According to Ms. R. C. of the eServices unit, the BDO Kabayan ATM Debit Card and any other BDO ATM debit card can be used to withdraw money abroad as long as:

1. it is active
2. and it has sufficient balance.

For holders of BDO ATM debit cards with the MasterCard logo, withdraw at the ATM of any foreign bank in other countries with the Cirrus Maestro/PLUS logos.

If your card is a BDO ATM debit VISA card, withdraw at ATMs abroad with the VISA/VISA Plus logos.

These are the transaction fees:

• Balance Inquiry -  US$ 1.00
• Withdrawal -  US$ 3.50

For unsuccessful ATM transactions such as wrong PIN,
insufficient funds, exceeds limit, etc., you will be charged US$ 1.00.

Related Article:

BDO Kabayan Savings and BDO Remit Cash Cards for OFWs

Why do you pay hundreds of pesos to send money from Manila
to your families in the province? or vice-versa or any location within the Philippines?

Does paying 130 pesos to send 1,000 pesos or 650 pesos to send 7,000 pesos make sense?

There are now several ways to send money without paying any charge, or if you have to pay, it would only be a few pesos.

1.  Debit cards

• You can get them for only around 100 to 150 pesos.
• You don’t need to maintain a daily balance.

BDO Cash Card

• Pay around 150 pesos to open the account.
• No charge for reloading money.
• Choose from three types of cards based on maximum balance limits of 10,000; 25,000; and 100,000 pesos.
• The 10,000-peso-limit card needs to have at least one deposit or withdrawal within a six-month period.

BPI Express Cash Card

• Pay around 150 pesos to open the account.
• Good for two years, renewable.
• No charge for depositing or loading money.
• Minimum withdrawable amount: 500
• Maximum withdrawable amount per day: 10,000

RCBC MyWallet

• Pay 100 pesos to open the account and another 100 pesos annually.
• Pay only 20 pesos to deposit, any amount.
• Pay only 10 pesos to transfer money, if you have a regular RCBC account.

2.  Regular ATM Savings Accounts

BPI Family  –   1,000 pesos maintaining balance

BDO —  2,000 pesos maintaining balance

Metrobank – 2,000 pesos maintaining balance

Open your account where you plan to send money so you won’t have to pay a deposit charge.  Example: If you’re sending from Metro Manila, open an account here.

If you’re depositing in Metro Manila to a provincial account, you’ll have to pay a deposit charge ranging from 50 to 100 pesos, still lower however than other remittance services.

3.  EON CyberAccount of Union Bank

• No maintaining balance
• Pay 350 for the Visa electron annual fee
• No charge for depositing

4.  Bank accounts for OFWs

Most banks have special accounts for OFWs.  No maintaining balances and just a few pesos to open the account.  Just present proofs of remittances from abroad.

5.  Accounts for Minors and SSS/GSIS Pensioners

Most banks also have special savings accounts for children, requiring zero or low maintaining balances.

6.  Smart Money and G-Cash

Will write another post for these.

• you cannot pay the total amount due each month
• you can only pay the minimum due
• and you may have to be late some of the time,

then do not get credit cards that have high late-penalty fees and that are strict on payment dates.

NOT RECOMMENDED:

HSBC — charges 600 pesos for every month that you are late even by just an hour or a day.

If you call them and explain your situation, your 600 may be reversed only once in every 6 months, and that depends on your reasoning and the mood of the bank representative at the time you are calling.

Next month, I’ll be receiving some money  (Thank you, Lord!),  and this HSBC card will be the first I will pay off fully and say goodbye to forever.  Good riddance!  Wow, how nice it would be to cut my HSBC card!

I was late in paying after the Ondoy floods, but the HSBC never heard my explanation.  No soul!  Only business for them.

STANDARD CHARTERED — also charges 600 pesos for every late payment… even by just an hour.  Remember, the date changes at midnight?  Or maybe the cutoff hour is every 6 am?  So, after midnight or after 6 am, and your payment is not there, the 600 pesos is charged, presto!

How do I know?  I have both of them.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Fortunately, there are credit cards in the Philippines that have retained some bits of kindness,
and I’m glad that the local banks  (although they have foreign shareholders) are the leaders.

Aside from forgiving late payments, they also charge lower fees.

BPI EXPRESS CREDIT has been very kind to me in terms of late payments. As long as my payment-due doesn’t remain unpaid until the next statement date, I don’t get charge a late-penalty fee.

Kahit ma-late ako ng 5 days or 10 days! But, of course, I don’t abuse it. I oftentimes pay very early too. An I’ve been using this BPI credit card since March 2000.

