Trying to Send Money

[cutiepie28 4]

When I was still in the Philippines(way back 2005-2006) my husband ( fiancé then) used Western Union to send money, fees really expensive. Then his bank suggested to open another account and send the card to me. He just deposit the money and I can withdraw it from any bank in the Philippines with just $2.00/transaction. But there is a limit on how much I can withdraw per day, depending on the bank. BPI 30,000pesos/day, Metrobank 25,000pesos/day.

Now, I used Xoom to send money to my daughter, so far I am satisfied with their service. My daughter can get the money in minutes from many locations/banks.

Edited December 19, 2015 by cutiepie28

[Hank_ 9,174]

The only problem with Western Union is that they are the most expensive in the country. If money is no object then by all means continue using Western Union.

[toddriegel 2]

i used western union 3 times to send money to the philippines with no problems. it takes about 5 minutes total and the money is there almost instantly.

[Thozelle 16]

Used WU exclusively until they took my money for a transaction but wouldnt complete the transaction due to reasons they said they couldnt tell me because of proprietary information. Then used XOOM with no issues. Once she got her debit card after we added her to my bank account made things better since card had no additional transaction fees (foreign). Now she is here in states and she is using XOOM to send money home.

[bowens44 214]

The only problem with Western Union is that they are the most expensive in the country. If money is no object then by all means continue using Western Union.

Expensive? How expensive? It doesn't seem expensive to me Costs be about 7 or 8 dollars to send 500.00 and then a small charge when it's picked up

[Hank_ 9,174]

Expensive? How expensive? It doesn't seem expensive to me Costs be about 7 or 8 dollars to send 500.00 and then a small charge when it's picked up

Remitly $0 Economy $399 Express

Western Union $2.99 $7.00

Xoom $4.99 $5.99

No pickup fee with Xoom or REMITLY.

Exchange rates:

Remitly 46.04

Winning exchange rates

Compare against Xoom: 45.94

and Western Union: 45.49

Edited December 26, 2015 by Hank_

[tyler007 26]

Remitly $0 Economy $399 Express

Western Union $2.99 $7.00

Xoom $4.99 $5.99

No pickup fee with Xoom or REMITLY.

Exchange rates:

Remitly 46.04

Winning exchange rates

Compare against Xoom: 45.94

and Western Union: 45.49

Excellent breakdown and Bowens44 it may not seem like much difference now but keep in mind you will likely be sending money long after your special someone is here in the USA. This will probably occur until you are 6 feet under.

It will add up easily over the years.

[Heimef 3]

Remitly through BPI account. Free and high exchange rate. Receiver just insert the ATM, anytime at any ATM machines.

[jg121783 3,909]

I have mostly been using Moneygram. One time they refused to send money and told me I can only send money once a week. After that I sent money multiple times a week with no problems I had a horrible experience with xoom. I was in the Philippines visiting my fiance and sent money to her through xoom so I had a few hundred extra dollars for my trip home.They put a hold on my money and I had to call them. The person on the phone was asking all sorts of personal questions they had no business asking. He then told me to fax him a copy of my dirvers license I had no way of doing so so I demanded to talk to his supervisor and after going back and forth with him got him to release my money. I will never deal with them again.

I was wondering what the best way would be to just transfer money directly from my bank account to my fiance's account. I wonder if there are any banks in the US that have branches in the Philippines and if a joint bank account after we get married would be possible. I saw sopmeone mentioned Wells Fargo to send money to Philippines bank accounts. I will have to look into that.

[Brassballs 47]

Here's a link to the Wells Fargo service:

Transfer fee

$5.00

You may need a WF checking account or cc to take advantage of these rates. Not sure.

Interesting to note all the discussion about poor service, money holds, security questions, etc. in this thread. What most people are losing sight of is that the problems VJr's have experienced are there to protect the sender from fraud. My wife just experienced this with WF because she used our landline house phone # when setting up her account. WF detected that the # was already being used by another customer, me. Took about an hour to sort things out and it helped that their call center was in the Philippines.

[Hank_ 9,174]

I have mostly been using Moneygram. One time they refused to send money and told me I can only send money once a week. After that I sent money multiple times a week with no problems I had a horrible experience with xoom. I was in the Philippines visiting my fiance and sent money to her through xoom so I had a few hundred extra dollars for my trip home.They put a hold on my money and I had to call them. The person on the phone was asking all sorts of personal questions they had no business asking. He then told me to fax him a copy of my dirvers license I had no way of doing so so I demanded to talk to his supervisor and after going back and forth with him got him to release my money. I will never deal with them again.

I was wondering what the best way would be to just transfer money directly from my bank account to my fiance's account. I wonder if there are any banks in the US that have branches in the Philippines and if a joint bank account after we get married would be possible. I saw sopmeone mentioned Wells Fargo to send money to Philippines bank accounts. I will have to look into that.

All the money transfer companies are beginning to gather additional information, the additional requirements are directed by the state you live in (I looked it up and the states are requiring this) most of the time, some is federal. I had XOOM do the same thing to me as you described, then later when I started using REMITLY they asked for the same information. For a big part these companies are watching out for you, protecting you from fraudulent activities.

[Greenbaum 12,259]

Brassballs, on 27 Dec 2015 - 07:17 AM, said:

Here's a link to the Wells Fargo service:

Transfer fee

$5.00

You may need a WF checking account or cc to take advantage of these rates. Not sure.

Interesting to note all the discussion about poor service, money holds, security questions, etc. in this thread. What most people are losing sight of is that the problems VJr's have experienced are there to protect the sender from fraud. My wife just experienced this with WF because she used our landline house phone # when setting up her account. WF detected that the # was already being used by another customer, me. Took about an hour to sort things out and it helped that their call center was in the Philippines.

