This guest post is contributed by Real_Yield, one of the friends I met through the Reddit Phinvest subreddit and its discord server. Real_Yield is a bottomless font of knowledge. From current financial news, high finance concepts, to classical music, you can trust that Real_Yield will have his say, and everyone will listen.
After opening his US brokerage account guided by my post How to Open a TD Ameritrade Account as a Non-Resident Alien and as a “token of gratitude” (his words), he consented to share with my readers his experience in wiring funds to TD Ameritrade with BPI.
I hope you all like it and please feel free to post a comment if you have any questions.
I’m posting the article without any edits and will let Real_Yield relate his experience in his own words.
There are things that you need to prepare before heading to BPI to ensure that your precious time will not be wasted by bringing incomplete documents:
- Hard-copy/print-out TD wiring instructions
- At least two (2) IDs
- Any proof of ownership of a TD Ameritrade account (In my case, I sent a screenshot of my profile page to the BPI branch.)
- Of course, peso or dollar funds for wiring
Preliminaries
There are things that you need to prepare before heading to BPI to ensure that your precious time will not be wasted by bringing incomplete documents:
- Hard-copy/print-out TD wiring instructions
- At least two (2) IDs
- Any proof of ownership of a TD Ameritrade account (In my case, I sent a screenshot of my profile page to the BPI branch.)
- Of course, peso or dollar funds for wiring
Choosing the Transaction Type
When you already headed to the bank’s New Account booth, indicate that you will be buying dollars to wire abroad. The bank will present two options for you to choose:
- DEBIT FROM PESO ACCOUNT: BPI will debit from your peso account, convert them to dollars based on BPI dollar selling rate, with wiring fees and documentary stamp taxes. The BPI branch where I went told me that in this option, it would be better to earmark or inform the branch ahead of time so that they can secure the dollars you need (but maybe less stringent on preferred clients)
- DEBIT FROM DOLLAR ACCOUNT: BPI will debit from your dollar account and a single wiring fee.
I actually have a dollar account with BPI when I did this transaction but since my intended amount for wiring is way larger than my current dollar balance, I opted to debit from my peso account. Perhaps I would prefer to stack up dollars first in my account and just debit there for my future transactions as that could be way easier.
Wiring Particulars
The branch actually reminded me that they will only allow wiring of dollars for three specified causes. This might vary widely according to your branch or if you are a preferred client. I somehow understood it because these kinds of transactions are crucial enough especially if it hits the AMLC cap of $10,000.
Initially, the branch was hesitant to accommodate me since investing abroad was not in their list. The branch manager then asked documentary proof of my ownership of a TD Ameritrade account. This is where your TD Ameritrade wiring instructions and proof of TD Ameritrade ownership will matter a lot. I also provided by two IDs as proof of identity, of course.
Once they became certain of my ownership, they gave me two forms for me to fill up:
- Form for Dollar Transfers – this is where you will write the wiring details that TD Ameritrade gave you. This form is applicable for both peso and dollar debit wires.(This is a triplicate form, the red one is given to you as customer copy)
- Foreign Exchange Transaction Form – For peso-debit wires, this is necessary as you will also be buying dollars from BPI prior to wiring them to TD Ameritrade. For dollar-debit wires, this is not needed since the bank will just pull out from the dollars in your account.
Some reminders in filling up these forms:
- The branch personnel reminded me to be very careful of the SWIFT code and the International bank account number. Any errors on these fields might cause failure of the wiring process.
- Indicate in the FX Transaction Form that the use of the funds is for “Outward Investments by Residents” and ensure that the peso account to be debited is provided correctly.
Once you completely filled up the forms, you might need to wait for the branch to conduct the transaction. In my case, they almost took two to three hours since it appeared that they don’t process this kind of transactions very often.
The manager left me the branch’s number to inform them if the transaction was successful. She explained to me that I might need to contact them if the transaction has pushed through or not since they have no way of knowing if the funds were correctly received by TD Ameritrade’s correspondent bank once BPI wired it to them. She also assured that in case I might encounter issues, I can just call the branch for them to re-wire the funds.
