Public Service: Transferring Money Online

Public service, dear readers. Because I love you all. Char.

Seriously, online money transfer is one of the best things about having an online account, well, aside from bills payment. This is especially helpful (and cost-saving) for me in my online buying and selling. Take BDO, for example. If you deposit over the counter to an account in another province or city, you'd be charged an interbranch fee of 50 pesos -- minimum pa lang yan; the fee increases with increasing deposit amount. Ano nga tagline ng BDO, "We find ways"? We find ways, alright, ways to get more money from you, that is. Hahahaha! Seriously, at this day and age of online transactions, naniningil pa sila ng interbranch fee? I didn't even know dati na pwede palang mag-transfer ng money to an unenrolled account using my BDO online account. I've asked BDO tellers bakit may charge ang deposit, they only say na "interbranch fee", but NOT one responded, "Ma'am, actually, you can just transfer money online for free." Buti na lang a friend told me. *Thank you, Atty. R!*

I only have three accounts, BPI, BDO, and Unionbank, so I can only tell you about these three. If any of you have other accounts, feel free to share on how to transfer online in your bank.



Unionbank:
1. Log in to your account.
2. Under the welcome messages, below "Accounts", click "Transfers".
3. You will be forwarded to the "Transfer Funds" page. Just click "To Another Unionbank Account".
4. Just type in the account data to whom you are transferring money and the amount and you'd be prompted for your transaction password. