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how to transfer money out of the Philippines?

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lou1987
  8/2/2020 21:14 EST

I am in Europe, and broke due to the recession.

My savings are tied up in a Philippine bank account (BPI) due to a prior visit. How can I transfer them to a German bank?

I heard that financial borders have tightened up since 2018. Western Union doesn't work. TransferWise doesn't work. WorldRemit doesn't work. Is that right?

How can I rescue my money? I have a BPI debit card with the international option active, but have run into very disturbing failures. I get the feeling that the banking system in the Philippines is in trouble due to the chaos of COVID-19. How can I get my money out before it collapses?

surfingcebu
  8/2/2020 21:51 EST

Lou - OMG , you put substantial cash into a RP bank ? What one ? how long have yoru banked there. Do you know the manager well ?

Look , I try and tell people that the bank system is on the edge IN GOOD TIMES in the RP ... now , every bank has bad loans coming out of the wood work and near zero liquidity in the RP

Have you call Transferwise and ask hem to phone a transaction for you ( contacting your branch .

The sad reality is yoru bank doesn't have the cash to give you . God help you if you deposited in a "rural Bank " - those are scams for the most part !

Keep your bulk of your money off shore and out of the RP boys and back in the first world - you have a fighting chance then !

Let me know Lou if it is sizeable ( over 5,000 euro's ) .I may have a trim you can pull on the bank !

I keep a small account there ....BUT many just transfer cash to myself and use Master Card, when able .

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Dutchmen2003
  8/2/2020 21:52 EST

GERMANY TIE-UP WITH BPI GEMINI EXPRESS Eckenheimer Landstr 67 60318
Frankfurt, Germany
Tel. No.: (04969) 95530325
Fax No.: (04969) 95530326
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]

coach53
  8/3/2020 04:32 EST

An other problem can be -How did you get the money TO the Philippines?
=Can you PROVE the transfers?
I suppouse you know there are restrictions how much is allowed to transfer out - EXCEPT if you can prove you have transfered in more.

Do you have a CARD connected to that Filipino bank? If so I suppouse you can get some out that way but slow.

ron916
  8/3/2020 08:55 EST

Transferwise worked for me on 6/2/20. I sent $1200 USD to my BPI account and got 60,002.60 PHP.

"The rate for your transfer was 1 USD = 50.5200 PHP."

Has something changed with them?

lou1987
  8/3/2020 18:52 EST

ron916: sending money to the Philippines is easy, the problem is getting it back out again.

Dutchmen2003: thanks, that is the kind of suggestion I need

surfingcebu: yes, it's over €5000. Yes, I totally regret putting money into a Third World Bank now. They have treated me terribly this year. But for 7-8 years they seemed fine. Any more tips would be much appreciated.

coach53: I do have a card, but when COVID-19 broke out, they started ripping me off on undispensed withdrawals. It's been hell.

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LarryKar
  8/3/2020 19:15 EST

Ron the Forex rate is no longer in the 50+ area. Has not been for weeks moments ago it was 49.09.

surfingcebu
  8/3/2020 23:56 EST

Lou- people actually think their money is safe in a RP bank - OMG!! How can they think this . The economy is going under . No exports, no resources exported, NOTHING !

Banks in the RP have near zero loan loss reserves, but a book of 50-60% losses . You do the math. The system WILL IMPLODE SOON. No insurance will help . Look at the emergency Gina Flu fund . Very few people got more than a bag of rice and Rawman noodles . People don’t understand that the RP has been closed for business for a decade and a half now (or more) .

Only China invests in the RP now

Follow the wealth in the RP , we’re do the wealthy bank funnel their assets in the RP ? ....Canada, USA, Switzerland’, and the like - see the pattern? Get it out of the RP ASAP!

coach53
  8/4/2020 06:16 EST

lou
"it's over €5000."
Have they refused to make a money transfer bank to bank? I mean at an amount under the max limit if you can't prove you moved in more. Can you prove it?
Pesos or dollar acount? If I remember corect the max amount to get out without proof is rather much higher for dollars.
((I haven't checked it proper, because after I have moved money to Phils, I plan to stay there myself for ever except visits elsewhere. But I will keep the proof of moved money to Phils anyway if the plan will be changed.))

