Traveling with cash / alternatives?

[Timona 4,207]

Once you send the money, it's immediately available. The recipient will get a text message on their Philippine's line that you sent the money and that they can go pick it up whenever they want.

 

You have to put a Philippine's phone line for recipient. If your wife doesn't have one now since she's in US, she can get one when she lands and you send it via there. 

8 minutes ago, EllisAndRenz said:

Oh my this is getting complicated.

Thank you.

 

 

Use Sendwave and save that $3.99. 

Thank me later. 

[Palawan 131]

23 minutes ago, EllisAndRenz said:

Sounds like that may be the best option.  Western Union and Money Gram are a pain in the rear.  I've never used Remiitly.  How are they?

 

 

I have not either, I have only used Western Union.

 

Just be aware if you start sending too much cash from a XXXX to YYYY in the Philippines they will lock the account, I know this personally on Western Union.

 

For Western Union just use a few different first names as the sender if you do alot of Western Union to the same person.

 

I would load her up with 9K US Dollars all 100 bills, that are unmarked (No stamps, No Ink Marks, No tears), and figure out how to do the rest.

[Timona 4,207]

In Kenya, you can cash out at any corner. Get out of your house, walk less than 5 mins in either direction you choose, there's a cash out place, even in the villages.  Most in the villages don't have bank accounts. They use mobile banking. These are called Mpesa kiosks..M just means mobile and pesa is $$..so mobile money. 

 

This is how this app started (though the owner was trying to send money to Tanzania. However, it was modeled on Kenya Mpesa). Kenya had been having mobile banking way before Sendwave. In mobile banking, money stays in your account. Your account is your phone number. So, you don't need an actual bank account nor a smart phone. All you need is a phone line. So, you can Sendwave to someone with a Nokia 3100 (if they still exist). The person will get a text and that it. You just carry on with your day till the day you wanna cash out.

 

If your phone gets stolen and someone had sent you $$, no worries. Just go get your sim card replaced. Your money is still there. 

 

 

 

[Timona 4,207]

10 minutes ago, Palawan said:

Just be aware if you start sending too much cash from a XXXX to YYYY in the Philippines they will lock the account, I know this personally on Western Union.

 

Happens even on Sendwave. That's why they have a limit. However, all you need to do is call Sendwave, they will remove the block and increase your limit. I believe this is done to prevent money laundering. Sendwave CS is easy to reach. 

 

Problem with WU is they have a lot of bureaucracy. I once sent money twice but canceled one. Unfortunately, it was never canceled. I never got the $$ back. WU told me to tell recipient to send it back. That's another transaction fee on the opposite side. I just told the recipient to keep it. 

 

"Sendwave has its own limits where you can initially send a maximum of $999/£999/€999 per day and $2,999/£2,500/€2,500 per month. We can raise these limits to $2,999/£2,500/€2,500 per day and $12,000/£10,000/€10,000 per month if you are able to send us a photo of your government-issued ID. You can do this through the app by pressing 'Raise Limits' on the settings page. If you do not see this button, please contact our support team."

Edited August 24, 2022 by Timona

[Palawan 131]

38 minutes ago, Timona said:

Use Sendwave.

Their rates are competitive..However, since it'll be your first time, you may have to either call them to increase the limit OR send your wife with ½ or ¼ to start, then wire the rest via Sendwave up until you hit the limit, then call them to increase it. They automatically increase it after you've been with them for a while but since you need it within a short time, you may have to call later for it to be increased. Money is remitted instantly as soon as you send and you don't have to deal with high transaction fees akin to Remitly, WU, Money gram etc.

 

I think sending her with ¼ is better for security as someone already pointed out, then once that's used, wire her another ¼ via Sendwave, wait till it's use then repeat. You don't want neighbors to target her knowing she has $15K in the house.

 

All you need in Sendwave is their phone number. Sendwave will then tell them where to cash out at a partner bank. Or if she has account at that bank, it's deposited directly BUT you said she doesn't have any. So you'll go with Philippine's phone number.

 

I use it to send money back home. Been using it for 7+ years... @EllisAndRenz

 

https://www.sendwave.com/

Not available in Philippines

 

GCash is similiar used in Philippines, but you have to have Philipines Phone Number to set it up.

 

GCash - Buy Load, Pay Bills, Send Money

Edited August 24, 2022 by Palawan

[Boiler 45,470]

Have her set up a bank account when she gets there and transfer the money.

[Timona 4,207]

4 minutes ago, Palawan said:

Not available in Philippines

 

GCash is similiar used in Philippines, but you have to be inside the country to set it up

 

Look at top right of my screenshot. There's Philippines there. Or what exactly is not available? 

 

You have to download via App/ Play Store. You don't need to be in any particular country to download the app. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Timona

[Palawan 131]

1 minute ago, Timona said:

 

Look at top right of my screenshot. There's Philippines there. Or what exactly do you mean is not available? 