Fees and Conversion
By this point, you might be asking: Does it really worth your time to go to a bank just to fund your TD Ameritrade account?
My answer would still be a YES since other options such as Transferwise, while more convenient is just more expensive with higher fees.
When it comes to exchange rate, I was not actually able to get the BPI posted rate. For reference, the posted dollar selling rate that day was 48.85, but I was actually able to get at 49.05. While this might get some uncomfortable, the 20 centavos difference is still fair for me. If you are a Preferred Client, you might actually avail the posted selling rate or even better. That’s still way better than Transferwise which might put a whopping a full peso spread in exchange rates.
To check latest BPI rates, you might go to this link: https://www.bpi.com.ph/forex/rates.
The fees I paid though was the exactly how was it presented in BPI’s website:
https://www.bpi.com.ph/bank/service/send-money-abroad/fees-and-charges.
The first row will apply for dollar-debit wires, while the second will apply for peso-debit wires.
Here is the cost breakdown of my transaction, which you will actually see in the red sheet customer copy that BPI will provide for you.
You should see the debited total transaction amount within the same day.
The wired dollar account became available by next day, perhaps they already processed it overnight. However, they deducted USD 15 from my wired amount.
Thank your for guesting me here in your blog!
Funding your account in the Philippines wasn’t so hard, was it? I hope this guest post will help you realize how easy funding your TD Ameritrade account. If you have questions or clarifications, please put them in the comments and I will request Real_Yield to answer your them.
This post is part of my series on cross-border investing
Post 1: How to Open a TD Ameritrade Account Outside of the US as a Non-Resident Alien
Post 2: Taxation on US Stock Investments of Non-Resident Aliens
Post 3: I Opened a TD Ameritrade Account – Now What?
Post 4: The Ultimate Guide to Philippine Feeder Funds
Post 5 (this post): My Experience Wiring Funds to TD Ameritrade Account with BPI
12 Responses
I know there is no minimum deposit but how much is the allowed amount you can start trading?
The minimum trade is at least 1 stock.
I hope you also guest someone who did fund thru BDO. 🙂
Will look for someone who’s willing to share her/his experience.
Hi Katie,
I was wondering if anyone you know has tried opening an account with eToro? How was the experience? How does it compare to Ameritrade?
Thanks!
Kay
Yes I know several people who have accounts with eToro. One of the feedback I’ve heard from them is their concern about the fees. Also, eToro lets you trade with CFDs (Contract for Difference) instead of the underlying assets. CFD trading is a method of trading in which an individual engages in a contract with a CFD broker, rather than purchasing the underlying asset directly. (straight from the etoro website.
hi, what if your fund your Ameritrade via Paypal? is that possible? thanks.
I don’t think funding your Ameritrade account via Paypal is possible. But people have been able to do so via Transferwise so that can be an alternative.
Just needed to be clarified on the transfer fees that you quoted above. I read in one of the reddit sites that aside from the USD14.00 fee that BPI charges (BPI FCDU to TD Ameritrade), the intermediary bank for the transfer will likewise charge a USD15.00 fee, bringing the total fees to USD29.00. Can you confirm if this correct based on your experience?
Well, this one is not BPI but Union. From what I’ve observed by Apr 2021, Wise (previously Transferwise) charged me $16.41 while Union’s bank fee charged me $14.33, bringing the fee (to just add money to Wise) a whopping 1,501.34 in php for my transfer of $373. I’m still not sure how to remedy this – trying to open a usd in Union and see how it would go!
Very informational content. I tried to go with BPI and you are right that they are hesitant and i am not successful. BPI is asking me to provide some proof of what am i funding or buying since it is an investment. I dont understand exactly what they meant as i have said that i need to fund my US broker account (TD Ameritrade) for me to buy an investment or stock. But they keep on insisting so i left and thinking of transferring my dollar account to other bank that would accommodate this. Can you please provide an advice or refer a BPI branch that knows what to do.
Hi Katie,
Do you anyone who was able to wire transfer their USD from BDO Unibank Dollar account to TD Ameritrade? Like for both online banking and over-the-counter methods?
Can you also share their experiences here? Thanks