Banks have foreign banks they cooperate with. If you know, or can get to know which foreign banks your Filipino bank cooperate with, you can perhaps get support from such foreign bank to put pressure at the Fiipino bank. It don't hurt to try anyway.

"when COVID-19 broke out, they started ripping me off on undispensed withdrawals."
Do you mean much raised fees?
Or scam withdrawals by ( officialy) other than the bank?
If fees - How much to move out all your money step by step through ATMs? Perhaps it's worth it to get most of your money?

Metalpipe
  8/5/2020 11:43 EST

In my limited experience (three years in and out of country), I think the thing to remember above all is 'what you bring into the Phil no longer belongs to you'. Not your things and not your money.

surfingcebu
  8/5/2020 12:28 EST

Metal - very astute observation ! and SO TRUE .

ask the hundreds of businesses that were "nationalized or forced-closed" as a result of changes to law .

People still believe putting 20,000 Euro's or dollars in a bank and getting 6-10% 'interest' is a safe bet in the RP = NOT IN YOUR LIFE ! . Even the locals know better . any money over 1000 E, or Dollars should be kept of of country ....just to be safe . Generally accepted accounting principals DO NOT exists in a RP bank .

This is the problem with the RP economics the data is false and laws take away your good. HENCE , China the only investors in any real sense and has hurried DU30 , while he was not looking. The toll HWY into Manila getting built right now is from China money . China has already said its taking resources , as RP has no way to pay back loan , 'gift' and interest of 11% or more . Buried them in debt , as they knew corruption existed they could angle on !

ALL THE GREAT JOBS will never return to the RP in our lives !

BTW - Dont get sucked in to do any private loaning either . Could loose your life ver that ! SOME villages would rather snuff you out than admit that have a loan with your company or person. Just ask the East Indians ( many in scam trade-off loan sharking) have lost their lives ! ( over 200 over the last year and a half so says the local PNP officer .

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surfingcebu
  8/5/2020 14:08 EST

Metal - down get me wrong . the RP has a Great future IF they create a positive economy start natural resource extraction while protecting th environment ( can be done !) , and create internal laws to protect business AND people ( that cannot be change by the next General or government) so they can flourish !

They MUST stay away from China "loans " . China period !

Once this happens it may be OK to bank in the RP ...not until .

coach53
  8/5/2020 21:37 EST

"SOME villages would rather snuff you out than admit that have a loan with your company or person. Just ask the East Indians ( many in scam trade-off loan sharking) have lost their lives ! ( over 200 over the last year and a half so says the local PNP officer ."
Yes. Almost all of the murdered foreigners in a list I saw a few years ago had indian names, so I suppouse loan sharks. But weren't they in cities? The only murdered loan shark I know of where was in Cebu city and Manila has many assassinations.

"Harvest sharing" finansing is much DIFFERENT from loan .sharks though by then the poor EARN by it and LIKE to get it again (if the terms are ok). In difference from loan sharks, where the poor LOSE so they can't get out of the dept trap.
I know some foreigners who have done "Harvest sharing" mainly to support their neighbours. These foreigners have lived many years rural WITHOUT body guards. They have allways been paid except by one once.
One of these foreigners has moved back to Sweden now to get long time medical treatment. He got a very good offer at the land and think of selling (One with his name too at the land title together with wife. Wife own half of that. One in eldest daughter's name.) Left to see if he will get out his money from the Philippines :) (It was long time ago he bought them and he hasn't saved the proves of when he moved in the money. I suppouse he will have to do it in steps.)

surfingcebu
  8/5/2020 22:51 EST

Coach - most 10-5-10 loan guys and girls go missing never repeated as being shot . They just vanish. Really tough business loaning money to people who can’t pay it back.

Much like China ???? loaning money to the Philippines. May actually backfire on China ... maybe . The RP play the long con game with some countries.

coach53
  8/6/2020 09:28 EST

surfing
"Coach - most 10-5-10 loan guys and girls go missing never repeated as being shot . They just vanish. Really tough business loaning money to people who can’t pay it back."

That can explain the list with murdered foreigners almost all indians had around 100 and your source said 200 loan sharks. It's much easier to hide corps rural.
So both infos can be right by the difference don't reach the statistics as murdered.

Yes both tough business and evil to put poor people in dept traps by the terrible high interest. Recounted the very common "5-6" is roughly equal to 480 percent interest per year!!!

