禁漫天堂

Just a follow-up ...

I've asked several expats and even some stateside folks who might know if this is true, but no one seems to have a firm answer.聽 I really don't see much of a difference between doing this and having your US address with a relative, so I'm going to go forward with trying it out next year.聽 Worst case I get flagged and have to change plans.聽 All of my correspondence is electronic now anyway, so shouldn't be an issue.聽 The state of Texas is one of only a few states I believe that allow certain homeowners to hide their property information from the public.聽 This is usually exclusive only to people like judges, representatives, police officers, and other high profile citizens, but it's also eligible to anyone who served (or still serving) in the military.聽 I actually did this on the above aforementioned property years ago, since I'm a veteran.聽 You can then use a virtual mailbox to use for actual mail, driver's license, and other correspondence.聽 Will let others know how it goes.

mati steve said . . . .聽 All of my correspondence is electronic now anyway, so shouldn't be an issue.

**

It will be an issue in a few cases especially with charge cards. Be prepared, get a mail forwarder as an US address before聽 coming to the Philippines.

Recently "Wise" asked me for proof of an US address. I downloaded a statement from Citibank showing my mail forwarder's address.

Have you asked your financial institutions about this?

I do not have a physical US address

both my bank and Charles Schwab know I do not live in the US and it causes no issues

ask your bank, get a straight answer

gregparker6201 said . . . .Have you asked your financial institutions about this?
I do not have a physical US address
both my bank and Charles Schwab know I do not live in the US and it causes no issues
ask your bank, get a straight answer

****

Greg does your bank or Schwab have your Philippine address? Better not to get Phil Mail involved.

Recently "Wise" asked me for proof of an US address. I downloaded a statement from Citibank showing my mail forwarder's address. - @Enzyte Bob

Wise explains in detail what they are doing to prevent their risk of money laundering on this site:

https colon slash slash wise.com/help/articles/2949804/how-does-wise-verify-my-address

No other remittance company is going this far to reduce their ML risk (this is NOT to protect you as they say; it gets very expensive for institutions to operate when their overall ML risk is high). And we don't know why they are so suspicious of their customers. On the other hand, customers have a reason to be suspicious of them, apparently so quick to pull the KYC trigger. If you google "Wise suspended accounts" you will find incidents all over reddit such as:

"I sent $1,000 and I got a request to submit proof of address, I did so and a few hours later I got the craziest email saying my account have been restricted and will be closed March 29th 2025.

I called customer service and they told me I cannot request an appeal or access my money until then. I just think it's hilarious as it's literally my TAX MONEY and I need to make my payments asap."

Yet I don't rule them out completely聽 for small transfers. I would not use them for thousands of dollars though because after you load up 2 or 3 K, on your balance to make a transfer, that will be exactly when they decide to invoke their KYC and AML investigation and suspend you (collecting interest) and perhaps cancel you. I don't use a virtual address and haven't been ask to confirm it yet. I have made small transfers but if they give me that proof-of-address song and dance I will not cooperate; that is too much of a bother. Their ML problems are not mine; other companies are apparently not under as much regulatory suspicion as they are and I have too many alternatives. But if they let me transfer without bothering me, I noticed one good part about wise: Suppose you want to transfer say $600 to GCASH. For a quick trsnsfer, they will let you select a transfer direct from your checking account and NOT require a debit card for instant transfer. Basically you could let your debit card expire and still instantly transfer to GCASH rather than wait 2-4 days. Long ago, Reekay had mentioned this on a video. I tried it and it worked.

Have you asked your financial institutions about this?I do not have a physical US address both my bank and Charles Schwab know I do not live in the US and it causes no issues ask your bank, get a straight answer - @gregparker6201

But just because some bank employee knows you usually live in the Philippines doesn't itself solve any problems. Does your bank accept your foreign address and foreign phone number? I have informed bank employees where I lived over the phone but they still require a USA mailing address and a USA cell number for 2FA. Schwab would not give me an account with a Philippine address, they wanted a US mailing address. I declined for now but they apparently didn't care where I was actually living, they just wanted some USA contact information.

