There is a difference between an AUTHORISED PAYMENT INSTITUTION and a SMALL PAYMENT INSTITUTION. The FSA register clearly shows which of these two categories an institution falls into... http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/psdFirmSearchForm.do Azimo is a Small Payment Institution (transactions under 3 Million Euro/month) meaning your monies do not have to be protected should the company go bust. An Authorised Payment Institution (such as Suremoney) is required to safeguard your money, so your money should be protected even if the company does go bust. If there are any problems with either type of payment institution, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service after pursing the complaint with the institution for 8 weeks. The FOS could order the company to pay you. There does not appear to be any sort of of government-funded compensation scheme for any payment institution. For more information on this... https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/files/final-sending-money-safely---english---may-2011.pdf The conclusion from this thread appears to be that Suremoney is probably cheaper as well as safer.
Well I suppose everyone has to start somewhere, one day they might be an Authorised Payment Institution. I tried them yesterday, it would have saved me three quid over World Remit but in the end it didn't like my card so I swapped back to use World Remit.
Yes, World Remit is an Authorised Payment Institution, rather than being a Small Payment Institution like Azimo. Small Payment Institutions can safeguard customer's monies and I think it was hinted at earlier on in this thread that Azimo does safeguard monies once those monies are submitted by the Agent to Azimo, but I don't think customers can determine that from the FSA website. Once Azimo does exceed 3 million Euros/month it would have to become 'authorised', which should guarantee that monies are safeguarded. Azimo (FSA No: 573355 ) appears to be an agent for itself (FSA No: 580308) and the FSA makes no checks whatsoever on agents acting for Small Payment Institutions. In contrast, agents acting for Authorised Payment Institutions are checked by the FSA. I may be happy to use Azimo for smaller amounts but I would only send large sums via an Authorised Payment Institution. I also have a sneaking feeling that it may be safer to use an Authorised Payment Institution directly, rather than going through an agent.
Hi folks Just a quick query. We own and operate a global payment service mainly for business as opposed to individuals. We are FSA regulated and therefore offer full client funding protection. We are making steps to open our first office in manila ( we have offices worldwide), I'm just curious what do most people choose as a money out? Door to door, to bank or what exactly? We have access to the same rates as the banks access given the volume of funds we handle worldwide however looking at Php, it does seem strange that some of the rates websites claim to offer are better than those even shown on xe.com which are interbank rates. Ae they real rates in your experience? We will also be launching a P2P mobile payment app Thanks very much, any info appreciated
Personally speaking, I usually choose cash pick-up. I guess it differs from person to person and everyone has their own preference. The only reason I choose cash pick-up is down to timescales, I know if I send cash over to the Philippines it can be collected and used straight away. No need to wait for banks to process the transfer and then for ATM fees on top.
Cash pickup and direct to bank account, World Remit can successfully transfer to a bank account in as little as 15 hours so I may use that option more in future, in the past I always transferred to a bank account but there are no ATM's near where we live so I found the cash pickup option more preferable. My partner specifically does not like door to door as they have tended to deliver the money late at night and she always feels it is a security risk, sometimes different people each time and then they also get to know that large money is being delivered to a specific location, it can make her a target so she prefers cash pickup which is quite close to our location.
I assume that you have researched this thoroughly and know, for example, that you will need Philippine partner(s) in order to satisfy the law, that whilst you will be expected to invest 100% of the capital, your equity will be no more than 40% and that all the key company positions (Chairman/President, Finance Director and Company Secretary) are reserved for Philippine citizens. My advice would be to partner with a well-established local remittance provider such as the Lhuillier family (based in Cebu) or, alternatively, with a local bank such as BPI or BDO both of which are in the remittance business already. Unless you partner with a well-established remittance/banking group, you will encounter problems. As for exchange rates, I'm fairly certain that your rates will be governed by BSP - the Central Bank. I'm 99.9% certain that you will not be permitted to remit in Pesos bought outside the country, all your transfers will have to be in Stg/USD/Eur and exchanged here at the rate set by BSP. If I were acting as your company's local consultant, I would not be recommending Manila as your base here. In saying that, I'm assuming that your local office would be mainly administrative in nature possibly with a customer services mini call centre. Whilst Manila is the nation's capital city, it is also the most expensive place to do business and is not particularly foreigner-friendly (read: corruption). I'd be choosing Davao or, as a second choice, Cebu, where costs are much lower and there is a good talent pool to draw on. If all this sounds horribly new to you, then your next step must be to download a copy of the "Negative List" which the Philippine Government updates annually. This will tell you the requirements for your business type (banking and financial services), details your equity and also the amount of fully-subscribed share capital you must deposit (which, last time I checked, was in the order of Php10 million).
This chaps original question is slightly odd as why would a company specialising in business remittance be interested in what are essentially domestic pay out arrangements?
I suppose that in this day and age, any business is welcome............... I still mourn for xoom.............
Xoom was expensive albeit that it was in its day vastly cheaper than Western Union Dom, however now World Remit has better rates than Xoom or WU ever had.
Hi, I'm a filipino and this is my first post here. Google bring me here because of Azimo keyword. I transact with them and love to post a review about Azimo tomorrow. I'm only waiting for the result of my transaction.
I'm not familiar with Azimo Money Transfer but if you want to send money to the Philippines, you can try qwartapadala.com. I have come across this website QwartaPadala. The service fee that they charge is fixed at 4.67 USD or P200.00 regardless of the amount that you send. I recommended this to my uncle who is living in Australia. The exchange rate offered was 1 AUD = 39.9948 PHP during that time. According to them the exchange rate that they offer changes daily and is much higher than that of the exchange rate in other banks and even far better than what WU offered. You can visit their website and creating an account is free. Try it out.
rico -they must be very good if you have to join lots of website to recommend them? According to them the exchange rate that they offer changes daily and is much higher than that of the exchange rate in other banks and even far better than what WU offered -did u check others ? or are you self promoting?
After using world remit for the past couple of months without any hassle today we went to WU only because we were in town with the cash in the pockets. Minimum charge has gone up to over 6 quid for a mediocre and slow service. If we wanted a faster delivery option it would have been more expensive. Sorry po, but World remit will text the recipient within a few hours of deposit with a code for collecting the money... And text me when the money has been collected... I call that reliable and speedy service.
Dom I meant to mention WorldRemit now do direct more or less instant bank transfers to Metrobank accounts in the Phils, I tested it this week as I needed to bring her accounts up to a level where we were not paying huge fees every month, I can do that now she's not there. The transfer occurs within 5 minutes, I sat and watched both ends of the transaction. I actually get WorldRemit to text me (on my Philippine number) rather than her number, usually I get the text in minutes, I forward the transaction number manually to Nanay when required, so I can make the transfer when it suits me but release it when they really need it. Not sure how long I could leave a transaction uncollected but it certainly works up to 5 days so far.
Yeah, apart from the now defunct for europeans Xoom, World remit is the most reliable and least expensive I found.
