Using Citibank In Cebu

[Mr Lee]

There are at least two Citibanks in Cebu City. One is Citibank Savings near the capitol Building and they are not online yet, but you can withdraw with your US or other country Citibank ATM and it will come out in pesos and the exchange rate will be close to the actual rate but not as good as you might get at a money changer.Then there is Citibank near Ayala and they are the regular Citibank and you can also withdraw money there with your foreign Citibank ATM card and I have been told that they are online. Both are part of the Citi group.Citibank in the Philippines is pretty strict if you want to open an account there and you will need to live in the Philippines, deposit a fairly large amount of money to open an account and I have been told you will need an ACR card (retirement id) issued by the Philippine government. If you need a contact name at the Citibank Savings, My wife and I have a friend who is the accounts manager and we know the regular manager as well and they are both very helpful people.

[johnrxx99]

I see you're trying to get your count up Lee! Is this copy and paste, lol

[johnrxx99]

IMO I'd only bank with HSBC here. At least it make a profit

[Mr Lee]

I see you're trying to get your count up Lee! Is this copy and paste, lol

No, that was sarcasm in the other thread because Paul was breaking my chops, I was just trying to fill in some of the empty spots so that Tom can get more action on this forum going and it seems to have worked. My post count on the other one was mostly due to my trying to answer too many people :welcome: and I will try not to do that again here. I really do not care about post counts. John, maybe you can help and fill in some info too! Cheers! Edited October 6, 2008 by Mr. Lee

[Mr Lee]

Update about using a US Citibank ATM card at a Philippine Citibank. I have been informed by a friend who used his card while in Cebu that they charged him a 3% exchange rate service charge. While the website shows it should be free, the fact that they charged him and told him there was a 3% fee means they must have changed the rules. Anyone else get charged using their cards lately?

[Mike S]

Don't know about Citibank ATM .... but they did the same thing to my Citibank credit card several months ago ...... it is an extra charge for foreign currency exchange I was told ...... and it is now on my cc website ......

[TheMason]

Update about using a US Citibank ATM card at a Philippine Citibank. I have been informed by a friend who used his card while in Cebu that they charged him a 3% exchange rate service charge. While the website shows it should be free, the fact that they charged him and told him there was a 3% fee means they must have changed the rules. Anyone else get charged using their cards lately?

The % fee for foreign currency is pretty standard. My Bank of America ATM card charges me 3% plus $5 per withdrawal. My Chase credit card has varying fees. One of them charges me 3% for foreign currency charges and the other charges me 1%. I don't use any of them though. When I need to convert dollars I either use Remit Home or have my relatives ship me a few BB boxes full of items we can re-sell here. When we go the boxes route, we not only avoid the exchange fees but we generally make enough to cover all costs with a little bit extra.

[Mr Lee]

Update about using a US Citibank ATM card at a Philippine Citibank. I have been informed by a friend who used his card while in Cebu that they charged him a 3% exchange rate service charge. While the website shows it should be free, the fact that they charged him and told him there was a 3% fee means they must have changed the rules. Anyone else get charged using their cards lately?

The % fee for foreign currency is pretty standard. My Bank of America ATM card charges me 3% plus $5 per withdrawal. My Chase credit card has varying fees. One of them charges me 3% for foreign currency charges and the other charges me 1%. I don't use any of them though. When I need to convert dollars I either use Remit Home or have my relatives ship me a few BB boxes full of items we can re-sell here. When we go the boxes route, we not only avoid the exchange fees but we generally make enough to cover all costs with a little bit extra.

The box idea is a good one. I could probably make some money selling Magic Jacks but I just have a hard time making money off of people, it is just not my thing unless I was actually doing it as a business. As for the 3% fee, this is the first time they must be doing that as I had been using my Citi ATM card in Cebu for years and they never charged me a penny or a peso and the exchange rate was pretty close to the actual rate and that really confused me because the local bank itself did not give a good exchange rate. Anyway that is water under the bridge and we are heading into a new time in life where the banks are going to fee us to death to make up for all those big executive bonuses. What a rip off but I never pay it because I just write a US check ahead of time and then exchange the money after it clears and whenever I see a good exchange rate. I would bet that pretty soon, banks will start charging fees for that too. :AddEmoticons04230: Why use an international bank if they are going to screw us anyway. :th_signs083:

[Search]

Update about using a US Citibank ATM card at a Philippine Citibank. I have been informed by a friend who used his card while in Cebu that they charged him a 3% exchange rate service charge. While the website shows it should be free, the fact that they charged him and told him there was a 3% fee means they must have changed the rules. Anyone else get charged using their cards lately?

The % fee for foreign currency is pretty standard. My Bank of America ATM card charges me 3% plus $5 per withdrawal. My Chase credit card has varying fees. One of them charges me 3% for foreign currency charges and the other charges me 1%. I don't use any of them though. When I need to convert dollars I either use Remit Home or have my relatives ship me a few BB boxes full of items we can re-sell here. When we go the boxes route, we not only avoid the exchange fees but we generally make enough to cover all costs with a little bit extra.

The box idea is a good one. I could probably make some money selling Magic Jacks but I just have a hard time making money off of people, it is just not my thing unless I was actually doing it as a business. As for the 3% fee, this is the first time they must be doing that as I had been using my Citi ATM card in Cebu for years and they never charged me a penny or a peso and the exchange rate was pretty close to the actual rate and that really confused me because the local bank itself did not give a good exchange rate. Anyway that is water under the bridge and we are heading into a new time in life where the banks are going to fee us to death to make up for all those big executive bonuses. What a rip off but I never pay it because I just write a US check ahead of time and then exchange the money after it clears and whenever I see a good exchange rate. I would bet that pretty soon, banks will start charging fees for that too. :thumbsup: Why use an international bank if they are going to screw us anyway. :thumbsup:

Hi Lee,You might check into Bank of Internet. There is no extra conversion fee and BofI do not charge a fee per ATM withdrawl. In addition, they reimburse the first $8 in ATM fees/month charged by the owners of the ATMs. Plus, they actually still pay something on a checking account (1.15% APY, 1.65%-1.75% savings account). The other reason I deal with them is that they are setup to do everything over the Internet. If you are overseas, for months at a time you need to have a bank that you can do absolutely everything over the internet. However, there is a telephone # to call for when you need to actually speak to a human.SearchLink: http://www.bankofint...om/Default.aspx Edited November 12, 2009 by Search