Agree Dan though Oz has some different rules than the US, a residential address in your home country wins the day or a mail forwarder if that works with your financial institution.

On OTP's delivered by SMS, my primary bank for 8 years would send a code to my PH phone number for transfers either within Oz for bill payments or to our BDO accounts here in Pesos and I liked them because it was always a great exchange rate,,,,,,,, 5/6 months ago I couldn't receive a OTP,,,,,,,, hours upon hours on the phone to them over a couple of weeks always resulted with them telling me it must be an issue with my carrier and not their fault, would constantly tell them that my other financial institutions send me an SMS as well as receiving calls etc from Oz,,,,,,,, they won't help me and I'm in the midst of getting rid of them, difficult as these days can't even log into my accounts online as now they require an OTP to log in to even look at my account, not required until 2 months ago.

40 years a customer means nothing.

Maybe they are adopting the US system?

Anyway I have set up another account with my investment bank (that works here) so they can issue me with a debit card for booking flights and hotels etc. All done online in 5 minutes.

Westpac are useless and one of the 4 big banks there, lost me and my money.

Sorry for the bleat.

Cheers, Steve.

Regarding "Wise" confirming聽 my US address. They had sent me an email requesting I do it by a certain date, from memory I think I had about 30 days notice.

I do not make large transfers usually enough monthly to my BDO account to cover S&R, Meralco, Converge, Wife's allowance, Maids salary and some WAM (Walking Around Money). On a monthly basis.

When I ran up large hospital bills for my wife, they were paid by debit card from the states eliminating fees or questions from "Wise".

Regarding "Wise" confirming my US address. They had sent me an email requesting I do it by a certain date, from memory I think I had about 30 days notice.I do not make large transfers usually enough monthly to my BDO account to cover S&R, Meralco, Converge, Wife's allowance, Maids salary and some WAM (Walking Around Money). On a monthly basis.When I ran up large hospital bills for my wife, they were paid by debit card from the states eliminating fees or questions from "Wise". - @Enzyte Bob

I do pretty much the same using remitly although we do make ATM withdrawals as necessary in聽 cash-based Dumaguete. One time. remitly really came at me hard when I transferred a higher amount to my dentist's bank account rather than pay him in cash. They put me through the ringer and learned everything about where I live here, in the states, my wife's information, my banking, an entire profile. What bothered me in addition to several phone calls was them tying up my money by suspending my account. They never gave me the option of just canceling the transfer and forgetting the whole transaction; I had to see it through. When it was all.over they said I could transfer larger amounts from now on and they won't bother me but I will not do that again. They had never given me a transfer limit from the start however; this amount was just arbitrary on their part. Remitly is great for smaller monthly transfers to pay bills etc. and that is what I will continue to use it for.

Agree Dan though Oz has some different rules than the US, a residential address in your home country wins the day or a mail forwarder if that works with your financial institution.On OTP's delivered by SMS, my primary bank for 8 years would send a code to my PH phone number for transfers either within Oz for bill payments or to our BDO accounts here in Pesos and I liked them because it was always a great exchange rate,,,,,,,, 5/6 months ago I couldn't receive a OTP,,,,,,,, hours upon hours on the phone to them over a couple of weeks always resulted with them telling me it must be an issue with my carrier and not their fault, would constantly tell them that my other financial institutions send me an SMS as well as receiving calls etc from Oz,,,,,,,, they won't help me and I'm in the midst of getting rid of them, difficult as these days can't even log into my accounts online as now they require an OTP to log in to even look at my account, not required until 2 months ago.40 years a customer means nothing.Maybe they are adopting the US system?Anyway I have set up another account with my investment bank (that works here) so they can issue me with a debit card for booking flights and hotels etc. All done online in 5 minutes.Westpac are useless and one of the 4 big banks there, lost me and my money.Sorry for the bleat.Cheers, Steve. - @bigpearl

I think Australia may be tightening up. Also due to confidentiality, customer service at the banks is often kept unaware of the details of how their bank's KYC works...they are as clueless as the customers.

