Four grand in twenties is about an inch thick in fifties about a centimetre very invisible Not sure I would want to rely on fifties only, and apparently there are calls to get large denomination notes like that banned in the UK as they are apparently only used by criminals http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35519884
That sounds like the 30,000 a day limit that at least one of the local banks that I know of applies to local ATM savings accounts.
Fifties are good for travel purposes, they tend to be newer and cleaner than twenties. Fifties have never really been widely used by the public in the UK, ATM's dispense lower denominations, I can never understand why that is. I love countries like Vietnam and Indonesia where I can walk away from the ATM with millions stuffed in my wallet. Turkey used to be OK when it cost about a million for a beer, but then the government issued new currency and knocked a few zeros off the end.
When I worked in Luxembourg I saw a couple of occasions when 500EUR notes were used to purchase a single sandwich in a sandwich shop at lunchtime, the staff did not seem to think it abnormal as they handed back the four hundred and ninety odd Euro change.
I have four fifties that I am going to take over next time and have a try at my favourite money changer, you are right they are cleaner notes, it will be the first time I have taken fifties. The 500 EUR note is interesting as I do prefer taking cash, for me I am only at risk if I get a taxi from the airport to the house, but these days the family pick me up I wonder how easy it would be to convert a 500 EUR note in the Phils however the cost of buying one here would likely put me off the idea
You may have the same experience as I did and find them difficult to exchange. I took some nice, newly-printed fifties to Cebu once and found that the money-changers didn't accept them. HSBC did but gave me a slightly worse rate than for the twenties I exchanged at the same time -- reason being that twenties are in greater demand than fifties by people buying Sterling. But that was 5 or 6 years ago. But now currency exchange for me is a few mouse-clicks Much safer than a bulging money-belt, waterproof or not
Haha what a silly idea. The clown not only wants to ban £50s, but 100 Euros and USD100 dollar bills too. Bills above USD100 were already abolished in the 1970s. How far does he want to take it. Maybe he wants to abolish money completely.
You'll have no problem changing £50s at even the scrubbiest Palawan Pawnshop in tiny provincial towns. They accept them with no hesitation. You don't even have to make sure they are in good condition, like you do with USD100 dollat bills. They've taken some right garbage from me, that's been in the sea, folded and creased, etc. There is no way they'd have been accepted in that state had they been USD100s.
Physical money, yes. Criminals use money, if only electronic payments are allowed then the government will be able to control crime. Normal people have nothing to fear.
Whipster: Walks into the pawnshop. Rummages around in the front of his swimshorts. Pulls out a bundle of soggy £50 notes.
You really are full of it you. See above You'll have no problems AT ALL, anywhere, changing £50s. I was cashing them in Palawan Pawnshops in some right out-of-the-way places. Naval. Biliran. Lugait, Mindanao. You do have to make sure they are the new series of £50s though and not the old series, which ceased to be legal tender in 2014. However they can even accept those, but because it's a bit of a hassle for them to redeem an old series £50, they'll offer a considerably lower rate.
If he rummages around inside his shorts, he'd probably be detained by the security guard who might believe he's carrying a concealed weapon!
Did you even bother reading the rest of that message? If you had, you would have found a sentence that reads "But that was five or six years ago". As you were wrong about the maximum withdrawal from a BPI ATM, why should I believe you're right in this instance?
I don't usually spend all the cash I take over, so if they turn out to be problematic then I will bring them back, I do get sick of the constant visits to the money changer and to the ATM, particularly for the school fee's so I tend to take out the 30,000 daily limit from the ATM and do the rest of the kids school fees in cash. I would dearly like to have my own account over there, but it has always seemed too hard as my average stay is less than 30 days
Interestingly the very reason they discovered that the 500 EUR note was the king of money laundering was because just a few exchange bureau were buying up millions of euros worth, it was that observation that led them to the criminals, who got caught But they did have some good reasons for banning our banks dealing with 500 EUR notes back in 2010, essentially they wanted to force the criminals into making mistakes in handling the greater volume of cash they would have to deal with.
on the occasions I traveled over, I always took at least 1k in 50's and the rest in 20's. I never had problems with the money changers in Ayala, Cebu, or in SM. But I seemed to get a better rate with larger denomination notes. For safety reasons I tried and succeded in not to exchange money with street based money changers. To be fair........ I haven't been back in 9 years, and I don't know what the situation is now,
One of the things that's changed about the Philippines is the variety of currencies they now accept. 10-12 years ago, in the sticks or in a small 20,000-odd town, they weren't happy if you walked into a bank with pounds. Although they probably would end up accepting it, it was much better then in that situation if you had US dollars. You can still be surprised. At the old Ormoc city Gaisano they wouldnt accept anything other than US dollars at the moneychangers there in December. But which didn't concern me as I just went to a Palawan Pawnshop round the corner. 10 years ago my options would have been fewer. I used to deliberately bring US dollars to the Philippines, but not anymore. There's no need. Oh, and I wasn't wrong about BPI ATM's. They changed to only 10,000 on October 1, 2015. As usual in the Philippines, there is no logic or consistency. Some people are reporting that they can still withdraw 20,000. But a lot more are saying that they can't. I could no longer withdraw 20,000 from the Argao BPI where I previously could, and neither can other foreigners with foreign cards there either. Maybe you can still withdraw 20,000 if you have a BPI account. There's signs on the ATM's. And it's been discussed on other Philippines forums that 10,000 is the limit now.
You are allowed to take 10,000 pesos in and most ATMs have a 10,000 peso limit. My bank (from memory) charged a non-uk transaction fee and that was in addition to the 200 peso fee the Philipino bank will take. If you have someone you trust there, you could send them money using worldremit or Western Union.
With a foreign card there has long been a 10,000 peso limit, simple reason being the banks want lots of those 200 peso fee's, with a local card the per transaction limits are higher. Really annoying as back in 2004 you could easily withdraw 20,000 with no local fees, like banks everywhere they got clued up to a good opportunity.
