Sending Money From the UK to the Philippines: What a Monthly Transfer Costs
For anyone sending a few hundred pounds home every month, the headline rate matters less than what repeats: the charge on a small amount, twelve times a year, and how your family actually takes the money. This guide is built around that sender. A transfer to the Philippines can end in a bank account, a GCash wallet or a pawnshop counter, and each one has its own cost and its own limit.
A Small Amount, Every Month
Our cheapest standing price for £200 going to a Philippine bank account is Taptap Send's, about £1.00 all-in, followed by Revolut at about £1.51 and Paysend at about £1.57. Sent every month for a year, that is about £12 with Taptap Send and about £102 with Xoom, the two ends of the standing prices at this amount.
Pay from your UK bank account, not a credit card, and set the transfer up once with the payout your family prefers. The Nursing and Midwifery Council counted 50,180 people on its register educated in the Philippines at 30 September 2024, and the census figure below is the wider community.
That puts the UK fifth among source countries, on our own ordering of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Table 11; the BSP prints no ranking. Its footnote warns that money from elsewhere can be booked as coming from the US, because correspondent banks are mostly based there.
Today’s Peso Board
The board starts at £1,000 into a bank account. If you send less than that, type your own monthly amount first; the order can change.
Compare Money Transfer Services
Sending 1,000.00 GBP → PHP · Estimated typical cost · bank deposit, bank-funded
Showing 13 of 17 services we can price for GBP → PHP
Estimates only, not live quotes. "Recipient Gets" is for a bank deposit funded from a bank account, on today's mid-market rate: for a "provider quote", minus the rate markup and fee from that provider's own recent quote; for an estimate, minus the provider's typical markup and fee. Rows are ranked by total cost, the fee plus the rate markup, so a fee charged on top of the amount sent counts against a provider even when its recipient gets more. Real cost varies by corridor, amount, delivery and payment method, and promotions (e.g. new-customer offers can be cheaper). Tap a provider to get its live rate before sending. The dot by each provider shows confidence, and the label says how the figure was grounded: "corridor estimate" is a rate we measured for this exact pair; a currency-code estimate (e.g. "USD estimate") is measured for that source currency but not this destination; "typical estimate" is the provider's general figure across all its corridors; "provider quote" is that provider's own recent quote for this pair, its markup and fee applied to today's mid-market rate exactly as its calculator shows them, and a provider whose quote depends on a payment or delivery choice is left out here and priced on its own calculator. Margins are verified against live provider quotes and the World Bank Remittance Prices database; the date above is the most recent collection. Some “Send money now” buttons are partner links: we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you, and rows are ranked by cost whatever the link. See how we collect these prices and our advertising disclosure.
What £200 and £500 Really Cost
For a monthly sender, the first two columns of this table matter most. A flat fee that barely registers on £5,000 can make up a large part of the bill on £200.
| Service | Rate and fee at £1,000 | Cost shape | £200 | £500 | £1,000 | £5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MoneyGramrate ref differs | 85.2506 PHPNo fee | -0.14% rate, no fee | ≈−£0.27 | ≈−£0.69 | −£1.37 | −£6.87 |
| XEDelivered by bank deposit, paid by bank transfer | 85.1065 PHPNo fee | 0.03–0.23% rate, no fee | — | — | £0.32 | £11.64 |
| Sendwaverate ref differsDelivered by bank deposit | 85.2094 PHP£1.99 fee | -0.09% rate + £1.99 | ≈£1.81 | ≈£1.55 | £1.10 | −£2.45 |
| WorldRemitDelivered by bank deposit | 85.0395 PHPNo fee | 0.11% rate, no fee | — | — | £1.11 | £5.53 |
| RevolutDelivered by bank transfer | 84.7631 PHP£0.35 fee | 0.44–0.58% rate + £0.35–£40.35 | ≈£1.51 | ≈£2.97 | £4.70 | £61.94 |
| Paysend | 84.8033 PHP£1.00 fee | 0.39% rate + £0.80–£1.00 | ≈£1.57 | ≈£2.94 | £4.88 | £20.40 |
| Taptap SendDelivered by bank deposit | 84.7059 PHPNo fee | 0.50% rate, no fee | ≈£1.00 | ≈£2.51 | £5.02 | £25.12 |
| WiseDelivered by bank deposit, paid by bank transfer | 85.0025 PHP£5.79 fee | 0.15% rate + £1.59–£26.89 | ≈£1.89 | ≈£3.93 | £7.32 | £34.55 |
| InstaremPaid by bank Transfer | 84.3682 PHPNo fee | 0.90% rate, no fee | ≈£1.80 | ≈£4.50 | £8.99 | £44.96 |
| RemitlyDelivered by bank deposit | 84.0355 PHP£1.99 fee | 1.29% rate + £1.99 | ≈£4.54 | ≈£8.41 | £14.86 | £66.46 |
| XoomDelivered by bank deposit, paid by bank account | 82.6153 PHPNo fee | 2.96–3.31% rate + £0.00–£1.99 | ≈£8.54 | £16.72 | £29.58 | £147.91 |
| OFX | 81.2309 PHPNo fee | 4.12–4.58% rate, no fee | — | — | £45.84 | £206.13 |
From our current data, collected November 2–3, 2026, for a transfer from the UK paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account. Each rate is the service's margin from that data on the latest mid-market rate, 1 GBP = 85.1337 PHP on November 5, 2026, so it moves with the market. A dash means the provider has no quote at that amount whose fee and rate we can state. ≈ marks a price between two amounts the provider quoted, where its fee and rate are known to hold. How we collect these prices.
