Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHammers
Citibank rates are often better than what the moneychangers give you. Although I live in London and use HSBC for my main banking activities.... I will use Citibank when I am traveling overseas.  |
the main thing, in case newbies are more confused .. is .. different folks, different strokes
There is no one-size-fit-all ..
so, that's the key .. adapt as per your own needs.
The first time I went to Manila, years ago, I was so terrified of loosing my money, and damn my idiot Filipino friend who passed me 30,000 peso to give to his sister only that he forgot to tell me about the limit of peso you can bring in .. which I only knew when I was packing. .. and when I called the guy, he was almost crying saying his mother is in the hospital and i Must pass the money (note that it was his money .. not mine .. ) so good hearted me decided to 'chance' it ..
I sweated so much, till I had 9,000 peso in my wallet, 10,000 peso in my hand pouch, and pretty much wrapped up, and the balance hidden in my toiletry bag ..
To make the whole story comical, I got landed by customs, for bringing in an old stereo system, which I was bringing in as a gift .. and the customs only kept demanding I pay 'tax' for the old used stereo component ..
To make it even worse, the sister of my friend, decided to put me as second priority, as she was out with her boyfriend preparing for a concert or something, and kept me waiting in Manila for one whole fxxking day before promising to meet me the next day evening - fxxk it says me -you cannot even come and collect money - money that you urgently need - as none of the family member were employed .. (Talk about priorities, Filipino style .. )
Then I got exasperated and gave them a deadline, pick it before lunch the next day, or I am going on with my plans of getting far, fxxking far from Manila.
Seems a something got switched on and the brother called and begged me to pass the money before going to other places, and promised he will drive over to pick up the cash (another idiotic thing - the whole family depends on the brother in Singapore, but, hey, we need a car to get around .. ) and the brother turns up in Robinson's four fxxking hours after or agreed time, with his GF, and his GF had the freshly-fxxked look .. with wet hair and what not .. and well, he was showing off his filipino hospitality insisting he show me around town and suggested that I extend my holiday and wanted to show me the 'dorms' full of girls, and was going 'lets discuss this over a San Mig" .. damn - do they know changing flight dates cost money ? nevermind the leave back at work.. I politely declined and decided - anything else must be much better than having screwed two days of my holiday doing nothing - sincerely thinking that they desperately needed the money - hence the big brother having asked me to hand carry it ..
Only later did I find out that maybe, the big brother in Singapore wanted to save his 'remittance' fee .. and screwed up my happiness - and that' my friends, was a great intro to Filipino priorities and attitudes and all things Filipino -
Never did I bring money again for others - if they want, let them WU or remit through other sources ..
And no more fxxking favours for anybody who has no value on other people's time ..
Sorry for the long winded post - had to get it off my chest after so many years ..
