Remitly vs Xoom: Which one is better?

dadof3at1ce wrote:

For calls, right now we use Vonage as a landline, another Voip service. $50 a month for 3000 minutes. We also use a lot of facebook messenger since we have wireless at our place there. Plus its nice to see a face along with hearing the voice.I will have to check out Ooma later on.

You can ditch the $50 a month if you get Oooma, check it out, you will own the unit, only monthly charges is your states telephone tax. No monthly fees for Ooma. I see Amazon has them for less than $100. Unlimited calls and to from the states.

I am a bit confused. According to the website, all calls in the US are free but to call the Philippines it would cost 21 cents per minute. They have international plans, but the Philippines is not on the list of countries covered by them. What am I missing?

dadof3at1ce wrote:

I am a bit confused. According to the website, all calls in the US are free but to call the Philippines it would cost 21 cents per minute. They have international plans, but the Philippines is not on the list of countries covered by them. What am I missing?

The secret in avoiding those fees is when you set up Ooma register it with your stateside number.

I bought it in the states, signed up with one of their numbers and transferred and then transferred my old landline number (it was a real landline, hard wired not voip) for a $35 fee.

I packed the Ooma Telo in my baggage and just plugged  into my router when arriving in the Philippines. Bingo it worked! I wasn't expecting it to work but it did to my surprise.

Now that you are in the Philippines, if you want a Ooma Telo, just buy it and ship it to someone  in the states to hook it up and register it online, or follow the instructions on hooking it up. They will give you a choice of numbers, even allow you to use and have two different numbers. Then get it shipped to you.

Just today I had to call Citibank to register a new debit card which had a new expiration date, I had to have the new card  re-mailed to me, about $50 FedEx.

Makes perfect sense, especially if you are using  a VPN. Good info!

dadof3at1ce wrote:

Makes perfect sense, especially if you are using  a VPN. Good info!

I understand you are now in the Philippines or you are still in the states?

I have ProtonVPN (Free) but you don't need the VPN in order to use Ooma. I only use the VPN when I'm blocked from certain sites. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) when keeping touch about the Steelers football team.

I am in the states. I am 53, and don't plan on retiring until I can draw my 401k and IRA in 6 years.  In the meantime we are saving all we can. We have had our place built in Bacong for a few years, and want to add on a few more things before we are done, including a pool and a small building that will house my library, a couple pieces of exercise equipment, and a pool table. We re about 75% debt free right now and that is a huge help for us to achieve our goals. We will never be rich, but we should be able to have enough that we don't have to worry, barring a major disaster.

dadof3at1ce wrote:

I am in the states. I am 53, and don't plan on retiring until I can draw my 401k and IRA in 6 years.  In the meantime we are saving all we can. We have had our place built in Bacong for a few years, and want to add on a few more things before we are done, including a pool and a small building that will house my library, a couple pieces of exercise equipment, and a pool table. We re about 75% debt free right now and that is a huge help for us to achieve our goals. We will never be rich, but we should be able to have enough that we don't have to worry, barring a major disaster.

Ok, now I can get on the same page as you. You can buy the Ooma, set it up with a stateside number and then send it in your next balikbayan to the Philippines.

They can call you "Free". If you want to call them from the states set up a schedule by email for them to call you.

Ooma? Most websites can detect VPN's nowadays.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

Ooma? Most websites can detect VPN's nowadays.

I do not use a VPN with Ooma, it works fine on Sky my internet provider and previously with PLDT.

What is Ooma?

Ooma is an internet based telephone service. Depending on your home country, it could save you money on international calling rates.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

What is Ooma?

Ooma Telo is a stand alone (voip) voice over internet protocol. It is a unit (less than $100 on Amazon) that you purchase and own that makes calls from the states to anyone else in the states.

You can transfer your landline number for $35 to your Oooma Telo or they will provide up to two phone numbers in the area code you choose.

You plug the unit into your computer or router. Then you plug your telephone into the unit. The only further billing is the actual telephone tax, state and federal, the amount depends on what area code. Mine runs $3 or $4 dollars per month that Ooma pays from my charge card monthly. I've been using Ooma for over five years saving hundreds of dollars compared to the telephone company I had in Las Vegas.

I was able to transfer my landline phone number, my phone company released it. I wanted to transfer my wifes phone number but her cell phone provider refused to release it.

Now when I moved to the Philippines I packed it in my luggage. Setting up my laptop, I plugged my Ooma into the router. Bingo, I got a dial tone from the states. I can make unlimited calls from the Philippines to the states.  The receiving party if they look at their caller id it shows my original number.

Now because of the difference in time zones, I set up incoming calls to go straight to the Ooma online answering machine. The phone was ringing in the middle of the night here in the Philippines.

If there is a message Ooma has a blinking light to let me know. Also they email me the voice mail in an attachment, also I can sign in online to hear the voicemail.

Online there is a call log of all incoming and outgoing calls. I will call back the numbers I don't know, 99% of the time it is spam, so I designate the call as Spam and choose from some canned messages provided by Ooma. The one that I use is: The number you have called is not in service.

