Direct deposit to the Philippines from US

Hi whackerdog

Firstly you set up the account and probably one signatory? If you live here then simply go to your bank and ad your wife to the account, if it's a dollar account that may not be possible so get your wife to open her own account (she may already have one) and do an online transfer dollars to her Peso account, just a suggestion and good luck.

Cheers, Steve.

whackerdog123 said. . . . I know that this is possible now, but I have a few questions.  My wife went to her bank here in Cebu and asked about this.  The bank (metro bank) told her that she wouldn't be allowed on my bank account since it's a pension account, WTF!.  How is she going to draw out money if she's not on my account?  I haven't actually went to the bank and asked....sometimes Filipinos get confused and don't ask the right questions...just saying.  I guess my first step is to go there and as questions but I thought I'd check here first and see if any expats have experience with direct deposit from the US.  Please advise.  Thanks in advance!

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Maybe you can enlighten me on the terminology "pension account". Does Metro Bank  specifically label the account as "pension account"?

I think one of the solutions is to open up a joint account and transfer money from the pension account to your new joint account.

After a period of time, if you are comfortable, notify your pension providers of your new account and have the pension deposited in the new account.

Now are we talking about pensions or ss?

If it is SS it's better to have it deposited in a US account (that has a US address), because from time to time with a foreign address you may have to prove you are alive from time to time. A slip up can cause a discontinuation of payments.

“Maybe you can enlighten me on the terminology "pension account". Does Metro Bank  specifically label the account as "pension account"?

That had me confused too.

I've  said this before in an earlier life but why would anyone allow their Filipina wife/gf access to their bank account?

I'm sure there are exceptions but why risk it?

I'm here as a visitor. Just went to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation ATM here in Panglao to draw out 10k in Pesos. Thought it was Royal imperial bank of commerce, a Canadian bank( just had the initials at the front of the bank so I made an assumption🙄)

Put my trusted US JP Morgan Chase card in.  Accepted. No cash came out. Checked my real time Chase phone app - no withdrawal.  Tried again -  nothing. Went into the bank ( the guard looked at me as though I was about to Rob the bank ). Spoke to a dim witted woman who said there is nothing wrong with the ATM. Went along the road to another ATM which worked fine.

I dread to think what would happen if I had a serious issue as a client of any Philippine bank

"I've  said this before in an earlier life but why would anyone allow their Filipina wife/gf access to their bank account?

I'm sure there are exceptions but why risk it?"

You would block your wife from the bank account? No, the accounts should be joint with a woman you are married to. You own things together and that is what marriage is all about. As for girlfriend, she should not be given access because there is no joint property with an unmarried person. She could just withdraw the money and run away with no accountability.

Lotus Eater said. . . ."I've  said this before in an earlier life but why would anyone allow their Filipina wife/gf access to their bank account?
I'm sure there are exceptions but why risk it?"

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danfinn replied. . . .You would block your wife from the bank account? No, the accounts should be joint with a woman you are married to. You own things together and that is what marriage is all about. As for girlfriend, she should not be given access because there is no joint property with an unmarried person. She could just withdraw the money and run away with no accountability.

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I guess it really has a lot of circumstances & variables. So I will speak from my experiences. I met and married (2007)  my wife in the states, she became Americanized. We had a joint checking account and both names were on some charge cards and tax returns.

Her paychecks were always deposited in our joint account by me. I managed all the finances, she had no interest in it at all, not even to know how much money "we" had. She trusted me and I trusted her with the charge cards.

We were renters in Las Vegas and she owned a house in Pasig City. For 11 years we sent $1,000 USD a month for her family upkeep.

When we moved to the Philippines in 2018 I used Wise to transfer our money to her account at BDO. I never bothered to put my name on the account as I didn't see any need. I gave the debit card to my stepson. He  withdraws money for us as needed. I also put him on one of the charge card so he can make purchases for us, mainly prescriptions & doctor visits.

When we go grocery shopping he waits in the payout line and pays with the BDO debit card, while my wife & I sit and rest. He also manages all the rides with Grab for us.

I think her Americanization (over 10 years) was responsible for us being on the same page.

Some Expats come to the Philippines for the wrong reasons, lust, loneliness, looking for happiness or just escapism. Sorry somebody had to say it. I could have been one of those, but old age finally let maturity catch up to me.

