Sending Money To The Philippines

[ezzra]

Hi,

I use to send money to my friend in the Philippines using xoom people but now they have stopped

their service and i had to do it with Western union having to go to one of their brunches,

Is there any other similar service that one can send money worldwide, online, using PayPal

or credit cards? ( except western union)

Thanks,

[Penefattore]

open a new bank account in Thailand and send your friend the ATM card. Then fill up the bank account with the amount you wish to give him , he will just take it out of any ATM in the Phils. Charges should be 100 baht + exchange commissions only.

[ezzra]

open a new bank account in Thailand and send your friend the ATM card. Then fill up the bank account with the amount you wish to give him , he will just take it out of any ATM in the Phils. Charges should be 100 baht + exchange commissions only.

Thanks, that could be a good idea if the receiver were a close family member,

I was looking for more on-line arrangements, like using credit cards or Pay-pal.

[tropo]

open a new bank account in Thailand and send your friend the ATM card. Then fill up the bank account with the amount you wish to give him , he will just take it out of any ATM in the Phils. Charges should be 100 baht + exchange commissions only.

Thanks, that could be a good idea if the receiver were a close family member,

I was looking for more on-line arrangements, like using credit cards or Pay-pal.

If you travel to the Philippines you could open an account there and transfer money from your account to the beneficiary accounts visa internet transfers. Of course the beneficiaries would need to have bank accounts.

I'm enquiring with an online service which maybe able to help you. I will report back here if they can oblige. There are a lot of Filipinos working in Thailand who need to send money back to their families, so I'm sure there will be a cheap way to do this.

Edited May 27, 2010 by tropo

[ron195400]

open a new bank account in Thailand and send your friend the ATM card. Then fill up the bank account with the amount you wish to give him , he will just take it out of any ATM in the Phils. Charges should be 100 baht + exchange commissions only.

Thanks, that could be a good idea if the receiver were a close family member,

I was looking for more on-line arrangements, like using credit cards or Pay-pal.

If you travel to the Philippines you could open an account there and transfer money from your account to the beneficiary accounts visa internet transfers. Of course the beneficiaries would need to have bank accounts.

I'm enquiring with an online service which maybe able to help you. I will report back here if they can oblige. There are a lot of Filipinos working in Thailand who need to send money back to their families, so I'm sure there will be a cheap way to do this.

[ron195400]

hi i had the same problem , so what i do now is put load on there cell phone , up 1000ps , and then they sell to there friends or what ever , or more ps if you want, saves all the extra charges and keeps them interested, i do through ebay and never had probs , just dont forget to add the cell ph no, http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/g3gohu?_nkw=load

i think this is the site and there are others as well

cheers

paul

[fiercesnake]

Have the same problem. Xoom was great, but now have to travel all the way into the city to send and get passport out etc. You can't do Western Union online in Thailand and Moneygram is the other rip-off option, again slow old manual expensive processes.

I sent the ATM card trick but it never arrived (Philippines, what do you expect!?) Then the bank wouldn't issue me another one, the usual Mai dai - no cannot. I can't be bothered to push this as I know they can but sometimes just get so sick and tired of hearing mai dai that I just walk away now as soon as they start.

You can send direct to her (it'll be a "her", won't it!) account in PNB or other well known Pinoy banks, where costs you only B350 transfer fee here and a small charge for international deposits on the Philippine end, ahh BUT this is where the problem lies-NO bank in Thailand has ANY links with ANY bank in the Philippines. Think it has to do directly with cultural hatred of Filipinos in general as even the street rate for cash exchange is bizarre. This means that on top of the Thai's bank commission, the Phil bank's international deposit fee, the Phil bank will then levy a whopping extra fee of at least over P2000 on top of your fees already paid ! This is because SWIFT does not work as normal from Thailand to the Philippines. They must use an international agent to transfer, usually Chase Manhattan in New York (yeah no joke). The whopping extra charge is NOT the Thais or Pinoys, its the American agent's fees which you don't know about. Don't pay the extra to "cut the fees paid at the other end", it won't work either and trying to get your money back on that is virtually impossible.

Hence unless new procedures have been invoked VERY recently, with banking agreements being set up between the Philippines and Thailand you are stuck with the annoying old manual WU or Moneygram system. Anyone else who knows something better would be highly appreciated.

[tropo]

Think it has to do directly with cultural hatred of Filipinos in general as even the street rate for cash exchange is bizarre.

I've never heard of this "cultural hatred" you speak of. Could you be more specific?

Until I read your comment I've always thought that relations between the 2 countries were friendly.

Philippine-Thailand diplomatic relations

Overview of Philippines - Thailand relations

My Filipino wife has been living with me in Thailand for over 4 years and we've never experienced this "cultural hatred" you speak of, nor have any of her Filipino friends.

