essential tidbits

New withdrawal and receiving features for PayPal Philippines

October 9, 2007

I got great news delivered to my inbox last week. It’s a notification email from PayPal which made me really happy:

“New Withdrawal & Receiving features are now available! Withdraw Funds to Your Debit or Credit Card: We’re pleased to announce the launch of a new withdrawal feature, allowing you to transfer funds from your PayPal account to your Visa branded debit card or credit card. Learn how to get convenient access to your funds now.

Receive Money in Indonesia & the Philippines: In addition to the existing sending money capabilities and the new withdrawal features, registered members in the Philippines and Indonesia can now receive funds from 190 markets and 17 currencies.”

Ever since I’ve earned part of my income from monetizing my blogs, I use a PayPal account based in Thailand. This set up works for me just fine, since I have a bank in Thailand where I transfer my PayPal funds, and I just withdraw it here in the Philippines using my Thai bank’s global ATM. Each transaction fee costs about Baht100 though, so I always make it a point to withdraw in bigger amounts to save on the transaction fee, preferably at the maximum amount per transaction which is Php10,000 in any BPI ATM machines or Php8,000 for Metrobank ATM machines in Bacolod. In Cebu, HSBC ATMs allow even more at Php20,000 to 30,000 withdrawals per single transaction.

Back to PayPal, I know I am not the only Filipino who’s been waiting for this added feature of receiving and transferring funds. Though it doesn’t have the full features of PayPal yet, i.e. transferring funds to a local bank, this is a step ahead for most of us. Those with Visa credit cards are qualified for this feature such as Citibank or HSBC. How about most of us who don’t have credit cards? Well, me I can’t wait for PayPal to add another additional feature of transferring funds to local banks, so after much surfing over the Net, I came across UnionBank’s site and it seems they’re up ahead with regards to PayPal functionality for their savings account EON ATM card which automatically functions as a Visa Electron debit card:

“Great News! PayPal, the world’s leading online payment facility, is now available in the Philippines. Your UnionBank Visa cards (EON, UBP Visa Credit Cards, and soon for eWallet) can now be used to fund your PayPal account for some serious online shopping! Your UnionBank Card, together with PayPal, will open doors to a wider world of web-wide shopping from major online stores around the world. Be one of the first to experience the convenience of shopping without borders.” What’s more, the EON card can be enrolled in PayPal’s expanded use program through their customer service. Read more info here.

Too bad, I read this info on a Friday afternoon…arghhh too late to head on to UnionBank. So finally, this morning, I did manage to open an account with them and got my EON eWallet Visa Electron card. The bank staff told me it will be activated by Wednesday. Anyway, If you’re from the Philippines and were able to transfer your PayPal funds to your Visa credit or debit card, please share your experience. Thanks! I will be posting some updates here. Stay tuned.

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Updates:

The Unionbank ATM card I got was an eWallet for their regular savings account which needed at least Php10,000 for the initial deposit. Their EON ATM card is a cyber-account which can be applied online and doesn’t need an initial deposit and daily maintaining balance but you have to pay the annual fee of Php350. The EON card can be claimed at any of their branches. 

Please read the comments below for more details on the EON cyber account. Thanks to Eko and those who contributed to the discussion. 

Posted by tidbits at 12:03 am | permalink

Previous Comments

That’s good news. Actually, our (Cai) blog earnings are transferred to a friend’s Paypal account. Then he sends us the money via Western Union. Pretty rough process. Hehe. It’s good to hear that Paypal has made a big step here in the Philippines. Way to go!

Posted by Technofied at October 9, 2007, 7:55 am

How can I open an account for an EON Visa Electron card? What are the requirments? Thank you.

Posted by Technofied at October 9, 2007, 12:37 pm

Hi Louis aka Technofied, you have to provide UnionBank with at least 2 valid IDs, 1×1 pic, and prepare an initial deposit of at least Php10,000. I suggest u also deposit Php500 or more for the expanded use enrolment of almost $2.

Better call the UnionBank branch where you plan to open your account for the requirements to be sure. They might have different rules than here. Do keep me posted about your PayPal experience. thanks!

