First visit to Phils coming up (late Jan '17) - currency advice please

That's actually changed, it is now 50,000 peso since the 15th of September last year, I didn't realise this change had happened.

The change applies to import of peso and export!

http://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/the-philippines-2/bringing-currency-into-the-philippines/

Honestly Gerry the money changers here in the UK will rob you blind, converting pounds here into peso is a very very very bad bargain, I would not take more than 5000 in peso, and at the worst your hotel (if you are in a hotel) will probably offer you a reasonable exchange rate for pounds, not as good as a good local Philippine money changer but nowhere near as bad as Travelex or Cheque Centre or any other UK Money changer.

You will even get a better deal in the airport when you arrive compared to the UK, although personally I generally don't like using the airport money changers over there.

If you want a safe simple money changer over there use any SM Supermarket or Hypermarket again the rate won't be great but it won't be terrible either.

I wanted to verify that information as the site is the Philippine embassy in Singapore so I found this on the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas)

http://www.bsp.gov.ph/downloads/Publications/FAQs/faqfxreg.pdf

http://www.bsp.gov.ph

They often take a while to update forms but the above would appear to be the current rules, given the exchange rate woes of recent times I would be more interested in leaving with that kind of amount rather than arriving having exchanged pounds in the UK.

The Philippine bank that ran the ATM more than likely also charged you around another 200 peso, it might have been disguised in the exchange rate, but you lose big time.

I believe that 200 peso is charged on any size of transaction that involves a foreign card in one of their ATMs so if you only withdraw 3000 peso the sum of your UK and Philippine charges can become a vast proportion of what you actually withdraw.

The reason they reduced the single transaction withdrawal limit back in 2007 I think (could be wrong plus or minus a year or two) was to clean up on those transaction fess, at least partly, the other reason was that pounds and dollars were less valuable and the foreign punter was more likely to withdraw a larger amount as he or she was getting a much poorer exchange rate (about 83 peso at the time) so they had to use the ATM more often and that meant 'kerching' (the sound) in the registers

There is a difference between foreign currency and Philippine currency, Philippine currency is severely restricted, foreign currency less so.

They are always glad of foreign currency particularly when it gets spent in the country, this increases dollar, sterling or euro reserves as it came in got spent and didn't leave, the Philippines sold goods and services for dollars and so on and stashed them away.

50,000 Philippine peso in and out now according to those links and still 10,000 USD equivalent in or out without having to declare it, you can bring in more than 10,000 dollars you just have to declare it, which as you can imagine is not a great idea when you are alone and in a foreign airport surrounded by armed customs officers and carrying a very large amount of dosh

The peso limit is an absolute limit that you cannot exceed in or out and to be honest I would stick to the old limit of 10,000 peso just now but that link I posted says the rules have changed.

Correct, but the actual peso limit is now 50,000 as per my links, I was surprised at that as it has been 10,000 peso for such a long time and as I said I would stick to the 10,000 limit for the time being, people at the sharp end in airports are not always up to date with the rules so not worth the risk of a confrontation.

Yeah that's what happens, but there is no denying that the BSP is publishing the higher value on their official web site.

I didn't look it up I was going with a gut feel for what I was getting towards the middle and end of 2007, on December 11th when Ana returned to the Phils via Manchester airport, I changed enough cash at the airport to get her home and they were offering about 67 which was a real shock even given the normal terrible rates at UK airports.

I have now checked, when I arrived in manila in late October it was in the region of 90 I was only there for a week to bring Ana back to the UK with me (she got her Korean passport that summer) by Christmas when I went back over it was down in the region of 83, the day Ana returned there must have been an intra day spike that resulted in the Travlex offering only 67.