EnglishRed

Nationwide Building Society going down the same route. Been with them over twenty years, checked I could keep my accounts before leaving UK and was told no problem.

Rang them, staff very unhelpful and lied to me.

Complained to CEOs office about staff and had bog standard reply that calls were 'handled appropriately'. No explanation as to why staff lied.

I have requested them to send me a copy of the recordings of the calls and now waiting for a reply.

Bealinehx

About 18 months ago I had exchanges with Santander during which they asked what was the sources of my income. I thought that request rather strange as they would have that information.
Then they asked why I transfer money on a monthly basis, I told them it was none of their business. Suspecting that this was the beginning of an action to close my account, I preempted them arranged for all my pensions to be remitted to my BDO account. I have no intention of residing in Blighty, so all is good.

freebie

Back to pensions, I arranged for an extra 2 years of contribution through my sis. Cheque posted Dec 31st an cheque en-cashed on Jan 20th. contacted National Insurance department yesterday, and yes they noted cheque had been paid in, and which years did I wish for the additional payments to be made to .
Said my file would be passed to case worker and I should expect the increased pension within 4 weeks? 4 weeks ???????
Will be most happy if that happens but given that last year it took 20 weeks plus I wont be holding my breath.
But you never know.. life in hope not in despair !

Sansome

Hi, Just been looking at the responses here as I am planning to move to the Philippines in a couple of years and cannot seem to find an ideal way to get my pension paid. I rent here in the UK so may not have a UK address so using Wise might not be possible and the newly developed Philippines Wise is not as affordable to use at all as there is a 12% VAT applied to every step, adding to your wise account, changing currency then withdrawing from the Philippines bank. It sounds horrendous so not sure what alternative there might be. I will be using a tourist visa for a while also, so not sure if I can begin a Philippines bank account. My current UK bank will accept me without a UK address but the transfer costs for any amount bank to bank is 4% then currency exchange fees. It's getting complicated.

Philosophical 11

I have been using Wise now for a number of years with little or no problem. Transactions are quick.... normally within 15 minutes and exchange rates are excellent.

The VAT of 12% has little impact on the minimal fees charged. I normally transfer in tranches of 10k PHP. As an example my last transaction cost £1.97 which includes vat. I withdraw from an ATM which costs 15php or if I withdraw from my BPI bank ATM.... nothing.

Your biggest issue, will be trying to open a local bank account on a Tourist Visa. But it's not impossible and may require a bit of legwork.

You could consider opening a Wise account and withdraw from there using the Wise Debit card. This should be applied for in the UK as the card is not yet available in the Philippines.

Certainly using a UK debit card to withdraw from your bank can be expensive...I believe 250 PHP at the ATM, then you get further hammered by the exchange rates and bank charges. I don't know how that compares with withdrawing from a Wise account.

Welcome to the Philippines!

EnglishRed

You can open an account with Wise to have Sterling paid in to. It has a UK sort code and account number, and also the facility for direct payments.

No charge for receiving Sterling BUT maximum deposit per month is PhP 400,000. It does not have to be one transaction.

I currently have my private UK pension paid in monthly and also use it to pay voluntary NI contributions. Set up the DD over the phone with HMRC, took about five days to be effective.

Pension payments take four to five days to arrive using the BACS system, almost instant if using faster payment from UK bank account.

Cheaper rates sending to a Philippines bank account from Wise Sterling account and again almost instant transfer.

Raffin

What P11 has said about Wise is all true.You can't fault them.

I send monthly what is now close to PhP 100k, given the recent yearly increases.
The last fee was only about PhP 580. Takes a couple of days, being a low cost transfer.
Last year Wise sent an email about changes in tax and different arrangements for sending over PhP100k a month. But heard nothing about that lately and have not reached that monthly figure myself yet.

I think it is likely to depend on the bank re opening an account here. A few years ago the PNB were interested in my visa when I opened an account. My guess is that the BDO might be the same as I know they can be demanding on requirements generally.

Then more recently I opened an account with a bank well down the assets table and they weren't interested in my visa.
Whether my address being a well known high class subdivision at the time was a factor I don't know? Or that it was only for a simple savings account and debit/ATM card?.

Deposit insurance from the Bangko Sentral for member banks here is the same for all banks. Max PhP500k.

Since then they have announced a take over from a much larger bank so maybe their requirements will change.

Anyway, if you're interested PM me.

Good if others here who've recently opened an account can reply on this.

Bealinehx

The Philippine Financial sector is working hard on improving its reputation. Their Standard Operating Procedures have now been tightened as they are working towards effectively identifying rogue transactions. As a consequence their requirements for potential new customers are being diligently adhered to.

Sansome

Hi, may I ask if there is much loss of revenue in the international transfer and currency change when UK pensions are paid directly into Philippines banks ?

Bealinehx

Sansome,
I have four different pensions including the DWP pension. All bar one seem to use the published exchange rate so of course month to month the peso income varies. In all cases my Philippine bank receives all remittances within 48 hours of the U*K due date. This of course can be affected by pension days being during a weekend and public holidays.

EnglishRed

Email about tax was probably the addition of 12% VAT to the service fee but Wise still a lot cheaper than sending direct from a UK bank account (See my post above).

Banks generally want to see passport, proof of address, income and ACR card.

I was fortunate that my wife and I opened a joint account with BPI in Philippines about 10 years before we moved here then another joint account with BPI London a couple of years later. Can't really use BPI London now as they are only interested in corporate accounts. When I moved her it was easy to open an account with BPI who I can't really fault. Only problem is that everything takes so long but if you build up a working relationship with one of the non-counter staff then that helps.