Let us note down all the companies that charge excessive fees for remittances. Then the people will know which to patronize for being humane as a business entity. -- Emma Orozco

OFWs paying oppressive remittance fees - Herrera
(The Philippine Star) Updated August 10, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Migrant Filipino workers are paying “oppressive and burdensome” fees to send money back home to their families in the Philippines, a labor leader said yesterday.

Quoting a World Bank (WB) study, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) secretary-general and former Sen. Ernesto Herrera said Filipinos in the United States spend an average of $12.79 to send $500 home to their families in the Philippines, and an average of $11.45 to remit $200.


Filipino workers in the United Kingdom shell out an average of $17.75 to wire $500, and $14.40 to transfer $200.


Those in Italy spend an average of $22.28 to send $500, and $19.05 to remit $200, while those in Germany pay out an average of $13.06 to forward $500, and $11.07 to convey $200.

Those in Spain have to shell out an average of $12.42 to dispatch $500, and $10.64 to transfer $200.


In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Filipino workers spend an average of $6.93, whether they transmit $500 or $200.


“They are definitely excessive, considering that in this day and age of modern technologies, seamless and cost-efficient money transfers are already possible through such platforms as the Internet and international mobile telephone short-messaging,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development."

GREED IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RECESSION IS A SIGN OF LACK OF MORALS, LACK OF CHRISTIAN VALUES, AND NARCISSISM.