XOOM alternative to pay Filipinos from non-US countries?

I'm in the very same situation as you.
Can anyone help, or do anyone know of alternatives?

You can check with money bookers but you can only send through your credit card.

Check it out!

http://emoneygram.com

Try Western Union

I think you are right Totoy.
Also seems like you won't be able to use your credit card sending though Moneygram from my country(Norway) nor Canada.

Not quite sure about Western Union, but it's very expensive.

http://www.moneygram.com

Cheaper and more simple than Western Union.

Emoneygram is a good way to send money to the Philippines. Havent tried it personally but my client's clients prefer to pay my people with paypal.

You just have to find the right bank.

Here's what you can do:

1.) Tell your guy/gal to open an EON Cyber Account at any unionbank branch (unionbank.com.ph)
2.) Wait for 1-2 weeks for the card to arrive
3.) Have it verified via paypal
4.) You're off paying them easily

Hope this helps.

All the best,
-Yan Kirby

Thanks Chris for the warning. As a matter of fact I just signed up with Xoom today as I'm hiring my first Filipinos for my niche sites.

It's good to see there are alternatives to pay them. I found Xoom's commissions quite high - they want something like $7.40 to send a $50 payment (I did some advanced checks). I find that quite steep since I want to pay my guys weekly.

I'm based in Australia, so not sure whether we also have issues with Xoom and credit cards since PP is clearly out of the question.

Monika

They can get a PayPal account, then validate it with a Union Bank savings account (comes with a Visa debit card) or an EON account (takes months in my experience for them to get their EON accounts up and running - culprit: lots of people trying to get EON accounts with UnionBank).

I see an angle where they "can't" get a UnionBank savings account because of the high (relatively) minimum maintaining balance (Php10K or around $220 at $1 = Php45)... but you could perhaps pay them $220 in advance so they could get one.

Though if they're still complaining even when they already have a PayPal account, perhaps they're talking about fees charged by PayPal (and there are loads of fees, especially for credit card payments)... but you can tell them you can send funds using PayPal's "Mass Payment" option since they won't be charged anything because PayPal, through its Mass Payment option charges senders instead (fees = lower than fees for business or personal account fund transmissions).

UnionBank charges Php50 for withdrawals from PayPal worth less than Php7000 (less than $200) and Php0 for withdrawals worth Php7K and above.

PayPal Transaction Fees and UnionBank

Also, my business partner is a non-resident alien (American), but UnionBank guy (he's a manager or something) told us non-resident aliens can open a savings account with them (with Visa debit card and online banking).

Am now asking if forms can be filled out and signed by fax 'cause UnionBank people fax bank forms for me and my partner in Utah to fill out, and he faxed his valid IDs to UnionBank branch beforehand though filled out and signed registration forms here in Manila (don't think there'd be any difference if he filled out and signed it then faxed it, but it's always better to ask them just to make sure).

This is a good option for those in countries without PayPal.

You can buy a US IP from PacketFlip.Com for $10/month which you can use each time you log into your PayPal account... you can transfer PayPal funds to your UnionBank account then wire funds from your UnionBank account to your local bank account (4% charge), and that's it.

It was Western Union for me this time. High rates, but at least I got the payment done instantely.

I hope Xoom will go back allowing non-US credit cards as well.

Yes Chris. Totally agree with you.

I forgot to add this up:

Im very happy with the rates that they have.

For transactions that are over Php7,000 (or php7.5k, not sure ), the transfer from paypal to EON card is free. Anything less than that will be billed cheaply at I think Php50 ($1.10-ish)

Hope this helps.

-Yan Kirby

PS If anyone has any troubles or might need a few pointers, hit me a PM. I might be able to help you out.

And one last thing:

If you are trying to get your guys to renew their EON cards or do any inquiries, it would be best if they would visit the nearest unionbank branch as their online system is just next to being crappy.

Seriously, their site has usability issues.

Might as well offer my services to them if I have some spare time in the future. lol

But other than this, you should be fine transacting with them. Been using them day in and day out.

Hope this helps.

-Yan K

Hi guys,

Here's an update from me. I used Western Union this month to pay my one guy who I was paying with XOOM before. It cost me $18 Canadian, versus $13.99 US when I used XOOM, so that's not a huge difference but still expensive.

My guy has not applied for the EON card and it will arrive in 2-3 weeks from what he tells me. Then we'll be using PayPal and all of my new hires will be required to get PayPal by the 2nd month of being paid. I'll do Western Union for the first month if they are not setup yet ... but not going to make a habit of it.

Also, guys - hit up my link to my sig file mentioning the outsourcing blog postings if you are interested in a new hiring process I started to use. Basically I'm using video presentations to tell candidates what I want to see from them. It's helping me save time, bigtime.

I'm based most of the time in the Philippines with an outsourcing company. I send money over using the PNB. Here is how to use it for Canada - https://www.pnbrcc.com/online.remittance.html
Your guys will get their money quicker and will get much more of it, as they have great exchange rates and quick service.

I think you can use ALertpay.com as an alternative. They are based in Canada and good.

To withdraw faster from Alertpay, one may add a US bank account and withdraw there. It is free and takes 2-3 working days. They can then use an ATM card attached to the US Bank account to withdraw cash in Philippine.

Hope this helps.

One other service you may want to check into is:

Welcome to remithome

I have never used the service for outsource work, but used to send money to my wife's family using them.

It was very effective. The price is around $10/transaction. They offer direct bank deposit, delivery to the door, or cash pickup.

I have no idea how they work with countries other than the USA and Philippines, but it would be worth your time to take a quick look at their website to see if they would work for you. They may be limited to US to Philippines transfers only.

They also have a small business services for paying multiple employees/contractors in the Philippines. Which saves even more money:

Pay Philippine Workers and Suppliers Online

Just this 2008 Xoom services sucks... I believe paypal is the best now. Link then with EON. Thumbs up!

Yes, I absolutely agree with Westernunion.com.
If not ask them to open an account with paypal them ask them to link their account with (B.P.I, and EON).
You may also pay through these sites: I am not sure for their rates:

1) Luckymoney
2) Money gram

Man, my problem is that I live in Jamaica and PayPal doesn't do direct deposits here or withdraw to visa cards and the cheques take 6 weeks to clear.
Joined Xoom in hopes to fix this problem but now that they cut it off....
I'm stuck..

Alert pay is good

If you are comfortable with the idea of transferring funds online, you can send money online to the Philippines by visiting the website of Qwarta Padala. I came across that site when I was looking for cheaper ways of sending money to the Philippines. The prevailing exchange rate that they provide is good and the service fee that they charge is fixed at only P200.00 (4.70 USD). Creating an account was free. Pay it a visit who knows it might provide you what you might need for I also use Western Union before but this is way cheaper.

How about Payza? I believe it's second largest to PayPal.

I have come across this website QwartaPadala. The service fee that they charge is fixed at 4.67 USD or P200.00 regardless of the amount that you send. I recommended this to my uncle who is living in Australia. I needed P 10,000.00 for my school fees that time and according to him it cost him a total of 255.10 AUD. Service fee was already included in it (only 5.00AUD). the exchange rate offered was 1 AUD = 39.9948 PHP during that time. According to them the exchange rate that they offer changes daily and is much higher than that of the exchange rate in other banks and even far better than what WU offered. You can visit their website and creating an account is free. Try it out.