    "I've  said this before in an earlier life but why would anyone allow their Filipina wife/gf access to their bank account?I'm sure there are exceptions but why risk it?"You would block your wife from the bank account? No, the accounts should be joint with a woman you are married to. You own things together and that is what marriage is all about. As for girlfriend, she should not be given access because there is no joint property with an unmarried person. She could just withdraw the money and run away with no accountability.        -@danfinn

For the record I've never been married to a Filipina. My neighbour (lets call him J) in Bath has been for 25 years. Happily married but some flaming rows along the way ( I hear them when I'm in the back garden during the summer lol)

They don't have a joint account not because J does not trust her (M) but feels that she cannot manage money.

A case in point. About a year ago they went to the bank to remortgage. During the interview the bank manager asked if there are any debts outstanding - M stated that she had a US $7,000 credit card debt that she was paying off which was news to J (would love to have been a fly on the wall to see his reaction )

When they got home there was the mother of all rows. When I was dating a wealthy filipina friend of M's they would go shopping together. My ex gf had about 70 handbags in her loft (most never used) and I think M got the spending bug from her. After a days shopping often with other Filipina's my GF would ask me to store most of the gear M had bought in my loft so J would never find out - I felt uncomfortable deceiving J on this but I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

Just before I flew out to the Philippines end of October we were all having a coffee in town talking about their property in Dauin, Dumaguete. A couple of years ago the ground water well pump went. J really needed to be there to fix it. M's brothers family are now living there and he has a gambling problem (Cock fighting). Unbeknown to J, M had been sending money over to fix the well but with no luck. Well (pun intended) we all know where the money went. This came up in the conversation in a round about way and J went apoplectic.

I rest my case M'lud.

My first wife (American) really screwed up our finances and it took years to recover after getting divorced. My current wife, Filipina, has no problems with finances.

To return to the OPs original posting, i was told that Social Security payments from the SSA must be deposited in an individual account bearing the recipients name. This way, only the recient can access it & prevents years of fraud from occurring after the recipients death.i also use Metrobank and was told by them that it had to be done like that. I never bothered researching. But now ive got the bug and will look into it for details.This web site from the SSA seems to imply that checks CAN be deposited into joint accounts. So it seems that Metrobank (possibly others…) have misinterpreted the SSA guidance. (https://www.ssa.gov/help/iClaim_own.html)Its also possible that Philippine banking laws force banks to limit the kind of account that SSA checks go into.A work around (if you still have an account in a USA bank) could be to have it sent to your USA account, then transferred here.

We deposit our US SSA into a joint account in the US. Not sure what the problem is here but I think they are applying Philippine SSS rules to USA SSA deposits. My wife also has a Phils SSS account and only she can access the account at the bank

However, she has an ATM and I sometimes get her money for her using that.

My understanding is that if an expat (married or not) retired & living in the PH wants their SS $ direct deposited into a PH bank, then the acct has to be in the recipients name only, they are not allowed to have a debit nor atm card tied to that account, and that the expat (& only the expat) MUST walk into the bank and phyically be present to withdraw that money...no atm withdraws allowed. Once they have that account, they can akways open another acct (a savings) & transfer that $ to the second acct (like a peso acct), BUT they must do the transfers in person at the bank as well.

@Harbred6051 That would not work for me; too restrictive as mentioned before. What doesn't click here is that my wife has a PNB account where her Phil's SSS is deposited and she accesses those payments with a PNB ATM card although the account cannot be joint

    My understanding is that if an expat (married or not) retired & living in the PH wants their SS $ direct deposited into a PH bank, then the acct has to be in the recipients name only, they are not allowed to have a debit nor atm card tied to that account, and that the expat (& only the expat) MUST walk into the bank and phyically be present to withdraw that money...no atm withdraws allowed. Once they have that account, they can akways open another acct (a savings) & transfer that $ to the second acct (like a peso acct), BUT they must do the transfers in person at the bank as well.        -@Harbred6051

This is correct - there is definitely a special "pension account" that is used for recipients of US SSA. I know of someone who has one with BPI, and it works pretty much as Harbred stated.

Ok, I get it!  So, based on my recent research and all posts here in response to my inquiry (thanks, you guys never cease to make me laugh!) it is now evident that SSA and any other retirement annuity's have to be in the recipients name because the US doesn't want possible fraud and abuse to occur by allowing someone else (even if it's your wife) access to your account,  So, $@#$ that!  Just won't open an account here.  The only issue is the amount one gets charged when transferring the money here.  I did a lot of research on that as well, jeez I guess that banks have to make money as well as the money transfer companies online (rapists one and all), but it would be nice to avoid those fee's.  I have another question, kind of related, you know how the ATM's here limit withdrawal to PH10,000 and if your account is foreign the bank charges PH250 per transaction (at least every ATM I've been to anyway), is there anyway to circumvent that?  At the very least, have it reduced to a reasonable amount.  I had to withdraw ph20,0000 from my savings account..it was an emergency, and the bastards charged me $10.00 USD because I had to do two withdrawals.  If they didn't limit the withdrawals to ph10,000 it wouldn't be an issue, but  JEEZ LUISE!  I would greatly appreciate any advice or information about this.  I met an Australian guy and he said he acquired some kind of "G cash" card and he loads it up from his bank account, for a minimal fee) and then when he withdraws from the ATMn it's only like 50 cents (much better than 5 dollars), however that being stated the ATM's withdrawal limit per transaction is still ph10,000, so he has to pay 1 dollar if he wants to withdraw ph20,000 instead of me paying 10 dollars for the same transaction.  Thanks in advance!

