SSA Direct Deposit to BDO Questions

Just a few questions sir:

(1) Is your SS direct deposited in the same bank as  your long time credit union?

(2) Did you check around with other US financial institutions for checking account offers?

(3) Examples of offers: I have Chase CC, They keep sending offers giving me $300 if I switch my direct deposit over to them.

I have a cc with a credit union, if I switch my ss direct deposit over to them they will allow me to access the money two days earlier than the payment date.

(4) Where will your new updated credit card be sent to?

(5) If you choose to have direct deposit to BDO or any other Philippine Bank you might be subject to proof of Life and you may never received notice sent by ss via PHLPost.

(6) I keep my money & SS deposit in the (USA) out of harms way.

Hello Bob -- Thank you for your input.  Yes, the SS deposit has been made to this same credit union since Day One.  And, yes, it gets there a couple days early. 

I have and use a USAA Visa card.  Very familiar with their services, been using them for insurance and credit cards for years.  Earlier today I applied for their checking account, after logging on and being teased by a $250 credit when opening a new account with direct deposit.  I completed the paperwork through Docusign, but haven't heard back from them yet.

I use Northwest Registered Agents with a Delaware address.  (Was a Delaware resident for about fifty years.)  Mail is delivered there, scanned, and uploaded as a PDF all throughout the day.  Credit cards can be forwarded to me by DHL through them.  Expensive (like $70) but reliable.  There is a DHL office not far from me.

I've heard mixed reviews on Philpost but never any negative experiences personally.  Though it's certainly not up to US standards.)  Same with BDO.  The folks I know using BDO have no issues.  They are locals, happy to wait patiently for service, and only ask for basic services from their bank.  I'll likely have the same needs as them -- a debit card for Shopee, Lazada, and local groceries, and cash at the counter or ATM as needed.

For those of you following along, do you have a peso account at BDO?  Does your SS deposit show up at pesos?  How has BDO worked for you?

Thanks again,

Stef

I will be receiving my 1St SS check on June 4th. I too, like Enzyte Bob, think it's best to have it deposited in US.

Then I will WU it as needed.

However, if you chose your BDO Peso account then I assume it will be deposited in Peso’s and in dollars if you chose a dollar account.

As far as who’s exchange rate SS or BDO would use in the Transfer/Deposit to Peso account I could not comment.

I believe SS will not bother to use a rate at all, they will just send dollars. Then, when the dollars hit your peso account, BDO will make the conversion at a favorable rate. If you made, say, a wire transfer in dollars to a peso account, the bank would ask you if you wanted to send dollars or pesos. If you said pesos, that would be unfortunate because the conversion rate to pesos on the US side is usually terrible, like 48php/$. I notice that when I wired money to peso accounts here the Phils banks always made the conversion at very favorable rates. But SS themselves will not get involved in converting or having any US company convert for them (I believe). They just send dollars and they may actually require your SSA account to be a dollar account (not sure) in which case you make the conversion to pesos with your Phils bank, probably at favorable rates.

I use BDO. You will need to fill out some paperwork (FACTA and other). The SSA will send it to a middle bank (I think bank of Mellon NY) and then they will send it to your Philippine account. It will be a dollar account. You can withdraw in dollars or have them exchange to pesos on the spot. BDO charges $4.50 per transfer (month). It is worth it to me. Somebody mentioned that the SSA-7162 form "proof of life" does not always make it to your residence because of Philpost. This can be true. I got mine, but sometimes it was late. You can always download the form from the website and send it to their office in PA. If they don't receive the form by the end of the year, they will cease your benefits. However, you can notify the embassy and get them restored with back pay typically within a couple of weeks or so.  You would need to send them a completed SSA-7162 if that happens If you have a buffer, you will be OK. I have seen on forums that some people have had this issue. It has not happened to me (yet).

Today is my SS day, third Wednesday of the month. I checked in Citibank (1 am Wednesday USA) and 1 pm Philippine time, set up a transfer via Wise and within two minutes the transfer amount  was in my peso account at BDO.

Never ever received a proof of life because my US address is my re-mailers address in Houston Texas.

