Sending $ to my gf in the Philippines

2POSTS

7 years ago

I have a question.聽 I recently met a lady in the Philippines.聽 We eventually became engaged.聽 We want the wedding in the phillipines so her family can attend.
My fiancee has a wedding planner girlfriend so I want to start sending money to her for the wedding. I've been sending about $300 a month to help support her and her 3 kids.聽 My question is: can I get in trouble with the US government for sending $15000.00 in $2000 incraments until the wedding is funded?

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Fred Indonesia Expert

30549POSTS

7 years ago

Banks in many countries report suspicious activity as part of a drive to make life difficult for a wide variety of criminals but sending money for a wedding is apparently quite common so your chances of a problem are limited.
This might be a handy site for you

Kenworthman18 Member

2POSTS

7 years ago

Thanks for your comment.聽 I read that there was a $6k a year limit for money leaving the US.
Is 8000,000 a close figure for a Philippine wedding?

Fred Indonesia Expert

30549POSTS

7 years ago

The link I posted seems to be a well thought out piece that gives you likely costs

pej1111 Serial expat

562POSTS

7 years ago

To answer your question you should not get in trouble, you MAY get a please explain, and be asked to show how the money was made by you and for what purpose and to whom you are sending the money.

The reporting guidelines and laws around this are there for a good reason to stop the funding of illegal activities and prevent money laundering.

If you are sending the money to your GF via bank transfer amounts of $2,000 USD in regular payments, she MAY need to produce a signed letter from you stating all the obvious things:聽 What is the source of the money, what is your relationship, the purpose of the money for her (and you), how did you make the money, your name and a photo copy of your passport, address in America, her name and address, her ID, etc etc

You can transfer (and fly with and bring in) any amount to the Philippines.聽聽However it is for good reason tracked (it is based around preventing money laundering and preventing the funding of聽 illegal activities).

However when bring with you in person amounts greater than $10,000USD (total of all currencies) there is paper work to be done for the Philippines and you will need to complete a:聽 "Foreign Currency and Other Foreign Exchange-Denominated Bearer Monetary Instruments Declaration Form"聽 (For transportation of such currency or monetary instruments in excess of US$10,000 or its equivalent)

For and Australian leaving Australia we can take out of Australia any amount of currency, but when we taking out more than $10,000 AUD we are required to complete some government paper work.聽 (I just noticed the US Government has the same requirement for over $10,000 USD), this is for each trip.

Remember the reporting guidelines and laws around this are there for a good reason to stop the funding of illegal activities and prevent money laundering.

jtnelson2017 Member

14POSTS

7 years ago

No.聽 However many places limit the amount you can send in a day.聽聽I hope you have a lovely wedding.聽 We did back in 2012 in Cebu.

pnwcyclist Philippines Expert

1489POSTS

7 years ago

No problem, I send over $12K/yr to my gf to fund our rent and other living expenses here. I just聽 never felt like opening a bank account. Its never been an issue. Keep in mind the IRS requires you to report more than the maximum gift exclusion amount which coincidentally is $15K for 2018.

pnwcyclist Philippines Expert

1489POSTS

7 years ago

On another note.. you are aware there's no divorce in the Philippines, right? I hope you know her really well.. that's a lot of money for a wedding here, and you're taking on a lot of long term responsibility.

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scott1953 Contributor

160POSTS

7 years ago

Kenworthman18 wrote:
I have a question.聽 I recently met a lady in the Philippines.聽 We eventually became engaged.聽 We want the wedding in the phillipines so her family can attend.
My fiancee has a wedding planner girlfriend so I want to start sending money to her for the wedding. I've been sending about $300 a month to help support her and her 3 kids.聽 My question is: can I get in trouble with the US government for sending $15000.00 in $2000 incraments until the wedding is funded?