 

You have to download via App/ Play Store. You don't need to be in any particular country to download the app. 

I was looking at your link for Sendwave, I looked at it's availabilty and I don't see Philippines.  I just looked again the have it listed as "The Philippines'

 

Hopefully this may be a good solution for him

Edited August 24, 2022 by Palawan

[Palawan 131]

1 hour ago, EllisAndRenz said:

 

Sadly, she does not have a PH bank account, and never had one.  For whatever reason she always lived on cash.

 

Pretty typical in the Philippines:

 

How much money does the typical Filipino keep in his bank account?

 

The average bank balance of most Filipinos is less than P5,000. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)'s latest report (2017) on the State of Financial Inclusion shows 62 percent of all deposit account holders in the country only keep P5,000 and below in their bank

 

P5000 is about 100 US Dollar.

[Loren Y 2,755]

Just carry the cash. I have that amount or more just about every-time I leave the US. I use a money belt, and declare anything over the limit. If you get some idiot customs agent that wants you to whip out 15K cash so he can count it in front of everybody in customs, politely inform him you value your life, and are not going to count out cash on his podium, but you are more than willing to go to a secure area and they can verify with a few people in the room. Usually this results in a go ahead and move on statement, no issues, and away you go. Only once in a foreign country have I had them actually take me to a room and count and verify the money.

[RO_AH 1,659]

I only use Sendwave now. I have used LBC, WU, and Remitly in the past. Sendwave has good customer support. Remitly did too, but the rates are better with Sendwave. WU was not charging a fee before but now they do so I switched to Sendwave.

[EllisAndRenz 196]

1 hour ago, Palawan said:

I have not either, I have only used Western Union.

 

Just be aware if you start sending too much cash from a XXXX to YYYY in the Philippines they will lock the account, I know this personally on Western Union.

 

For Western Union just use a few different first names as the sender if you do alot of Western Union to the same person.

 

I would load her up with 9K US Dollars all 100 bills, that are unmarked (No stamps, No Ink Marks, No tears), and figure out how to do the rest.

As uncomfortable as I am with sending her like that, that's what I'm thinking.  Just hope we don't get an overzealous TSA agent.

 

21 minutes ago, Palawan said:

Pretty typical in the Philippines:

 

How much money does the typical Filipino keep in his bank account?

 

The average bank balance of most Filipinos is less than P5,000. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)'s latest report (2017) on the State of Financial Inclusion shows 62 percent of all deposit account holders in the country only keep P5,000 and below in their bank

 

P5000 is about 100 US Dollar.

Wow.  Shocking, but not surprising.  

[EllisAndRenz 196]

1 hour ago, Timona said:

In Kenya, you can cash out at any corner. Get out of your house, walk less than 5 mins in either direction you choose, there's a cash out place, even in the villages.  Most in the villages don't have bank accounts. They use mobile banking. These are called Mpesa kiosks..M just means mobile and pesa is $$..so mobile money. 

 

This is how this app started (though the owner was trying to send money to Tanzania. However, it was modeled on Kenya Mpesa). Kenya had been having mobile banking way before Sendwave. In mobile banking, money stays in your account. Your account is your phone number. So, you don't need an actual bank account nor a smart phone. All you need is a phone line. So, you can Sendwave to someone with a Nokia 3100 (if they still exist). The person will get a text and that it. You just carry on with your day till the day you wanna cash out.

 

If your phone gets stolen and someone had sent you $$, no worries. Just go get your sim card replaced. Your money is still there. 

 

 

 

Clever.  I'll look into it.

 

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

47 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Have her set up a bank account when she gets there and transfer the money.

My wife was able to set up an account at BPI all in one day when she was there in April 2022. My wife also carried in $4000 in cash but that is under the declarable amount. She had no issues.

[EllisAndRenz 196]

21 minutes ago, Loren Y said:

Just carry the cash. I have that amount or more just about every-time I leave the US. I use a money belt, and declare anything over the limit. If you get some idiot customs agent that wants you to whip out 15K cash so he can count it in front of everybody in customs, politely inform him you value your life, and are not going to count out cash on his podium, but you are more than willing to go to a secure area and they can verify with a few people in the room. Usually this results in a go ahead and move on statement, no issues, and away you go. Only once in a foreign country have I had them actually take me to a room and count and verify the money.

There are some legal issues here.  First: In the USA there are IRS forms to fill out to declare the transfer out of the country.  According to the Philippine Gov't web-site, transferring over $10k cash into or out of the Philippines is actually illegal.  

1 minute ago, Carpe Vinum said:

My wife was able to set up an account at BPI all in one day when she was there in April 2022. My wife also carried in $4000 in cash but that is under the declarable amount. She had no issues.

I assume at that point, you transferred the funds into her account via wire?