Money transfer and clearing challenges
I got a client who sent an initial downpayment through money remittance using Western Union. I find the process of getting the money to be quite a maze of confusion. This includes:
- First, the website. When I was searching for areas where money could be retrieved, I kept seeing two agent bank references only.
- The Bayad Center at Ever Commonwealth have no manpower in their counters to process Western Union pay outs during the weekend.
- The Lhuillier shop MRT Ayala was asking me to fill up a "know your customer" form before I could enter to process a Western Union payout. According to the lady guard, it is a requirement by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. (I will definitely clarify this) The form asked for basic information about the person. What I didn't like about it is the right fingerprint requirement. Sorry but it is not worth it and I walked away.
- Today, I was able to process it through Banco De Oro.
I also opened a dollar account at Banco De Oro. What attracted me is that I don't have to pay P100 processing fee whenever I deposit a dollar check. This I do whenever I deposit through PNB. However, it is a sad reality that I still have to deal with 45 days clearing. I hope this long processing will be shorten soon as the market becomes more competitive.
Also, this long processing is not good for new bloggers who are getting their first payout checks when they still have to open an account. (especially when they have friends clamoring for blowout)
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