If you are vacationing in the Philippines and makes a deposit of dollars in cash (cash dollar deposit), it will take 8 banking days to clear. Even if you deposited said dollar in another branch in same city.
This is what happened to me this month.
I asked a Pinoy friend who has a BDO dollar account and internet banking is activated, to deposit or transfer money to my BDO dollar account. My friend is from Manila and i am from Mindanao.
My friend said he needs to ‘enroll’ my account to his internet banking account, and this is to be done in the Philippines.
http://www.bdo.com.ph/Personal_Banking/Electronic_Banking/MYBDO.html?id=5&mid=1&state=pB5
So when he went home for vacation this mid-December, he submitted my bank account to his branch. But until now, his branch has not approved the request.
Now comes the usual monthly remittance. Becoz my account is not yet approved to received internet transfer from my friend’s account, he deposited cash dollars from his account (Manila) to my account in Mindanao.
To my anguish and extreme annoyance, the dollar was not released becoz my branch said that it has to wait 8 f***** working days clearance before it can be withdrawn.
I called my BDO branch and ‘Diane’ explained that it’s banking policy, things like that. So OK, i did not know about it.
I inquired about receiving/withdrawing dollars from BDO’s internet banking service. They assured me that transfer thru internet banking can be withdrawn immediately once received in the branch. Hmmm, i doubt.
But for the friggin’ cash dollar deposit? No dice. Charge to experience. My 1,000 USD is in BDO’s purgatorio…
Lesson learned: If you have two separate dollar accounts, never make ‘cash’ dollar deposit to your other dollar account. Especially if you are vacationing in the Philippines and you intend to have it withdrawn by the recipient immediately. The 8 days clearing, i think, applies to all banks.
Convert it to pesos and deposit in pesos — to a peso account, of course.
I think for OFWs’ beneficiary, always have dollar and peso accounts, either in same bank or different banks.
I asked my wife to check Metrobank for possible transfer….
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| FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATE as of 11:45:51 2009-01-06 |
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| Curr | Buy | Sell |
| US$ | 46.7000 | 47.2000 |
| AUD | 32.5200 | 33.7500 |
| CAD | 38.3700 | 39.8100 |
| HKD | 5.9007 | 6.1176 |
| GBP | 67.3800 | 69.5400 |
| JPY | 0.4956 | 0.5091 |
| SAR | 11.1200 | 12.5700 |
| SGD | 31.0173 | 32.1709 |
| TWD | 1.2603 | 1.4217 |
| THB | 1.2286 | 1.3443 |
January 24, 2009 at 6:03 am
i feel for you. man, that’s really annoying. I get the same experience from different banks too. I think their picking on priorities. Screw them..
January 24, 2009 at 9:39 am
well, the rejoinder to this story is that, BDO released the deposit the next day (second day) becoz my wife threatened to make a ’storm’ in their office.
My wife thundered that it is supposed to be a ‘cash’ deposit from same bank, so why treat it like it came from another domestic bank..
So the next day, my wife was surprised and amused when they released the money without anymore stories.
I think my BDO branch was surprised that the dollar deposit to my account did not come from the usual London source, but from Manila. Duh.
As for internet banking, the supposed enrollment of my account to my friends internet-ready account was not approved, because the people at his bank branch cnveniently ‘lost’ the papers ..
Metrobank is an enticing alternative…
July 15, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Perhaps you can help me – is it equally difficult to deposit a check drawn from a US-based bank into a BDO peso account?
Thanks.
July 16, 2009 at 7:40 am
as long as all informations are provided, it shouldn’t be that difficult. but the clearing time between US and PR is another matter. you should inquire from US bank the duration of clearing before the cheque is credited to BDO.
July 16, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Thanks for the response. I’m sorry to press the question further, but what other information is needed on the US-end of the transaction – the check itself is not sufficient? Or did you just mean the identification of the payee?
July 16, 2009 at 5:24 pm
you will know it from the US bank.
i think ur question is deals with ease or difficulty of depositing cheque rather than cash.
in cash and using SWIFT, the transaction will take 3 working days.
in cheque transaction, there is clearing period, depending on country.
is it easy or difficult to deposit cheque? US banks should not have any hassle with BDO.
Just inquire from ur US bank for more info…