Post
Topic
Board Pilipinas
Merits 1 from 1 user
Re: Cheapest way to send php to the Philippines via bitcoin? (normie-friendly)
by
Theb
on 17/05/2020, 11:08:01 UTC
⭐ Merited by cabalism13 (1)
If I have to pay someone who is in the philippines and is a total normie not into crypto, I normally tell them to make a coins.ph account, tell me the bitcoin address associated to their account, and send them bitcoin which they now can directly convert into php.
Convenient, but very pricey in terms of fees and conversion rate.

Any other alternative you guys are aware of?

Believe it or not crypto isn't really popular in the Philippines so I really doubt that most of the Filipinos you will be introducing the Coins.ph wallet app will see it as a convenient way of receiving payment. It may be convenient on your side but them taking some time to learn the app as well as verifying their accounts first (which is really time-consuming) through KYC requirements just to withdraw it in cash is something that they won't really like. What's popular in the Philippines though are remittance centers like Western Union where I know a lot of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) use to send money back here in the Philippines. I did visit their website right now to see why their services are popular to OFWs and come to my surprise that they do have the option for bank transfers with 0$ fees.


I used their price estimator page to give you an idea of how much fees you will have as well as their conversion rates for USD to PHP.

Bank to Bank Transfer

Bank to Western Union Remittance Centers

Comparing both options on how the person will be receiving the 2000$ in Philippine Peso (₱) you can see that Western Union's Bank Account to Bank Account transfer option is a much better option for both parties aside from it being more convenient on both sides and also having 0 fees you'll also have a better exchange rate for your money. I have some friends who have OFW parents and they say that Western Union is something they commonly use when sending money from abroad. Seeing the current average network fees in Bitcoin right now I can see that 3.99$ for their Bank to Western Union Remittance Center option is considerably cheaper the only downside to both options are the cash transfer isn't instant (4-5 business days).