Best way to send money from Canada to the Philippines (2026): GCash, bank or cash pickup

The best way to send money from Canada to the Philippines in 2026 is a money transfer app, paid by Interac e-Transfer or from your bank account. On $1,000 we priced on October 28, 2026, the top five apps delivered ₱45,167 to ₱45,323. RBC delivered ₱44,374 and BMO ₱42,601, about $21 and $60 less than the best app. The money can land in a bank account, in a GCash or Maya wallet, or as cash at a pickup counter, and that choice changes the price a little. The table above lists how each service charges.

What does it cost to send $1,000 to the Philippines?

These are the prices for sending $1,000 to a bank account in the Philippines on the morning of October 28, 2026. The mid-market rate, the one Google shows, was ₱45.57 per dollar.

The top five were ₱156 apart, about $3.40, so the amount you send and the way you pay can easily change their order. The two banks charged no fee, like most of the apps. They made their money on the exchange rate instead. RBC’s rate was 2.6% below mid-market and BMO’s 6.5%, which works out to about $26 and $65 on $1,000. If the mid-market rate is new to you, our guide to how exchange rates affect Canadians explains it.

Who publishes this page

Lodavo publishes this site. We’re a savings app and we don’t send money abroad, so we aren’t one of the options here. Nine of the ten quotes came from Wise’s public comparison tool, and Wise is on the list itself, so we checked the two leaders against their own prices. Western Union’s own price list gave ₱45,315 for the same $1,000 to a bank account a few minutes later, and Remitly’s own calculator gave ₱45.24 per dollar on $3,000 paid by Interac e-Transfer, in line with the ₱45.26 the tool showed on $1,000. Remitbee’s quote is from its own Philippines page. Wise’s tool had last checked BMO the day before, so that row is a day older than the rest.

Bank account, GCash or cash pickup: what each one costs

Sending to a GCash or Maya wallet cost the same as a bank deposit at Western Union, and $0.99 more at Remitly. Cash pickup cost $4.99 to $5.99 more. These are the fees each company’s own price list gave on October 28 for $1,000, for a customer who has sent with them before.

Remitly gave the same exchange rate whichever delivery you picked, and it waives these fees on a first transfer. Wise sends to bank accounts and to GCash, Maya and six other wallets, but it has no cash pickup. Remitbee offers all three, with pickup at Cebuana Lhuillier, M Lhuillier and Palawan Pawnshop.

For many families, a wallet is the easier way to receive. In the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 2021 financial inclusion survey (opens in a new tab), 36% of Filipino adults had an e-money account such as GCash or Maya, 23% had a bank account, and 44% had no account at all.

Best regular rate: Western Union

Western Union (opens in a new tab) had the best everyday rate in our comparison, 0.54% below mid-market with no fee to a bank account. It sends to bank accounts, to GCash, and to cash pickup at its agent locations, and your first online transfer has no fee. It’s also the only app here that lets you pay in cash at a counter in Canada.

Don’t pay with a credit card, though. Western Union’s price list added a $30 fee for one, and Western Union warns that your card issuer may also charge a cash advance fee and interest.

Who should look elsewhere: someone making their first transfer, since Remitly’s welcome rate delivered about ₱900 more.

Best for a first transfer: Remitly

On October 28, Remitly (opens in a new tab) gave new customers ₱46.24 per dollar on their first $1,000, which is higher than the mid-market rate, and it waived the delivery fee. That’s ₱46,240 on $1,000, about ₱900 more than anything in the table. The offer runs until December 31, 2026, under Remitly’s new customer terms (opens in a new tab).

After the first transfer, Remitly’s everyday rate was close behind Western Union’s, but it depends on how you pay. Its calculator gave ₱44.35 per dollar on $1,000 paid by debit card, which delivers about ₱900 less than the figure in our table, and Remitly says its regular rate applies when you pay by Interac e-Transfer or from a bank account. So pay one of those two ways if you can.

Remitly also has the most ways to deliver the money: a bank account, a GCash or Maya wallet, cash pickup at partners such as M Lhuillier and Cebuana Lhuillier, or delivery to the door.

Who should look elsewhere: someone who can only pay by debit card.

Best for paying no markup on the rate: Wise

Wise (opens in a new tab) converts at the mid-market rate and shows its fee before you pay. On $1,000 to the Philippines, that fee was $8.33 by bank transfer, $14.02 by Interac e-Transfer and $19.32 by debit card, so pay by bank transfer if you can. Paid by bank transfer, Wise came fourth in our table, ₱132 behind Western Union.