XE, Revolut, Xoom and OFX charge a different rate margin at different amounts, so their costs can fall as the amount rises rather than climbing steadily.
- Ria Money Transfer and Western Union don’t price a transfer paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account on this route, only other ways to pay or receive.
- We hold no current quote for this route from BOSS Money and Pangea.
The board above also lists TransferGo, as a dated estimate labelled "No current quote". This table only carries current quotes, which is why it does not appear here.
All figures are in pounds, for pesos paid into a Philippine bank account. Not every service has a quote at every amount. In each column, green shows the cheapest unlabelled row.
Xoom shows the effect most sharply in our data: about 4.27% of the amount at £200, 2.96% at £1,000.
The lead changes hands as well: Taptap Send is lowest at £500, XE at £1,000.
MoneyGram and Sendwave carry a “rate ref differs” label: some of their peso rates beat our mid-market reference, so the measured cost is too small to trust and those rows are not ranked.
Try your monthly amount in a calculator:
What your own bank would take on £200
Small transfers are where a high-street payment looks worst. At Santander UK, the published fee and margin together come to £31.00, or 15.5% of a £200 transfer.
Figures are for a standard online payment from a personal current account. Other banks in the chain can take more, and “up to” marks a ceiling the bank states rather than an exact margin. We read each bank's site on 4 November 2026; the fees, margins and limits sit side by side in our India guide.
Wallet, Bank or Counter
Your family has a real choice: in our data six services price a mobile wallet and six a cash counter. Ask them which they use; the limits below should settle the rest.
Sendwave and MoneyGram price one of these too, but with a promotion or a rate our reference cannot match, so they stay out of the order.
GCash and Maya
Wallet limits belong to the wallet, not to the transfer service. GCash's current limits took effect on 1 October 2026. A Fully Verified user can receive PHP 1,000,000 a month, with the count resetting on the first of the next month. A Basic user gets PHP 5,000 incoming, about £59 today, which a single transfer can use up. GCash says the receiver's name and number must match the account. It has not said in terms that remittances count towards the incoming limit, but that is the plain reading.
Maya's incoming limit runs from ₱50,000 on a Basic account to ₱5,000,000 on Ultimate. Both companies appear in the BSP directory as non-bank e-money issuers, so a wallet balance is e-money rather than a bank deposit.
At the counter
Cebuana Lhuillier, M Lhuillier and Palawan Pawnshop all pay out international transfers, and all three ask for valid ID. Palawan requires a first-time receiver to fill in a customer sheet, show a photo ID and have a photo taken. M Lhuillier uses its own form plus ID. Send your recipient the reference number by a private message, and do not leave it long: Cebuana says most transfers stay valid for five years but MoneyGram's for 45 days.
Under BSP Circular 1206, a money service business cannot hand over more than ₱500,000 in a single transaction (about £5,873) other than by cheque or direct credit to a deposit account.
InstaPay and PESONet at the Far End
These are the Philippines' two domestic peso rails, and they explain why two bank deposits can behave differently.
The BSP describes InstaPay as only for peso transfers between accounts held in the Philippines, so pounds cannot enter it directly. Our reading is that a UK service reaches a Philippine partner first, and any InstaPay or PESONet leg is the last domestic step. We found no BSP statement describing this, so take it as how the systems are built, not as a rule about remittances.
In practice, a transfer above PHP 50,000, about £587 today, may not go instantly, and one sent late on a Friday may wait for banking hours if the partner uses PESONet. Before a large or urgent transfer, ask the service how it pays that bank.
Which Philippine Banks Still Remit From the UK
Older advice still points to Philippine banks' London offices, and it has dated badly. This is what the FCA Register and Companies House showed when we checked in November 2026. We hold no prices for these firms, so they are not on the board.
