bank, any feedback would be appreciated.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Yes, my wife had a savings account with them for a while. Robinson's and SM always facing up to each other so it seems they started the bank just to answer the rampant BDO. So big advantage was very few people using most of their branches. Although some of the ATMs were a bit awkward to use.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Used Transferwise for the first time the other day. Quick and simple to use with no problems. Cheap transfer fees with good exchange rate.

Regards

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Just open an account with Transferwise. ATM card available. Add what ever currencies you wish to use. You can then decide what currency to send out to another bank. Once set up, it is very easy to use. Just watch the ATM fees in PH, they can mount up because the card will be seen as a foreign card. I transfer direct into Metrobank which is almost immediate.

People advising to set up direct payment of pensions etc. direct to PH account beware of fluctuations in exchange rates. No control over them.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

well somethings are just not straightforward

I tried to transfer my balance from BPI to Transferwise I gave the sort code and account number etc and Transferwise bounced the payment back to BPI!! as I had not ''activated' my account with them. The activation process is to place funds in from one of their listed banks which does not include BPI!! As BPI was my ONLY UK bank I appear to be stuck unless any of you here managed to get funds directly transferred from BPI into transferwise?

thanks

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

PNB have the same services that BPI have just closed and they have two offices in London.

Not sure if it is possible but open a PNB account here, get them to help opening one in London and then transfer the BPI balance when closing your account with them to the PNB account number in London and then transfer from there to here. A bit long winded, but the only way I could think of doing it. Apparently PNB have reasonably low transfer fees and are also quite good on the exchange rates, I checked the other day and Forex mid rate was 66.31 and PNB was 66.30 GBP>Ph.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Thanks i will take a look

transferwise have thrown my confidence in them when they told me the sort code and account number given are in effect dummy numbers!!!

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

mike mike Have you had any direct communication with Transferwise?

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Hi Guys, new member, im also a BPI Earls Court victim - my only UK Bank Account was BPI. My Pensions (Military and War ) are stuck there. I have no UK address ect, and my status here is as a tourist (been here 13 years +) and have been told unofficially i cannot open an account in the PI... any advice would be of great value - tried emailing Transferwise but they didn't seem to be very helpful. Needless to say everything is closed till Jan 2020 so its fish heads and rice diet at the mo :eek:...Ive emailed "Jeremy BPI Earls Court" who isnt the most helpful guy at christmas.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Yes just responded yet again. This time I sent them screen shots of each step they instructed. I get the feeling the outcome will show that the step is different to that which they have given me

As for issuing dummy sort code and account number ...there is no excuse

I will probably just instruct direct payment for now (Western union exchange rates!!)and cut transferwise out of the loop whilst starting the process with PNB

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

A friend of mine uses Torfx for his transfers, he recons better than Transferwise, I have never used it so it is only hearsay.

Re: BPI Europe Ceases Remitting to Philippines
 

Have you tried to use a bank card to transfer funds into Transferwise to activate the account. I never used bank transfer and always used a debit card to place funds.