I see your Frustrations whackerdog but it's really not that difficult to navigate and get the best deals.

While not sure exactly where you live in Cebu but I believe there is a HSBC branch there and you can draw P40K in one transaction and only incur 1 x P250 fee.

I keep all our money in Australian investments and as funds are required simply transfer online from Oz to the Philippines/joint account with BDO. My bank in Oz charges me AU 5 bucks, they have live market rates for selling and I watch live the exchange rates online, Oz bank takes point 1 % off the live rate, matters little if AU 10 or 50K the exchange rate is set and updated every 5 minutes. I have posted on this several times before but BDO don't charge for the deposit (they used to until I told the manager we will move banks if you charge 200 pesos and try to blame an intermediatory as bank to bank no fees and never been charged a peso since).

We have debit cards but mostly Ben will go to the bank here and draw the funds and he sticks it in the safe and mostly use cash.

Why not change your pension to a US bank account and simply tranfer funds to your joint account here as needed?

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

@whackerdog123

You can send the money via a wire transfer service like Western Union, Xoom, or Wise, pay one fee for the entire transaction. For example,  the fee to send between $1500 to $1995 via WU is $14.99.  I can pi it up in cash.  I send it as dollars,  then,  when picking up,  I tell the girl at the WU pick up office to just pay it out as pesos,  like one peso per dollar better rate at point of pickup than if I sent it as pesos.  I also have a RCBC current (checking)  account.  I send money through WU direct to that account also. Most I have sent at one time is $500.  However, it must be sent as pesos.  You'll have to enter your information on your bank account on the WU website.  I didn't need the routing number of the account,  because WU already has it for all the phillippines banks. So  just needed my indivIdual account number.  The fee from WU is $4.50.  It's there by the next business day.

As for ATM withdrawal 10000 peso per transaction limit. Since my bank is RCBC, as long as I use one of their ATMs, no  fee and no limit. Free pesos withdrawals from my account.

This is the best solution I have found for getting my money here without the hassle of a direct SSA deposit in a phillippine US dollars account. Enzyete Bob is correct, if you send direct from SSA to the phillippines bank, you will have to submit an annual form proving you are still alive. Since it goes to a US postal box,  that's another hassle and expense to file every year.

Anyone found a cheaper way, I would be interested in hearing about it.

@danfinn

The SSA MAY allow SS $ to be deposited into joint accts IN THE USA banks, but NOT in PH banks. Any SS $ direct deposited in a PH bank acct, the acct can only be in the expat/retirees name, even if married to a filipina citizen. This is to prevent general fraud & any money laundering, & if its a pension acct ONLY S.S. $ can be deposited in it. These are rules est by the SSA in the U.S. The PH banks have to agree to follow these rules in order to offer the availibility & setting up of the acct in the PH.

    @danfinnThe SSA MAY allow SS $ to be deposited into joint accts IN THE USA banks, but NOT in PH banks. Any SS $ direct deposited in a PH bank acct, the acct can only be in the expat/retirees name, even if married to a filipina citizen. This is to prevent general fraud & any money laundering, & if its a pension acct ONLY S.S. $ can be deposited in it. These are rules est by the SSA in the U.S. The PH banks have to agree to follow these rules in order to offer the availibility & setting up of the acct in the PH.        -@Harbred6051

Thank you for this information.👍 It would be great if you could post a supporting URL of a cite and I say this just because this information is so new to me. I do believe what you say is likely true. I will comment that the inconveniences of these restictions plus their potential for rendering SSA assets unavailable, if you become hospitalized or too weak to travel, make it unlikely that I will ever open SSA pension account here. One additional inconvenience would be that other non-SSA pensions cannot be deposited there, only SSA. This may be OK for many; not for me. And of course there is FBAR and FATCA. Nothing but complications.

For non SS pension, I Currently just use WU, Bank to Bank, WF to BDO, Cost is $1 per transaction.