Wise sends to bank accounts and to GCash, Maya and six other wallets, up to ₱49,999 per wallet transfer. It says transfers to the Philippines are instant up to ₱50,000 once it receives your money.

Who should look elsewhere: anyone whose family needs cash in hand, because Wise has no cash pickup.

Best Canadian company: Remitbee

Remitbee is based in Mississauga, Ontario. On its Philippines page (opens in a new tab), it charged no fee on $500 or more paid by Interac e-Transfer, EFT or bill payment, and $2.99 below that. Its rate on October 28 was ₱45.196 per dollar, third in our table. It delivers to GCash, Maya and Philippine banks such as BDO, BPI and Metrobank, as well as to cash pickup, and the company says a transfer paid by Interac e-Transfer arrives within 15 minutes. Your first transfer is free, and on October 28, new customers got a promotional rate of ₱47.196 per dollar on the first $250.

Who should look elsewhere: someone paying by debit card, which costs $2.99 to $6.99 under $500 and from $8.99 above it.

Sending from your own bank: Scotiabank or CIBC

Sending from the bank you already use means no new app and no new identity check. Scotiabank’s International Money Transfer (opens in a new tab) sends to the Philippines, has its $1.99 fee waived for now, and says most transfers arrive within an hour. CIBC Global Money Transfer (opens in a new tab) charges no CIBC fee to the Philippines, can pay into a digital wallet there in minutes, and can send up to $2,000 a day for cash pickup at MoneyGram locations.

Neither bank publishes how far its rate sits below mid-market, and neither was in the comparison above. RBC and BMO were, and their rates were 2.6% and 6.5% below it. So before you confirm a bank transfer, compare the pesos on the confirmation screen with an app’s quote for the same amount.

Who should look elsewhere: anyone sending every month. At RBC’s rate, $500 a month costs about $125 a year more than at Western Union’s.

How to check a transfer company is registered

Any business other than a bank or credit union that sends money abroad from Canada has to be registered with FINTRAC as a money services business. Western Union, Remitly, Wise and Remitbee all are, and each is also on the Bank of Canada’s registry of payment service providers. You can look up any company on FINTRAC’s registry (opens in a new tab) by name.

The same check works for the remittance centres that Philippine banks run in Canadian cities. When we checked on October 28, 2026, FINTRAC listed BDO Remit (Canada) as registered and PNB Remittance Company (Canada) as expired since February 2025.

Check before you hand money to a person or a Facebook group offering a better rate, too. Moving money for other people without registering is against the law in Canada, and if the pesos don’t arrive, you’d have no one to turn to. If you’ve already lost money that way, our guide to getting money back after a scam covers the first steps.

Is money you send to the Philippines taxed?

Not in Canada, which has no gift tax. You can’t deduct the money either. A transfer of $10,000 or more is reported to FINTRAC by the company that sends it, under FINTRAC’s electronic funds transfer rules (opens in a new tab). That report is routine and costs you nothing.

In the Philippines, a gift isn’t counted as income for the person who receives it, under the National Internal Revenue Code (opens in a new tab). The Philippines does have a donor’s tax, though. It’s 6% of the amount given above ₱250,000 in a calendar year, the person giving owes it, and the BIR’s filing rules (opens in a new tab) cover givers who live abroad too. How it applies to money sent from Canada can depend on your citizenship, so if you send more than about $5,500 a year, check with a Philippine tax adviser.

Building savings in Canada while you send money home

Sending money home and saving in Canada come out of the same paycheque. The transfer is usually a set amount each month, while saving for rent, emergencies or a down payment is easier to put off.

Lodavo is a free app that rewards that saving. It connects to the account you already have at most Canadian banks and credit unions, and every $25 of Canadian-dollar savings earns a free ticket in a weekly cash draw. At least $100 is won every week, and the top prize is $10,000.

So which service should you use?

For a first transfer of about $500 or more, take Remitly’s welcome rate. On a smaller one, Remitbee’s promotional rate delivers more. After your first transfer, compare Western Union, Remitly and Wise paid by bank transfer on the day you send, and pick whichever delivers the most pesos. The difference is usually a few dollars, and the order changes from day to day. Send to a bank account or a GCash wallet when you can, because cash pickup and delivery to the door add about $5. Remitbee is worth a look if you’d rather use a Canadian company and send $500 or more by Interac e-Transfer. Our Remitly vs Wise comparison prices those two to 10 more countries.

Stay with your bank only after you’ve compared its peso amount with an app’s, and whichever service you use, don’t pay by credit card.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.