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