Open any remittance app this week and you will see a number that has not looked this good since January. One Singapore dollar buys around 48 pesos. The peso has slipped close to 5 percent against the SGD since the start of 2026, and for once, the rate is on your side.
For an OFW in Singapore, a weak peso back home is a strange kind of good news. The family in Cavite or Iloilo feels the sting of higher prices on every market run. You, sending money from here, watch each SGD stretch a little further on the other side. The same S$500 padala that reached your mother as about 23,000 pesos in January now lands closer to 24,200. That gap is a week of groceries.
A few things are worth knowing before your next transfer.
Why the SGD is strong right now
The exchange rate you see is two currencies moving in opposite directions. The Singapore dollar has held firm through 2026. The Monetary Authority of Singapore guides it within a managed band, and that policy has kept it steady. The peso has drifted lower against most major currencies this year.
A weaker peso is not a sign of crisis on its own. Currencies across the region have moved against the US dollar this year, and the peso is one of them. For you in Singapore, the practical effect is plain: your salary, earned in SGD, converts into more pesos than it did four months ago.
You do not need to follow central bank statements to use this. What matters: as of mid-May 2026, the SGD sits near its 2026 high against the peso. Rates move every day, and nobody can promise the level will hold. What you can do is notice when the rate is in your favour and act while it is.
Where your padala loses the most money
Most kababayans pick a remittance service by the headline fee. A S$3 transfer fee feels cheaper than a S$5 one. The fee is the part you can see. The part you cannot see costs more.
Every provider sets its own exchange rate, and the gap between that rate and the true mid-market rate is where your money goes. Banks tend to add 2 to 4 percent on top of the mid-market rate. A fintech app might add a fraction of that. On a S$1,000 transfer, a 3 percent spread is S$30 gone, far more than any S$3 fee.
