How to Remit Money to the Philippines Using Bitcoin

A big chunk of the Philippine economy relies on remittances from abroad. Demand is so big that many established sites have set up their own remittance services to meet it. Companies previously just engaged with package freight, for example, are now also engaged in remittances. Local telcos have their own wallet apps where people can send money, and the receiver can then convert this into fiat money (cash on hand).

Of course, if you are someone who wants to send money in the Philippines, and you know about bitcoin, you might want to consider sending money and using your bitcoin to do it. That option is now available to Filipinos via Rebit.ph.

Overview

Rebit.ph allows everyone to send money from abroad and pay using bitcoin. The receiver will then receive the money in Pesos.

What can Rebit do – Advantages of Using Rebit.ph

1. Allows you to send money using bitcoin
2. Buy mobile load in the Philippines
3. Pay bills using bitcoin

No. 3 is very important. If you don’t want your relatives in the Philippines to shoulder the burden of paying bills, you can do it with rebit. You only need to specify the biller, send bitcoin, then the app will convert it to Pesos so that it can pay the biller. This is particularly useful to Filipinos abroad whose loved ones here are a bit older to fall in line, say, in an SSS queue.

How to remit money to the Philippines using Bitcoin via Rebit

1. Register then sign into your Rebit account.
2. Enter the desired transaction. You can either
   1. Send money
   2. Buy mobile load
   3. Pay bills
3. Enter the desired amount to be paid. Rebit will calculate the bitcoin conversion
4. Pay using your bitcoin
   1. Rebit will then convert your bitcoin to Pesos, which will then be used to send money, pay mobile load, or pay the biller.
5. In the case of sending money, Rebit can deliver the money via Cash on Delivery, via partner banks, or even services like LBC and Palawan Express.
6. Of course, once the transaction is successful, Rebit will send an SMS about it.

It should be noted that not only OFWs can use this to send money to the Philippines. Depending on your agreement, an employer from abroad can also opt to pay their freelancers in the Philippines via Rebit.ph

Other Ways to Send Money to the Philippines Using Bitcoin

Using Coins.ph

Requirements and Steps

1. The receiver must have a coins.ph account.
2. As the sender, note the bitcoin wallet address of the receiver. (the receiver can find this on their coins.ph account)
3. The sender just needs to send the bitcoin to the bitcoin wallet address of the receiver
4. Once the receiver receives the bitcoin, they can convert it to pesos within the Coins.ph site/app.
5. Receiver then cashes out the money via their preferred method, which includes a bank transfer, a door-to-door delivery, etc. Details can be found in Coins.ph’s Cash Out Page.
6. You can check out the banks partnered with Coins.ph here.

Using Bitbit.cash

Update: Peso Wallet is disabled in BitBit.cash as of August 2018.

Requirements and Steps

1. The receiver must have a bitbit.cash account
2. The sender sends the money to the receiver’s Bitbit.cash Wallet Address
3. The receiver then can cash out either by withdrawing to a bank account or picking up the cash at a remittance center.

Sending money to the Philippines using Rebit, plus the other methods discussed above are the best ways to remit using BTC right now to the country. I did not put other methods, such as getting the money from a Bitcoin ATM, because it is limited to the scarce locations where they are currently available. Using Rebit and the methods above, the ways to receive Pesos are as many and as easy as going to your bank or a remittance center nearby.

Do you know of other ways to remit money to the Philippines using bitcoins? Let us know in the comments below!