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

One of many things missed by OFW parents is everyday interaction with their children, including what their children are thinking about various things.

Well, yes, even non-OFW parents have difficulties in getting into the inner thoughts and feelings of their children.

One way for OFW and non-OFW parents to know more their children, especially teenagers is to encourage them to join the online site MyLot.

MyLot is free to join. Your daughter or son must be at least 16 years old. If your child has been using Friendster, then this is a very easy site for your child to explore.

Simply, MyLot is an easy-to-use question and answer site. Your child can post a question, or she or he can answer questions. Don’t worry about pornography or online violence; it is prohibited by MyLot.

I just recently discovered this “knowing more our children” as one of the benefits of MyLot when my teenager daughter joined the site. At first, she just joined because she heard she can earn money from it. Later, she found out she can also improve her English writing skills on the site.

Your children can develop confidence writing on MyLot because many of the young people and adults writing are non-native English speakers. I’ve observed that many of our children can write better than many of those writing on the site.

This early, my daughter has attracted a lot of online friends because of her writing.

But the benefit to us, parents, is knowing their inner thoughts. You don’t have to know you daughter’s password to be able to read her thoughts, as MyLot is open to everyone. In my case, I discovered feelings and assumptions that I never thought my daughter has, such as her dream of having her own room and her fears about our family losing our house to foreclosure, just like what happened to her close friend.

Your child can also earn income as she posts and answers questions. It is not much, but if she has lots of interest in it, she can reach the $10 minimum payout faster. She can be paid through Paypal, but if she’s younger than 18, she can use your Paypal. There’s an article here about Paypal, if you like to know more about Paypal.

Lastly, as you introduce MyLot to your children, advise them not to reveal personal information, such as home address and telephone number, and not to join anything that asks for payment. Since the Internet is becoming a big part of our lives, you might as well capitalize on it or make them ready for it.

You can visit MyLot now and explore.

Related Articles:

OFW Jobs and Children: A Suicide Stirs a Neighborhood

OFW Parents Take Advantage of Free Internet Banking to Manage Your Childrens Weekly

The following is a copy of an email written by Lilia De Vera, whose husband Alfonso and 7-year-old daughter were killed in a shootout involving  NCRPO police officers on the night of December 5, 2008 in United Paranaque Subdivision 4:

Two months ago I considered myself as one of those blessed and happiest
people on earth. Why not? I married a guy who was an epitome of kindness. A guy who worshipped even the footsteps I made. More importantly, our union blessed us with a daughter who not only became the main source of our happiness. More so, she was the center of our lives.

We’re simple folks who led a simple life. We felt the happiest even about
mundane things and inconsequential ones that most people would only take
for granted. Our joy mostly revolved on simple pleasures like a sudden trip
to Jollibee or a late night marauding of the fridge for any leftovers. A perfect family with simple delights, dreams and aspirations… until that
fateful night on December 5, 2008. The day my husband and daughter were
taken away from me in a very violent way. That Friday night on December 5,
2008 marked the beginning of all the terror, anguish and misery in my life.

In keeping with my ritual or “panata” on every first Friday of every month,
I went to Quiapo Church on the above mentioned date to pay homage and
respect to the Almighty One. My husband and daughter were supposed to pick me up in Pasay City after which we planned on giving our daughter a treat to Jollibee. While riding the jeep, I tried to call my husband to tell him
that I was on my way to our meeting place. But despite all the calls I
made, my husband remained silent. A very unusual occurrence inasmuch as he seldom missed my calls. Despite my trepidation and wonder, I took the next jeep going home and prayed that everything was alright. I even promised to myself that I would forgive my husband for not answering my calls and for forgetting to pick me up.

I felt relieved when near our place my phone rung. Such relief was somehow
only momentary? In fact the phone call I got was the bearer of the worst
news in my entire life.  My helper called, only to tell me that my husband
and daughter were shot to death by “men in uniform”. The same men who were sworned to protect innocent people from bad guys brutally slew the two most important persons in my life. They were the same men whose sacred duty was to preserve the lives of the public against all harm and danger. Yet?? they were the same men who murdered my love ones in the most cruel, savage and inhuman way.

My husband’s face was unrecognizable because he was shot in the head at
close range while he was kneeling with his head bowed down. My daughter’s young body was riddled with bullets, one hit her head, blowing her brains out, all from too powerful guns and ammunitions fired by the “men in uniform” on two innocent and defenseless persons.

The “men in uniform” were allegedly on a mission to take some gang of
robbers victimizing people at large. The police shot the Crosswind van my
husband and daughter were riding.  Based on some witnesses’ narration, the
police sprayed bullets into the van despite the lack of provocation or
shots coming from the  van. In his last effort to save their lives, my
husband grabbed my bloodied daughter and shielded her with his body while trying to run away from the police and tried to get cover from a parked
jeepney. My husband and daughter were so defenseless. How can you mistake a child for a robber? How can you shot at someone who was already kneeling with head bowed, an indication of helplessness.

My husband and daughter are gone…forever. The pain I feel for their loss is too much too bear. And the only thing that motivates me to go on with
life is the mission to seek justice for their senseless killing. If the
people who are responsible for their death will be punished, if I could
bring them the justice they so richly deserve, my pain would be alleviated.
The misery I will live by will be lessened. My husband and daughter will be
vindicated and I will learn to live the remaining years of my life in
peace.

Thus, I’m asking and begging everyone who will come across this
letter/e-mail to forward the same to all your relatives, friends, and
acquaintances.  Help me bring my cause to the eyes of the people capable of
steering the wheel of justice to the right direction. Help me make the
loudest cry worthy of attention by those people in-charge in rendering
justice to those who deserve it.

Strength comes in numbers; it is where the impossible becomes possible. It
is also where the unattainable becomes achievable.

My heartfelt gratitude for everyone who will take a moment in their too
busy lives and forward this letter/e-mail to everyone they know. May God
always protect you and your love ones from all harm.

Lilian de Vera

Update on From Lilian de Vera (victim of the Paranaque shooting incident)