General Info

(Originally Posted by Redfield10
Hi,

I am only a few days away from first trip to the Phils. I was planning on taking a substantial amount of cash, a credit card, and a visa debit check card (I can use this as an ATM), but I just discovered my visa debit check card isn't working as an ATM card for some reason (it worked a few days ago). Anyway, I'll try and see my bank tomorrow when it's not a holiday and see if I can find out why.

However, assuming that it's a magnetic strip problem or some problem that won't allow me to get another one in time, does anyone have suggestions for how to handle the money situation in the Phils.

I was planning on taking a substantial amount of cash and then using my visa debit card and credit card also. Now, should I take cash, travellers checks and the credit cards? Also, I do have a couple of Chase Cards that I know I can do cash advances with, but I'd have to find a bank willing to do that transaction (I would use this as a backup in case I didn't take enough cash and the cash combined with using credit cards wasn't meeting my demand for money). Would I have a problem finding a bank (Chase or otherwise) that would do a cash advance if I needed to.

Can any of you pros give me some advice?

Thanks )

1. Only international bank ATM machines take all cards.
2. If you try to take out too much money at one time or repeat cash
withdrawal often the card issuing bank freezes your card.
you need to call them and verify these withdrawals are correct.
3. The fee is minimal, most often $3 to the machine bank + $3 charge from
your bank.
4. Every card has withdrawal limits per day. If you try to get more
the card will be frozen or will say max is reached.
5. Before going abroad let your bank know how you are going to use
the card, how much money you are going to withdraw etc so that
you will not have any problems.

[QUOTE=Sammon]1. Only international bank ATM machines take all cards.
2. If you try to take out too much money at one time or repeat cash
withdrawal often the card issuing bank freezes your card.
you need to call them and verify these withdrawals are correct.
3. The fee is minimal, most often $3 to the machine bank + $3 charge from
your bank.
4. Every card has withdrawal limits per day. If you try to get more
the card will be frozen or will say max is reached.
5. Before going abroad let your bank know how you are going to use
the card, how much money you are going to withdraw etc so that
you will not have any problems.[/QUOTE]
The last tip is most important: let your bank know where you're going to be. Also know your daily withdrawal limit. That should minimize problems with your bank.

There are worldwide ATM networks: look on the back of your ATM/debit card, there should be some logos for the ATM networks that your issuing bank is affiliated with. Then go look for an ATM that has a matching logo. Examples of networks found in the Philippines include (but are not limited to) Cirrus and Maestro.

DO NOT take traveler's checks. I generally take $1500 cash in new $100 bills. Nobody in P.I. takes bills minted/printed in 1996, so make it 2000 and newer. I take one credit card and one debit card. I use the credit card to pay for hotel bills, cash for everything else. Use the debit card to withdraw 10K pesos at a crack, always have plenty of cash available.

Call your credit card co. and let them know you will be in P.I. and the dates, same with your bank debit card. DO NOT get cash advances from you credit card if you can help it, cause they just cost too much!

Keep your money..where? That's a tough one. I keep mine in a pouch, and I iron my 100$ bills before I go, keeping them crisp and new looking. I have another small pouch for extra peso notes, and when out walking around I keep my money in my front pocket, no wallet. Take only what I plan to spend. Put spending money in right pocket, reserve 1000p notes in left pocket. I don't know if that's the best way, just the way I have found convenient. Have on occasion put money in my sock also.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. The one thing about the Executive Plaza, as I recall reading, is that it doesn't have inroom safes for cash. Which bothers me.

When you have a hotel that has a safe at the front desk, but not the lobby. What do you guys normally do with a sizeable amount of cash you may have?

[QUOTE=Mr Hawaii]DO NOT take traveler's checks. I generally take $1500 cash in new $100 bills. Nobody in P.I. takes bills minted/printed in 1996, so make it 2000 and newer. I take one credit card and one debit card. I use the credit card to pay for hotel bills, cash for everything else. Use the debit card to withdraw 10K pesos at a crack, always have plenty of cash available.

Call your credit card co. and let them know you will be in P.I. and the dates, same with your bank debit card. DO NOT get cash advances from you credit card if you can help it, cause they just cost too much!

Keep your money..where? That's a tough one. I keep mine in a pouch, and I iron my 100$ bills before I go, keeping them crisp and new looking. I have another small pouch for extra peso notes, and when out walking around I keep my money in my front pocket, no wallet. Take only what I plan to spend. Put spending money in right pocket, reserve 1000p notes in left pocket. I don't know if that's the best way, just the way I have found convenient. Have on occasion put money in my sock also.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Mr Hawaii]
Keep your money..where? That's a tough one.... [/QUOTE]

A seasoned world traveler once showed me a tried and trusted method for securing valuable on your body, which is much safer and more secure than using a money belt., and which I often use when traveling. Simply go into any decent pharmacy and buy a length of elasticated sports bandage (called Tubigrip, I think). Folded over this will hold any valuables tucked safely, comfortably and invisibly against your upper calf. Of course, this is useful only for those items you don’t need to access frequently and if you wear long trousers.

As someone who lives here and travels quite a bit within the country, I cannot understand this conversation about carrying cash and where to hide it. I rarely carry more than Php20,000 and I use a Visa debit card for almost everything. Keep the card--if you're worried about losing it--in the room safe and just carry as much local cash as you think you will need. There are ATMs all over the place and they provide much better rates than money changers, and there's never a hassle about trying to find one. By all means use a standard Visa card for hotels, and for any larger purchases you might want to make in department stores.

GE

Gamahucher - good idea. Might try that on next trip. Have just been leaving all the cash in the room, even without safes. Room has never been robbed, never had maids take anything.

GE - why all the cash? I guess if you live there you have your cash in banks, right? I always think that what ATMs charge for withdrawls is too much, so just withdraw the money here and take it with you. Then, if you need more, use the ATM. Always willing to try other ideas though, esp. from you two guys. Love your reports and pics. (I can barely understand digital cameras.)

[QUOTE=Mr Hawaii]Gamahucher - good idea. Might try that on next trip. Have just been leaving all the cash in the room, even without safes. Room has never been robbed, never had maids take anything.

GE - why all the cash? I guess if you live there you have your cash in banks, right? I always think that what ATMs charge for withdrawls is too much, so just withdraw the money here and take it with you. Then, if you need more, use the ATM. Always willing to try other ideas though, esp. from you two guys. Love your reports and pics. (I can barely understand digital cameras.)[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the nice words but you must have me confused with someone else. I have never posted a picture and probably never will. First, I do not know how and second, I never take any.

Though I do live here and I have an account here, I keep my money in the US and barely use the local account except to pay local credit card bills. I think my bank in the US charges $3.50 every time I use the ATM, but I take out maybe Php20,000 at a time so the costs do not add up to very much each month. I think if you add the convenience of being able to change money anywhere, plus the lousy rates from the money changers and the inconvenience of looking for one, plus the worries over being robbed, the equation comes out clearly on the plus side for the use of ATMs; at least it does for me.

GE

[QUOTE=GoodEnough]I think my bank in the US charges $3.50 every time I use the ATM, but I take out maybe Php20,000 at a time so the costs do not add up to very much each month.[/QUOTE]
If you have enough cash on deposit at your bank, you could be at a relationship level where they will rebate some or all of your ATM fees to you, even overseas ATM fees so that you would only pay the 1% Visa transaction fee. Find out if your bank has some sort of relationship program depending on your balance(s) there.

There are some words of caution.

First of all, banks are constantly changing their fees and charges. So what may be $3.50 per transaction today can be 3.5% tomorrow. (I have at least one bank that charges that amount). Similarly, last week they give a great conversion rate - next week it is not so good.

Also, not all ATMs work with all cards. (I went to several ATMs including the one in the casino with one card...and no way could I get $$ - I had to walk to SM to find one that did - panicking that I might have to miss out on my dose of pussy for a couple of days while my bank back home sorted it out).

As others have said. Travellers checks are pretty useless. On my first trip years ago, I tried to cash some USD Amex Tchecks and neither my hotel, nor Wild Orchid would touch them - recommending I went to some obscure travel agency miles away. I don't see that improving.

I now do the following:

1). Check the bank charges before I go.
2). Take two types of ATM card and two credit cards
3). I take about a week's worth of expenses in my home currency cash to change at money changers - IF their rates are good enough.
4). I keep a few thou pisos in various denominations from previous trips (don't ever buy Pisos at home though folks - that is not cheap) so that I can hit the streets immediately I get there (No point in wasting pussy time, eh fellas)?

That way I can make a decision whether to use money changers (or keep the $$ to use back home) or the ATM for the first week, and then ATM for the rest.

There is a website that has low fees for getting cash to phil. It can be setup to take money from your bank account for around $3. 99 per transaction. Your recipient can then pickup pesos in phil. Was going to see what happens if I send money to myself while in phil. I have sent small amounts of cash to friends and have had no problems

Pretty easy. Open account. Enter recipient info. Recipient goes to nearest pickup location. You don't need to worry about the pickup location. 2 ids and transaction number to pickup cash. Neat that you can get status of the transaction.

Wells Fargo also has a service to do money transfer that can be picked up at any PNB branch for $3 per transaction whatever the dollar amount. ive used this as its cheaper than a foreign ATM fee.

[QUOTE=Gamahucher]polygopolistic - that is a lovely sounding word. But what on earth does it mean? Did you mean oligopolistic which works and according to the free dictionary means market conditions in which sellers are so few that the actions of any one of them will materially affect price and have a measurable impact on competitors. Sounds right.[/QUOTE]Well, I could have sworn that was a word, but google disagrees with me.

Let me define it now:

Polygopoly: A (small) group of companies acting in concert in such a manner as to affect the market in a similar fashion to a monopoly.

Polygopoly' (pronounced pol - i - gop - o - ly) is an economic term coined by John Whelan of Chicago, IL in 2007. A polygopoly is a highly efficient market that exhibits the following characteristics:

1) All participants have equal and direct access.

2) Low (or no) cost of participation.

3) Full transparency of both the buy side and the sell side (depth and breadth).

4) Feedback loops to improve quality of information.

5) The infrastructure is open to improvement and refinement by the participants.

Which is apparently the opposite of monopoly.

No offense Robert, but I don't think it's wise to believe everything you read on the Internet. I would suggest you exercise even more caution when searching for the definition of polygopoly and getting the definition from polygopoly.com

Who is John WHelan -- other than the guy who coined the word polygopoly (according to the website)? And, is he the author of the polygopoly website?

X

[QUOTE=Robertxxx]Polygopoly' (pronounced pol - i - gop - o - ly) is an economic term coined by John Whelan of Chicago, IL in 2007. A polygopoly is a highly efficient market that exhibits the following characteristics:

1) All participants have equal and direct access.

2) Low (or no) cost of participation.

3) Full transparency of both the buy side and the sell side (depth and breadth).

4) Feedback loops to improve quality of information.

5) The infrastructure is open to improvement and refinement by the participants.[/QUOTE]