Banking in Barangay

[hk blues]

For those who can, I'd say get yourself a local bank here for your ongoing transactions and just use your overseas bank to 'hold' the bulk of your money and send over whatever you need via one of the numerous transfer services. I have 3 UK accounts and 2 here and haven't had any issues with any of them. That said, the £35 transfer fee is hefty but, due to the security set up they use, it's not possible to do via a 3rd party. Anyhow, it's once a year so hey ho.

[jpbago]

For Skype calls, it is good to have one account set up in your home country and another set up in the PI for accessing the 800 or 888 numbers from their respective countries.

[RBM]

On 7/11/2020 at 8:52 AM, GeoffH said:

Yes I've been caught by that one too.  I notified my banks I was travelling to the Philippines but my card was randomly blocked after about three months.

When I rang my bank they gave me the 'you should have told us you were travelling' speech and I said "I did that before I left in February' and the staffer sort of mumbled and said that the travel notification only stayed on their system for three months (that would vary from bank to bank of course).

Not sure what bank your using Geoff how ever Westpac have a link with their on line banking web site where your able to state what country your visiting and length of stay.

[GeoffH]

1 minute ago, RBM said:

Not sure what bank your using Geoff how ever Westpac have a link with their on line banking web site where your able to state what country your visiting and length of stay.

My main bank is Bendigo Bank and my backup bank is ANZ.

ANZ offer that (but not online) but Bendigo Bank don't appear to have the ability.

I'm a bit reluctant to move away from Bendigo Bank because it and ANZ are the only two with branches where my place in Australia is (and the ANZ one has closed until further notice due to Covid-19).

I'll investigate when the borders open up again before I head back to the Philippines.

Edited July 14, 2020 by GeoffH