Sending money to the Phillipines

[Randy Cooper]

What is the best way to send money to my girlfriend in the Philippines.  Debit card reloadable? Other?

[Gary D]

You should not be sending money to a girlfriend in the Philippines, would you do the same to a girl in the States.

[Mike J]

Welcome Randy.  There are many ways to send money and this has been discussed quite often.  In the upper right corner of your screen you will see the search function.  Type in "sending money" and you will find a LOT of previous threads and advice.

My wife and I used the prepaid card for her mom prior to our move here.  It worked well.  CAUTION - send the card first.  Only after you know it has been received should you let your girl know what the pin number is.

[Mike J]

1 minute ago, Gary D said:

You should not be sending money to a girlfriend in the Philippines, would you do the same to a girl in the States.

With all due respect Gary, the OP ask for advice on how to send money, not if he should or should not.  

[Gary D]

Obviously sending money to virtual strangers must be an American passtime.

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, Randy Cooper said:

What is the best way to send money to my girlfriend in the Philippines.

I found World Remit to be the quickest way to send cash.  After getting the bugs out of it (sorting out their ID requirements) I can go online and send instantly and she can pick up as quick as she can get to a L'Huillier.

For longer term, planned sending I prefer a Philippine bank account which I can transfer to using Transferwise.  I can give her my debit card and she can take the money from any ATM.

But as previously mentioned, the BEST way is not to do it at all.  Ohh if only I could be so lucky.

[GeoffH]

We don't know his situation so we shouldn't make assumptions.

Randy, I use World Remit as my main method of doing transfers, the receiver in the Philippines can pick up at MHLullier (or a few other chains).

I use Western Union as a backup, works similar but around where SWMBO lives there aren't as many Western Union branches.

I can also do bank to bank transfers but that's slower, most times it takes a few days to arrive.

[Randy Cooper]

2 hours ago, Gary D said:

Obviously sending money to virtual strangers must be an American passtime.

 

2 hours ago, Mike J said:

Welcome Randy.  There are many ways to send money and this has been discussed quite often.  In the upper right corner of your screen you will see the search function.  Type in "sending money" and you will find a LOT of previous threads and advice.

My wife and I used the prepaid card for her mom prior to our move here.  It worked well.  CAUTION - send the card first.  Only after you know it has been received should you let your girl know what the pin number is.

Mike thank you.  I sent a PayMaya card with zero ballance, thinking like you suggested.  Was having trouble finding out how to load it.  So far transferwise is an option.  No worries I will be cautious. 

[Old55]

Welcome to the forum Randy.

[BrettGC]

We use Western Union both ways - yes, there is a back and forth between us. Direct to bank account is about 3 hours, cost is minimal compared to other services, and exchange rate is never very far off the official rates.  I believe cash pickup is instant.  WU drastically reduced their transfer fees and sped up the bank transfers so we started using them again rather than World Remit.  3 hours to BPI or BDO and about the same to our Citibank PHP account.