Posted by tidbits at October 9, 2007, 5:12 pm

P10,000? you sure? but i read that it doesn’t require any minimum initial and maintaining balance.. oh no, i don’t have any at hand hehe, and i just submitted my on-line application… around 30 minutes ago…

Posted by eko at October 20, 2007, 9:21 pm

mispelled URL hehe

Posted by eko at October 20, 2007, 9:24 pm

Hi Eko! Yup, sure talaga ako, hehehe… coz that’s what I paid initially when I opened the account. And I asked the UB staff about the minimum ADB, it should not be lower than 10k otherwise you will be charged Php200 for that.

Posted by tidbits at October 24, 2007, 10:23 am

hello again! just want to share this info, i was able to open an EON CyberAccount at Unionbank, with no minimum initial deposit and maintaining balance! only i was charged 350 pesos for the card, and they would be charging 350 annually, but it’s more convenient for me in a way.. what’s great about it? it’s a regular savings account (but withdrawals only through atm, and you’ll only need to go to the bank for deposits to your own account), and included was as a Visa Debit Card. It’s already my primary card in PayPal. And you’ll be able to access your money online, transfer funds, just like a regular account only accessible online!

how to apply? just fill up an online application form at unionbankph.com, and pick up your card at your unionbank branch of choice in 5 days! Cool.. ;)

Posted by eko at November 7, 2007, 12:05 pm

Hi eko! wow, thanks for the info on EON.

so it’s a different account pala compared to the eWallet which is what i got.

The 350php annual fee is reasonable enough considering you don’t have any initial deposit and maintaining balance.

thanks again for the info. :)

Posted by tidbits at November 8, 2007, 12:49 pm

thanks for this thread i was able to open my union bank cyber account, maybe you should ask union bank for some referral fee, he he he

Posted by Jeddper at December 4, 2007, 1:21 pm

Hi Jeddper! Glad to know this post helped you with the UnionBank application. It’s nice to share some infos to others… it also means I don’t need to explain more when somebody asks me about the process, all I do is just give them the link for them to read more of the details here.

yeah too bad, UnionBank doesn’t give some rewards for new referrals made by its clients. :)

Posted by tidbits at December 11, 2007, 2:13 am

what if di ko nakuha mga 4months na, pwede ko pa kaya ma pick up ung inapply ko sa kanila tru net..??? can u answer this? if not its ok! i will just go to unionbank one of these days! thanks for this thread, i really love unionbank service its just that i lost my eon visa! pwede na kaya passport lng ang requirement ko? wala na kasi me updated na ID hehe!!! sana masagot mo me! salamat!

Posted by NhiCE at December 14, 2007, 7:42 am

NhiCE: am so sorry, i can’t really answer your question regarding EON. my account is eWallet kasi.

yup, you’re right, just visit unionbank na lang. or better yet, you can call their toll free numbers:
24-hour customer service: (632) 84186
domestic toll free: 1-800-1888-2277
universal toll free: IAC+800-8277-2273

Posted by tidbits at December 15, 2007, 12:55 pm

try withdrawing your paypal funds with a gsis ecard. it’s fast! i tried it. it took me 4-5 days

Posted by adticles at December 16, 2007, 4:09 pm

hello, EON card Php350 lang po babayaran upon claiming the card. (as in three hundred and fifty pesos only)

Posted by bryan at January 9, 2008, 5:48 pm

magkano maximum amount na pede mong itransfer online s eon? i’m abroad nde k cla matawagan hehe bka lng alam nio. thanks! :)

Posted by krizzha07 at July 28, 2008, 12:05 pm

krizzha07:

Hi…sorry no idea about that… i have successfully transferred from my unionbank savings account or eWallet to my sis’ EON pero mga 10k php lang, not that much. how much will you transfer ba? anyway, inquire ka na lang from their universal toll free number: IAC+800-8277-2273

OR just try to transfer the amount and see if it gets through or not. :)

Posted by tidbits at July 30, 2008, 8:42 am