ATM Limits

[johnbarley]

Per Withdrawal

• HSBC: 40k
• BPI: 20k
• Rest of banks (as far as I know): 10k

All charge PHP 200 per withdrawal.

* I suspect Citibank has a limit similar to HSBC because in other countries it does, but I have not tried it yet.

Edited November 8, 2016 by johnbarley

[earthdome]

On 11/6/2016 at 9:38 AM, JJReyes said:

Thank you for the information.

For security reasons during our travels, we have both a primary and secondary checking account with a US bank. Funds are transferred from the first to second account as needed. ATM withdrawals are made from the second account only. Our bank charges a flat $5 fee per "out of network" transaction. The local (foreign to us) bank may or may not add fees, and they make money on the Forex. My preference is to withdraw the maximum amount to avoid the $5 fee per transaction.

I avoid using a credit card after the issuers started adding a 3% foreign transaction fee. This is now changing. Even American Express is waving the 3% for their loyal customers. 

What's in your wallet? Seriously Capital One is the best card for foreign travel. No foreign transaction fees, great fx rate plus 1.5% cash back. Now I have not used that for obtaining cash just for paying for things where a credit card is accepted.

[JJReyes]

3 hours ago, earthdome said:

What's in your wallet?

Businesses prefer your using credit cards and governments eventually may ban currency. The reason is the ability to track everyone in a cashless society. There is a small level of privacy when you pay in cash. No one knows what you purchased and for how much. 

[earthdome]

13 hours ago, JJReyes said:

Businesses prefer your using credit cards and governments eventually may ban currency. The reason is the ability to track everyone in a cashless society. There is a small level of privacy when you pay in cash. No one knows what you purchased and for how much. 

Very true. Banning cash may be desired by business and government but people aren't ready for that. If that eventually happens there will be alternatives than can be used like cash based on crypto currency's like bitcoin.

[JJReyes]

As posted by earthdome, there are of course benefits in using credit cards. His Capitol One card gives back 1.5%. My American Express is only 1.0% and I wasn't mindful about the total that was accumulating. The amount is fairly substantial after several years. Amexco, Visa and Mastercard are used for major purchases. Everything else is cash. Gasoline stations post two prices - cash or credit card. I pay cash.