gears Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Thanks once again Mr. LeeMy intention is to stay up to 3 months on this trip, traveling to numerous locations. It is a bit of a fact finding mision to see if an area of the Phils could eventually become my early retirement home. As my expenditures shouldn't be beyond $3,000 I don't think it is worth setting up a $ account on this particular trip, but your method is prudent and well taken for future considerations.I find it intriguing that the same banks that accept your US$ checks and hold it in your account, don't have an internal service to actually exchange your $ seamlessly into pesos, so that they themselves can make the commision cut, rather than an independent money changer. Are money changers indespensible (or simply have better rates?) and are they roving the hotel row streets and malls? I guess many tourists are simply steered by the various hotel, bungalow front desk staff to the money changer they prefer to get a cut from..lolToday I beefed up on a few crisp new 100$ Uncle Sam's play money in order to get the ball rolling. It seems lately they are being printed as quickly as the ink can dry. not so lolI will pick up a small wad of Pesos (in various sized denominations) in the Seoul Korea airport during the connecting leg stopover. Thanks for the heads up..Gears. You are welcome again. That is what we are here for, to help our members.Money changers are setup in many of the malls and are for the most part legit in the bigger cities. Some of the banks do have black market money changers that they will use to help their account holders because the money changers offer much better rates than their banks do. I compare them and then use whoever is the better of the bunch or use the one the bank has if the difference is insignificant. For instance our member Mayen is the assistant manager at Bank of Commerce main branch in Cebu and the money changer she uses is right on the exchange rate so no need to use anyone else most times. Please be careful at some of the smaller money changers in some of the smaller stores and in some of the out of the way areas, and do not use the ones without storefronts. There is a video in our Philippine video section that can explain why, but it is mostly due to slight of hand and counterfeit bills. Ok this is my last post on this topic for a while here.. I just read the current Lonely Planet Guide series og the Philippines ( published in May 2009) states that 3 major Uptown banks change American Express Travelers cheques in Cebu. Chinabank, Citibank and apparently the best of the lot, HSBC. I can not verify if that is still the currrent situation and mearly post this tid bit of info as food for thought.Gears Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 (edited) Ok this is my last post on this topic for a while here.. I just read the current Lonely Planet Guide series og the Philippines ( published in May 2009) states that 3 major Uptown banks change American Express Travelers cheques in Cebu. Chinabank, Citibank and apparently the best of the lot, HSBC. I can not verify if that is still the currrent situation and mearly post this tid bit of info as food for thought.Gears Please feel free to post all you would like on this subject or any other subject, and I and others surely do not have all the answers and I am always willing to learn. From my personal experience, most banks would not cash Traveler Checks unless you have a relationship with that branch. That is what other people have also told me but maybe you will have better luck than we did and maybe they will cash them if you have a relationship with their bank in another country. We tried to cash my friends traveler check in Citibank in Cebu City and he had an account in the US Citibank and I have an account in both the US and the Philippine Citibanks and they did not want to cash them for him when we called them and in fact no one we called would cash them or knew where to cash them and I called a bunch of banks at that time. Things are changing all the time, so maybe they will do it now. The Philippines can have some strange rules at times and IMO they are over careful and some banks even hold cash deposits for a week before it becomes available for withdrawal without the managers approval. If they can hold cash, what do you think they might do with travelers checks. I know this because they have held our cash deposits on more than one occasion in one of the Philippine banks we do business with. Edited November 25, 2009 by Mr. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genius Posted December 6, 2009 Posted December 6, 2009 forgive me, I ve only sped read the thread, but I find those debit cards you ''load'' money onto prior to departure are excellent, for the following reasons:1/ Exchange rate is excellent and linked to money market. 2/ Compact and usable in most ATMS3/ NEVER had it not work or been forced to call centre for security purposes, (hey what can they lose after all), except when the machine was empty of course.I hated the continual calling up at international rates to confirm that yes, I was in the phillipines, (after havind told them before, during and again...), and yesI d like to withdraw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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