I have "reformed" one small loan shark SMILE to finance projects instead were the other win too by how the money is used for earning. And it isn't a loan, it's a temporary business "partnership". I believe, by it's so common, she hadn't thought of the negative effects with "5-6", before I told her. She changed direct after I had told her.

Asawa
  8/7/2020 21:17 EST

Let me try to offer some constructive advice. This is what I would attempt (in order) if I were in your shoes.

First, Have you tried to deal with the BPI World wide branch in Hong Kong?

https://www.bpiexpressonline.com/p/1/394/overseas-location

Address : Shop 114, 1st Floor, Worldwide House, 19 Des Voeux Road, Central Hongkong

Tel. No. : 852) 2522-7105 | (852) 2521-5366

E-mail : [email protected]

Contact Persons :
Stephen I. Go
Charius Voltaire B. Medina

If that doesn't work, have you tried to work with your local Tie-up Branch in the UK? A Tie-up is an agreement between two or more companies or organizations to become business partners. You should be able to accomplish transactions with their local tie-up companies:

https://www.bpiexpressonline.com/p/1/82/tie-up-companies-location


BPI GEMINI EXPRESS

Address :
Eckenheimer Landstr 67 60318 Frankfurt, Germany

Tel. No. : (04969) 95530325

Fax No. : (04969) 95530326


That failing (or perhaps with one of these locations), your next best bet is an ACH (Auto Clearning Hosue )Wire Transfer from BPI to another bank account in your name. The downside is that you probably have to be in the country (at a branch to initiate this, and you are not there). Though, if you can work through the tie-up company in Germany, this might not be so bad.

Alternatively, Try to link up a Paypal account to your BPI account, and transfer the money to yourself via PayPal in $2000 increments ever 15-30 days (whatever the limit is). You can test it with a small transfer like $2.22 and if that works go big.

There are many other things to try. It will just requires some persistent patience, and diligence until you are successful.

Asawa
  8/7/2020 21:21 EST

SurfingCebu made a good point.

Try to see if you can link BPI up as a payment method for a credit card (using ACH Branch Number and your Account Number), and just charge every day expenses on a credit card which you pay off using BPI as a funding source.

That's probably the easiest if it can be done. ACH numbers are easy to find. And you just have to pad your account numbers with leading zeros to the right number of decimal places. (Perhaps adding an "01" or something if they have checking accounts as "01" or "75" a part of the numbering convention).

Figuring that out is a bit picky, but not impossible. It's easier to get help asking how you can setup a BPI account to make payments to your credit card balance.... than to transfer the money out. (It's essentially the same over time, but you are more likely to get someone at BPI to help if there really is a conspiracy).

Good lucK!

coach53
  8/8/2020 07:12 EST

Asawa
Very good post :thums up:

Although this part:
"That failing (or perhaps with one of these locations), your next best bet is an ACH (Auto Clearning Hosue )Wire Transfer from BPI to another bank account in your name."
I guess that don't function at ONE time emptying? because of the max limit you talk about in the alternative after.

surfingcebu
  8/8/2020 10:00 EST

Asawa- thanks bud !

I was think IF he knows the bank manager really well, or one of the gaggle of curies that work in the branches ... you can work them for information on how to get money out, or bonus interest . I took a few out for coffee or bubble tea often . Got bonus interest up to 8.5%, tickets on Cebu pacific, a visa bank card that draws on my account and texts when bank spells come on - all for being friends.

Understand your in a way different culture, if a bank girl gets you 30,000 bonus interest give her a quarter, and understand all RP banks hang by a string of bad loans . HSBC is not RP , but better, but far from being ok- basically a China bank now with more international exposure

I usually use my foreign bank MasterCard- some give bonus cash back for purchases outside of card original city or country. Some even have medical for 3 months and other insurances. ....then I use a bank transfer in canada to pay it off.

Also use Remitly quite a bit for cash . I draw about 15-20k per month on ave .

Don’t leave a huge balance in a RP account.

Best of luck. Here to help like the rest of the guys here .

BTW gold is at 2000/ Troy oz. the RP has 7-10 gold mines ready to go....but won’t let it happen. 300,000 jobs gone paying 20-30/ hour ! Not a normal country.

tombalita1
  8/8/2020 10:37 EST

Surf, I like having the option of not carrying much cash in the P.I. So I deposit as soon as I arrive then hit the ATM whenever I need. Over the years the Union Bank and BPI accounts have grown much to large. After your post about safety, I started withdrawing with my cards from U.S. bank ATM’s on the Cirrus network. Hope the banks there won’t nationalize or freeze finds, but I’m not willing to risk it. Keeping enough in to get through a week or two when I get back.

lou1987
  8/10/2020 12:28 EST

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am working through them.

