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