I don’t know the comfort level of your clients with the system but Xoom.com might work for you. It’s a remittance service from the US to RP and isn’t really like Paypal. However, you don’t have to pay Xoom everytime you take-out money – it actually goes directly to your bank account in RP, in pesos (which is comparative with UnionBank’s rates anyway). Xoom charges the sender a fixed fee. We’ve tried Western Union, etc and so far Xoom works well. Just don’t expect ‘instant’ transfers. ( http://urltea.com/23ym )

You have to double check on the requirements for investing in the US (necessary tax info, etc). There are some hidden costs that might be bigger than the fees you’re avoiding.

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Just wondering what happened to my previous comment.

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perhaps hoarding your money inside paypal for a while will help?

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Will it be better to just use the Equitable PCI bank Visa Electron? Will that work, if it does, you will not be worried of limits.

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[...] writing about PayPal’s expensive upkeep, I have decided to downgrade my first PayPal account to a Personal one. My plan is to open another [...]

Paul the dollar can keep going down but it will remain the international standard. I also trade Philippine stocks so it is natural for me to be interested in trading stocks in another market, and I just happen to have unused dollars. I buy stuff in the U.S. with my dollars so there is no conversion involved. I am not worried at all.

@Paul
Have you checked the prices of laptops, peripherals (routers, video cards) and tech toys (digicams, PDAs, media players, gaming systems)? They are definitely cheaper in the U.S. which is why I never purchase laptops locally. By “cheap” I am referring to value for money e.g. for 40k pesos you can buy a dual core P4 with 256Mb RAM when you can purchase a core duo with 2Gb RAM in the U.S. minus shipping of course (true to life example).

I agree with you that there is a certain standard that Filipinos put on foreign goods when the local equivalent is just as good or sometimes better. This may sound irrational but not entirely without basis. I am of the belief however, that purchasing items solely due to brand recognition or the country that it was made is a waste of money. Why buy $30 Havaianas when you can buy local slippers for $2?

I only purchase items online that are not available locally. I do take time to find a local equivalent first because this will save me both time and money, however some items are simply not available locally. One such example is that I recently purchased Threadless t-shirts (I just love their designs) and decorative stuff for my business that I can never find anywhere.

I am not sure if Filipinos do put their money in dollar accounts or why — it makes no sense to me either. I think you are just making an uninformed conjecture. I am not sure why local banks would recommend that you open a dollar account. Did you inform them that you are European?

I get paid in dollars, as do many OFWs (I am not an OFW though), so I guess that explains why many Filipinos have dollar accounts. It makes no sense to me to convert my dollars to peso and vice versa when I can keep my money in their original form and spend / earn interest in a similar fashion. I am not a financial expert though, so I am probably wrong, that is why I am asking for help

Love your comments, keep them coming. Cheers!

Many companies have tried and in the UK there is a very good one called NoChex, they and others have tried going international, but there is one big problem, the international money laundering laws the USA has forced on us all, they make it almost imposable for companies to trade and put in rules like people can’t buy using credit card unless they fax a copy of their passport, and customers do not want to do that.
The interesting thing is these laws seem to apply to every company except PayPal.
Filipinos are all way shouting about corruption, I wonder where they learnt to be corrupt, probably from the USA, its just the USA are better at hiding it.

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