Focus on Our Community

Who are remithome members?

Think you know who sends money through remithome? Our community is actually more diverse than you might imagine. What all of us have in common, however, is a strong connection to the Philippines.

Who We Are and Where We Live

remithome members can be found in all 50 states and U.S. territories, and some live abroad, usually U.S. military or those who have moved to the Philippines to work or retire. Most remithome members are Filipinos. Many are recent immigrants, some have lived in the U.S. for many years, and others were born in the U.S. Our Non-Filipino members may have different connections to the Philippines. Some have historical ties from their days at Subic Bay or Clark Field. Others run outsourced businesses in the Philippines. And some may have spouses, fiancées, or other family members in the Philippines.

 Member Profile: Supporting Education and Development
in the Philippines

As many immigrants from the Philippines can attest, education is a proven path to advancement, with benefits not only for individuals and their families, but also for the community at large. Yet many poor families in the Philippines cannot even afford the $150/year needed to pay for fees, books, uniforms, and school supplies for their children to attend a public high school. And without help, $2,500/year or more for college is clearly out of reach.

Members of our remithome community are striving to make a difference in Calamba, Laguna Province, about an hour south of Manila. Eunice Bejar-Lee arrived in the U.S. with a BSN from the Philippines, went on to become a Registered Nurse, and later built a successful home health agency in Daly City, California. When she and her husband, Gilbert, visited her home in the Philipppines after many years in the U.S., they were struck by the plight of the families in the area, whose primary breadwinners had lost their livelihoods as fishermen due to the degradation of Laguna de Bay, Luzon’s largest lake.

Eunice and Gilbert wanted to help, and seeing education as the primary means to better lives in the community, they sponsored 24 needy students to allow them to attend high school. Then, in 2003, they established Pipit Fund, Inc. (www.pipitfund.org), a California non-profit corporation, to expand the charitable work.

To date, the Pipit Fund has provided full scholarships to more than 75 high school students and has provided 23 college scholarships to graduating high school students based on high grades and community involvement.

The Pipit Fund also supports other areas of development, including micro-lending through a women’s cooperative, support for community libraries, and church and youth development.

 Ask remithome: Sending U.S. Dollars

Question: Since my recipient can probably get a higher exchange rate in the Philippines, isn’t it usually better to send U.S. Dollars to my recipient and let my recipient convert the Dollars to Philippine Pesos in the Philippines?

Answer: In general, it is better to send Philippine Pesos to your recipient unless your recipient needs to make a payment in U.S. Dollars. The reason is that there are a lot of extra expenses when you send U.S. Dollars.

Please consider the following before sending U.S. Dollars to your recipient:

• The remithome transfer fee to send U.S. Dollars is $18 (compared with $10 to send Philippine Pesos).
• Dollars can only be deposited to a U.S. Dollar bank account in the Philippines (whereas Pesos can be deposited to a Philippine Peso bank account, delivered door to door, or held for cash pick-up at a bank branch).
• Banks in the Philippines generally charge a “handling fee” of $5 to $10 for U.S. Dollar deposits, and this fee is deducted from the transfer amount; so if you send $500 and your recipient’s bank charges a $5 handling fee, your recipient will only receive $495. Your recipient should check with his or her bank to see what fees they charge for deposits. remithome has no control over fees charged by your recipient’s bank. (Philippine banks do not charge a fee for Philippine Peso deposits, so the amount of Pesos you send is exactly the amount your recipient receives.)

You should consider all these factors when deciding whether it makes sense for you to send U.S. Dollars. Recipients who actually need Philippine Pesos often believe that they can benefit by receiving Dollars and then exchanging them for Pesos in the Philippines at a higher exchange rate. However, when you consider the higher transfer fee ($18 to send Dollars versus $10 to send Pesos) and the fee of $5 or more that your recipient’s bank may charge for U.S. Dollar deposits, it is usually better to send Philippine Pesos instead.

If you do want to send U.S. Dollars, you can use the Add Recipient process to set up a separate U.S. Dollar profile for your recipient. Make sure that your recipient has an existing U.S. Dollar bank account in the Philippines, since you will need the bank name, bank branch, and account number to set up a U.S. Dollar recipient in your remithome account.

If you have questions about the sending U.S. Dollars, 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.