chmaiden

hey team!

what is the best value way to send USD back to a GBP account in the UK from RCBC bank in Manila on a regular basis?

I used to use Ozforex when I lived down under and it was basically putting money into their local account, but dont think that they have that here

cheers

Chris

Gazza-d

Having a USD account in the UK may smooth the way. I don't know if there is a branch of RCBC in the UK but again it may make it easier (less fees) if you used the same bank in both countries, there are a couple of Philippine banks in the UK, then transferring between UK banks would be painless.

quiltman

RCBC only have a remittance centre in UK, called Peso Remittance, in London.
BPI Europe only have a fixed term $ account ( min 90 days) - Star Savings Plus. Their regular account is only £ sterling.
However, as with most banks, RCBC will have a correspondent bank in UK. you'd have to ask them about it. It's not easy to get a US$ account in UK, especially from here! The only other alternative may be to send via Western Union if you have someone you trust to collect the money and pay it into your UK bank.
The long term alternative may be to open a $ account here with BPI, get them to open you a £ account with BPI Europe, then you can transfer online in seconds and move it from your BPI Europe account to your UK bank. Their exchange rates are generally very good and transfer costs are quite low. I'm not aware of forex transfer companies here that remit back to UK, but then I've not googled yet!

chmaiden

BPI sounds the way forward then...or HSBC I am assuming?

mikemike

standard chartered as well

Gazza-d

Although HSBC shares the same name as the UK bank their a lot of the simularities stop. Unless you have one of their premium accounts it is no different to using two seperate banks.

Stokkevn

I see a lot about $ and £ account transfers but has anyone tried to transfer Peso to £. I have the SRRV visa with a Peso equivalent of $20,000 deposit. If I decide to leave I hear it could be difficult to change Peso to £ even through BPI.

Gazza-d

By the sounds of it you may have to take it in $

mikemike

You can open a dollar and sterling account with either hsbc or standard chartered. receive funds in $ and convert to pounds and then transfer back