How To Get Small Denomination Bills?

[Old55]

Other than going to the bank how do you guys get your hands on small bills in the Philippines?My family has a Sari Sari store and always has small bills on hand that I can “buy”. Or I know to get nine 100’s from the ATM machine. Most times large department stores will grudgingly make change of large bills. But once away from home I’m kinda screwed those tens and twenties are hard to come by. What do you do? :any-help: Any easy tricks? :89: Print your own money?:AddEmoticons04230:

[Mr Lee]

Other than going to the bank how do you guys get your hands on small bills in the Philippines?My family has a Sari Sari store and always has small bills on hand that I can “buy”. Or I know to get nine 100’s from the ATM machine. Most times large department stores will grudgingly make change of large bills. But once away from home I’m kinda screwed those tens and twenties are hard to come by. What do you do? :any-help: Any easy tricks? :89: Print your own money?:AddEmoticons04230:

Every time we take a taxi from our condo, which is the taxis that I usually tip because they are always there sitting waiting for people from the condo building to leave, so I feel a small reward is warranted, so they will be there when we need them, so I will have exact change and then ask them for change of p100 and add p5 or p10 to the meter to the amount I ask change for, and if they say no change, then I give them exact change to the exact peso. The word has now spread, so they always seem to have change for me and it does seem they even fight over who will get us, because it is my guess that few people tip nowadays since the increases, and neither do we most times except for the ones who are always by our condo, or those who I see take short cuts to get us places we go, as well as purposely try to get us there quickly and safely, or if we have 4 passengers. Also whenever we shop, I will give them a large bill and ask for small change and while they used to begrudgingly do it, nowadays they seem to no longer mind giving change, and that might have to do with how we greet them and ask how their day is going etc, so a smile and kind words go a long way here. Of course the easiest way is to go to a bank we have accounts with and ask for a wrapped pack of p20's and p50's and a bunch of p100's, there is no longer p10 bills around that I have seen this year at all, but p10 and p5 coins are common. You are lucky to have easy access to change. Oh when we are in CDO it is easy because my wifes former boss will give us whatever change we seek. It will be interesting to read how others do it? Edited April 11, 2011 by Kuya Lee
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[Dave Hounddriver]

Many tricks:1) Send my wife to the market with 1,000 peso bill and tell her to buy the day's produce and bring change. Provided she is buying over 100 pesos worth she has few problems.2) Go to the bar and buy 1 beer. Tell the bartender you have the exact change but you would like to leave a tip if he can change a 1,000 for you. That worked for me tonight.3) MacDonalds is usually good for change and I like the occasional burger.4) Buy weekly groceries at Fooda and pay with large bills.5) Some bank machines have small bills. Just take out 1,900 pesos for example (on a local card or the International fee gets expensive).6) Other bills like water and electric get paid with large bills so I can accumulate change.7) Never give the exact change when you can give a larger bill and have it changed.8) Never go outside of Cebu city because these tricks don't work in the province.

[gapotwo]

whats with the change problems?didnt they print enough small bills? im still schooling myself on these large bills, when i was last there a 100php. bill was very large. then it was 5php. to $1us. still learning new tricks. tanks ej.

[Jim Sibbick]

The small notes run out very fast!So, no matter what you are doing, always be thinking how can I get small notes out of this. Then store all your spare notes at home. This is what I doNever ever pay for anything with a small note when they are capable of changing a large note. Such as a department store or supermarket.No matter how many small notes you have, keep changing the large notes when you can.When you are shopping in a supermarket, watch how much the bill is. No point in having a bill of P495 to pay if you have P500 notes. You will only get a P5 coin as change. Make sure you buy something extra to put the bill over P500 then give them two P500 notes to pay the bill. In a bar, pay for every drink as you go. Then try and pay for your drinks with the largest note you can get away with.Regards: Jim

[gapotwo]

I like the NO CHANGE SIR attitude. so if you cant make change for my purchase then i wont be doing business with you. and ill take my large notes elsware where they can make change, meanwhile you can restock that cart full of groceries that i was about to purchase. that has to be the lamest excuse i have ever haerd in a long time. no wonder small buisness in the PH. dont last long.they can get change at the bank if they wanted to but would rather have you the customer do the running around looking for change. maybe the law should crack down on the street gambling, spider fights , wheting and mahjong houses. because thats where all the small notes are. ej.

[Keg]

gas stations..

[Art2ro]

I just go to our local bank just a block away from our home and ask for small bills to last us a month or more! Yeah, it's tough trying to break large bills anywhere except for Mercury Drug Stores, Malls and large modern Supermarkets!