Currency Exchange

[Thomas]

You can only bring 10,000 pesos INTO the Philippines..You can bring any amout of US$ BUT if its over $10,000 you must declare it.. or risk it being confiscated

And it can be good to have proof of how much is brought to Philippines to be allowed to bring them out again.

(Someone else can tell it better. I haven't memorized, because I plan to stay in Phili for ever  :)   but I remember I read some restrictions related to how much was brought in.)

[earthdome]

And it can be good to have proof of how much is brought to Philippines to be allowed to bring them out again.

 

I always obtain cash in $100 USD bills, keep it in the cash envelope the bank gives you the money in and keep the receipt from the bank. That way I can easily prove that I obtained the cash legally from my own bank account and reduce the risk of having it seized by police under asset forfeiture. Asset forfeiture (in the USA) is where police claim some property violated the law, in the case of cash claiming it is from the drug trade, where they can just take it and you have to prove your money is innocent. Police can do this without even charging you with a crime.

[MacBubba]

We are headed for the Philippines in June and are debating whether or not to convert our Canadian funds to US funds.

 

Because  it is usually easier to exchange US dollars to pesos in the Philippines, we prefer exchanging to US here first, even though we lose a little by exchanging twice.

 

Just recently, a friend who went to Asia remarked that unless you are using the current plastic-looking Canadian bills in Asia, you will be turned down should you try to exchange them.

 

I am not up to speed on the US bills, other than I’ve heard that there would be a re-design?  Has that happened yet?  And, since I still have some US bills from our trip last year, would I still be able to get them exchanged to pesos?