Today I sent $1,000 via Remitly and my wife sent $1,000 via Xoom. Xoom charged $4.99 and the pickup amount was P47,969. Remitly charged $0 and the pickup amount was P48,380. On this day there was a clear winner.

Just out of curiosity, I checked remitly versus wise, because I hadn't used remitly before. I was surprised it was as close as it was. I used $700 as that has been the amount I had been sending the last couple transfers. Remitly had an exchange rate of 48.5 if sending via pickup or 49.05 if transfer to a bank account giving the receiver of  a transfer 34,333 peso with the higher rate. $1000 gave them 49047 peso. On Wise, the same $700 gave them 34673.82 peso, and $1000 gave them 49556.41 peso. So on bank to bank transfers Wise wins, but not by much. Incidently I checked Xoom, and they had an exchange rate of 47.87 giving the receiver 47873.60 peso. I think I may have found a new backup to Wise. The 1200 peso difference is nothing to sneeze at. I can always use the extra $20+ dollars.

If you want to use Remitly let me recommend you and we both get $15.

In order to use services such as Remitly you just need the recipients bank account details, correct?

Parvaze wrote:

In order to use services such as Remitly you just need the recipients bank account details, correct?

We use Remitly a lot lately. You can send directly to BDO-Banco De Oro or BPI-Bank of the Philippine Islands using the name and acct number. The recipient can also collect the cash from Cebuana Lhuilier kiosks. Those are the more popular establishments they can collect the money from.

Great, thanks for the info. Sounds like the simplist/cheapest way to send funds. Thanks all!

company that disappoints and you risk wasting time, money and nerves, I do not recommend !!

company that disappoints and you risk wasting time, money and nerves, I do not recommend !!

Remitly company that disappoints and you risk wasting time, money and nerves, I do not recommend !!

Remitly company that disappoints and you risk wasting time, money and nerves, I do not recommend !!

I switched to Remitly also about a year ago to send monthly to my fiancee... Easy, secure, and no hassles for her to collect.

Wise people use WISE.

after the transfer is canceled, it is written in 10 days, it returns the money, 1.5 months have passed and .... nothing

I will be checking that out... thanks

Based on what I've researched the two most people are using are Wise & Remitly

Correct Wise and/or Remitly will work.  I use both .. have one for the back up and use it accordingly. my2c

@Moon Dog

Y'all must be Aussies. Otherwise that would be horrible.

   $1000 USD is 55,533 PHP. If I send $1000 through MoneyGram to my wife's account from my debit card and deposit it through her debit card the total for me is $1001.99 and she will receive 54,919. If I use Western Union it will cost me $1002.99 and she will receive 54,749.

    @Moon Dog
Y'all must be Aussies. Otherwise that would be horrible.
   $1000 USD is 55,533 PHP. If I send $1000 through MoneyGram to my wife's account from my debit card and deposit it through her debit card the total for me is $1001.99 and she will receive 54,919. If I use Western Union it will cost me $1002.99 and she will receive 54,749.
   

    -@nickfisher0640

Did you happen to notice the date on the post you are responding to? That was 2 1/2 years ago.

    dadof3at1ce wrote:I am a bit confused. According to the website, all calls in the US are free but to call the Philippines it would cost 21 cents per minute. They have international plans, but the Philippines is not on the list of countries covered by them. What am I missing?
The secret in avoiding those fees is when you set up Ooma register it with your stateside number. I bought it in the states, signed up with one of their numbers and transferred and then transferred my old landline number (it was a real landline, hard wired not voip) for a $35 fee.I packed the Ooma Telo in my baggage and just plugged  into my router when arriving in the Philippines. Bingo it worked! I wasn't expecting it to work but it did to my surprise.Now that you are in the Philippines, if you want a Ooma Telo, just buy it and ship it to someone  in the states to hook it up and register it online, or follow the instructions on hooking it up. They will give you a choice of numbers, even allow you to use and have two different numbers. Then get it shipped to you.Just today I had to call Citibank to register a new debit card which had a new expiration date, I had to have the new card  re-mailed to me, about $50 FedEx.
   

    -@Enzyte Bob

I did exactly as you did but with magic jack. Later I found that magic jack is not good for text 2FA, however I was fortunate to learn that Google Voice, which I setup based on my magicjack US landline number, happens to work every time for 2FA (so far). Have you tried Ooma with 2FA? If it works for some people at least, that means it may have the right VoIP text interface (a certain type like Google Voice must be using) that works for most 2FA texts and I may try to use it as a backup. As I recall, Ooma can accept text messages (or the PC version of it can).

    @Moon Dog
Y'all must be Aussies. Otherwise that would be horrible.
   $1000 USD is 55,533 PHP. If I send $1000 through MoneyGram to my wife's account from my debit card and deposit it through her debit card the total for me is $1001.99 and she will receive 54,919. If I use Western Union it will cost me $1002.99 and she will receive 54,749.
   

    -@nickfisher0640

His transactions were in 2021, American living in West Virginia currently.

