Where to exchange currency in the philippines
7 Tips to Get the Best Philippine Exchange Rate!
if you're heading to the Philippines
soon here are my tips on how to get the
best exchange rate and how to make sure
that you keep your money safe so first
of all before I take off to the
Philippines I always make sure I have a
little bit of Philippine Peso in my
pocket the main reason for this is that
I hate arriving into the Philippines at
the airport and then using one of my
credit cards to pay for the taxi I'm
always a bit skeptical after travelling
to so many countries over the last 20
years and using my credit card because
in a number of cases and this isn't just
for the Philippines this is all around
the world in a number of cases you pay
with your credit card to the taxi at the
airport and there's three months later
six months later more charges start
appearing and it's quite frustrating so
I like to use either an app like grab
car in the Philippines where it's
charged straight to my credit card and
they can't take my credit card details
in the cab or I like to use cash so
before I leave Melbourne and head over
to the Philippines I always make sure I
have you know a few thousand pesos so
what I normally do is to get the best
exchange rate is I'll log on to first
Google and I'll see what's the current
exchange rate so the moment is about 38
pesos per $1 then I log on to Westpac
Bank and see what the exchange rate is
there I think at the moment it's about
36 pesos so you're never going to get
the 38 pesos that you see on Google
because that's the exact exchange rate
there always has to be a margin left for
the provider the exchange provider in
this case Westpac's probably keeping you
know the two pesos per Australian dollar
so I know I can get it at 36 pesos but
with Westpac it means I've got to wait
three to five business days before I can
access the cash so what I do is I
printed out that that rate the Westpac
and I head straight up to flight centre
and inside each flight Center or most
flight centers there's a travel oz money
exchanger if you take the Westpac
printout and show them
they guarantee to beat the Westpac rate
or beat any other rate that you that you
find available so that means you can get
you know thirty six point three or
thirty six point five pesos per
Australian dollar
and it means you can go into the
Philippines with some really made cash
now I also try to not take all of my
cash with me in Philippine pesos I often
take you know three or four hundred
Australian dollars as well so that way
if I do run out winning in the
Philippines you can go to a moneychanger
there and it's not like here in
Australia with where you really get
ripped off in the Philippines you go to
a moneychanger at the airport or one of
the local malls in Manila or in Cebu and
you'll get thirty six to thirty six and
a half or even thirty seven pesos per
Australian dollar so you can actually
get a better exchange rate in the
Philippines then you could back here in
Australia so the other thing I think you
should all try to keep aware or try to
do when you go over there is take a
couple of different credit cards most
trips I've made to the Philippines for
whatever reason one of my credit cards
has been blocked now I could have been
that they thought there was some
suspicious transactions or that a
payment just didn't go through so
whatever a reason it is I always got 3x
I've always got an Amex and MasterCard
in a visa and on my last three trips I
have had credit cards blocked I've had
to revert back to another credit card
one thing I'd recommend you don't do is
go to the local ATMs in the Philippines
and use your ATM card to withdraw cash
because you're going to be using
exchange rate then of the local bank
here and it's never going to be a good
exchange rate you could be looking at
anywhere between 32 to 36 pesos probably
less than 30 to play 32 or 35 pesos it's
not really worth it so try and be
prepared get some money here locally and
then takes an Australian cash with you
and if you run out go to one the local
malls or the airport money exchanges
that's it
hope this was helpful bye