[fiercesnake]

Think it has to do directly with cultural hatred of Filipinos in general as even the street rate for cash exchange is bizarre.

I've never heard of this "cultural hatred" you speak of. Could you be more specific?

Until I read your comment I've always thought that relations between the 2 countries were friendly.

Philippine-Thailand diplomatic relations

Overview of Philippines - Thailand relations

My Filipino wife has been living with me in Thailand for over 4 years and we've never experienced this "cultural hatred" you speak of, nor have any of her Filipino friends.

Both websites quoted are politically correct references. One from the Embassy, and guess what they paint a rosy picture. What diplomatic embassy points out all the negatives between nations? It is their job to foster a happy picture to encourage trade between nations and to promote necessary ties between the countries when minor or major incidents occur. This also encourages tourism both ways and helps to maintain good political interactions. The relationship on a national basis is conducive to trade but unfortunately you are living in a very racist country.

This is mirrored even in the massive discrepancy between the interbank rate and the street rate for the peso. Really don't change your Baht to Peso directly in cash; you will lose in a big way! With cash transactions buy US dollars with Baht in Thailand and then sell US dollars on the street (with extreme caution) in the Philippines for best conversions. Do the Maths you'll believe me when you do the exercise.

Unfortunately Thais have an underlying xenophobic relationship with the rest of the world. In the banned “King and I” with Yul Brunner, which by the way used an Hungarian as a Thai, displaying how ignorant Hollywood was at the time, and just one of many reasons why it was so offensive to the Thai aristocracy; the globe used shows the map of Thailand bigger than the USA. This has been an on running joke to this day but is still indicative of how insular most Thais are to the rest of the world. They have never been colonised, and to some degree the feeling is that this was due to their superior warrior nation and superior political skills. Really it had more to do with Siam being used as a buffer between French and British colonial powers and Rama IV and V developing excellent relationships with their counterparts in Europe. This is Thailand through and through. The general feeling is they are way more important than Cambodians, Lao, Burmese and Filipinos.

You should ask your Filipino friends to compare their wages with their useless Thai counterparts in the places they work and you’ll find that the average Filipino is way more educated for a start, can speak way better English (makes Thai even more jealous), and will be given all the slackest jobs, be asked to work a lot more and paid a fraction of the same amount. Meantime the Thais will all go off to lunch together, have their snack time together and leave the one competent Filipino behind in the office to do pretty much everything that is just too hard for them. Start talking with Filipinos if this is not the case. I’ve never met one that has been treated as an equal to the Thais. Though try those dirty little Cambodians! OMG, they have no chance if Pinoys have it bad they’ve got it worse as well as the Burmese, especially as most of them are illegally here anyway.

Really if you have not felt the xenophobic nature of Thailand then read between the lines of their major English speaking newspapers and even numerous comments from vast numbers of farangs on Thai Visa and then tell me that the culture does not tend towards a xenophobic approach. Really talk with your Filipino friends if they are working and ask them do they feel fairly treated by comparison to their Thai equivalent. Maybe they haven’t mentioned as Pinoys tend to be polite and just put up with a load of rot so not to complain, comparing how it could have been back home for them. Interesting to know what employ your wife has here.

Yes Thais are polite but underneath the superficial smile, there is mixed reaction to anybody not Thai. This is Thailand for Thais, not “Farang Land” or “Pinoy Land”! I’m very surprised you have not experienced at least some racist undertones with your Filipino wife here; either you are lucky or non-discerning of the underlying subtleties involved in Thai culture. Anyway I was hoping someone had found an alternative to Xoom but to this end it looks like the thread has reached a dead end-groan! More Western Union-double groan!

[scorecard]

I presume 'zoom' is/was a more informal set-up, rather than linked into mainstream international banking.

I'm aware that in Singapore there are numerous similar set ups and they mostly operate out of one low-end shopping mall on Beach Road.

I wonder whether there are more 'agencies' than just 'zoom' on Thailand, why not contact the Phils. embassy or one of the Phils. community 'clubs / associations' in Thailand for more possibilities.

[My Friend Same]

I literally had hundreds of filipino "friends" try and scam cash from me using this zoom thing. I used to play with them and say I had 200K USD in credit cards (which I do). They'd go wild and tell me to sign up for ZOOM. What happened to xoom? no filipino ever got a baht of my cash though cause it was always a scam. Thais yes I've given cash to no prob. I say just send her a credit card to use as she pleases

[tropo]

I used to play with them and say I had 200K USD in credit cards (which I do).

That must have been a lot of fun, playing with your hundreds of Filipino friends.

Most Filipino communities around the world have money transfer services available. You're just going to have to tune in and find out who's doing it.