I saw this article stating the changes in Australia KYC. Yes, it looks lihe they may be doing the same as the USA:

Australia鈥檚 New KYC Landscape: Why Your Business Must Act Now

+61 2 9057 9079

Introduction

The era of lax onboarding and 鈥渢rust-first, verify later鈥� in Australia is over. A seismic shift is underway across financial services, digital platforms, eCommerce, crypto exchanges, and even sectors that never previously considered identity checks鈥攖hanks to a crackdown on fraud, scams, money laundering, and shadow economies.

With Australia鈥檚 KYC (Know Your Customer) rules tightening and broadening in scope, businesses can no longer afford to treat compliance as an afterthought. Today, KYC is not only a legal necessity鈥攊t鈥檚 a strategic...etc

There is a lot of information on the web about this. One thing to keep in mind is that a bank's customer service person may be just as frustrated as the customer because their fraud- security-KYC departments control everything and even management is clueless as to why your Phils phone number no longer receives texts because information like that is valuable to criminals. I would hold the CEOs responsible except I wouldn't assume that customer satisfaction ranks above money laundering KYC risk. It doesn't. You cannot compare the importance of one Customer's banking experience to the massive regulatory costs of KYC ML risk and the fact that other countries and banks will not do business with institutions identified as high risk. So Customer sat is not the big deal it once was. In the US聽 to get an approximation of old-time customer service one could join a community credit union. But they have strict KYC, just not as bad so it seems.

Have you asked your financial institutions about this?I do not have a physical US address both my bank and Charles Schwab know I do not live in the US and it causes no issues ask your bank, get a straight answer - @gregparker6201

That's very interesting.聽 I was always under the impression because of the Patriot Act you HAD to have a physical US residential address in order to do any transactions with a US financial institution.聽 I'll contact my institutions and see what they have to say about it.聽 Thanks.

Have you asked your financial institutions about this?I do not have a physical US address both my bank and Charles Schwab know I do not live in the US and it causes no issues ask your bank, get a straight answer聽 - @gregparker6201
That's very interesting. I was always under the impression because of the Patriot Act you HAD to have a physical US residential address in order to do any transactions with a US financial institution. I'll contact my institutions and see what they have to say about it. Thanks. - @mati_steve

You don't have to be living in the USA. Here is the actual requirement (read carefully).

31 CFR 1020.220(a)(2)(i)(A)(3). For an individual: a residential or business street address, or if the individual

does not have such an address, an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number, or the

residential or business street address of next of kin or of another contact individual.For a 鈥減erson鈥� other than an

individual (such as a corporation, partnership, or trust): a principal place of business, local office, or other physical

location. FinCEN, Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, OCC, OTS, Treasury (April 28, 2005), 鈥淚nteragency Interpretive

Guidance on Customer Identification Program Requirements under Section 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act,鈥�

Information required FAQ #1, further explains that for an individual, the description of the customer鈥檚 physical

location will suffice

However, banks may have their own rules above and beyond Patriot Act requirements. IMO, best to use a community credit union that is more concerned with customer service than large impersonal banks who do not care about their customers situations.

However, there nothing stopping banks from having their own rules above and beyond Patriot Act requirements. They may prefer USA customers only, for example, to keep their KYC ML risk profiles low, as higher KYC risk costs them money and commercial business.

That may be why banks mostly use USA-based SIM card SMS text codes for 2FA rather than the better 2FA methods, forcing USA expats to get USA-based sim cards that work in the Philippines.

IMO, it is best to use a community credit union that is more concerned with customer service than large impersonal banks who do not care about their customers situations and will drop you if they think you live outside the USA etc..