- PNB Europe
- Philippine National Bank (Europe) Plc is authorised and regulated, and describes itself as principally a one-product remittance business, taking orders at its walk-in branch, by phone, online and by bank transfer.
- Metrobank
- Metro Remittance (UK) Limited is an authorised payment institution, and appears in Metrobank's remittance directory for July 2026.
- BDO
- BDO Remit (UK) Ltd is still an active company, but the Register shows its authorisation as cancelled from 11 September 2025 and says it can no longer provide payment services. BDO's undated page still describes a London subsidiary.
- BPI
- Bank of the Philippine Islands (Europe) PLC is still authorised, but its remittance service has ended. An advisory of 22 May 2023 refers to a termination notice dated 1 October 2019.
- Allied Bank
- Its UK company was dissolved on 24 October 2018 after a members' voluntary winding up.
The lesson applies to any firm: a bank's website can lag behind its regulator. Use the FCA Firm Checker and treat “No longer authorised” as a reason to stop.
Pesos or Dollars?
A family that wants to hold dollars can. The BSP's foreign exchange manual says residents' non-trade foreign exchange receipts may be used freely: sold for pesos, kept, or deposited in a foreign currency account. The rules we read set no cap, though a bank can hold a transfer if the purpose is not disclosed, and its know-your-customer checks still apply.
Whether you can send dollars is up to the service. M Lhuillier says its international payouts come in pesos or dollars depending on what the sender chose. Every price in this guide assumes the money lands as pesos.
OFW, Settled or British?
Plenty of Filipinos in Britain are not Overseas Filipino Workers in the sense the rules use, and several benefits depend on the difference.
- Who counts
- The SSS defines an OFW as someone working in a country of which they are not an immigrant, citizen or permanent resident. As we read that, someone on a work visa is inside the definition, while a settled Filipino or a British citizen is outside it but can stay in voluntarily.
- Stamp tax
- Republic Act 10022 exempts OFW remittances from documentary stamp tax when the recipient shows proof, which BIR rules give as an Overseas Employment Certificate or valid OWWA membership. It does not cover everyone sending from abroad. We found no recent BIR restatement.
- Contributions
- SSS coverage is compulsory for OFWs. PhilHealth asks direct contributors, OFWs among them, for 5% of monthly income with a ₱500 minimum, and Republic Act 9679 lists Filipinos employed by foreign-based employers as mandatory Pag-IBIG members. Check the current position with each agency.
Inheritance Tax and Donor’s Tax
GOV.UK treats gifts as something for Inheritance Tax after death, not a tax you pay on the day you send them. For a regular sender, a few rules do most of the work.
- Gifts from income
- Regular payments out of your monthly income, after your usual living costs, are exempt with no cash limit. GOV.UK's own examples include financial support for an elderly relative. Keep a record of what you send and what you earn.
- Family maintenance
- Section 11 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 means reasonable support for a child in education, a dependent relative or a parent, your spouse's parents included, is not a transfer of value at all, according to HMRC's manual.
- A spouse abroad
- The spouse exemption is the trap. GOV.UK's wording requires the spouse to live in the UK permanently, so a husband or wife living in the Philippines may not qualify.
- Larger sums
- Anything outside those rules uses the £3,000 annual exemption, then counts if you die within seven years. Tax applies only if gifts go over the £325,000 threshold.
- Long-term residents
- Since 6 April 2025, someone UK tax resident for 10 of the previous 20 years can have overseas assets in scope. That matters if you own land or hold savings in the Philippines.
- Donor’s tax
- The Philippines taxes gifts at 6% above P250,000 in a calendar year (about £2,937 today), and the relationship between giver and receiver has made no difference since 2018. The Family Code sets a legal duty of support within close family, but we found no BIR statement on whether ordinary support is a gift. For a big one-off sum such as a house deposit, ask a Philippine tax adviser, especially if you hold dual citizenship.
Names, Numbers and Credit Cards
A Filipino name often has three parts, and the middle name is ordinarily the mother's surname, a custom the Supreme Court has recorded. A UK form may have no box for it, so a name can end up differing from the one the bank holds. We found no BSP rule that rejects a transfer over a middle name. Even so, ask your recipient how the bank or wallet has the name on file, and copy that.
We also found no national account number format, so nothing like a sort code check can catch a slip. BPI uses ten digits, for example, and asks for the account name, branch and SWIFT code rather than an IBAN. Ask your recipient to send the number as text and paste it in. Never let anyone else run money through your family's account: Republic Act 12010 treats allowing an account to carry the proceeds of crime as money muling.
Issuers decide this one by one. Tesco Bank's FAQ names transfer companies among its cash transactions; Barclaycard and Lloyds Bank say wire transfers and money orders count. Barclaycard's cash fee is 2.99%, £2.99 minimum, and Lloyds Bank says interest runs from the date the transaction is added. On a card, “money transfer” usually means something else: moving credit into your own current account.
