Hmmm. When I needed to send money relatively instantly I use Moneygram, but when I'm sending a large amount into my fiance's bank account I use 'Transferwise' which in theory should take the same time to clear as a straight bank transfer, but in practice is much quicker - usually taking 2 days. The last time I went to the Philippines was in November and the best online exchange rate I could find in the UK was around 67 php to the pound, but at the Mall in CDO I got 68.50 which was the best I found over there. On returning to the UK I discovered the Transferwise service and the exchange rate was 71 php, so after a transfer of just £200 to test how things went, I then sent almost £3,000 which is for my wedding in March and again the exchange rate used was far better than anything offered elsewhere.
Western Union (who I hate with a vengence) would give you 68.46 peso to the pound right now compared to Transferwise offering 68.21 peso to the pound, I've not signed up so I don't know what other fees are involved. edit: ah just checked the fee's Transferwise £10 Western Union £4.90
I just logged in for £1000 being transferred, the exchange rate is 68.8440. Cut and paste here: SEND £1000 TOTAL FEES £ 10.01 WILL BE CONVERTED ESTIMATED EXCHANGE RATE ? 68.8440
Just checked again and I think the exchange rate you quoted had the fee included, so if you send £1000 you receive 68,210.00 php, but the exchange rate is actually 68.8440 and then £10.01 is deducted. Also noticed that for a transfer of £500 the exchange rate remains the same but the fee is £5.06, so looks like the exchange rate remains the same whilst the fee is roughly £1 per £100 or 1%. In fact I've just played with the amounts being sent on their site and the calculator confirms this.
How are they working it out, are they taking 680 odd peso off the real exchange rate? i.e. only taking the fee? WU (again a company I detest) pretty much credit the remote bank account within a day if you send early enough UK time. If it is fee only then WU gets a real rate of 68.129 vs 68.159 for Transferwise however that is not how I read it, I read it as 1010.01 pounds buys you 68159.32 peso on Transferwise in which case the rate is 67.484, I could be wrong?
In that case there is almost no difference between Western Union and Transferwise. However I will check them out anything that is an alternative to WU is potentially a good idea
When I sent the 200,000 php to my fiance I told her it could take 3 or 4 days for the transfer to be completed, yet the next day she said her bank had texted her to say the money was available which was great. This was the same when I transferred the £200 too. With the £1000 figure. if I want to send £1000 to my fiance's account, she will receive 68,840.00 php (exchange rate of 68.84 php per £ obviously) and my account will be debited £1010.01 here.
Ok I understand, on the £1000 transfer WU and Transferwise are so close as to make no difference, on the £500 transfer though Transferwise win out. When I first heard of this company they did not have PHP as an available currency, so it is good to see it added!
I don't have any experience with Western Union, I only knew that for sending money instantly they were very expensive which is why I used Moneygram for that. All I can say is that for Transferwise, the communication via email was brilliant. Initially I made the mistake of using my business account debit card to send the £200 for a personal transfer (it wasn't for business), but this was rejected as I should have used my personal account debit card. I received an email explaining this straight away, asking me to set up a new business account which I really didn't have time for, so instead I asked if i could just cancel the transaction and resend the same amount using my personal debit card. Again, I received a very polite reply instantly saying this was fine, and within a few minutes I'd resent the money and my fiance received a text from her bank the next day saying the money had cleared.
Western Union used to be hideously expensive and still are for transfers to many other countries, I expect their normal ultra expensive service to resume one day but for right now they are not so bad. I will look at Transferwise, if it really is the original Skype people behind it that would be very interesting, they were ground breaking in their day.
Maybe it is a little bit tricky but I share my solution with you guys. My girl never wanted the money from me but to take care and make her secure i just opened a bank account here in UK. I opened account by the Internet in nationwide. Because it is in UK I can make free and almost instant transfers there. When I transfer some money to that account it arrives in the same time when you checked balance on the Internet. And I just give the visa debit card from that account to my girl. I know she don't want to use it but I asked her to have it. Just in case. You never know what's happen. And situation now look like this: when I was used my debit card from my bank on the statement I can see that roughly it is the same exchange rate. 10 000 pesos from ATM was charged £150 pounds from my account. But there was no any fee for transfer.
How the hell did you do that? Is the account in your name? You are still probably paying fees for extraction of cash from ATM's over there.
Yes. The account is in my name. And ATM is charging 200 pesos. But after end of all calculations it is £150 for 10 000 pesos. And I opened this account just for transfer purpose, there's no all my savings on there so it is safe
Has anyone of you heard of www.azimo.com? best and cheap way to send money to your loved ones right now, only charge £2.99 to send any amount. Your first payment sent is free, and they always do promotions too. Oh the rate with that service is 69 peso to 1 pound
Yeah we have discussed them on here at length, they appear quite good on rates, but for various reasons that I don't want to explain, they won't let me use their service. A few folk here think the are quite good, we had a long thread from one of their founders on here few years back.
I used Azimo to send money whist I am here in the Philippines. They had a free day on March 15th and, on another day, I used the code TRYAZIMO to get a free transfer. I transferred the maximum (£400) that Azimo would allow. My wife could collect just 200 metres from where are are staying. There was a hiccup on one transfer as I received a message saying money was available for collection but when my wife went to collect she was told the reference number was invalid. Only when she also received the email saying the money was available for pickup, could she actually collect the money.
Transferwise charge 1% fee (minimum 145 PHP) to send to the Philippines. You can read the rates here... https://transferwise.com/support/cu...st-to-send-money-with-transferwise-#pricelist
