Money Transfer

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We've found a good way to manage money. I'm sure this could work well with most banks worldwide.

It starts with your partner and yourself opening a joint account at your current U.S., U.K., Aussie etc bank.

Thus, a joint account at your normal bank, in addition to your other accounts. Have your income paid into a normal bank high-interest-earning account, with an online access. These are not trading accounts, and the banks usually don't issue access cards for these accounts. Then, transfer online between accounts whatever you need for living expenses into the joint account, for which you both have ATM cards. This takes us around 30 seconds online.

Now, both of you can withdraw pesos from the joint account at virtually any ATM machine in the Philippines and in most other countries worldwide. For this we pay a total of around 380 peso each time we withdraw money in the Philippines, and at no cost anywhere in Australia. I'd guess your bank's charges would be similar.

Previously I was doing international transfers, but my bank charged 1,180 peso for each transfer, which took 4-5 days, then Mary's Veterans Bank also charged around 800 peso. That is around 2,000 peso per transfer. Thus imho, a joint account is a much better arrangement. It's around 20% of the international transfer charges, and money is available immediately for both of us no matter where we are.

There are probably other ways that may be cheaper (?) but, this process takes us 30 seconds, and our money is available at virtually any ATM machine in Australia, the Philippines or virtually any country these days. And the 380 peso charge in the Philippines every fortnight or so for our living expenses is just fine. When we want to transfer very large amounts at anytime, we can still do the normal bank transfer thing and then obtaining a manager's cheque.