I need to tell you that the situation has worsened considerably. It's become an emergency for me.

First, I investigated SWIFT transfers. One time BPI Customer Service told me they don't allow outward transfers. Also, if they did, I don't think I would risk it. I've been reading reports. It appears that over the past three or four years the SWIFT system has become unreliable, and many bank customers have lost large amounts of money trying to use it, or spent years chasing missing transfers.

So I decided I would have to use my ATM card to save all my money, even though this would take 30-40 days of withdrawals.

But what is happening is horrific: BPI are denying me money at the ATMs and then deducting it from my account! So far they have stolen about €1050 from my account. This was for two undispensed withdrawals in March and one just today.

Of course I have been phoning and emailing them all the time. They have stopped responding to my emails. When I manage to get through to them by phone, they mess me around: "Sure... we'll return the money in 7 days... sure, we'll return the money in 14 days... sure, we'll return the money in 45 days...." They have never returned it.

COVID-19 has not been controlled in the Philippines: cases continue to grow exponentially. It seems to me that BPI and other banks could be facing terrible cashflow problems as everybody tries to get their money out. It really scares me that all my BPI money could be lost. Does anybody know if there is actually a "run on the banks" situation in the Philippines right now? The newspapers say nothing except that BPI had massive layoffs in May.

Again, I'm in Germany/Switzerland, so going in to a BPI branch is not an option for me. I emailed Gemini Express and Reynaldo said he couldn't help me. They only do transfers to the Philippines, not from it. It's a common refrain.

I have very little savings left: BPI was an emergency savings fund I didn't think I'd need, but this year has been terrible. And now they are stealing my money. That is why this is so difficult.

Gingert76
  8/10/2020 13:13 EST

wow that sounds bloody awful, hope it all works out for you sooner rather than later

coach53
  8/10/2020 13:39 EST

lou
"So far they have stolen about €1050 from my account. This was for two undispensed withdrawals in March and one just today."
Oh!

"It really scares me that all my BPI money could be lost. "
Well. If not the government guarantee go bankruptcy, you are guaranteed all up to - (if I remember corect amount which I believe I do) - 500 000 pesos at your acount.

LarryKar
  8/10/2020 21:37 EST

Lou1987 Have you tried contacting Customer Service at BPI Corporate? No idea why you would be having this issue unless someone at a Branch is scamming you. No run on the banks that i hear of and around here the gossip would be flying. As i posted before we bank at PNB and recently had a large transfer from wife's family in Canada for some family projects. Not a jaw dropping amount but a substantial amount of cash plus our personal normal monthly moving around of our funds. Not one moment of hesitation on the part of PNB.

surfingcebu
  8/10/2020 23:30 EST

Larry - im glad your personal experience and money came through .

The fact remains , the economic status of the RP is on teh edge of the abyss . Any economist would tell you this , as well as there is no truthful economic data available in the rp for years ! ...thats how close they are to the abyss !

Asawa
  8/11/2020 11:03 EST

For international transfer SWIFT is the equivalent of ACH. I'm sorry for all the trouble this is causing you, but I will take your cautions to heart.

If you are facing 30-40 withdraws, perhaps try to find locations that minimize the fees. And figure out the rules on frequency. (IE: Must be 24hrs apart from the prior.... or once every calendar day that resets at midnight).

I suspect you'll be an expert at how frequently you can repeat the transactions before long.

In the US, I think it's a rolling 24-hr rule, so you might want to setup a weekly routine to stagger them by 30min across Monday-Saturday and skip Sunday to reset. Like:

Monday 5:30pm
Tuesday 6:00pm
Wednesday 6:30pm
Thursday 7:00pm
Friday 7:30pm
Saturday 8:00pm
Sunday (Skip so Monday can go back to 5:30pm.)

Hopefully you can get it all taken care of within 45 days. Sorry for difficulty.

lou1987
  8/15/2020 06:51 EST

Thanks Asawa. Sounds like you have done this before.