UK to the Philippines: Your Questions
What is the cheapest way to send money from the UK to the Philippines?
Fund a transfer service by bank rather than by card, and choose the payout your family will really use. On a £200 transfer our data has Taptap Send cheapest, at about £1.00. On £1,000 the lowest standing price is XE's, at £0.32.
How do I send money to GCash from the UK?
Choose a service that pays into GCash, enter the mobile number linked to the wallet and copy the holder's name letter for letter, because GCash says the two must match. Our latest wallet quotes come from Sendwave, Taptap Send, WorldRemit, MoneyGram, Remitly and Xoom. A Basic wallet can take only PHP 5,000 incoming, so make sure your recipient is Fully Verified first.
How much can my family collect in cash?
₱500,000 at one time, about £5,873 today, is the most a money service business can hand over. Beyond that it has to pay by cheque or into a deposit account. A service or pawnshop may set a lower limit, and your recipient will need valid ID.
Is one larger transfer better than several small ones?
On our figures it costs less as a share. Our cheapest standing price is about 0.50% of the amount at £200 and 0.03% at £1,000. Two things limit the saving: your family has to wait for the money, and a monthly habit is easier to budget around.
Can I still send money through BDO or BPI in the UK?
Not in the way many people remember. The FCA Register dates the end of BDO Remit (UK) Ltd's authorisation to 11 September 2025, and BPI Europe stopped its remittance service following a notice dated 1 October 2019. PNB Europe and Metro Remittance (UK) were both still authorised when we checked.
Am I an OFW if I live permanently in the UK?
Probably not, on the definition the SSS uses, which covers people abroad who are not immigrants, citizens or permanent residents of the country where they work. Someone on a work visa who is not a permanent resident falls within it. A settled Filipino or British citizen can stay in the SSS voluntarily. This is our reading of the wording, so confirm your own case with the agency.
Is any tax due on money sent to the Philippines?
Nothing falls due in the UK on the day you pay: GOV.UK deals with gifts through Inheritance Tax after death, and regular gifts from income are exempt with no fixed limit. The Philippines has a donor's tax above P250,000 a year. We could not find the BIR saying whether ordinary family support counts as a gift.
Key Takeaways
- On small amounts the fee weighs most, so compare at £200 or £500, not at £1,000.
- On £200 our cheapest standing price is Taptap Send's, about £1.00 all-in.
- A Basic GCash wallet takes only PHP 5,000 incoming. Check verification before you send.
- BDO Remit (UK) is no longer FCA authorised and BPI Europe no longer remits, so search the FCA Firm Checker before you use a firm.
- Regular giving out of income escapes UK Inheritance Tax, but a spouse abroad may not get the spouse exemption.
Cost Your Monthly Transfer
Type what you send each month and see the pesos your family would receive.
Related Calculators & Guides
Every fee on an international transfer, from the exchange-rate markup to card, cash pickup and bank wire charges, and how to see the real price.
What it really costs to send dollars to Morocco in 2026: the main services priced on the same transfer, plus why timing the dirham is wasted effort.
The live mid-market pound to peso rate.
Other countries you can send to from Britain.
Sources & References
- BSP: Table 11, Overseas Filipinos’ cash remittances by country
- BSP: InstaPay FAQ
- BSP: PESONet three-cycle FAQ
- BSP: Circular 1206, Series of 2024
- BSP: Directory of electronic money issuers
- BSP: Manual of Regulations on Foreign Exchange Transactions
- GCash: Wallet and transaction limits
- GCash: How to send remittance to GCash
- Maya: Transaction limits
- Cebuana Lhuillier: Money transfer
- Palawan Pawnshop: International remittance
- M Lhuillier: Kwarta Padala
- FCA Register: BDO Remit (UK) Ltd
- FCA Register: Philippine National Bank (Europe) Plc
- FCA Register: Metro Remittance (UK) Limited
- BPI Europe: Important announcement
- SSS: OFW membership
- Lawphil: Republic Act 10022
- BIR: Donor’s tax
- GOV.UK: Inheritance Tax on gifts
- HMRC: Inheritance Tax Manual, family maintenance
- GOV.UK: Inheritance Tax for long-term UK residents
- Nursing and Midwifery Council: Register figures, December 2024
- Nomis: Census 2021 country of birth, England and Wales
- Tesco Bank: Credit card FAQs
- Barclaycard: Cash interest rates and fees
- Lloyds Bank: Cash transactions on credit cards
Provider pricing and exchange rates are set by the companies named and can change. Figures in this guide are checked against these official sources. Always confirm the live rate before you transact.