The money remittance business in the Philippines is alive and well. As a matter of fact, the money remittance business is a very important part of the Philippine consumer economy.

It would be very hard to find a Philippines family who doesn’t have some member or relative working abroad. The number of Filipinos working abroad probably numbers in the many hundreds of thousands.  And the vast majority of them do money remittance to the Philippines at least once a month.

In the Philippines, in almost every city, town and village, you’ll find shops that are part of a money remittance network.  And this doesn’t even count the individuals that receive money every month via bank transfers.

In the West, when we think of money remittance we automatically think of online transfers, bank account to bank account. But in the Philippines everybody doesn’t have computers or bank accounts. So there’s another kind of money remittance in the Philippines.

In this kind of money remittance, in the Philippines, it’s just a small shop where a shop owner conducts his normal business but also assists his local customers with money remittance to and from the Philippines.

He has a terminal that’s hooked up to a money remittance network. There are several of these money remittance Philippines networks that operate in the Philippines. When somebody abroad sends money to somebody who lives in his local area, they can come into his shop where he will disburse the money to them in cash.

Local residents can also use this money remittance Philippine network to send money abroad too but that’s not very common.

Money remittance in the Philippines also includes paying local bills electronically. It’s very common. You can go into one of these agencies and give them the money to pay your electric bill, water bill, cable bill, telephone bill, Internet bill and others.

Money remittance to the Philippines can be done in any foreign currency. If you’re in France, for example, you’ll probably be paying in French francs but in most cases they would accept other currency, such as German Deutschmarks. The only adjustment they would have to make would be based on the current exchange rate.

Once the money gets into the money remittance system in the Philippines, it get routed to the nearest location to the recipient, i.e. if it’s the kind of network where the recipient comes in to pick it up. On the other hand, if it’s a totally online, system, i.e. online money remittance to the Philippines, the funds can go directly into the recipients’ digital wallet and from there can be transferred into their bank account providing it’s hooked up the digital wallet.

It’s a beautiful system that keeps money flowing from people who make it to their family and friends who need it.

If money remittance to the Philippines left tracks, there would be a well-beaten path to the Philippines. Historically Filipinos have left their beautiful country in search of opportunity lacking in their own country to travel to the far corners of the globe for work. A large portion of the money they earn turns into money remittance to the Philippines.

More money actually travels to the Philippines than from out of it. To accomplish this, Filipinos have become experts at the intricacies of the various means of getting money back to their country. As the industry has grown, Filipinos wishing to make money remittance to the Philippines have more choices available to the than ever before.

Some companies that service this unique market niche promote the ‘online’ aspect of their service while others promote the size of their agent network within the Philippines. Since many of the families to whom money is sent by remittance to the Philippines do not have computers, they tend to prefer the types of networks that work through local agents that physically accept and disburse the money.

Since so many Filipino overseas workers come from rural areas in the Philippines, this is probably slightly more the preferred method. In these instances, people to whom money has been sent in the Philippines can go into a local business of some kind, provide proper identity and get the cash that was sent to them.

There are Filipinos working abroad who are comfortable with and able to use online means of transferring money back home. In those cases they also have lots of choices. There are many companies that offer a service to remit money to the Philippines by using their debit or credit card and initiating the transaction totally online. For those that chose this route, money remittance to the Philippines is as easy as pushing a few buttons on their computer keyboard.

The sums of money involved aren’t always large in comparison to transactions from other socio-economic groups but it is large in the aggregate. Filipino workers abroad make significant contribution to the economies of their host countries and in many instances earn regular and good salaries by local standards. Since they tend to not live extravagantly, they’re often able to send large and regular money remittance to the Philippines regardless of which method they choose.

If you’re ever abroad and need some advice on how to money in or out of the country, just ask the first Filipino you see. They’ll probably know.