I managed to do a couple of withdrawals. Then they blocked the card. Now they appear to have cancelled it entirely.

They really *really* do not want money leaving the country.

What are the odds of having them send me one of the new EMV cards? I strongly suspect they will say branch only. And they are not responding to emails, and hardly at all to phone.

coach53
  8/15/2020 10:56 EST

Perhaps to early to coontact Banc Sentral
- but perhaps time to THREATH your bank you will contact them SMILE if they don't stop misstreating you.

http://www.bsp.gov.ph/

surfingcebu
  8/15/2020 11:09 EST

Lou - few believe me when I say the banking system is near collapse . HUGE RISK ! .

I don take any pride or happiness in saying this ....its just a fact . the whole economy is in very bad shape. Gold at 2000 a Troy Oz. and not real push to get some foreign mines in operation and make it 1st whole environmental standards .

the future of banking and liquidity does not look good for the next few year at least /.

One thing that would help would be 3-4 foreign ( American?) bases . They inject massive amounts of money in the economy and is needed right now with the incursion of the Chinese in their waters and Islands . Easy and quick to set up and will provide soem injection of cash and secondary industries . Then, they need to start extracting resources , responsibly for SOME jobs !!!!

LarryKar
  8/15/2020 18:47 EST

Surf this is why Phil banks are acting so tight fisted. Until this is resolved if I were a Philippine Banker I would be acting very conservitive until this idiot idea is resolved.
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippine-banks-warn-of-82-billion-cash-squeeze-on-delay-of-loan-payments-155610639.html

lou1987
  8/15/2020 20:33 EST

coach53: thanks for the suggestion. In fact I already just wrote a long letter to Bangko Sentral, explaining everything and saying that if people could not rely on ATMs it was likely to cause a panic.

This was after five months of wrangling with BPI, and they have basically stopped communicating with me, so no I don't think it is too early.

Something they never told me about at all was this changeover to the EMV card system. It looks like their IT problems here are a big part of it. But it is also very convenient for them that during an economic crisis they introduce a lot of bureaucracy which enables them to block funds to customers at random, especially foreigners.

They have deactivated my debit card, so that means all my savings are gone unless I get one of these EMV things and that's entirely at their discretion. There's a long string of hoops to jump through on my part. Apparently the first step is to get an Authorized Representative in the Philippines. Has anybody been down this route, and can advise? Or is it just another scam?

coach53
  8/16/2020 06:32 EST

lou
All biger banks and some of the smaller pay an "insurance" fee to having their customers's acounts GUARANTEED up to 500 000pesos (if I remember the max amount corect.)

I don't know what happen if the biger banks can't pay, so the insurance fund get out of money, but I believe it's suppoused to be guaranteed by the government.

surfingcebu
  8/16/2020 09:57 EST

Larry- interesting article.thank fir the read .
The whole Philippines economy is at jeopardy of collapse.. yes it’s that bad. The political elite have made tons of money of this “emergency “ . As usual in the RP people suffer, in perpetual lockdown.
I pray people power returns so families can feed themselves.
My gosh the RP sit on 4-5 gold mines with thousands of jobs and do nothing!!! So underhanded!!!

surfingcebu
  8/16/2020 12:50 EST

Coach - you right about the loan insurance fund per account , for clients . HOWEVER - they dont use GAAP when calculating its solvency - so ITS ANYBODYS GUESS IN WHAT SHAPE ITS IN.

I have a shiny new 1000P bill for a bet to say the account insurance that the banks hold is not sustaining ...and could NOT respond in full if massive bank closures occur . Your talking about the RP here boys . Insrance is a fuzzy logic concept . Look at your Registration and "insurance that comes with it ....anybody ever had a claim pay from the government side ? Likely not ! Brokers dont even have claims forms for it .

fools gold , if you depend it the bank account insurance to pay ....

Surf !

coach53
  8/16/2020 14:32 EST

surf
"I have a shiny new 1000P bill for a bet to say the account insurance that the banks hold is not sustaining "
I wrote a bit in same direction, so I don't bet against SMILE

surfingcebu
  8/16/2020 21:04 EST

Coach the account insurance a sham !!! It’s not self sustainable in a collapsing economy. They insure the odd rural bank to show they are “real” , but when the hammer falls there will be nothing to sustain 6-100 +++ million bank accounts .

Do you actually think insurance works in the RP ? Governance is corrupt as heck! Sorry to say .