But recently learned that BPI has a US Routing #, so I inquired at BPI. They informed me that they do have a ”Pensioner Account” and I could establish a direct deposit with my pension from the US to them and bypass WU. My issue was its only a Dollar account, meaning I could not conduct any online transfers to pesos or to any other local accounts...I would physically have to go there every month to withdraw the Dollars, convert them, and redeposit back in a peso account or keep cash.

For me it wasn't worth the Hassel to drive there, look for parking and stand in line, when I currently can do it all from home on a mobile via WU.

    For non SS pension, I Currently just use WU, Bank to Bank, WF to BDO, Cost is $1 per transaction.
But recently learned that BPI has a US Routing #, so I inquired at BPI. They informed me that they do have a ”Pensioner Account” and I could establish a direct deposit with my pension from the US to them and bypass WU. My issue was its only a Dollar account, meaning I could not conduct any online transfers to pesos or to any other local accounts...I would physically have to go there every month to withdraw the Dollars, convert them, and redeposit back in a peso account or keep cash.
For me it wasn't worth the Hassel to drive there, look for parking and stand in line, when I currently can do it all from home on a mobile via WU.
   

    -@vehicross100

Pretty much my sentiments except I do not transfer dollars to a bank here. To get money we either use ATMs or send money to ourselves to mobile money remittance locations like Palawan. Lhuillier. Cebuana Lhuillier. LBC or just about any   other using a single transfer to mobile money. It is similar to WU remittances except those can only be physically picked up at WU offices. So I use those and simply bypass banks and been doing so for 7 years  There are several reasons I avoid banks here but I do thank them for their ATM presence lol. If you collect pension and you happen to exceed $10k, then you have additional paperwork to fill out. With Philippines banks you seem to co-own your funds with them. When you withdraw funds, they may ask what you will be using the money for under some anti laundering measure that I prefer to let affect other people, not me. If they decide you are not active enough with say your savings account, they will start assessing and deducting for themselves large service charges without telling you until your account is completely drained (personal experience). Phils banks have been pretty stable in recent years but if/when they do fail , you are insured for only 10k per account, not the USA 500k. I don't like their short hours or their closures for every possible holiday. I do not like their lack of tech, seeing people with passbooks (like 50's USA) with manual accounting,which results in long lines at your pension account bank where only you can withdraw.

I keep it simple and my money in the USA. I have no need to transfer large amounts of cash to the Philippines. I transfer funds semi monthly using Wise as needed. I usually keep P10,000 cash on hand, but pay purchases with a BDO debit card and only at terminals.

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If I needed to make a large payment for example a hospital bill, I would use my charge card that gives cash back to offset the 3% Vigorish for overseas use of the card.

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One thing I really miss from the states, when paying purchases with a debit card they will ask you if you want cash back.

I have quit using ATM's for the most part. I sent myself $3,000.00 usd last week via Remitly and picked up the 160k php at the Cebuana Lhuillier and hour later. $5 remitly fee and the vig on exchange rate was minimal. Something like 1.2 php or something? Since you can't get around the exchange rate vig anywhere, I got no problem with that.

@whackerdog123

HSBC at Ayala center in Cebu City has a limit of PHP 40.000 and charges nothing for withdrawals with debit/credit cards from other countries. At least, that was the case the last time I was there in December 2021. I have used that bank for 17 years. However, I was unhappy with the exchange rate  used by my own bank in Norway so now I use WorldRemit service that offers a much better exchange rate. Transaction costs: US$ 1.75 (NOK 19) for any amount. I pick up the cash at the M.Lhuillier branch aside my Philippine bank and deposit to my PHP account. No charges at M.Lhuillier! Max. amount is PHP 250.000, but I usually go for half that amount. Total costs for the whole transaction: US$1.75!

I have done this monthly since January 2022 without a single incident and the money can be picked up during the same day, sometimes within the hour when you receive the SMS text with the remittance information from WorldRemit. M.Lhuiller will ask you to fill in and sign the KYC form and present 2 IDs the first time only. Thereafter just the passport since you are already known to the staff. That is how it works for me. Not sure how it will work for US citizens with bank account in the US, but for US$ withdrawals direct from HSBC via credit/debit cards I assume the exchange rate would be less of an issue. Good luck!

PS: G-cash is OK for smaller payments, but there are charges on every transaction and it quickly adds up to a significant amount depending on number of transactions. Good old Cash is still the King and totally free!

@danfinn

Reading some of your posts regarding Social Security. In summary you have SS direct deposited in US and just transfer funds to  a bank in  the Phillipines as needed.

Can  the Philippines account be joint with spouse?

I will be going SRRV military route regarding Visa.

What banks do you recommend?

Thanks for your assistance.