Hello Kenworthman, I don't want to come across negative about your plans. But i see a lot of red flags in your post. I know nothing about you, your gf, your age, your financials聽 etc. You stated you "recently " met a lady in the Phil. and suddenly you are engaged.聽 Have you聽 met her in person and spent time with her and her 3 kids to get a feel for your future with her i presume? You are already sending her 300 per month to support her and her 3 kids. Depending on your age and finances, you are looking at a lot of baggage early on in your relationship. 15,000 is a lot for a wedding here. Interesting that your fiance has a "wedding planner" friend already. I would never send 15,000 to any woman in this country unless i spent years living or married to her.聽 I am just speaking from experience聽 reading a number of posts from expats on this site and personally that got burned from their Phil. gf or fiance. Its your life, money and broken heart if it does not work out. Why not just bring the 15,000 with you when you come to be with your fiance? Plan the wedding together so you see where your money is spent. When i leave the States, i always bring 15-20,000 with me.聽 I have a special leather carrier i keep under my shirt strapped securely to my belt. Just report it to US Customs before聽 you leave by filling out the proper form they give you and report it when you go through Phil. Customs and fill out their form.聽 If you dont report you are carrying more than 10,000 dollars coming here or leaving the States they will confiscate it all. Always get receipts from both agency's . Open a bank聽 account when you get here in dollars and pesos. Personally i am a retired expat 65 yrs. old from the States and have spent the better part of 4 years here and love it.聽 I live a comfortable life on 1,100 dollars per month. One rule i have is that i dont date Filipinas that have kids, not at my age. I chose not to get married here聽 because i have a great聽 social and dating life with a number of single Filipinas. So good luck with your relationship and i hope it works out for you. But use your head and think it through or you and your money will part ways quickly here. Remember also, you will probably be expected to help other members of her family financially. I have yet to meet a Filipina that was not broke.

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Henkjan Active member

27POSTS

7 years ago

#10

Hi, did it ver come in your mind to just going there and take the money with you instead of sending it?

You should also be aware that sending money there for a wedding is also not the most clever thing to do.
And in my opinion is a wedding there never 15.000 $ I would never do this but is off course all up to you and your own judgement.

I am also married in the Philippines and my wedding was about 300 people and was costing me around 4.500 Euro so do not know or even understand where you got this amount from that it is so freaking expensive suddenly???

I only warn you with respect for your fianc茅e but be aware and bring the money with you when you going there, that is the only wise thing you can do and customs will not even bother you when you have so much cash money with you.

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solivec New member

5POSTS

7 years ago

#11

Hi

I have never reply here to anyone yet. But your post concerned me, since there are a lot of women using love to scam in the Philippines. I have a fianc茅e in the Philippines that I know for 2 years and we are planning to get married in Summer 2019. I visit my fianc茅 every 3 months from the states and she lives in my 3 bedroom condo. We have met several wedding planners and we decided to do our own wedding planning. All the information is on the internet and all hotels have packages based on number people for fixed price depending on the features you want. For example for like 100 people all included聽 the average price was 100,000 pesos GOOGLE IT YOU BEING TAKEN FOR RIDE - 800,000 pesos are you kidding me. On living expenses, it cost me $200 per including helping her family of 9 people.聽 Why with so many beautiful single Filipinas you want to married a women with 3 kids.

Oh my the way since there is no divorce in the Philippines, we will married in Hong Kong and do the reception in the Philippines. Oh and we decided to purchase her wedding dress in EBay for $99usd,

Please google all the ways Filipinas scam foreigners using love.

Love but don鈥檛 trust until you living there. Put up Video cameras livingroom, bedroom, etc. in the home you paying for and get access to all her social media and emails account.聽 With FB messenger you can call her everyday. I talk to my fianc茅 3 times a day everyday via video chat.

Good luck but use your head and don鈥檛 get scammed.

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Rammers Contributor

131POSTS

7 years ago

#12

Eight Hundred Thousand Pesos, sounds a lot for a Wedding?

2 members reacted to this post

markscuba1 Member

2POSTS

7 years ago

#13

Hi,
Can you clarify on the amount that you are planning on spending on your wedding.聽 I think you typed it in wrong.聽 if you remove the comma, it could be translated as 8 million and i know that isn't right so I am guessing the 800k is wrong.聽 Anyway.聽 I just had a huge party for my sons first Birthday and we had 3 pigs, 2 lechion and the 3rd cut up for other dishes.聽 A goat.聽 30 kilos of scallops, fresh crabs and Shrimp.聽 25 cases of beer.聽 Ice cream, Coke, a case of Brandy and much more.聽 My total cost was less than 100,000.00 pesos or less than 2,000.00聽 dollars.聽 I hope this can give you an idea of some real costs.聽 You might want to spend a bit more for a wedding reception but i certainly would be surprised spending more than 4k or 200,000 pesos.聽 But once again, I don't have all the details such as the number of people attending and what is being purchased.聽 You should ask for a budget breakdown from your fiance and planner on what they are planning to purchase and the associated costs.聽 This would really help to clarify if you are getting scammed or not.聽 On a further note.聽 I don't know where her family is from but regardless don't spend what you cant afford.聽 But 15k US would be a wedding for royalty there in the Philippines.聽 My suggestion would be to cut that amount by 2/3rds.聽 If you are in fact planning on spending 15k US.聽 Anyway, goodluck.