Surf

coach53
  8/17/2020 05:28 EST

surf
"Do you actually think insurance works in the RP ?"
PhilHealth insurance has functioned at least before covid. Any change?

Historical about the bank guarantee - I don't know. Haven't it paid when small CONNECTED banks have went bankruptcy? Or haven't any of the connected ones went bankruptcy?
It would be a big problem for the COUNTRY if the bank system fail, so I suppouse the gocernment would try to save it - if possible. But as you I doubt the Philippines would manage to solve biger banks going bankruptcy. The politicians didn't think when suggesting loan payment reliefe for PEOPLE because of covid OR have they compensated the banks for that? The banks are very short of cash now anyway.

- -
"Governance is corrupt as heck!"
Yes. But some report - before covid - it was/is some reduced I suppouse by more officials started thinking if they dare to act corrupt, after Duterte fired the highest bosses over both LTO and the custom, as well as some police bosses. Duterte had a long list of corrupt police, judges and politicians to be checked more, but I don't know if any of them got fired. He tried - succeeded? - to delay the local elections to get time to stop the worst local corrupted.
Any insight about this more than the "reports" I got before covid?

lou1987
  8/17/2020 13:35 EST

Hi Asawa, looking back over all the info, that was an interesting idea you had about linking up my BPI account to a Paypal account. But I don't understand how it works. Surely I would need to authorize the link in some way with a PIN or password? And what would that be? I have the same question for the idea of using BPI as a credit card's payment source.

It might be worth a try, though I suspect BPI will try to block it. They have blocked everything else.

lou1987
  8/17/2020 13:35 EST

Hi Asawa, looking back over all the info, that was an interesting idea you had about linking up my BPI account to a Paypal account. But I don't understand how it works. Surely I would need to authorize the link in some way with a PIN or password? And what would that be? I have the same question for the idea of using BPI as a credit card's payment source.

It might be worth a try, though I suspect BPI will try to block it. They have blocked everything else.

ron916
  8/17/2020 14:46 EST

So essentially what you're saying is that a Philippine bank has your American dollars in their holdings but refuse to let you get it back in bulk?

The Philippine economy must really be in trouble then.

lou1987
  8/17/2020 14:57 EST

Yes ron916, that's what we think. The Philippines economy is in trouble. I think all 3rd world economies could be headed over a cliff because COVID-19 has increased exponentially there without a break.

Remember Argentina, Venezuela, Russia, etc. I posted on a Pinoy board and they are very complacent, but they haven't been in this situation before. In a way I feel more sorry for them than for myself. OK that's not true.

By the way, my account is in pesos not dollars. That makes it even more difficult to get the money out.

surfingcebu
  8/17/2020 20:57 EST

Ron - its reported the RP has a 45% unemployment rate now , highest even , so its safe to say its at about 60-75% now .

Yes the banks are in jeopardy of collapsing - no Pinoy 'insurance scheme' will keep it afloat . Could you imagine 100 Million ++ bank accounts to insure - Good luck with that . We are NOT talking swtizeland here . Manila is No Geneva . So many bad loans now that banks are doctoring books.

Youtube Phil-health corruption hearings , just to get a flavour of what banks are up to in the RP .

Americans/Europeans put there money into a "bank" because they model the ideal from home . Your home bank is NOTHING ,like a RP 'Bank' . DONT leave a big deposit in there . anything more than 1000 - 2000 Euro's / 2500 dollars is pushing the limits of loosing it all !

So many rural banks 'pop-off ' with regularity . I love when they cant find the managers or chief CFO - yep missing , and blank gone under - plenty of those stories ....

Be safe ( safer anyway ) bank at home for the most part . Use a wire service like Remitly or the like and west credit card .

Peace !

Surf !

lou1987
  8/20/2020 14:43 EST

So, Asawa, you had the interesting Paypal idea.

I tried to link my Paypal account to BPI. The BPI routing number is 010040018 according to information online. Paypal asks for 8 digits so I put in 10040018. But then Paypal says, "We couldn't find the name of your bank". Weird. I think other people have got this to work. Any ideas?

coach53
  8/21/2020 04:37 EST

lou
You told the bank have taken your card and haven't send a new. Don't PayPal demand connecting with a card?
(They did back when I registered 10+ years ago. )

lou1987
  8/22/2020 06:44 EST

No, I'm in Germany, and it looks like PayPal doesn't work so well here as in the US.

