Summer in the Philippines
Hot Weather, Holidays, and Holy Week

While America welcomes spring after a cold winter, April is already the middle of summer in the Philippines. This is the hottest time of the year in the Philippines, and it follows the end of the school year, so students are off for summer break.

During April, the Philippines celebrates
Holy Week (April 5-12), from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday,
Black Saturday and Easter Sunday. For those less familiar with the Philippines, please note that Holy Week is taken very seriously there, and very little business will get done during this week. In fact, there are only two business days during Holy Week (April 7-8). Different Philippine provinces will mark Holy Week in their own unique ways with processions, reenactments, and celebrations of the Easter period.

 Cost of Living Comparison: U.S. and Philippines

When Filipinos first visit the U.S., they are often shocked at how high the prices are here. They pull out their calculators and figure out how much things cost in Pesos, and then compare it with how much these things cost in the Philippines. Only then does it hit them that while people do earn more in the U.S., the cost of living is also much higher here than in the Philippines.

Conversely, Americans visiting the Philippines often think in U.S. terms. So they may give the equivalent of a $1.00 tip (the cost of 20 minutes parking in downtown San Francisco) and are surprised at the enthusiastic appreciative response they get. First of all, tipping is not common in the Philippines and, second, $1.00 may be equivalent to half a day’s pay!

To illustrate the large differences in cost of living, here is a price comparison between major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and the Philippines.

* These are representative prices in the San Francisco Bay Area (where remithome is headquartered) and
Metro Manila (where our Philippine Office is located). While the San Francisco Bay Area and Metro Manila
are two of the most expensive places to live in the two countries, the prices are representative of the relative
cost of living between the U.S. and the Philippines.

 Ask remithome: Scheduling and Canceling Transfers

Question: I just canceled a scheduled transfer online, but decided I want to send money after all. Could you please reinstate my scheduled transfer? Also, could you please change the amount to $400 rather than $300?

Answer: We cannot reinstate a scheduled transfer. As described below, remithome Customer Service can cancel your scheduled transfer on request (or you can cancel it yourself online),
but only you can schedule a new transfer.

Scheduling Transfers – Only you can do it (but we can help)
For security reasons, only you can schedule a transfer. The remithome system does not permit anyone in the company to schedule a transfer for you. Instead, you will need to log into your remithome Membership Account and schedule a transfer on the Send Money page. However,
if you need assistance with scheduling a transfer, just call remithome Customer Service at 1-800-919-0787 during California business hours, weekdays from 9 AM to 5 PM, Pacific Time,
and we will be happy to help you.

Canceling a Scheduled Transfer – You can do it or we can do it
You can cancel a scheduled transfer online before 2 PM, Pacific Time, on the date it is scheduled to be sent. Or, you can call remithome Customer Service and we can cancel the scheduled transfer for you. If you need our help to cancel a transfer, please call us as early as possible, because once the transfer has been sent, at 2 PM, Pacific Time, the transfer cannot be canceled.

Changing the Send Amount – Cancel your scheduled transfer and schedule a new transfer
If you have scheduled a transfer for $300 and now want to increase the amount to $400, you will first need to cancel the $300 transfer and then go to the Send Money page to schedule a $400 transfer to replace it. As explained above, you can cancel your scheduled transfer online by
logging into your remithome Membership Account, or you can call remithome Customer Service and we can cancel the transfer for you. However, you will need to schedule the new transfer online, since remithome’s system does not allow us to schedule transfers for customers.

If you need assistance with scheduling or canceling a transfer, please contact remithome Customer Service at 1-800-919-0787, Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, Pacific Time (California), or email us at customerservice@remithome.com.