We use WF. It's so easy. Money is in the BDO account in no time. Her mother has an ATM card and withdraws what she needs. No need to carry or hide under the mattress what is not being used. WF offers some of the highest return rates for the exchange. I like that.

[Heimef 3]

I have mostly been using Moneygram. One time they refused to send money and told me I can only send money once a week. After that I sent money multiple times a week with no problems I had a horrible experience with xoom. I was in the Philippines visiting my fiance and sent money to her through xoom so I had a few hundred extra dollars for my trip home.They put a hold on my money and I had to call them. The person on the phone was asking all sorts of personal questions they had no business asking. He then told me to fax him a copy of my dirvers license I had no way of doing so so I demanded to talk to his supervisor and after going back and forth with him got him to release my money. I will never deal with them again.

I was wondering what the best way would be to just transfer money directly from my bank account to my fiance's account. I wonder if there are any banks in the US that have branches in the Philippines and if a joint bank account after we get married would be possible. I saw sopmeone mentioned Wells Fargo to send money to Philippines bank accounts. I will have to look into that.

I have mostly been using Moneygram. One time they refused to send money and told me I can only send money once a week. After that I sent money multiple times a week with no problems I had a horrible experience with xoom. I was in the Philippines visiting my fiance and sent money to her through xoom so I had a few hundred extra dollars for my trip home.They put a hold on my money and I had to call them. The person on the phone was asking all sorts of personal questions they had no business asking. He then told me to fax him a copy of my dirvers license I had no way of doing so so I demanded to talk to his supervisor and after going back and forth with him got him to release my money. I will never deal with them again.

I was wondering what the best way would be to just transfer money directly from my bank account to my fiance's account. I wonder if there are any banks in the US that have branches in the Philippines and if a joint bank account after we get married would be possible. I saw sopmeone mentioned Wells Fargo to send money to Philippines bank accounts. I will have to look into that.

[Greenbaum 12,259]

Heimef, on 27 Dec 2015 - 11:30 AM, said:

jg121783, on 27 Dec 2015 - 05:41 AM, said:

I have mostly been using Moneygram. One time they refused to send money and told me I can only send money once a week. After that I sent money multiple times a week with no problems I had a horrible experience with xoom. I was in the Philippines visiting my fiance and sent money to her through xoom so I had a few hundred extra dollars for my trip home.They put a hold on my money and I had to call them. The person on the phone was asking all sorts of personal questions they had no business asking. He then told me to fax him a copy of my dirvers license I had no way of doing so so I demanded to talk to his supervisor and after going back and forth with him got him to release my money. I will never deal with them again.

I was wondering what the best way would be to just transfer money directly from my bank account to my fiance's account. I wonder if there are any banks in the US that have branches in the Philippines and if a joint bank account after we get married would be possible. I saw sopmeone mentioned Wells Fargo to send money to Philippines bank accounts. I will have to look into that.

jg121783, on 27 Dec 2015 - 05:41 AM, said:

I have mostly been using Moneygram. One time they refused to send money and told me I can only send money once a week. After that I sent money multiple times a week with no problems I had a horrible experience with xoom. I was in the Philippines visiting my fiance and sent money to her through xoom so I had a few hundred extra dollars for my trip home.They put a hold on my money and I had to call them. The person on the phone was asking all sorts of personal questions they had no business asking. He then told me to fax him a copy of my dirvers license I had no way of doing so so I demanded to talk to his supervisor and after going back and forth with him got him to release my money. I will never deal with them again.

I was wondering what the best way would be to just transfer money directly from my bank account to my fiance's account. I wonder if there are any banks in the US that have branches in the Philippines and if a joint bank account after we get married would be possible. I saw sopmeone mentioned Wells Fargo to send money to Philippines bank accounts. I will have to look into that.

[d4u247 0]

My wife's been here for 10 years. I use to use Wells Fargo, when she still lived there but then we switched to Xoom soon after she arrived here and we closed the Wells Fargo remittance acct. We closed the WF acct because it was too expensive compared to Xoom. If I remember right WF said no fee's after the initial $5 fee for the service (which is understandable) however, each time the recipient would draw $ from an ATM in the Philippines they would be charged a $3 fee for doing so. I called WF here in the US and inquired about this and WF said they do not charge other than the initial $5 service fee, and I told them I can prove you wrong because my fiancee is having to pay $3 per withdraw.

WF said well we do not charge the fee that must be the bank and their ATM. I told them you should state that on your website before people sign up for this account, which by the way, WF and\or the ATM's in the Philippines did NOT charge this $3 fee when we first had the acct. Okay, so $3 plus 4.99 is not such a big deal but the straw that killed the camel is the ATM's would only let you withdraw like $200 per day or something, so if you had sent 600,800,1000 plus it adds up pretty quick just to pad the banks pocket.

You know Wells Fargo negotiates this remittance service with the banks in the Philippines and they knew they were starting to charge the $3 per withdrawal fee, they were deceptive and that's why we sought a different option. I won't even go into the trouble I had trying to get them to correct the name on the recipients debit card for the Philippines. After the 6th time I went off on them in a voice mail, I'm sure they still have that one saved and break it out at Christmas party's to get a good laugh.

Xoom is fast, it's a one time fee and the recipient can receive the $ in one lump sum. You may have to provide some information at first on the first few transactions because your own bank or Xoom may hold it until you call them, because they are trying to make sure it's not a stolen card or hacked transaction, but once you do 4 or 5 transactions and they see it is valid, you will not have to call anymore and just click through for an easy 1 minute process and done.

My wife just tried this new service that is slightly cheaper but it is a bit slower for the recipient to receive the $ where Xoom is instant or within an hour. If it goes more than an hour you know you need to call them.