I will have to get an "Authorized Representative" to pick up my card. I used to live in Davao, but it was so long ago I've lost contact with my friends. So who can I use as an Authorized Representative with BPI? Is this role accepted by an attorney?

west11
  8/27/2020 04:40 EST

How do you get money through Remitly from a U.S. bank if you are in the Philippines? What about opening an account at Citi bank in Manila? Are they at risk like the Philippine banks?

surfingcebu
  8/27/2020 11:24 EST

West - good question on Citi bank . write there public info line - have it in writing , what controls the RP Govt places upon the bank and is the company wholly owned in the RP as opposed to partnership . If partnership shay away from bank ( but I doubt it ) ....should be a safe bet on USA bank BUT do yoru home work . A. USA or Canadian Bank is better- IF they are independent , but the branches will be few .... I stay there for 6-8 moths at a time sometimes and rarely need a bank account . I have cards , credit card , and so on .

never carry large amounts of cash in the RP - goes without saying . safe keep yoru 5-10K cash at home .

On remitly, I use them quite a bit, just request the funds and pick up the money . its easy . there is a daily maximum that can be increased if required too !

Peace be with you ...

Surf

Asawa
  8/27/2020 11:55 EST

Agree. Most remittance to the Philippines is one way (in). You can fund bank accounts with remittance sources. You can't fund remittance sources with bank accounts.

Funny thing is, that if you reside outside the Philippines (typically in the US) and you set it up before going... you can keep using those sources.

I've come to this analogy:
Philippines Banks are like those "Roach Motels" for remittances.

Remember the ad? Roaches go in, but they check out? Money seems to be largely the same.

lou1987
  10/30/2020 00:42 EST

I thought people might be interested to know how this story ended. Yes, I did manage to rescue my money from the crooked bank -- after a huge effort.

Things reached a crisis point in August. My financial situation was getting so desperate that I told my family about it. Then my brother came up with a clever idea. Move the money out of the account using Bitcoin. Yes, there are local Filipinos who will sell you Bitcoin for pesos on forums like paxful and binance. Once you have your BTC, you can convert it to EUR or USD or whatever you like. That is because cryptocurrency is the new International Currency. That is one of the things that make it so powerful.

Anyway, I know this makes it all sound so easy and simple. Believe me it wasn't! BPI had locked my account even for local transfers. It took literally dozens of emails and phone calls before they would unlock it even for this. I even had to get the regulator BSP involved. Only under all this intense pressure would BPI unlock my account -- and just for local transfers. But once I had that, and I'd figured out the crypto trick, I was able to empty out the account by making transfers every day for two weeks. Phew, what a relief!

By the way, the Customer Service at BPI was insane and atrocious, even by bank standards. At every step of the way they tried to deceive me, to obstruct me, and to lead me down long and fruitless paths, so that I wouldn't be able to get any money out of the country. For instance there was that idea about getting a replacement EMV card using a local Authorized Representative. I pursued that path for a long time using a friend I had in the Philippines. But it turns out BPI won't do anything for a foreigner unless you sent them lots of documents by post -- yes by post -- and, as I discovered, the postal system in the Philippines has totally broken down. Since COVID-19 they don't deliver anything any more, so that idea was a complete waste of time.

Anyway, I did the crypto trick and finally asked BPI to close my account. I bet they were surprised when they looked at my account balance and saw it was zero. I'd won!

But only after a Herculean struggle. Absolutely never again will I entrust my money to a Third World Bank.

I hope this account helps someone else who is trying to rescue their money.

surfingcebu
  10/30/2020 01:24 EST

Lou, sad to say your story is not so abnormal in a third or fourth world country banking system. They are underdeveloped for a reason- total financial corruption and self suicide is two trends of many.
Glad you were able to out smart the Con. Many are not so lucky.

Surf.

tombalita1
  10/30/2020 08:17 EST

Lou, I read several before seeming to say there is no problem with the Philippine banking system and that anyone with a problem, it was of their own doing. Thanks for posting this, especially for those who are new to the Philippines. But even for those long time expats, many things can go wrong, so beware! Tom

hollis811
  11/8/2020 01:41 EST

That's what he is trying to do. He's asking for advice. Thanks for your comment, but no help!!

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