Technobiography

m-Remittance: London to Philippines

October 14th, 2005 | by ka edong |

He>> We’ve set them up with Smart money ATM cards - it’s possible for us to do it from here, through the remittance partner in London, so we pay the charge and they get the card for ‘free’.

I: > That’s interesting. I’ve heard of this procedure, but it’s the first time to get first hand info about it. Now, it’s my turn to ask you

I: > How many days did it take between application and card delivery?

He>> It takes one month to fully process the cards, by the time they arrive in Phils. The cards arrived securely and didn’t need further activation before they could be used. The application was done easily by filling out a form and posting to the partner here. Their online application is currently broken.

I:> How much time does it take from handing over your cash remittance until your relatives in the Philippines receive an SMS alert?

He>> In theory it is almost instant, and certainly within 5 minutes, from the time the money is received by the partner here. This can be in cash in person, or by internet bank transfer. The latter is same day if you bank with the same bank as the remittance partner, or takes 3 days if you bank with someone else, like I do.

He>> However, we have tried it 3 times so far, the first two times, it actually took 3 or 4 days for them to process the transfer, and the third time, it has been nearly a week and no sign of the money. This could be because we didn’t do it in person, and just did the bank transfer followed by txt message with the necessary details.

He>> However, our reason for using the service, instead of using PNB, is because of the lower charges (about 500 instead of 800) and so we don’t need to physically go to the PNB branch here in London. Of course, if it takes a week to send the money, then it’s not useful to us.

I: > I was at singapore last month. There was a Smart Money service at one of the remittance counters in Lucky Plaza. But, it didn’t work the way it was advertised on Phil TV (like “In theory it is almost instant, and certainly within 5 minutes” as you said). Instead, it takes 2-3 days, I’m told.

He >> Certainly in this country they would get in trouble for false advertising, which is illegal here and they can be fined for, if they make claims that cannot be demonstrated to be true.

There’s more ….

He>> I’ve got some more experienced from smart money. as with all financial services here, they require record of your passport and proof of address, so i decided it would be easier just to go there in person to let them copy the documents. Their office of CBN is in central london and easy to get to really. it’s near the Apple store so i get to go and look at the ipod nanos

He>> the office is a lot more prestigious than the PNB branches here. the staff are all either filipinas or are young indian hindu men and women, which is unusual because it’s usually the arabs that run the money remittance services here.

He>> Anyway once I had given my ID, it was very easy to make my payments via cash. the charge was lower, only 400 peso instead of 500 for remittance via txt, and the money although was not instant, it arrived by the next morning in philippines and was able to be withdraw from the ATM. still if i have to go there in person for a reliable transfer its no use being a SMS service! but the charge of
400 is half of the PNB 800, so thats pretty good.

And last, but not the least …

I: > Yes, there are some G-Cash partners for international remittances (only remittances coming in to the Philippines). http://www.myglobe.com.ph/myglobe/others/remit1.htm

He>> Thanks for the link, unfortunately while it lists their names, it doesn’t say where they are or even what their phone number is! and the one that sounds like its in the UK, has such a generic name it doesn’t show up in google or the directory services

I hope I didn’t give my readers sore eyes. I don’t have time to summarize our entire exchange.

But if you read through our exchange, you’ll see how the services as advertised here in the Philippines or on the telco websites are not 100% the same as reality. (Of course! advertising is just 10% of reality hehehe).

Thanks for sharing, my Londoner friend!

ka edong