And when a late-penalty is deserved — because the next statement date has passed and my due remained unpaid — eto yong times na may mga unexpected major expenses –
the penalty fee was only 6% of the total amount due.

One time I was late in paying 1,715.40 by 13 days (almost 2 weeks!).
And you know what?  My late payment was only 102.93!  Compare that to HSBC and Standard Chartered which charge cardholders 600 pesos for being late for only an hour or a day!

EASTWEST is also kind.  It forgives a few days of delinquency.  And the charge is only 200 pesos — when the next statement date has already passed.

BDO SHOP MORE charges 300 pesos or 5% of amount due, whichever is higher.

METROBANK charges 600 pesos or 7.5% of amount due, whichever is higher. This is one local bank that charges high, although this bank offers an annual-fee-free card and a low-interest Cash2Go loan.

BPI EXPRESS CREDIT charges 6% of the amount due for the month — no fixed fee, no whichever.

This rule considers the poorer ones like me — 6 percent of 1,000 is only 60 pesos, but when a rich credit card holder is late, the 6-percent fee for 100,000 is 6,000 pesos.  But, oh well, I’m not a gold cardholder; the late-penalty rules for gold credit cards could be different.

When charged a late penalty fee, call the bank.  Give a valid reason.  Oftentimes, they forgive, as long as you are not late often.

Most large banks now in the Philippines offer free Internet banking, and they offer lots of services that prompts you to say Wow.

However, in this article, I would describe only two, BPI Express Online and My BDO Internet Banking, because they’re the ones I use.

1. If you already have accounts with BPI and/or BDO, then you’ve
done the first step. Your savings account or checking account
would become the wallet from which you would get money to give
to your child weekly.

2. Next is to get an ATM card for your child, or ATM cards if you have more than one child to support.

If you get a regular ATM card, you are required to maintain a balance — 2,000 for a BDO account; 1,000 for a BPI Family account or 3,000 for a BPI account.

For most children, this maintaining balance is a temptation — a cake on the table ready to be consumed.

So the best option is to get a BPI Express Cash Card or a BDO Cash Card. Both of these ATM cards do not require a maintaining balance.

You can get a BDO Cash Card for only 120 pesos or a BPI Express Card for only 120 pesos also.

For OFWs, a better account is available — BDO Kabayan Savings. It only has a 100-peso maintaining balance, and it has other benefits too. More info for this account here.

OFWs can also get a BDO Remit Cash Card. More info on this here.

3. Then enroll your BPI savings or checking account with BPI Express Online or your BDO account with MyBDO Internet Banking.    You can enroll online and then print the filled out form to be submitted or sent to BDO or BPI. Or you can just go to your bank branch.

Just prepare your user name and password and be ready with your account number and your BDO or BPI cash card numbers.

4. After your Internet banking account is activated, you can plan and schedule when and how much money to put into your child’s cash card.

If your child needs 200 a day, you can reload your child’s cash card 1,200 or 1,500 every week. Just adjust the amounts when your child needs to pay the dorm or buy something.

Just tell your child that the minimum withdrawal for BPI Express Cash is 500 pesos and for BDO Cash Card, it is 200. Tell them to withdraw as much as possible from these banks’ ATMs to avoid ATM charges (around 10 pesos for each withdrawal).

5. For OFWs, Internet banking can save you remittance costs and
at the same time prevent your children from having access to large amounts of money, which can be tempting.  One-day millionaires among OFW children are common.

You don’t have to send money every month or every week. Just remit an adequate amount to your savings account and then transfer controlled amounts to your kids’ accounts as often as you like without paying any transfer fee.

For more details:

BPI Express Online

MyBDO Internet Banking

This is a special savings account for OFWs and their families in the Philippines.

You can open an account here in the Philippines, or abroad if you work near BDO correspondent banks.

• Can be in pesos or U.S. dollars
• Initial deposit of 100 pesos for a peso account or $100 for a dollar account.  (Update as of March 2010:  was changed to 50 pesos)
• No maintaining balance as long as you make at least 6 remittances a year. (Update as of March 3, 2010:  was reduced to one remittance a year )
• You will receive a passbook and an international ATM card.
• Additional update for seafarers: You can open a BDO Kabayan Shipping dollar savings account with passbook for only US$10.

Check BDO correspondent banks here.
BDO Remit Cash Card for OFWs

This card is similar to the regular BDO Cash Card,
but you can get this card abroad — in BDO accredited remittance
services.

