paying with uk credit card in the PH

My credit card is 100% free to use to buy stuff but not money transaction, the only part I pay is the account fee 5 pound a month.

When I was in the Philippines last I transferred funds to my partner using transferwise, and I only used my credit card to book accommodation through Airbnb. On only one occasion I used my HSBC business debit to pay one bill.

Well i use an aqua credit card and if I use it for purchases there is no transaction fee or account fee. Just pay it of every month.

Apart from the grammatical error, that statement is incorrect. There are at least two in Cebu City and two in Davao.

no there is only one HSBC in Cebu : the one just outside the Ayala mall. https://hsbc.banklocationmaps.com/philippines HSBC is also the only one that allows 40,000 peso withdrawals in addition to being the only bank where on the Philippines side, they do not levy what is now a 250 peso fee when you make a withdrawal from their ATM no matter the size, of the withdrawal. Somebody's bank may not levy a fee in their home country, but unless you make a withdrawal from one of the 16 HSBC ATM's that there is in the Philippines, 14 of which are in Manila, you'll always get hit for 250 pesos from the Philippines side on a foreign card regardless of whether it is a credit or a debit card. It went up from 200 to 250 around last September.

In Japan credit cards are more or less useless

I use Santander Zero, Halifax Clarity, Starling and Revolut ( once in a blue moon ) all use Mastercard forex rate and are monthly fee free. I've never had an issue paying by card but they do require a photo id ( passport ) with it in most places.