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I just wanted to know if you can withdrawl money from your bank account in north america at an ATM machine in Philippines. Do they even have ATM machines in Phil.? Any advice would be appreciated.

Yes you can. You can easily open up a bank acct. at BDO too. THey are located in all the SM malls throughout the country.

Check this http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.ph ... n_Exchange to get an idea of rates. Some banks are extremely expensive. If you are planning to spend or use the ATM a lot you would do well to move your money over to a bank with lower or no fees. I think by default Visa also charges 1% to exchange your USD to pesos for instance. I don't think there is anyway to get around that fee? I'm not expert so I might be wrong on that.

Hey Wuxi, I am in Wuxi now! Yes, you can use any ATM in the Philippines and they are prevalent in the malls and business districts. There is a charge, but it is relatively small, depending on your bank. I only got charged $1 for each transaction.

I did open a local account too though. No charge and you can pull much larger amounts from the machines.

Use BDO, Metro Bank, BPI and Citibank. The limit will mostly be some USD 300 a day or per transaction. Some lower. Make sure your ATM has a Star/Plus/ Maestro and/or Visa/MC debit sign.
With fees and all, each transaction will cost you $7-9. Yup!
Also, you can go to any big BDO branch with your visa/mc and get a cash advance- you will need a copy of your passport and then fill out a form. The smallest cash advance is P20,000, the biggest is P 49,000.
Make sure that before you go , you call your bank (s), where you hold both debit/ATMs and credit cards and let them know you will be traveling and where.
Otherwise they may suddenly block your cards and you will be up the sh't creek without a paddle.
You will also have to let them know your length of stay.
Even if you do so, sometimes you go shopping with a credit card and then after your third purchase, they block it.
This has happened to me a couple of time and it ain't a pleasant experience.
This is why now I have many credit cards and I have also ordered PIN codes for all of them. And I email all of them and let them know I will be traveling. Some of them still insist that I call.

You can also go into Metrobank and have them process a larger withdrawal than an ATM machine allows just by showing them your passport and your ATM card. Mine was a VISA checkcard and I would get 10-20,000 pesos at a time as I recall.

ATM Machines in the Philippines? Aren't those Western guys?

I did try using my bank card in China, but at the ATM machine it asked for a 6 digit pin number, and mine only has 4 digits.

wuxi wrote:I just wanted to know if you can withdrawl money from your bank account in north america at an ATM machine in Philippines. Do they even have ATM machines in Phil.? Any advice would be appreciated.

I've read that yes you can. BPI bank seems to be recommended. You'll get charged a fee by whatever bank owns the ATM. It seems to be the best way to get cash unless you are going to get large amounts - then a wire to the bank which can take a lot of time (week+?) is better. If you have even longer you can write a check to the bank then wait 3 or 4 weeks for it to clear from your U.S. bank so you can get the money.

I've never been - this is just what I read.

There are not so many ATMs available nearby but iyou will get in some important areas.

Hello, There are many ways to transfer money to your loved-ones in the Philippines, and some methods work better for others. You can find several ATM machines in Philippines. You just have to choose which service is more convenient to you and your recipient in terms of security, availability, remittance charges, and the speed of delivery. There are several banks in Philippines like Metro Bank, BPI and Citibank which provide best ATM services. You must have a ATM card to avail the benefits of the machine.

There are many ATMs in Philippines and it seems they work well.
I never had any problem with any ATM in Cebu using my Japanese CashCards.
There are fees, which will be displayed - you will be informed how much and also what is the maximum you can take out, usually about USD 200,- or USD 300,- per transaction.
I was using BDO in the shopping malls and also Citibank next to Ayala.

Remember there are not only fees from the ATM but most American banks will also charge you a fee, although I know that a couple now have debit/credit cards without fees abroad.

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Most ATM machines in the Philippines charge you 200 pesos per transaction and your daily limit at BDO bank is 10,000 pesos per day.

They also have mobile ATMs. They're called poreners. You don't need a card or even an account, just dip your hand in the pocket and grab.