Where our figures come from and how we check them.

Short answer We take each figure from the institution that sets it or from the regulator, link the page, and record the day we checked it. If no official page gives the figure, we write “Not published by the bank”.

Sources, in order

  1. The institution’s own pages: bank fee schedules and disclosure pages, the GCash and Maya help centres, PayPal and Upwork help pages, official rate cards.
  2. The regulator: the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) — circulars, the Summary of Transfer Fees via Digital Channels, participant lists and registers.
  3. The SEC for advisories and registrations, and the PDIC for deposit insurance.
  4. Official announcements on an institution’s verified social accounts — only as a lead, confirmed on an official page before we use it.

Blogs, forums, videos and comparison sites help us find pages. They are never the source of a figure or a code.

Bank codes

We take SWIFT/BIC and BRSTN codes from the bank’s own published pages, or from the official lists that PayPal and Upwork publish for withdrawals, and we label which one we used. We do not copy codes from code-directory websites. When a bank does not publish its code, we say so and link its contact page.

What “checked” means

The date after a source link is the day we last opened that source and confirmed the figure. It is never backdated. A figure checked more than 90 days ago is marked as possibly outdated until we check it again.

When sources disagree

Banks sometimes leave old pages online next to new ones. When two official pages give different figures, we use the newer one where its date is clear and show the disagreement on the page, with both links. When we cannot tell which is current, we show both.

News

News items carry the date of the event they report. They are based on the institution’s or regulator’s own announcement. When that cannot be reached, we cite what an established news outlet reported, and we name the outlet.

What we do not do

  • We do not estimate fees, limits or rates.
  • We do not rank banks or apps or recommend one.
  • We do not publish content on gambling, loans or lending apps.

See also our editorial policy and corrections.