Updated June 22, 2011
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
ano po requirements to open acct for beneficiary? ofw po aq. same initial dep dn b and can they have atm for free also?
Tanung q lang po, may bdo kabayan acct. Po aq,,balak q po iwan sa asawa q yung atm, yung pera po ba sa passbook q ay pwedeng mawdraw lahat ng atm? Anu po ma’s OK ipagamit q ATM q o pag open q nlng xa ng sarili nyang acct
Hi shiela mae, after enrollment in online banking, your daughter will receive a code. She needs to take note of this code and then goes to a BDO atm and activate her enrollment. She enters the code. Her online banking will then be activated. She can give you her user name and password, but the problem is you can’t receive the one-time password (OTP) there abroad. This OTP is being texted by BDO to complete login. So what you can do is ask your daughter to enter her online banking account and then photograph her balance and then send it to you so you can see her balance. She can also download the BDO app on her cellphone, and do mobile banking, but she should lock her cellphone everytime. She can send you the screenshot of her balance any time.
Hi! My daughter has an account on kabayan which i advised her to enroll. Please advise if how can i monitor the the widrawals or activity in her account. Thank you
Hi alexis, it depends on the remittance company. From the US, usually the maximum is US$3,000 per transaction and the maximum for the month is US$10,000. For bigger amounts, the remittance company asks for more personal information (this is to comply with anti-money-laundering laws). If you need to receive a big amount of money, your sender can send through his/her bank’s wire transfer service.
Ask your sender to talk with the remittance company or the bank about how to send money so that the exact amount of money sent is the same amount that will be deposited to your account, or so that a higher exchange rate will be used. I have experienced receiving dollars being converted with low exchange rate, in addition to the big amount of fees that my bank here deducts as inward remittance fee.
Hi how much is the maximum amount that can be sent from canada to my BDO kabayan savings here in pinas? thanks a lot
Hi Ai, it’s good you enrolled it in online banking. Transfer and posting of remittance from abroad varies from the same day to 7 days, depending on the remittance company used. About fund transfer, yes, you can transfer using the SEND Money feature. Choose “Send Money to an Unenrolled BDO Account”. I hope you can comment again and share how many days passed before your remittance was posted.
Hi, I am an ofw and I have a kabayan savings accnt. And also enrolled it on online banking and it’s already activated. And I know that we should make at least once a year remittance from abroad transaction to keep the account as kabayan SA. So I deposited on my account and it was my first time, my question is how long it will take to update or to appear on my online banking account? Because until now it doesn’t appear on my account and is it okay to transfer it to an unenrolled BDO kabayan SA? Thank you.
Hi rose, I replied to your Q here: https://www.workingpinoy.com/2009/06/bdo-kabayan-savings-bdo-remit-cash-card-for-ofws/
hello po, my bdo kabayan atm card was from year 2012. sometimes i send money to it. I’ve also inquired through my atm. Does my card expire?
Hi rhian, yes, bring your school ID and 1 ID photo. Yes, he can send from anywhere where there’s a remittance company. You can try to open a BPI Easy Saver account or a BDO Kabayan account
tanong ko lang po, my bf is a seaman and he wants to help me by supporting my t.fee ano po bang requirements para sa student acct for remittance. and is it possible na makakapag padala siya from diff. countries to philippines??
Hi ask ko lng po kc mag aabroad ung kptd ko and he wants to open kabayan sa .. panu po b un kc iiwan nya dto ung atm at passbook pde b na mamy nmin nkpangalan o nid dun sa kuya ko nkpngln tnx
Hi ricky, yes, you can remit to your account using your account no. (in your passbook). Active na ang account mo; yon lang atm card mo ang hindi pa activated. Happy new year din
To whom it may consern,
Happy new year, I am an OFW here at south Korea. Nag open po ako ng Kabayan Savings Account sa BDO EDSA-POEA last May 2013. I forgat to activate my account when I was there in the Philippines. Pwede po bang magdeposite or magremit ako sa account na ito.
Ricky
Hi gerald, you need to enroll in BDO Internet banking so you can check your balance online. I’m not sure if they still accept enrollment validation while you’re abroad, but try to enroll, and if you see this option as you start to enroll, then they’re still accepting enrollment. Look for this option: “I do not have access to a BDO ATM machine”
how can i balance inquiry thru internet with my kabayan savings account? pls help