Monthly Archives: October 2022

My First Experience with Amazon Free Shipping to the Philippines

Online Shopping

I have ordered from Amazon a number of times in the past four years for direct shipping to the Philippines. For orders to the Philippines amounting to less than USD 200, there are generally no import duties, and for not-so-heavy items, the shipping costs are reasonable. For my first couple of orders, Amazon used UPS to ship the items. A recent order in August 2022 was shipped using Aramex. For all orders I selected AmazonGlobal Expedited Shipping except for one order where I selected AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping. Orders generally arrived in one to two weeks.

Recently, Amazon began offering free shipping to the Philippines. While this offer is does not apply to the entire Amazon catalog, there is a good number of items that are eligible, including some of the items that I have previously ordered. Free shipping for eligible items will be triggered once the order amount reaches USD 49.

So I went and ordered some items eligible for free shipping on October 2. The free shipping option was displayed as FREE AmazonGlobal Standard Shipping and promised delivery by October 19. The non-free option was labeled AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping which promised delivery three days earlier. Here is my order summary:

The package was shipped out on October 4, and tracking information indicated that it will be delivered by Ninja Van. Package was delivered on October 10, nine days earlier than promised.

The package came in the usual plastic wrapper used by motorcycle couriers.

It is good to know that that the Amazon free shipping offer does not mean that it will be slower. The last time I ordered with paid shipping took longer because it sat for about two days at the Aramex facility. So my first experience with Amazon free shipping went smoothly and this makes Amazon a competitive place to shop, particularly when the USD-PHP exchange rate starts to go down.

BAD NEWS: Schwab to restrict Philippine accounts starting 06 December 2022

Stocks,

I just received an email from Schwab with the subject line “Your account(s) will be restricted“.

Here’s the text of the email:

Accounts for clients located in the Philippines will be restricted. Read below to learn more.

After a recent review, we have decided that, starting 06 December 2022, all accounts for clients residing in the Philippines will be restricted.

What this means for you.

We will place your accounts in a restricted, liquidations-only status. This means that you will be limited to closing existing positions, and you will not be able to open new positions or deposit new funds.

Your next steps.

You may liquidate or transfer your account assets to another firm.* Here is how:

  • To liquidate your investment positions and request a wire transfer, contact us at one of the numbers listed below.
  • To transfer your account(s) to another firm, request an account transfer form from the receiving firm. Once you have initiated a request, contact us at one of the numbers listed below, and we can help the receiving firm facilitate the transfer.

You can maintain your account(s) if you reside in a non-restricted country or have a U.S. Military & Diplomatic mailing address (APO/DPO/FPO). Contact us to update your address.

We regret any inconvenience this change may cause you. If you have questions or need help, please reach out to our Global Investing Services Team at 800-992-4685, 5:30 p.m. ET Sunday to 5:30 p.m. ET Friday. Clients of Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Ltd., call +852‐2101‐0500. For others outside the U.S., contact us at +1-415-667-8400.

As you can see, no explanation for this action is given. Needless to say, this is very unfortunate and inconvenient and I will have 60 days to find another brokerage to transfer to.