"Paul's Youtube. . . On transferring money"

@Enzyte Bob I have also been transferring much larger sums than normal due to USDLR/PHP exchange conditions. All thru WISE with no limitations. My Plan B is just to use Wells Fargo "Send Money", which I used with never an issue before using WISE. Limit 5K a day. In early July, I was slow walking in $500 increments cuz it appeared that the Peso was moving towards 60 to the Dollar later this year. Then the forecasts came tumbling down so we are lucky to maintain a 55 Rate. I now have more money in my local BDO account than ever - but, at least I know what my PHP Value is thru the rest of the year. I am just going to prepay my Electric and Globe Accounts thru the end of the year. Globe is a set amount, and I will just estimate Electric based on past history. Will also buy six months of prescription meds. No monetary advantage, just peace of mind.

I am just going to prepay my Electric and Globe Accounts thru the end of the year. Globe is a set amount, and I will just estimate Electric based on past history. Will also buy six months of prescription meds. No monetary advantage, just peace of mind.

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I like that idea of prepaying Meralco and Sky my internet/cable company. I once by accident paid Sky twice, so when time for the second bill, they sent me a bill for P0.

For Meralco . . . . No need to guess, just send what you can afford hoping they won't reject the payment by their software.

Good idea for the meds, electric & cable . . . .As Paul said in his video about USDLR/PHP exchanges "What goes up must come down".

@Enzyte Bob Well if Paul is correct and what goes up must come down, I am hoping to be 59 years of age next year. I am currently 60.

Our original plan was to buy a Fortuner for my wife and I would buy a truck but she was intimidated by the size of the Fortuner when she saw it and afraid to drive it. I've since bought a multicab that is more her size but it has a manual transmission. We took the Fortuner to Toyota Tacloban last Thursday for the 12 month service and lo and behold there was this cute little yellow Wigo in the show room that was just her size. We decided to buy it but ran into road blocks trying to wire the money so since the price was so low I could probably pay it off with remittances.

The price was P681,500 which included 3 year LTO registration, 1 year full coverage insurance and a few smaller perks such as tinted windows, floor mats, seat covers and an umbrella. I sent a P20,000  to hold it using Remitly and it was deposited in the Toyota Metro Bank account in minutes. The next day I sent $6,000 to the Toyota account using Remitly and P331,680 was deposited in minutes, no questions asked.

I then attempted to send $4,996.99 using WorldRemit and P281,086 was to be deposited in the Toyota account, but I received an email saying further action needed. WorldRemit wanted a photo of my ID. Then I received an email asking for a selfie. The next day (Saturday) I received an email asking the purpose of the transfer, my employment status, my relationship to the receiver and how much money I planned to transfer in the next 12 months. I sent all that and did not hear back until the next day (Sunday) when they sent the exact same email asking the same 4 questions, so I sent it again. The next day (Monday) it was finally approved.

There was a P48,734 balance due so I sent that with Remitly and it was deposited in minutes no questions asked. The total price of the Wigo in USD was $12,241.68, a very cheap Toyota that has remote door locks, touch start, touch screen with backup camera, proximity alerts, auto trans and power windows. I figured it was a good time to buy while the exchange rate is favorable but before the weak peso forces price increases.

This thread is about Remitly vs Xoom but I no longer use Xoom so it is comparing Remitly and WorldRemit. At the end of the day WorldRemit did give me a better exchange rate, 56.25 vs Remitly at 55.28 but was it worth the hassle? I suppose so if you’re not in a hurry and I’ve never had a problem like this with WorldRemit on $1,000 cash pickups.

Kim was our sales lady on this purchase and on the Fortuner 13 months ago. She delivered the Fortuner to our house in Biliran and will also deliver the Wigo this Thursday. My multicab will no longer have a spot in the garage but I’m having a roof erected on the auxiliary parking pad so it’s all good.

@Moon Dog      I blame such hazzle at USA      who have forced other banks too to make it hard for common people to transfer biger amounts  "to stop terrorism"!   I doubt that have stoped any terrorist at all...