Today is my SS day, third Wednesday of the month. I checked in Citibank (1 am Wednesday USA) and 1 pm Philippine time, set up a transfer via Wise and within two minutes the transfer amount was in my peso account at BDO.Never ever received a proof of life because my US address is my re-mailers address in Houston Texas. - @Enzyte Bob

Thanks for the information. It is good to know that SSA accepts your remailer's address as your USA address. I suppose all we need to do is declare a "mailing" address with SSA and not an address of residency. On my SSA online account, my US address is stated as "Current Mailing Address".  So, remailer address is fine with SSA.

For my credit union, their address block is just stated as "Address". One of the concerns I had with a remailer like Ipostal1 with my credit union was if they can accept the remailer address. I do not really want to call and ask their customer service because it may be a KYC (know your customer) issue, and I don't want to discuss whatever their policy is in detail with them. I am still researching this, but I think it will be OK to use the remailer address because they don't specifically say "Residential address" in the address space, they just leave it open.

As for SSA proof of life, that is something that, in theory should not need to be a problem. SSA sends you a form, you say you're alive and that's it. A reasonable request. And the form is for a critical process that can decide if you can continue to receive benefit checks.

But SSA screws it all up by choosing to use PhilPost as mailer for this critical process. And SSA is likely well aware of the deficiencies of the National mail service here.

It wouldn't have to be that way; the USA Embassy is aware of the deficiencies and contracts with LBC as their official mailer.

One thing with these remailers that I noticed is that you must now send them a notarized form permitting the remailer to accept your (and separately, your wife's) US mail. They know many of us are overseas with no access to a US Notary but they suggest some online notary service.  Is this one of those verifications where you must do a video zoom call into a US time zone and hope the internet cooperates during your scheduled zoom appointment? I don't think I will engage in that and wait until I get back to the USA before setting up a virtual mailbox remailer.

When I set up my remailer account before moving to the Philippines I had to show US Global Mail proof of my actual US address.

I had no problems with registering all my credit cards & bank accounts with the remailers address. One of the CC has my Philippine phone number.

On the others they  have my stateside number, which is a v.o.i.p. which cannot receive SMS, but some give me an alternate method via Email.

When I set up my remailer account before moving to the Philippines I had to show US Global Mail proof of my actual US address.

Now the remailer requires you to fill out and notarize USPS Form 1583 which apparently permits them to legally accept your mail. The remailer that I looked at is Ipostal1 which has a virtual address in the same town and zip that I am currently using. In fact. the address of the actual physical building they are using is walking distance from my current NC address. As mentioned, they do suggest an online notary service for expats at a reasonable price. The procedure is not difficult if you can get your family together in the middle of the night (not easy for me); you just need to be able to do video comm with the notary on a laptop, smartphone or anything with a Webcam. The remailer needs the notarized form no matter where you live so I think people with virtual addresses up to now are fortunate to have been grandfathered. I have been through online ID verification before with id.me and they were originally very strict and needed to see me physically holding my passport. Anyway, I will probsbly wait until my next visit to do this rather than screw around with online verification.

danfinn said . . . Now the remailer requires you to fill out and notarize USPS Form 1583 which apparently permits them to legally accept your mail.

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Thanks for bringing that up, I completely forgot about it.

Hmm, so I just created my online account a few months ago.

First check received last month

When I applied and setup online account I used my philippine address and unaware of the proof of life requirement for Expats.

Question,

I have a US address, Can I just simply change it online to my US address or are they going to make it difficult by requiring some confirmation & proof that it’s me and my address ?

@Enzyte Bob

I keep my money & SS deposit in the (USA) out of harms way.

It beggars belief that anyone would use a Filipino bank. UK banks are incompetent but at least you have a gold plated govt back up guarantee if the shit hits the proverbial fan. Philippine banks reserve asset ratios are, well, you don’t wish to know.

Try to change online to yoir USA address. For me this was years ago but I seem to recall some regulation preventing us from changing online from international to US. In my case, during my trip back home I handed the proof of life letter to the agent at my local SSA office. I asked her to switch oir address back to the US. She didn't know what to do with the letter but somehow it all got fixed. I can only suggest you try it and if it doesn't allow you to do it, then call your local office and tell them you moved back and need to update your online account. They should not (Hopefully) require a personal office visit for that unless they do not take phone appointments. I think, just a phone call to your local office would allow the change. For domestic address changes I know you can just do that online but with international addresses, that involves some record keeping with other offices. I did not try to resolve with FBU at the embassy so, no experience with that.