• 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.

Paypal is an online payment system. It’s free for personal users and offered for a fee to businesses.

Three Kinds of Accounts

• Personal Account — for individuals who pay online
• Premier Account — for individuals who buy and sell online
• Business Account — for companies and organizations

Opening an account is free and easy.

Sending Money

Sending money through Paypal is free. You use your Mastercard, Visa and American Express cards or your US bank account.

Withdrawing Money

There is a fee of 50 pesos for withdrawing less than 7,000 pesos. If it’s 7,000 pesos or more, it’s free.

Your withdrawal is done using your account with your Philippine bank and it takes about 2 to 5 working days. So, before you make your withdrawal, you must first add your bank account details to your Paypal account. Just click Withdraw and then Withdraw funds to your bank account. You will be requested to enter your name, bank name, bank account number, and a 9-digit bank code. You can copy your bank code from the Philippine PayPal bank code list compiled by James of pinoymoneytalk.com.

Additional tips

1. Make sure the name in your Paypal account is exactly the same as the name on your bank account. There is a return fee of 250 pesos, if the transaction fails due to this error.
2. To make sure you are really on PayPal site, check 3 things:

• your URL has s on the https://www.paypal.com
• your URL has the PayPal icon, a blue-colored P, and the name Paypal, Inc. (US)
• at the right bottom corner, there should be www.paypal.com and an image of a lock
  

Company Background

PayPal, based on San Jose, California, was founded in 1998 and was bought by eBay in 2002. Currently, it has more than 153 million accounts in 190 countries and in 18 currencies around the world.

PayPal has also received numerous Internet industry awards, including the 2006 Webby People’s Voice Award for Best Financial Services Site and the 2006 Webby Award for Best Financial Services Site.

EastWest Bank is a subsidiary of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), one of the country’s top conglomerates. FDC owns Filinvest Alabang Inc. which is developing the 244-hectare Filinvest Corporate City in Alabang and Filinvest Land which operates the wildly succesful Festival SuperMall, Cyberzone Properties and Filinvest Asia. FDC also owns Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp. which runs three sugar companies.

The letter says that the acquisition will be completed in the second quarter of 2009 after the completion of regulatory approval.  EastWest has 80 branches across the country.

The letter also assures holders of AIG credit cards that the transition will be orderly and will not affect AIG credit card transactions.

EastWest Bank also announced this acquisition on its web site. It said that the purchase will increase EastWest’s number of branches to 89 units, 54 in Metro Manila and 35 in other cities. EastWest will  become the 6th credit card issuer in terms of number of credit cards in force and amount of card receivables.

How will this acquisition affect cardholders like me? I am curious about how they will handle AIG credit cards, which have higher interest rates. EastWest credit cards charge only 2.25% for gasoline, supermarket and drugstore purchases and 2.75% for others while AIG cards charge 3.5% for all kinds of purchases. Will EastWest leave AIG cards as a separate card brand or convert them to EastWest cards?