Myanmar maids

[yanyan]

piyobaby:

Thanks hquek....the regular telco charged very high like $10 for 23mins kinda thing so trying to ask ard for alternatives. Western union does remit to Myanmar now but I'm comparing the service fees to help her save abit if possible.

I bought this calling card for my maid..$9.20 for an hr of talktime.. The card name is called \"magic myanmar\" - bought from a Mama shop @ punggol plaza

[piyobaby]

yanyan:

piyobaby:

Thanks hquek....the regular telco charged very high like $10 for 23mins kinda thing so trying to ask ard for alternatives. Western union does remit to Myanmar now but I'm comparing the service fees to help her save abit if possible.

I bought this calling card for my maid..$9.20 for an hr of talktime.. The card name is called \"magic myanmar\" - bought from a Mama shop @ punggol plaza

Wow dats good! Went down to peninsula plaza and juz ask one of the shop, bought one $10 for 65mins....now crossing fingers it worked.

[piyobaby]

yanyan:

Haiz~~ my maid call home & her mum told her that her hb has a new gf.. Now crying buckets..haiz

To allow calling back home or not to allow oso headache!

Hope she is pacified now.

[nkthen]

There are a few ways to send money to Myanmar. Western Union is not possible at all.


Your maid have to go to Peninsula Plaza and "shop" around the various shops to ask if they can send money back to Myanmar on their behalf. Almost ALL the Myanmar shops in Peninsula Plaza allows your maid to send money back.

However, if you want a more trusted agent, you can ask them to go to level 3, Leo International as they send the money directly to Myanmar bank. My helper sent money via this agent without a single issue.

[vfong1]

Is there an app for burmese translator or where can I get the translator book?

[Jworld]

There is an application called: Ornagi.


http://www.ornagai.com

[POA Teacher]

piyobaby:

yanyan:

Haiz~~ my maid call home & her mum told her that her hb has a new gf.. Now crying buckets..haiz

To allow calling back home or not to allow oso headache!

Hope she is pacified now.

Sorry, but I don't think that there's such a headache.
It should not be up to us to decide whether to allow them to call home or not.
That's THEIR decision to make.
Whatever cards they use to do so is also actually none of our business, even though many of us would like to help them look for a cheap way to do so.
On the other hand, I also disagree that we should finance their personal expenses eg buy phone cards, provide internet access for them like some of the employers here. They are being kind and generous but others should not feel bad about not doing so.
The FDWs are our employees, not our slaves. Thus we should not try to exert 100% control over their personal matters. Neither should we be liable for their personal expenses.

[Coolkidsrock2]

piyobaby:

Coolkidsrock2:

Western Union may be a safer bet in the sense that the maid just need to produce her passport at her home country to collect the money. Risk of spelling error in the name is low as it is based on passport name.


The risk of her using the name of someone else is spelling error in the name so that she may encounter difficulties in withdrawing her money, though am not sure how stringent the name check is.

My maids are not highly educated and they had no prior experience with the banking system and not sure of the spelling of the name of the recipient.

I supposed it make not much difference as most likely they remit the funds to a next of kin e.g mother in her case so producing passport for withdrawal might be out of the picture?

My maids only send money home just before their return. This is so that they have control of how the money is being used. Otherwise, there will be nothing left by the time they go home.

Am not sure how other maids experience is with calling back to Myanmar. We do not seem to be able to establish contact there. The message is to try again. Agent said it is common but we had been trying for months. Is it true?

[hquek]

Sending money home is HER perogative, I just help to facilitate the process. If I were to control her monies, I’m sure at the end of her term, she will feel very rich. But it is not my call, so I’m betting this current helper won’t have much in her wallet (not with the stuff she buys on her off days).


Of course, the ideal situation will be like my first helper - after the first couple of remittances, she kept the rest of her monies in SG and only transferred to HER bank account when she is about to go on home leave/go home. But then she was single, no kids.

If the helper has got kids at home, i don’t think she can wait 2 years to send something back.

On calling home to Myanmar, my helper doesn’t have a phone in her home and had to call a neighbour who will shout for her family to run over. it’s quite crazy. We found out the hard way that the regular phone cards sold in 7-11 either sucks up money and gives very little airtime, or can’t call at all. Strangely, the ‘weird’ cards sold by those mama shops in Peninsula gives easier access - but yes, there were problems connecting still.

[hquek]

oh, not sure if it’s common. with Indo helpers, they (used to) send letters home. My Myanmese helper won’t even try - she will only call home. The prepaid envelops I bought for her totally never use.