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artzcarl New member

4POSTS

7 years ago

#14

be careful man, she might be scamming you. most filipinos take advantage of foreigners like you. just be careful.

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Dennigmt Active member

55POSTS

7 years ago

#15

I would get my feet on the ground before I would even consider $2,000 for a wedding
I have been living with my Philippine woman for 6 years it is costing us $5,000 (p250, 000) for her annulment and that may take a year to process, and that is so she is free to make a legal (wedding) commitment to me. She wouldn't dream of spending $15,000 on a wedding. You don鈥檛 have to pay for the wedding until you are here. My woman thinks you are in trouble with your wife to be. Bring money with you, there is no hurry. I hope you know what you are doing, best of luck.

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temploni Active member

48POSTS

7 years ago

#16

I have to agree with the statements here.
15k dollars is far too expensive.
Why do you have to send all this money in advance?
I have personally been scammed trusting too much.
Not all filopina are bad but the ones that are will take you for every dollar.
A french man here was conned out of 12 million pesos as the gf had an agent friend so he gave the agent friend the money to deal with the purchase.
Personaly i would not send all this money.
Find a gf without big ideas of grandeur.
If she's like this now what will the future hold.

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aloha malu Member

1POSTS

7 years ago

#17

Hi sir! How lucky your girlfriend is? Have you met her in person? Sending money especially big amount was not a good idea nowadays! There are lot of scammers, users, fake and so on to make you believe that marrying a filipina was the proof sending big amount of money. First you have to met her in person then go to the legal counsel which can give you an advice to how to get in a wedding without giving you pressure how much you need to spend for the wedding make sure your girlfriend had no affair to another man before sending money. I am just a filipina concern about your kindness. Be aware what's in her and her background. God bless!

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Tim_L Serial expat

239POSTS

7 years ago

#18

Not to be insensitive or anything but, I would seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY reconsider sending even remotely that amount of money. I could be wrong but there is no way that I would risk that amount of cash as you will have zero recourse for getting any of it back once it鈥檚 used to build a house for her family. 馃檮馃檮馃檮馃檮

Read all the horror stories of doing this on this forum and others.

I do however hope that I am wrong and that you have a wonderful wedding and a wonderful life together. Err on the side of caution though, I hate to hear of good people being taken advantage of.

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Tim_L Serial expat

239POSTS

7 years ago

#19

Jesus man, even reading this thread has my blood boiling... 馃様馃槥

bigpearl ViP

4328POSTS

7 years ago

#20

Tim_L wrote:
Jesus man, even reading this thread has my blood boiling... 馃様馃槥

In what way Tim? We are all unique individuals and choose our path, the OP has not contributed further to this topic, he asked the questions and is possibly sitting back now thinking f*rk, what am I doing? Or simply "I am in looovee (perhaps lust) and will take the risk.
I wish the OP all the best but ringing in my head as always with this type of post are the simple words "a fool and his money are easily departed".

Cheers, Steve.

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Tim_L Serial expat

239POSTS

7 years ago

#21

I hope that's exactly what he's doing Steve!!!聽 Just gets to me sometimes how bad folks are targeted. Not that he is but, my bet is, he has better odds of hitting the lottery for 300 Mil then "not" getting ripped in that deal.

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GuestPoster254 Guest

0POSTS

7 years ago

#22

My two cents:

How much to spend on a wedding depends on who you're marrying.

If you're marrying an attorney from a high powered law firm, you would need a lot more than US$15,000 for a wedding (like the one I failed to attend due to an important client meeting聽

聽 held at ------- with a chance to selfie with the who's who in business and politics). If you're marrying a simple girl from the province, US$15,000 would be way too much.

One of my cousins recently got married. He and his wife are gainfully employed. It was a very nice wedding with family, close relatives and a few of their choice friends. They spent a little over PhP500,000 for a wedding in Tagaytay. They did research, went to bridal fairs, got good deals (such as a wedding cake for just PhP3,500 from a supplier they met at the bridal fair - and the cake was delivered from Manila to Tagaytay). They did not ask the parents for money and used money from their savings. They stayed on budget because they were also saving up for renovating a townhouse they just bought.

IMHO, in your case, I would not be surprised, since you're not here, the "wedding planner" would talk to suppliers, pad the cost of services (photo/videographers, dresses, catering, etc.) and pocket the excess. A downside to spending too much: your bride's relatives and friends will see you as being very generous and well-funded, and ask for money from you or your future wife.

In the end, it's your decision on how much to spend. It's your wedding too.

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