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Hello everyone,Something as simple as receiving mail can become a whole new experience when you settle in the Philippines as an expat. Mailing management can indeed be different from what you are used to. In order to help other expats and soon-to-be expats, we invite you to share your insights. How do you receive mail in the Philippines? Do you have a traditional mailbox, a PO Box, or another system?How was it to set it up and what are the formalities?Is the postal service reliable and secure?How do you handle missed deliveries or forwarding your mail?Do you have any tips you would like to share to newcomers and fellow expats?Share your insights and experience.Thank you for your contribution.Cheryl½ûÂþÌìÌà Team - @Cheryl

In the USA the Patriot Act defines physical address requirements for banks regarding Know You Customer (KYC). For banking, US Law requires that you provide a physical address and that can be a "next of kin" like a son or daughter or a friend where you live part tine while in the USA. What you cannot do legally is to provide banks with a CMRA or commercial virtual address as the "residential" address from companies like iPostal1 and no PO Boxes. I notice from various YouTube videos that iPostal1 is a popular choice for many US expats for bank residential addresses but in reality, that does not meet Patriot Act guidelines and banks might cancel you upon finding out that you are using a CMRA address. Some of these CMRA addresses are very "good", with street numbers that appear to be actual non-commercial addresses but it is very easy for anyone to identify a commercial CMRA via various websites that can be googled. For Social Security, you can use a USA address and this is not tied to the Patriot Act but if you have your pension sent to a USA bank, obviously it makes sense that the same address would be used. IPostal1 virtual addresses work out great as "mailing addresses" where the bank or cc card company allows you to specify an address separate from residential address for the purpose of sending new credit cards that can be forwarded to your overseas address. I do think many US expats are not completely familiar with Patriot Act KYC address requirements and I also believe banks are not currently enforcing the prohibition on using CMRA addresses on a large scale. Hopefully their banks will not crack down in the future (very easy to do since their cmra addresses are in public databases as non-residential). As far as reliability of mail services, the postal service here on the Philippines provinces is not reliable and can give us problems in receiving critical mail from the SSA like their form 7162 "still alive". If you need to keep continuation of benefit checks independent of reliable receipt of this annual form you need to choose your USA address for SSA if you have one, as a part time resident (next if kin etc..).

@danfinn

Agreed.  Using next of kin or a good friend is the best solution.  For those without a good reliable person back in their country of origin this poses a huge problem. 

You need someone you can trust who can open your mail and share with you so you know when you need to respond, perhaps FedEx the document here.  Most things can be handled by email but there are those items, like replacement credit cards that require a trusted person back home.

Safe travels everyone,

@danfinn Agreed. Using next of kin or a good friend is the best solution. For those without a good reliable person back in their country of origin this poses a huge problem. You need someone you can trust who can open your mail and share with you so you know when you need to respond, perhaps FedEx the document here. Most things can be handled by email but there are those items, like replacement credit cards that require a trusted person back home.Safe travels everyone, - @AlbertaDonuts

So as a Canadian your bank address requirements must be the same as in the US. Thanks for your comments. I will note that some US banks and CC companies allow you to specify separate mailing and residential addresses so those can use Ipostal1 type addresses to send debit and credit cards. My bank and cc do not have that option. On a separate topic, remitters such as remitly and wise have intro'd  fast ACH transfers of minutes instead of days. With that you don't need a debit card.  You can use bank account instead of charging to your debit card and the transfer is instant like selecting the debit card transfer option. If your debit card expires, you can still transfer from your checking to gcash, Maya etc by fast ach and withdraw the money from a Philippine ATM  using maya/gcash debit VISA and the cost is only 15-18 pesos instead of 250 pesos. Fast ACH transfer is rather new but so far, I have used it for smaller amounts like $400 or less. I know for sure Remitly and Wise have fast ach. Western union seems not to have it. Not sure about worldremit or the others.

Re Fast ACH with Remitly, I don't know what their limit might be but I have used it multiple times for instant transfers of 75,000 pesos from my UK bank to BDO here. That keeps it below £1000 GBP above which I am suspicious they may run checks. It's so convenient, money is available within seconds, no questions asked.

I don't have fast transactions yet, perhaps not enabled for Canada.  Too bad.

Re Fast ACH with Remitly, I don't know what their limit might be but I have used it multiple times for instant transfers of 75,000 pesos from my UK bank to BDO here. That keeps it below £1000 GBP above which I am suspicious they may run checks. It's so convenient, money is available within seconds, no questions asked. - @C D87

That is great. I had no idea fast ach would go that high.

@AlbertaDonuts

I checked with grok; the Canadian system uses AFT instead of the US analog ACH. Right now, for instant transfers you must do debit or credit card "Express Transfers" which isn't so bad but you need to keep those cards active to use this option.  I hope I am not going overboard on the grok ai thing but grok made a very interesting input here:

"Likelihood of a "Fast AFT" Feature from Remitly in Canada

Yes, there is a moderate to high likelihood that Remitly will introduce a "Fast AFT" (or equivalent real-time Automated Funds Transfer) option for Canadian checking accounts in the future, particularly within the next 2–3 years (by 2027–2028). This assessment is based on Canada's ongoing infrastructure upgrades for real-time payments, Remitly's stated strategy of integrating with local fast payment systems, and industry trends toward instant remittances. While no explicit announcements confirm a branded "Fast AFT," the convergence of these factors makes it a logical evolution of their current offerings".

.

@danfinn

Thanks for the info.  Yes I can do fast transfers with credit card but that gets a charge and interest like a cash advance.  We do have Interact Email transfer payment option but that has a low daily limit.... but it happens within an hour most times.

Cheers,