At the moment is it best to send money over in Sterling or Peso, (into wife's bank account that is) anyone please..!
you are talking about electronic transfers I guess since you are sending it it will all end up as peso so its the exchange rate thats of interest
If your account in the uk is sterling and the account in the phils is peso the transfering bank will concert to peso at their exchange rate stated at thew time of transfer. Think its somewhere round 69.5 - 70 at the moment
Whatever you do you will incur exchange fee's at some point even if you have a Sterling account in a Philippine bank. Having looked into it at one bank the opening deposits for a Sterling account are in the hundreds of pounds range so I am guessing that your wife does not have that kind of account, in which case you send Sterling and it arrives as Peso, all you can do is try to find the cheapest transfer rate, which is usually remittance services operated by a bank and usually scales better if you transfer a large amount.
Thank you all, last time I was out there and am sure a lot of you already know this, when I was taken money from the ATM's my bank cost per go was around £3, so this time I thought had send the money to wife's account before going out, I also find out that if go to HSBC bank in makati city to transfer money to wife's account the cost would be £53 (mad) its £17 over internet banking and was told to do it that way, and am doing that on my own PC...!
While it might sound insane if you have a bit of cash then take at least 1000 in Sterling with you, going there is always a risk, but converting cash there is easy and if you trust your surroundings then you only have the initial airport to home risk. Conversion rates in Manila have been historically vastly better than converting in the UK. The other option, slightly safer, is go there (take some cash maybe a few hundred quid) then use the likes of WorldRemit to transfer cash to your wife once you get there, you then both go to the Cebuana office (they are everywhere) and you both pick up the cash, I did exactly this last Christmas, cheapest way to get money out that I had found in years in Manila.
Thanks Oss, may well use WorldRemit when am there has I don't like to carry to much money on me, will of cause to going out with a few hundred on me, my bank seems to be making a lot of money out of me in the last few years...! and also wife's bank they seem to take out a cut to..!. all the best Anthony.
I was reading the Independent last night and noticed an inhouse add for good exchange here are the links http://www.independent.co.uk/money/...abroad-neednt-cost-you-the-earth-8891727.html If you send money to family or friends overseas get your calculator out! You could be paying over the odds to transfer money. The latest research shows that you could get a raw deal if you simply pop into your high street bank to send foreign payments overseas. The exchange rates and transaction fees charged by the banks all add up to confusion for customers and you could find cheaper options by doing some research. According to Moneycomms.co.uk even though some providers claim to offer a fee-free service, the wide variation in charges on foreign currency transactions can add up to a major hidden cost. As well as the variation in exchange rates to consider, the situation is further complicated as many of the banks charge an additional fee. Around nine out of 10 transactions are still done through the banks and the research shows there's a huge amount of money to be saved if consumers check out the deals on offer from some of the online brokers such as FairFX and Caxton FX. To give you a couple of examples from the study – if you're sending 1000 US dollars the cheapest option is FairFX and the most expensive is Western Union, with the high street names not far behind. The difference between the cheapest and most expensive is £39.34. If you're sending 1000 euros FairFx again works out cheapest with Santander the most expensive and the difference in that case is £30.75. Again the high street financial institutions tend to appear at the more expensive end of the list. Even if you're sending a lump sum as a one-off those are fairly significant differences but imagine the savings you could make if you have a home abroad or children studying or travelling overseas and you have to send money regularly. It's worth shopping around for a better deal. Independent Partners: Bank-beating exchange rates and no hidden fees on all your international payments. Find out why our readers choose HiFX http://www.independent.co.uk/money/...xchange-rates-and-no-hidden-fees-8621367.html And the link To HiFX to register for an example https://www.hifxonline.co.uk/registration/Application.aspx?suid=374e3a08-3ec6-4f39-b105-bfa53e708e0b
Anyone used WorldRemit would like to know or have a idea of cost sending to Phil..! seems you have to register and give a lot of your details before you are able to see anything.
They don't provide exchange rate before registering? Strange. I use Orbit Remit, first payment was free with a maximum value of £800 (on first payment), no ID required (that was some years ago). Exchange rate is openly available. Actually I just checked on WorldRemit, the exchange rate is 68PHP. I just entered £1 and it said the send value is 68PHP and £2.80 charge. Obviously the charge varies according to the amount you send. Just play around with the send values and you can see how much they will charge
