Withdrawal by Cheque

I'm not sure if this tidbit of information is interesting to most of you. But worth posting for future reference I guess.

During the 1st week of January, I requested for a cashout from Cake Poker. This was long overdue but since the demise of Moneybookers, I was too lazy to figure out how to make a withdrawal. Eventually I got around to emailing them and activating the withdrawal by cheque option.

Cake Support was very helpful and got this done promptly after some verifying of account information and such which was quite understandable. I then found out that there was a $35 courier charge for sending me the check. This was also OK for me as getting it safe and sound was worth the small amount.

I finally received the cheque last Saturday via FEDEX. I expected a check in US Dollars or Euro. But to my utter surprise, it was a peso cheque. Seriously, it was an ABN-AMRO Check and it was seemingly issued from their head office in Ayala Avenue, Makati. The account name listed on the cheque was PACNET Service Europe Limited . I double checked the Fedex package and it came from the Cake office in Vancover, Canada. Heheh ... I have no idea how they did it. But it was very welcome as I didn't have to wait for clearing. I could just deposit it and the funds would be available for immediate use.

The only drawback is the conversion rate. Roughly, it came out to about 43.42 is to $1. Which is highway robbery if you ask me. If I'm not mistaken, the current rate is about 46.8 or something. But heck, what can you do. I'm just happy that they have a withdrawal method for the Philippines that is fast and secure.

The thing is, if the cheque came from a Philippine bank, why not just send it to me directly to save all those courier expenses??