Paypal's mark-up is 2.5%, but I think this is not a mark-up on the interbank rate but a mark-up of another exchange rate that has already been marked-up! My loved one's bank (not sure which bank it is) charged her for the PayPal withdrawal to the bank account!
One thing I have just realised... World Remit is REGISTERED with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) but NOT AUTHORISED by the FSA. That means if they go bust during the course of your transaction, you could lose all your money! If they were authorised, they would have to ring fence the money to protect you. Paypal is not regulated by the FSA at all, although they are voluntary members of the Financial Ombudsman scheme, meaning you would have an avenue for complaint, in case of difficulty.
You're right about the 2.5% I think, but basically when the rate is 67.25 like it is right now then I would get about 65.2 I'm not up to doing the math just now. (actually I just checked I got exactly 65.2 on Friday) Yes some of them charge such as Metrobank, 76 peso, this is not exclusive to PayPal though they do that for other interbank transfers as well, Unionbank do not charge for the withdrawal from PayPal to the local account and the Unionbank EON card account has a pretty good visa card. Metrobank charge our landlord 76 peso when we make an electronic payment to him from Unionbank, ridiculous amount.
Paypal are pretty big, I don't see them going under any time soon but yes it is always something it is best to be aware of. World Remit, well I'm still not sure, I would like to try them but have not got round to it yet.
PayPal are registered in Luxembourg - I have no idea of any financial protection offered but they are big! May be best to wait until they are bigger - once they have business of over £3 million per month they have to be authorised by the FSA - meaning that your money will be protected.
2.5% is definitely correct and it is NOT on top of the interbank rate - it is on top of the wholesale rate offered to Paypal - this is on a twice daily basis, whereas the interbank rate can change by the second (I think). There must be some penalty for only changing the exchange rate twice daily - and that is to offer inferior rates. I am sure you are right, OSS!
I have added a calculation for PayPal in my earlier post (I actually commenced a 20,000 Pesos transfer through PayPal to check) PayPal works out a bit more expensive than either World Remit or FairFX for a 20,000 Pesos transfer from UK to Philippines. For the PayPal transfer I initiated, the PayPal loading (above the interbank rate) is actually 4%: 20,000 Pesos @ interbank rate = £298.03 20,000 Pesos @ Paypal Rate = £309.95 It would be nice if PayPal allowed funds to be loaded from a UK sterling debit/credit card in Pesos! The exchange rate would then be applied by the credit/debit card rather than PayPal. All UK credit/debit cards have lower than 4% loading above interbank rate and some even have 0% loading!
I have been using yespinoy who will load smart atm cards, just wondering if any others here have had experiences using them?
No I had not heard of them but that looks like a great service for small amounts and instant, well done sir a great contribution in less than 5 posts I will look into that !
I have not heard of them either and looks like it could be a good service, especially for those with an existing SMART card; it is certainly problematic posting a prepaid UK card to the Philippines!
OK - its cheaper and much easier than say WU or Moneygram. I have never had any problems with them except sometimes Smart are slow to load but generally YP will warn you and their customer service is good. I don't know about an existing Smart card - for Cindy I signed her up with a new one and she completed the documentation herself and pretty soon it arrived in her mail.
And Unionbank EON card is good for Paypal too; I really should get my loved one to change bank accounts!!
The EON card also works in most ATM's over there, they are part of Megalink the largest interbank network in the Phils; we never had any problems with the account in terms of getting cash at ATM's even though there are not that many Unionbank branches. The other thing is the fees for EON are really good, essentially all you are paying is a 350 peso annual fee and a pretty small ATM fee per transaction, daily withdrawal limits appear to have reduced recently to 20,000 but we were able to withdraw 30,000 a day in the past. Just get her to open an additional account with Unionbank rather than changing banks, the account management is all online and while the site can be flaky sometimes it usually works pretty well, it also has online bill payment facilities for things like water, electric and phone. http://www.unionbankph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=918&Itemid=256
You are a mine of information for someone like me, who has visited Philippines just once! I will try and persuade my loved one to an open an account ASAP. It will be useful now and when she comes to the UK. I assume the card cannot overdraw the account? I did find a website that compared all the fees (not just ATM fees) of the major banks in the Philippines and Unionbank was probably the best. I wish I could find a link for that site now.
Just been reading that the EON cyberaccount card costs 12 PHP for each withdrawal at other bank's ATMs but free at Unionbank's ATMs (for the first two withdrawals each month) and 10 PHP subsequently. I think my fiancée has a BDO account and Smart. It seems transfers from Unionbank to BDO are free and that withdrawals using Smart at a BDO ATM are just 2.50 PHP. My fiancee was charged 200 PHP by BDO to withdraw monies from Paypal - 200 PHP she could have saved if she had Unionbank Cyber account and then transferred monies from Cyber account to BDO account! That is well worth paying a 350 Pesos/year fee to have the Unionbank Cyber account!
If she has the Smart already then that seems like a good solution, 2.5 peso sounds pretty good but a twelve peso charge does not bother me, we all pay monthly bank fees in the UK that are just as high if not higher in reality. The Unionbank thing is primarily useful for the fact that it opens up Philippine bank validation as it is the only account that allows you to confirm a bank account with PayPal (at least that was the case when we opened the EON account several years ago) once opened and confirmed by Paypal you can withdraw to pretty much any Philippine bank account you have registered, but as we know, at a price for some of them This yespinoy thing is great because it is instant and cheap, the last instant service we had was iKobo and it was expensive and is now out of business. Oh I forgot to mention Howerd, I did a PayPal transfer last week and made a point of paying attention to the costs, it worked out at about 2 quid cheaper in reality than your estimate calculations from their published figures (for the amounts we were taking about), no idea why as the exchange rate did not do anything weird that day.
Seems I made an error in the 2.50 Pesos charge - that is the charge for transferring monies onto Smart Money Card, the withdrawal is the free at BDO cash machine (I hope I got that right now) My fiancee certainly has not had EON account - I think she verified Paypal account with her BDO account and I think other accounts can do so also. But the EON account does seem the one best suited to Paypal verification and also has no charges for Paypal withdrawal. yespinoy seems rather expensive - it has a 5.5% fee + 50 Pesos. I can find no mention if there is a loading on the exchange rate. I actually commenced an on-line transaction to calculate the Paypal rates, so I am pretty sure it is correct. The Paypal fee is quoted as 2.5% but Paypal's wholesale exchange rate is the interbank rate + 1.4% (I think) - giving it the same loading as the FairFX card. But this wholesale rate is only fixed twice daily, whereas the interbank rate changes constantly. I think that may explain any discrepancies. What options are there to load money directly onto a Smart Card from the UK?
I only found yespinoy after xoom stopped allowing transfers from Europe but I dont know if thats changed. Cindy doesnt have a bank account so its my only best online option, cheaper than WU or Moneygram... I know of no other direct load service...
