Western Union, the name that brings shudders to many people sending money overseas Their service is excellent, but they have a fairly high cost per transfer. However, if you need to get money around the world in 15 minutes, then Western Union (to the best of my knowledge) simply cannot be beaten for their speed of delivery. For most people Western who send money to the Philippines via Western Union, I think they quickly realise it is best to apply for a Gold card which provides discounts off of the transfer fees. However, even with those discounts it can still be more expensive than other options, though often is the only method available to many. Also note, if you transfer a large amount of cash through Western Union at a money shop, you will need to produce valid ID (passport, driving licence) and for sending to African countries there maybe other security measures to follow.
iKobo were a lot cheaper and also instant. They had and probably still have a complex fee structure, plus they were a small company with very few employee's,went out of business then got bought out and came back to life. Their site appears to be offline not sure if that is another major problem with them or not. The way they worked was you registered and nominated someone who would get an iKobo visa card, essentially an electron card, anyway your recipient could get the card and PIN then you could transfer up to a certain limit to the card each month, about 500 dollars when I used it, the process was instant, the money was available the minute the transfer was made. Hmmm seems Wiki implies that they are in trouble again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKobo Alternatives are UK prepaid cards and making the point of getting the partner card to the Phils, load the UK prepaid and the money is available in the Phils instantly at lower charge than WU, however the Banks in the Philippines have cottoned on and now charge 200 peso per cash withdrawal for all ATM transactions with international cards used in the Phils, not just prepaids, shear robbery to be honest, how come they managed without this charge in the past? Same charge would probably have applied to iKobo and maybe that is what has ruined their business. I hate Western Union with a vengeance but I still have to use them sometimes
Yes, shudder indeed. But they are a necessary evil. Great for emergency transfers, but otherwise we stay clear of them. I miss Xoom, but we've settled on OrbitRemit now and they've provided an excellent service. I even forgot to include the fee once, but they still transferred the money and then gave me a gentle reminder.
I just sent my fiancée a FairFX prepaid credit card (it even has her name on it). It means she was able to buy me an Xmas present from a UK retailer - the postal service between Philippines is diabolical! Soon after it was sent by courier I learned that the courier was not allowed to carry credit cards! I was a bit worried as I was told they do x-ray parcels. But the card did arrive safely. Transfers from my bank account to the FairFX card are not instant - they take around 2-3 hours I think, but that is not a problem. But OSS is right, the Banks in the Philippines now charge a 200 Peso withdrawal fee and, although you can withdraw at least 20,000 Pesos in a day, you cannot withdraw more than 10,000 Pesos in one transaction; in effect, doubling the withdrawal fee! The last time I checked, WU was actually cheaper than using Moneygram to send to the Philippines and WU transactions can be made on-line but Moneygram transactions cannot. I tried using Xoom a few times but could never get it to recognise my debit card!
Xoom was a Godsend........... Inexpensive and reliable, and if used in tandem with Paypal, like I used to, it was safer than houses....... WU is ok, it fills a need at a price, but we are contemplating a pre-paid card to ship over.
You know how much Western union is charging for a 50 quid transfer in a Western Union outlet now? Six pounds ninety pence!!!!!! Thieving robbing gits! Double that price for 100 quid. If you want to send money really cheaply then either get a PNB account and do direct remittance (still expensive for small transfers). Or get your recipient in the Phils to open a Unionbank EON account for 300 peso, no other charges apart from small ATM charges about 12 peso. Then you get them to open a Paypal account and register the EON account as a bank account, you can then send to them using Paypal for 50 pence plus a small exchange rate spread and I mean really small spread, at the moment I think I get about 66.7 when the peso is 68.4 today. Withdrawals under 7000 peso cost 50 peso at their end. No international cards so no big withdrawal fees at their end.
Interestingly once the Paypal account is verified against the EON Cyber account you can add other Philippine bank accounts to the Paypal Account and withdraw to them too. Only thing is that some of the other banks charge for receiving money and crediting it to the account, usually 76 peso , Unionbank don't do this and they have a pretty good bill payment system in the online EON Cyber account too.
That is still three pounds cheaper than Moneygram! That sounds a very good option and anyone interested can view this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6XGxQbOAtA When I have sent money via PayPal I have always sent as pounds sterling (ensuring the recipient has a Sterling account); that way they can then choose whether PayPal applies the exchange rate or the receiving bank. I am not sure if the receiving banks in Philippines have a better exchange rate than PayPal though. Another advantage of sending in Sterling is when the recipient has yet to link a bank account to their PayPal account, or the bank account is not yet verified. If this happens, the recipient may want to send the money back to you! If you have already lost on converting to Pesos, there will be a further loss in converting back into Pounds Sterling!
I did not know that. My Fiancee's friend managed to link her bank card to her PayPal account (she does not have EON account) but could not link the bank account itself!
According to moneysavingexpert.com the FairFx.com card is the cheapest prepaid card (get the Sterling version). I may even find a link so you can get the card for free! But OSS's option of an EON cyberaccount used with PayPal is, undoubtedly, cheaper, but it takes a few days to withdraw from PayPal to the EON account, whereas the FairFx card takes just 2-3 hours to load from your UK bank account. Another advantage of the FairFX card is when your loved one in the Philippines wants to buy you an Xmas or birthday gift! They can use the card on-line and purchase from a UK retailer, rather than rely on the poor postal service and it also avoids customs charges. (The registered address of the FairFx card will always be a UK address, even if you get a card in their name)
The Unionbank - Paypal example takes 2 days pretty much all the time except for holidays. If you send on a Wednesday the money is available Friday night, usually just after 8pm Philippine time although recently it has taken an extra couple of hours. Send on a Thursday and it will usually be available Monday night, bank holidays can be a problem and they seem to have an awful lot of those over there.
Two days is, I think, quicker than withdrawing from PayPal to a UK bank account. But with the universality of the Faster Payments Service (FPS) from January 1, 2012 I wonder if withdrawals from PayPal to UK bank accounts will be near instantaneous?
