Just go to bpiexpressonline.com or mybdo.com.ph, look for the Enroll Now tab, so you can fill up the enrollment form. Print this form and then bring it to your branch.

Enroll also your children’s accounts. If the accounts are in their names, you need to print your online enrollment and submit them to your branch. If the accounts to be used by your children are in your name, enrollment is purely online — no need to submit anything to your branch.

For many youngsters, the best type of bank accounts are non-maintaining accounts, as they tend to withdraw all what’s in their accounts. BPI Express Cash and BDO Cash Card are the best, as they can be purchased by only about 150 pesos, and BDO and BPI ATMs can be found in many places.

However, choosing another Internet banking system run by the bank operating an ATM in your child’s school is also a good decision.

Whenever your child needs money, just go online and transfer money. No need to fall in line in the bank to deposit money. For BDO, just login to your account, hover over My Financial Services and then click Fund Transfer or BDO Cash Card Reload. For BPI, login and hover over Funds Transfer or Payments & Reloading and then click your Transfer Funds Today or Reload Today.

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Cheap Ways to Send Money to Your Loved Ones Within the Philippines

BDO Kabayan Savings, BDO Remit Cash Card 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. Use the Card Sale/Reload Slip.
• 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.
• Minimum reload of 100 pesos.
• Withdrawal only through ATMs.

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
• Update as of March 2011:  There’s now a withdrawal fee of 15 pesos per withdrawal.

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
• Can be used to verify a Paypal account and to withdraw funds from Paypal.
• Update as of March 2011: There’s now a withdrawal fee of 10 pesos for the third and subsequent withdrawals for the month.  In other words, you’re allowed only two free withdrawals for every month.

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.

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If you’re a parent whose high-school or college-age kid is living in a dorm or studying in another city or an OFW who likes to control your child’s weekly allowance, take advantage of free Internet banking services offered by local banks.

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.  (Update for BPI Express Card:  There’s now a 15-pesos fee for ATM withdrawal and a withdrawal amount minimum of 500 pesos.)

If you like to know other cash cards,  go to this post:  Best Savings Accounts for Students in the Philippines.

For OFWs, a better account is available — BDO Kabayan Savings.  It only has a 100-peso maintaining balance, and it has other benefits too.  Info on BDO Kabayan savings account.

OFWs can also get a BDO Remit Cash Card.

Other banks also offer accounts for OFW remittances.

3. Then enroll your BPI savings or checking account with BPI Express Online or your BDO account with MyBDO Internet Banking.    You enroll online and then print the filled-out form for submission to your BDO or BPI 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 children that the minimum withdrawal for BPI Express Cash is 500 pesos and for BDO Cash Card, it is 200, (changed to 100 pesos as of March 2011).  Tell them to withdraw,  if possible, only from these banks’ ATMs to avoid other banks’ ATM fees  (about 10 to 12 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, so you’ll save on remittance fees.  Just remit an adequate amount to your own savings account and then transfer controlled amounts to your kids’ accounts through your Internet banking account as often as you like, as there’s no transfer fee.

Related Articles:

OFWs Can Send Money to the Philippines Thru BDO Remit
List of Banks in the Philippines — Universal Banks, Commercial Banks
Cheapest Checking Account in the Philippines
BDO Kabayan Savings, BDO Remit Cash Card for OFWs
BPI, BDO, or Metrobank Fees — Why Keep Paying Them?
Savings Accounts in the Philippines with the Lowest Maintaining Balances