Initial Bank Deposit

[Snowy79]

I've just completed the opening of my Philippines bank account today. It's with the HSBC and I already have an HSBC account in the UK. Part of the deal was I had to have a minimum of 100,000 php in the account to keep it. As I was with HSBC UK they assured me I could transfer the money between accounts at no cost and at the daily exchange rate. They quoted approx 61.9 php  to the pound but when I went online with HSBC UK to transfer the money they quoted 60.57 php. A decent difference when transferring the money. I have a PESO and Pound account so had to transfer at least 200,000 php. I transferred 120,000 php to each account giving a difference of about £85 between the exchange rates.

Being a tight Scotsman I checked out Western Union. Their rate was 62.9 php and they charge £2.90 each transaction. I had to make two separate payments. One to each account and overall I saved £141.20 compared to the UK quoted rate.

Hope this helps someone else in my position. The account must receive money via a bank transfer and not by turning up with a suitcase of money. Western Union does account to account.

 

[robert k]

I had a rough start with WU but they settled down. I couldn't deal with WU Philippines, since my bank and money was in the US I dealt with WU USA and all went well. I recommend selecting "do not track" IE not giving your location, as it isn't necessary and just gives one more possible thing to "flag" the transaction.