This also has a higher load balance and deposit limit. While the
regular BDO Cash Card is limited to 10,000 pesos, BDO Remit Cash Card can be loaded with up to 100,000 pesos.

You can remit directly to this BDO Remit Cash Card account.

Your beneficiary can also check the status of your remittance
online at
https://www.bdocashcard.com/rts/remitinquire.asp

Based on our personal experience, BPI also offers credit cards to OFWs, but you wait for the bank to offer you one.  BPI offers a credit card to an OFW who has maintained a BPI time deposit account for a couple of years. BPI also has investment accounts that offer a credit card account as incentive.

BDO

BDO issues secured credit cards for OFWs, meaning one must have a savings or checking account with BDO.

The required documents are:

1. Valid IDs
2. Employment contract or certificate of employment
3. Remittance receipts for the last 6 months or payslips for the last 3 months

The other requirements are:

1. Minimum monthly income of 10,000 pesos
2. At least 21 years old, not older than 65
3. Must have a BDO checking or savings account or time deposit of at least 15,000 pesos or equivalent amount in dollars
4. Must have 2 years continuous job contract
5. Beneficiary or card administrator must be residing or working within 30 kms of a BDO branch
6. Must have a home landline phone

You can call the following numbers for further inquiries:

Call 631-8000
(within Metro Manila)
1-800-10-6318000
(Libreng Tawag Outside Metro Manila)
(IAC)+800+6318000
(Libreng Tawag Outside of the Philippines)
Email: callcenter@bdo.com.ph

HSBC

For OFWs, the requirements are:

1. Employment contract or certificate of employment
2. Working visa or work permit or OFW card or certificate issued by POEA
3. Proof of home address, such as the latest billing statement under the name of the applicant, with the address of the applicant.
4. A valid ID, such as passport, driver’s license, PRC ID or SSS photocard
5. TIN number
6. SSS or GSIS number
7. Proof of Income

• could be latest ITR or
• employer’s certificate of compensation or
• payslips for the last 3 months

The other requirements are:

1. At least 21 years old, not older than 65
2. Philippine resident
3. Have a residential landline phone
4. Must be living or working in Metro Manila, Bacolod, Baguio City, Batangas, Bulacan, Butuan, Cabanatuan City, Cagayan de Oro, Calasiao Pangasinan, Cavite, Cebu, Cotabato, Dagupan City, Davao City, Digos Davao del Sur, Dipolog, Dumaguete City, General Santos, Kalibo, Iloilo, Laguna, Laoag City, Legaspi, Lucena City, Naga, Olongapo City, Ormoc City, Pampanga, Panabo & Tagum Davao del Norte, Puerto Princesa, Subic, Rizal, Roxas, Tacloban, Tagbilaran City, Tarlac City, Tuguegarao, Urdaneta Pangasinan, Zamboanga City.
5. Have at least a gross annual income of 150,000 pesos for the classic cards and at least 480,000 pesos for the gold cards

BDO Shop More has also many features that most other cards don’t have:

1. BDO charges 3.25 %, lower than the usual 3.5% rate charged by other  Mastercard or Visa providers in the country.
2. The total annual membership fee is P900, which is much lower than the P1,600 charged by others of the same card class. What is even nicer is that BDO doesn’t charge you the whole P900 in advance. It just adds P75 to your due every month. The others bill you P1,600 at the beginning of your annual period, with you paying interest for it from month to month if you don’t pay it in full at once.
3. BDO also has products that help you avoid the very expensive Cash Advance during emergencies. These are EasyPAY Cash, which requires you to present official receipts of cash purchases and EasyPAY Cash Tuition Assist, which requires school receipts. In terms of cash release, BDO does a bit better than BPI because you can get your cash immediately over the counter after some minutes of paperwork. Interest rates vary from 0.88% to 1.6% monthly, depending on the amount and term.
4. BDO has launched a Charge-on-Demand facility for Meralco bills. This is good for cardholders that don’t like to auto-charge bills. You just phone BDO with your bill on hand. The only hassle with this system is you have to fax the bill to BDO after the phone call.
5. Just like the others, BDO also offers balance transfers, with rates ranging from 0.70% to 1.6%, depending on  the amount and term. Unlike BPI Classic, BDO pays directly to the other card, to prevent you from diverting the money.
6. In terms of where and how to pay dues, BDO gives the least hassle because it keeps longer hours and it seems to have a branch in every corner nowadays, in addition to its SM mall branches and customer service centers which are also open on weekends and holidays.
7. Lastly, the BDO card comes with a free SM Advantage Card, which you can use to collect cash points at SM, Petron, Ace Hardware, Watson and other SM affiliates.