((If recounting for inflation the most I have ever paid for a car is less than equal to 200 000 pesos. I drive as a car thief so I would break more expensive ones in 2-.3 years anyway      BUT its very hard to find ok second hand cars in Phils by so few Filipinos maintain them, its so uncommon so its rather common adds tell "new oil"...!  ))

@coach53 I always buy new cars so I never have to worry about buying tires, batteries, replacing the brake linings etc. The last truck I owned in the US was a Chevy Colorado that I paid less than $26,000 for as a leftover. I drove it for 5 years but only put 17,000 miles on it and I sold it to Carvana just before leaving the US for $33,033. It was garage kept without a single scratch.

When I take the Fortuner in for service like I did last Thursday the procedure is for the vehicle to be photographed from all angles in the presence of the owner. The guy asked me to tell him where to find the scratches to save time. I told him there is no scratches and there better not be any scratches after the service. I have one more free service due in January.

Our original plan was to buy a Fortuner for my wife and I would buy a truck but she was intimidated by the size of the Fortuner when she saw it and afraid to drive it. I've since bought a multicab that is more her size but it has a manual transmission. We took the Fortuner to Toyota Tacloban last Thursday for the 12 month service and lo and behold there was this cute little yellow Wigo in the show room that was just her size. We decided to buy it but ran into road blocks trying to wire the money so since the price was so low I could probably pay it off with remittances.
The price was P681,500 which included 3 year LTO registration, 1 year full coverage insurance and a few smaller perks such as tinted windows, floor mats, seat covers and an umbrella. I sent a P20,000 to hold it using Remitly and it was deposited in the Toyota Metro Bank account in minutes. The next day I sent $6,000 to the Toyota account using Remitly and P331,680 was deposited in minutes, no questions asked.

I then attempted to send $4,996.99 using WorldRemit and P281,086 was to be deposited in the Toyota account, but I received an email saying further action needed. WorldRemit wanted a photo of my ID. Then I received an email asking for a selfie. The next day (Saturday) I received an email asking the purpose of the transfer, my employment status, my relationship to the receiver and how much money I planned to transfer in the next 12 months. I sent all that and did not hear back until the next day (Sunday) when they sent the exact same email asking the same 4 questions, so I sent it again. The next day (Monday) it was finally approved.

There was a P48,734 balance due so I sent that with Remitly and it was deposited in minutes no questions asked. The total price of the Wigo in USD was $12,241.68, a very cheap Toyota that has remote door locks, touch start, touch screen with backup camera, proximity alerts, auto trans and power windows. I figured it was a good time to buy while the exchange rate is favorable but before the weak peso forces price increases.

This thread is about Remitly vs Xoom but I no longer use Xoom so it is comparing Remitly and WorldRemit. At the end of the day WorldRemit did give me a better exchange rate, 56.25 vs Remitly at 55.28 but was it worth the hassle? I suppose so if you’re not in a hurry and I’ve never had a problem like this with WorldRemit on $1,000 cash pickups.

Kim was our sales lady on this purchase and on the Fortuner 13 months ago. She delivered the Fortuner to our house in Biliran and will also deliver the Wigo this Thursday. My multicab will no longer have a spot in the garage but I’m having a roof erected on the auxiliary parking pad so it’s all good.
-@Moon Dog

Transferring large amounts raises eyebrows and mountains of red tape and delays. I would suggest having additional backup methods of transferring of funds, in the future maybe splitting up the transfers using two different companies, thus staying under the radar.

@Enzyte Bob Never had a problem with Wise and have transferred over 150K so far...There is a limit of about 10K per transfer but you can do the multiple times.

@Enzyte Bob I did use two companies, WorldRemit and Remitly, and four transfers including the deposit. This was a spur of the moment thing or I could have done better. When I bought the Fortuner I had plenty of time so I transferred the money from Wells Fargo to Fidelity, no charge, then did a Fidelity wire transfer to the Toyota Metro Bank account over the phone, also no charge. Fidelity only does dollar transfers to the Philippines but Metro Bank has good exchange rates so that worked great. Problem is, it takes a few days for a transfer to Fidelity to settle. I did call Fidelity to inquire about funds I have there already but to wire from that particular account required the name of a US intermediary bank used by Metro Bank for such purposes. I couldn't get that sort of info from Metro Bank so I just did it with remittances. I may sign up with Wise but I doubt I will have to use it, I don't see any more large purchases in my future.