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Just a few questions sir:

(1) Is your SS direct deposited in the same bank as  your long time credit union?

(2) Did you check around with other US financial institutions for checking account offers?

(3) Examples of offers: I have Chase CC, They keep sending offers giving me $300 if I switch my direct deposit over to them.

I have a cc with a credit union, if I switch my ss direct deposit over to them they will allow me to access the money two days earlier than the payment date.

(4) Where will your new updated credit card be sent to?

(5) If you choose to have direct deposit to BDO or any other Philippine Bank you might be subject to proof of Life and you may never received notice sent by ss via PHLPost.

(6) I keep my money & SS deposit in the (USA) out of harms way.

Hello Bob -- Thank you for your input.  Yes, the SS deposit has been made to this same credit union since Day One.  And, yes, it gets there a couple days early. 

I have and use a USAA Visa card.  Very familiar with their services, been using them for insurance and credit cards for years.  Earlier today I applied for their checking account, after logging on and being teased by a $250 credit when opening a new account with direct deposit.  I completed the paperwork through Docusign, but haven't heard back from them yet.

I use Northwest Registered Agents with a Delaware address.  (Was a Delaware resident for about fifty years.)  Mail is delivered there, scanned, and uploaded as a PDF all throughout the day.  Credit cards can be forwarded to me by DHL through them.  Expensive (like $70) but reliable.  There is a DHL office not far from me.

I've heard mixed reviews on Philpost but never any negative experiences personally.  Though it's certainly not up to US standards.)  Same with BDO.  The folks I know using BDO have no issues.  They are locals, happy to wait patiently for service, and only ask for basic services from their bank.  I'll likely have the same needs as them -- a debit card for Shopee, Lazada, and local groceries, and cash at the counter or ATM as needed.

For those of you following along, do you have a peso account at BDO?  Does your SS deposit show up at pesos?  How has BDO worked for you?

Thanks again,

Stef

I will be receiving my 1St SS check on June 4th. I too, like Enzyte Bob, think it's best to have it deposited in US.

Then I will WU it as needed.

However, if you chose your BDO Peso account then I assume it will be deposited in Peso’s and in dollars if you chose a dollar account.

As far as who’s exchange rate SS or BDO would use in the Transfer/Deposit to Peso account I could not comment.

I believe SS will not bother to use a rate at all, they will just send dollars. Then, when the dollars hit your peso account, BDO will make the conversion at a favorable rate. If you made, say, a wire transfer in dollars to a peso account, the bank would ask you if you wanted to send dollars or pesos. If you said pesos, that would be unfortunate because the conversion rate to pesos on the US side is usually terrible, like 48php/$. I notice that when I wired money to peso accounts here the Phils banks always made the conversion at very favorable rates. But SS themselves will not get involved in converting or having any US company convert for them (I believe). They just send dollars and they may actually require your SSA account to be a dollar account (not sure) in which case you make the conversion to pesos with your Phils bank, probably at favorable rates.