Bpi Express Remittance Corporation

I come here once every 2 months to deposit money into my account back home (i’m saving up to start my far east empire!) and I get the same great customer service each time.
I rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes to see someone and am in and out of the place in less than 5 minutes usually.
Very convenient!

They do not exchange Philippine pesos into dollars?
Go to Mechanics Bank downtown San Francisco instead. You only pay $ 10 commission fee and the exchange rate was higher than currency exchange at the airport and at the BPI Express remittance.
Mechanic’s Bank cited 45.00 pesos to the USD vs. 41.00 pesos (BPI) and 42.00 pesos (at SFO)!

Is this office really owned by Bank of the Philippine Islands? Because it looks like a dive, mom n’ pop, fly-​by-​night operation considering that BPI is a big bank in the Philippines. I don’t think this is the kind of image they like to portray or maybe they don’t care. It also seems like they never updated their database program because for some reason, even though I have an account with them, they have difficulty finding it every time so I just use my friend’s account. The people behind the counter seems to take their time and engage in unnecessary chatter with their customers which is annoying at times when there’s a long line.
Other negatives include they only accept cash or check. They used to have this cashing device (only one so you have to get up and do the swiping yourself because you have to use your ATM code) that would automatically transfer cash to your BPI account from your US bank. They have been charging $ 7 for years although they increase that to $ 8 for a few months and then returned to $ 7 probably because many complained and went elsewhere. Then perhaps to avoid the expense, they went cheap by discarding their cash transferring device so now you have to pay cash or check. Another thing is that you can’t remit by phone (Call Remit) on weekends. There is a 3 business days clearing time. If you want your money to get there the same day, you have to drive all the way to their office and give them cold cash. Oh… and sometimes when you call it’s busy, they don’t even have a voice mailbox. Very annoying.
I have asked them several times before about creating a website such that their customers can just remit conveniently online just like the way XOOM or RemitHome and they said that it’s coming soon but it has been years and not even a decent website. Their pathetic website says that they «have an online, real-​time credit-​to-​account remittance» which is a blunt lie.
Now for the good thing. Their remittance fee is among the lowest and their exhange rate is among the highest. I guess they make everything else cheap so they can offer better rates. Other competitors may charge only $ 5 remittance fee but they make up for it by their exchange rate commission and most people don’t know that. Granted that BERC’s exchange rate is still lower than XE’s, Google’s or Yahoo’s exchange rate (.35c-.45c difference), I don’t see any remittance office that can beat theirs unless you know something I don’t know, otherwise, let us know. So despite the negatives… I give them 3 stars.

When the exchange rate between dollar and peso was good my father made me open an account so I would have money when I went to the Philippines. The problem was I never go home to the Philippines — the last time was about 4 years ago only because of my grandfather’s death and before that was twenty years ago. Yes people I’m that old! Anyways, I give BPI props because apparently my account has been dormant for over a year and instead of closing it if no transaction happens once a year like i was told when I first opened my account they actually reactivated my account and was able to keep the money I already had — Now that Made My Day!