Stokkevn

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?

spouse of scouse

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

Bealinehx

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.

Stokkevn

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.

mikek1

mikemike

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

David Mashael

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

Stokkevn

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.

Gazza-d

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

ChrisKVie

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)

Stokkevn

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.

mikemike

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

Bealinehx

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.

mikemike

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

Stokkevn

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.