@Moon Dog

Oh ok. So xoom charged $4.99 plus 2k on the back end. Remitly charged about 1.7k. Geez, wonder what they charge now. That's a lot.

$1000 USD was about 49.9-50k back then.

    @Moon Dog
Y'all must be Aussies. Otherwise that would be horrible.
   $1000 USD is 55,533 PHP. If I send $1000 through MoneyGram to my wife's account from my debit card and deposit it through her debit card the total for me is $1001.99 and she will receive 54,919. If I use Western Union it will cost me $1002.99 and she will receive 54,749.
   

    -@nickfisher0640

I never used MoneyGram but I used to use Western Union all the time, Then I signed up for Remitly and with the speed, convenience and ease of use I have used it 100% of the time and never looked back. Remittances from remitly can be picked up anywhere including any bank, LBC, Palawan, the Lhullier businesses and just about any other pero padala. With Remitly you can also load your maya and Gcash accounts very easily and quickly. You can transfer money to private bank accounts such as Siquijor power coop to pay bills, to nephew to pay for store merchandise or other people running small businesses. If I pick the remittance up myself, I use Remitly to Lhullier (they which are much cleaner and less crowded and maybe more numerous than palawan). Usually I still use an ATM card with my USA bank but I may get used to just sending the money to Lhullier as I get sick of dealing with expired debit cards and their expense. I might use wise or even maya for alternative debit cards as needed. When you have remitly or wise, transferring is very natural... with western union and MoneyGram, their old style process also works but seems rather clumsy.

I am in wise and I will probably use it as a checking account and ATM debit card bank, someday.

Five years ago I had to pay utility bills by driving to the utility offices, standing in line and then paying, hoping some guard puts me up front because I am a senior. Americans back home had a hard time believing that lol.

That all ended during the pandemic.

Now all my bills are paid online, transferring money directly using remitly or transferring remitly to Maya or gcash and then paying utilities (electric, water, internet etc) directly from pay-bill  interfaces on those apps. I might be able to get all that to work with western union but it would be difficult. Of course you easily make personal payment to people who have gcash and Maya accounts.

nickfisher 0640 said . . . . $1000 USD is 55,533 PHP. If I send $1000 through MoneyGram to my wife's account from my debit card and deposit it through her debit card the total for me is $1001.99 and she will receive 54,919. If I use Western Union it will cost me $1002.99 and she will receive 54,749.

********************

WISE

If $1,000 is debited from my account in the US I'll receive P55,075.

The money arrives in several minutes to my BDO account and can be withdrawn from any ATM convenient to me. I pay all my bills directly online from my BDO account.

My savings are $1.99 + P156 over MoneyGram

My savings are $2.99 + P326 over Western Union.

    @Moon Dog
Oh ok. So xoom charged $4.99 plus 2k on the back end. Remitly charged about 1.7k. Geez, wonder what they charge now. That's a lot.
$1000 USD was about 49.9-50k back then.
   

    -@nickfisher0640

"plus 2k on the back end"

I don't know what you're talking about.

I use Remitly exclusively now... I use the direct  bank to bank deposit.. takes about 4 days or so to recieve the money... And the only fee is $1.99, And the Rate is Always decent... Just a little lower than the best possible... the Only way to get better is to bring cash... which I do every 6 months when I fly back to the U.S. and then return here a couple months later... Max is $10,000 on your person... then I simply Deposit it into our Account when the rate jumps up a little. 

@Wellsfry

I too use Remitly now. But something I've thought about numerous times. We keep wanting to say you're only allowed $10,000 usd. But that's not entirely true. We are supposed to DECLARE more than $10,000 usd. Doesn't mean you can't bring it. Professional poker players may have upwards of $1m usd to play with for example. Or maybe we have a house deal for $40k usd. I haven't tried it. But I suspect you can bring more, but when asked about it on declaration papers, you probably better have a good reason. I too arrived with $10k usd. Knowing the "limit", I went to the bank before my flight. And then demanded all new bills, no tears, no ink spots, etc. Still had a few they wouldn't accept at Prince Hypermart. But the money changer will.

@Larry Fisher

Very true... But the last thing I want is a red flag... lol... So I stick with the 10k... Just sent 500 bucks again yesterday bank to bank... looks like Remitly takes about 1.0  plus the 1.99... Bank here is 55.34, and Remitly gave me 54.3...

@dadof3at1c

I agree. MoneyGram and Western Union are far better choices for sending money to the Philippines.  MoneyGram only charges 99 cents if you load to gcash or any wallet and Western Union is only $1.99. Remitly  and Xoom are both more than double that. Also Remitly, Xoom, WorldRemit, Ria and other similar agents have weird alogrythms that flag transactions as suspicious for no reason and then take forever to refund to your debit/credit card and then refuse to tell you the reason they arbitrarily cancel.  I have sent hundreds of small sends using MoneyGram and Western Union and never had any issue.  Once in awhile for larger amounts they ask for more information but they are courteous and professional about it. Not so the others.