Chat Rooms & Pen Pals

[QUOTE=MontanaMonger;2844979]If you are being blocked your best option is Bitcoin to Coins. Ph:

BTC-Bitcoin, use any bitcoin broker to buy bitcoin and then transfer this bitcoin to coins. Ph to convert it into pesos. Their is no way anyone can stop you from doing this.

So you buy your main store of currency in BTC and then you can dole it out to your girls coins. Ph accounts. One caveat is that depending on your BTC broker your conversion cost could be as much as 10-20%.

You can leave it up to them to sort out how to transfer the BTC to PHP as you are doing your part by sending them the money.

If you are unfamiliar with BTC this is how this works:

You buy BTC with a debt card (instant) or bank transfer (3-5 days) and this goes into "YOUR" BTC wallet (their are other coins but for your purposes you only want to deal with BTC).

Your girls sign up for Coins. Ph and get a Coins. Ph BTC wallet.

You then send money from your wallet to the girls wallet at which time your girl will receive the money in about 30 min to an hour? She will then convert the BTC to PHP within the coins. Ph app and then proceed to cash out, cash out options are plentiful they include Cebuana Lhuillier, for physical pick ups and all of the digital wallets for convince as well as just about everything else.

By far the easiest would be a service like remitly / wise and you do lose some money in the conversation to BTC but NO one can stop you using this method even if they wanted to as many girls as you see fit.

FYI: BTC can be volatile and storing BTC can lead to massive losses or a rapid appreciation in your funds just depending on when you purchase the bitcoin. Just keep this in mind. I would recommend sending the BTC as soon as you get it to avoid any implied volatility.[/QUOTE]Thanks for the info. It should not be this difficult to get money to the poor. I thought we were a country that just loves to stick our nose into other countries business a send them tons of money (Ukraine good example) I guess it must involve the military industrial complex, it was never really about the people, the hell with them. Even Western union lady said its just stupid as many like me get blocked except for south of the boarder countries. They come in all the time to send money to Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras. Just meet you a girl from down there you'll never be blocked. This country is fucked as everything now involves politics.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2844926]Two items here:

1) Blocking. I got blocked by all of them eventually (for not complying with their requests for me to send pics of my ID, then later pics of myself with the intended recipient). As a last straw, I decided to send such documents to one of those remit companies mentioned. They re-instated my account. About every 18 months they suddenly stop this or that simple p1000 send for no apparent reason. They call me on the phone to ask some security questions, then allow the transfer. No problems for another 18 or so months.

2) Paying a girl's bills. Good news. As you never know if a girl is telling the truth about why she's requesting money. Many of the utilities (water and electric) now accept electronic payment (especially GCash). Anyone with GC can make a payment to these companies. If a girl tells me that she needs p1500 for electric cut off, I have her send me a pic of the recent electric bill. All the data needed to pay the bill by GC are on the bill: Account number, Account owner's name, amount due. You can open GC (or possibly Paymaya or other), click on PAY BILLS, choose from a long list of Phils utilities (the girl's electric company), enter the account number, owner's name, and amount due, and pay the bill (or any portion you want) immediately via GC. You will get a GC confirmation with reference number, which you can screen capture and send to your girl.

If you are outside of Phils, this obviously doesn't work. You could send the money to a more trusted person's GC in Phils, and ask them to pay the girl's utility thru GC. That would get you a screen capture of the actual payment via the trusted person.[/QUOTE]Yeah wish we had GCash here. When in Phil that's a piece of cake. Yes I've done the bill paying that way but sometimes they just need 50 bucks for some food. Medical scams was another one I stopped long ago as I know two Dr. As they lived in my building. Them or kid or mom or dad sick, ok that fine here is Dr. Card go see him and Ill drop him a text, I can pay him online with a credit card. One or two were really sick but most of them funny how they started feeling better.

[QUOTE=MontanaMonger;2844988]Getting blocked usually means that there is more than 1 person sending money to this same persons account or you are sending money to more than 1 girl. To keep getting blocked to a minimum I would limit sending money to one remittance platform per girl.(this does not apply when sending BTC)

Coins. Ph allows you to pay bills outside the Philippines. Including NBI clearance and government offices, cable bills, electric ect. Just about everything.[/QUOTE]While your methods are certainly valid, a couple of cautions for newbies.

1/. Any girl I know smart enough to be able to set up a BTC account and handle cross platform exchanges is also 100% smart enough to be sending the same requests to multiple guys, each one thinking he is the only one.

2/. Take the usual precautions to ensure the bill / debt is real (covered earlier).

3/. I have NEVER had a girl refuse to see me because I didn't pay her power bill while I was away.

Anyone who has found a girl worthy of supporting awhile still at home, more power to you. However, I'll stick to being generous while I'm in town and leave it at that.

Enjoy. G.

I'm in the US most of the year, and my wife is in the Philippines for a couple of more years. This is what I use:

1) To send money, I use Sendwave most of the time. The exchange rate is higher than Remitly or Xoom and there is no transaction fee for any of it. I use it to send my wife cash and myself, too, if I'm there from my US bank account. I also send myself to my or anyone else's GCash for free. Xoom also does not charge to send to GCash.

2) Since my GCash is set up already, I can use it while home in US. I pay some bills for our home in the province, such as Wi-Fi, from here using GCash to save her time going to pay it in person and waiting in line. I can also use it to pay for gifts I order in Lazada so it isn't COD. I also have one girl I see when I am in Manila, and have used it to send to her while I'm there and from here to help her with a dentist bill I told her I would help with.

Obviously, sending money for pickup is not anonymous. GCash can be, as it marks out part of the name with asterisk, but not totally anonymous. Like everyone else, my advice is to really think before you send anything. If you're nice, that is a good thing. Many of these girls are dirt poor, but that is no reason to let them take advantage of you.

[QUOTE=Aml3740;2845170]I'm in the US most of the year, and my wife is in the Philippines for a couple of more years. This is what I use:

1) To send money, I use Sendwave most of the time.... I use it to send my wife cash and myself, too, if I'm there from my US bank account. I also send myself to my or anyone else's GCash for free. Xoom also does not charge to send to GCash.
[/QUOTE]Do Sendwave allow you a Debit card or only to transfer? If not, maybe look at Wise. They offer cash transfer to yourself or others and you can request a Debit card that you can use at home or overseas for direct purchases or ATM withdrawals. Fees and FX rates are not zero but much less better than my bricks and mortar bank.

The card is super convenient when I'm travelling.

Enjoy. G.

[QUOTE=Goferring;2845205]Do Sendwave allow you a Debit card or only to transfer? If not, maybe look at Wise. They offer cash transfer to yourself or others and you can request a Debit card that you can use at home or overseas for direct purchases or ATM withdrawals. Fees and FX rates are not zero but much less better than my bricks and mortar bank.

The card is super convenient when I'm travelling.

Enjoy. G.[/QUOTE]I send using Sendwave using my debit card. There is an option for ACH draft, but that takes days to process.

I will check out Wise and see if it fits my needs. I currently like Sendwave a lot. My only gripe is that it sends email / text to recipient to tell them the amount and a transaction code for pickup, but it is sometimes late and I have to give it to my wife myself.

[QUOTE=Aml3740;2845217]I send using Sendwave using my debit card. There is an option for ACH draft, but that takes days to process.

I will check out Wise and see if it fits my needs. I currently like Sendwave a lot. My only gripe is that it sends email / text to recipient to tell them the amount and a transaction code for pickup, but it is sometimes late and I have to give it to my wife myself.[/QUOTE]Just for clarity I was referring to the Debit card issued by Wise, not the method off transfer to or topping up the account. The Wise Card can hold numerous currencies, is attached to the Wise account and has the same (minimal) charges etc. Far better than a regular Card when travelling.

3rd Party transfers are getting faster and faster. From my account to someone else's SEA account same day isn't unusual.

Cheers.

[QUOTE=Goferring;2845428]Just for clarity I was referring to the Debit card issued by Wise, not the method off transfer to or topping up the account. The Wise Card can hold numerous currencies, is attached to the Wise account and has the same (minimal) charges etc. Far better than a regular Card when travelling.

3rd Party transfers are getting faster and faster. From my account to someone else's SEA account same day isn't unusual.

Cheers.[/QUOTE]Is there a way to get a virtual sim that it can be connected to gcash?

[QUOTE=Member#1088;2846331]Is there a way to get a virtual sim that it can be connected to gcash?[/QUOTE]You must use a Phils SIM card as far as I know (see pic). Anyone with different info please holler. You will have to verify your account (by sending pics of your passport if you are a foreigner, and of yourself and possibly of your SIM card). I saw a link on the [URL]gcash.com[/URL] website about international use, but clicking the link goes nowhere.

[QUOTE=Member#1088;2846331]Is there a way to get a virtual sim that it can be connected to gcash?[/QUOTE]I don't use GCash so I'm not sure of the mechanics. If you are asking about it's connection to Wise, then yes, Wise can pay into a GCash account.

"Wise offers international payments you can set up online or in app, to 80+ countries including the Philippines. Send to GCash or another wallet including GrabPay and PayMaya. You'll be able to pay for your transfer in USD by wire, ACH or card, and your funds will be converted to PHP with the mid-market rate and low fees from 0. 41%. ".

The downside to using GCash internationally is that some transactions require a one time passcode that will be sent to your registered number. In a strange twist of fate, I'm not able to use GCash to buy load for my Philippines sim for international use without using the OTP, and I can't get it because I'm international. But I have still been able to use GCash to send money, pay bills, and make purchases using lazada.

[QUOTE=Aml3740;2846349]The downside to using GCash internationally is that some transactions require a one time passcode that will be sent to your registered number. In a strange twist of fate, I'm not able to use GCash to buy load for my Philippines sim for international use without using the OTP, and I can't get it because I'm international. But I have still been able to use GCash to send money, pay bills, and make purchases using lazada.[/QUOTE]Smart and globe are roam-able, I still use my smart number in the states, and I have an ESIM coming that I just purchased.

So the sim card should still be able to get the OTP if you load it up and have some load on it to keep it active.

[QUOTE=MontanaMonger;2846685]Smart and globe are roam-able, I still use my smart number in the states, and I have an ESIM coming that I just purchased.

So the sim card should still be able to get the OTP if you load it up and have some load on it to keep it active.[/QUOTE]The problem is I let mine go inactive. Even with it roaming, it will not actually accept a promo and work. It's annoying.

[QUOTE=Aml3740;2846778]The problem is I let mine go inactive. Even with it roaming, it will not actually accept a promo and work. It's annoying.[/QUOTE]Contact smart or globe on Facebook that is normally how OFWs get their sim cards working again its worth a shot. Also add the SIMS to the Phone Apps this helps because you can visually see what promo you have and how much load you have and its expiry date. If you have contacts in phils yo can also get a new sim activated and sent over but remember to turn on roam before it leaves phils.

[QUOTE=MontanaMonger;2846904]Contact smart or globe on Facebook that is normally how OFWs get their sim cards working again its worth a shot. Also add the SIMS to the Phone Apps this helps because you can visually see what promo you have and how much load you have and its expiry date. If you have contacts in phils yo can also get a new sim activated and sent over but remember to turn on roam before it leaves phils.[/QUOTE]Is there a way to get a virtual sim, that will run the phone in a vm or an app in my desktop? That way it can get the txt msg also.