What's the Cheapest Way to Send Money to the Philippines?
The cheapest way to send money to the Philippines is almost always to make an international bank transfer to a local bank account in the Philippines via a specialist money transfer provider, which you can pay by debit card or local bank transfer.
Services such as Remitly, WorldRemit, andWise are good examples of such solutions; they offer reasonable exchange rates very close to the mid-market rate and apply transparent and low fees. These solutions will be much cheaper than making an international bank transfer to the Philippines with your bank or usingPayPal, which comes with higher costs and take a considerable margin on the exchange rate when converting your money into Philippine pesos.
Take a look at this video before sending money to the Philippines to know how to find the cheapest option available:
With more than 10 million Filipinos living abroad and regularly sending money back home, the Philippines is one of the biggest recipient countries of remittances in the world.
As you'll find on Monito, there are plenty of options for sending money back to the Philippines. On our website, we detail over 25 specialist money transfer providers and banks for converting your money into pesos and sending it home. We know there are many options to transfer money to the Philippines, which is why we compare all of the most popular ones side-by-side so you can make an informed choice.
Ultimately, the best money transfer provider for you will depend on several areas like how much you are sending, where you are sending from, the currency you are exchanging into pesos, and some other factors. We take all of those details into account when recommending the best way to send money to the Philippines. We’ll help you find the fastest and cheapest ways to send money home. For example, we can tell you the best providers for sending money to the Philippines from the USA or the UK.
Information Needed To Send toa Bank Account in the Philippines
The following pieces of information will be needed whenever you send money to a Filipino bank account from overseas:
- Name of the recipient:The name of the holder of the receiving bank account.
- Address of the recipient:For legal reasons, it is usually necessary to enter the postal address of the recipient (including street, city, and postal code).
- Name of the recipient's bank: You will need to enter the bank's name, often by selecting the name in a list, e.g. Union Bank of the Philippines.
- Account number:The account number of the recipient, e.g. 0044XXXXXXXX.
There are more than 30 major universal banks in the Philippines. Some money transfer providers can send money to any bank in the Philippines, while others will only allow you to send it to certain banks. In most cases, however, if the recipient’s bank account is with one of the most used banks in the Philippines, it should work with any of the providers we recommend.
Banks in the Philippines do not use the IBAN system, which means you will generally be asked to enter the name of the recipient’s bank (or choose from a list of banks) and enter the recipient’s bank account number. For most transfers, you will also be required to enter the postal address of the recipient in the Philippines.
Best Ways To Send Money to the Philippines
There are several good options for currency exchange, depending on how the person you’re sending money to wants to get access to their pesos.
Less Than USD 1,000
If you want to send money to a bank account in the Philippines, we recommend using a specialist currency provider. If you’re transferring under $1,000 or equivalent, your best options include WorldRemit, Wise, Transfast and Pangea.
More Than USD 1,000
If you’re sending more than $1,000, we recommend Wise, WorldRemit, Transfast and Remitly.
Banks That You Can Transfer Pesos to in the Philippines
You can normally arrange to send pesos to any of the following banks: BDO Unibank, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank), Land Bank, Philippine National Bank, and Bank of the Philippine Islands. If you're sending money to BDO Unibank from the USA, take a look at our dedicated guide on the subject.
Cash & Mobile Wallets
Some banks are also popular locations for picking up pesos you have transferred. If the beneficiary wants to collect pesos as cash in the Philippines without going through a bank, then providers like Remitly and WorldRemit are good options, as each offers excellent prices and vast pay-out networks, including Cebuana Lhuillier and LBC Express.
WorldRemit provides cash pick-ups from various bank networks and their partners, including branches of Metrobank, LBC, Palawan and PS Bank network, branches of The Banco de Oro network and branches of M Lhuillier. Others like Transfast provide cash pickups from Cebuana, BDO, LBC, M Lhuillier and many more.
Of all cash transfer providers to the Philippines, Remitly is the cheapest on most searches on Monito, and we therefore recommend them if you're looking for the best deal on average. Not only is Remitly good for cash transfers, but it's also good for receiving money in the Philippines with GCash and other mobile wallets.
What to Avoid
Besides sending money to the Philippines with your bank, we also recommend you avoid using Xoom and PayPal to send money into the country from abroad, as both platforms charge high fees and exchange rates and are easily outdone by better services like Remitly.
We recommend finding the best deal in real time on our comparison engine:
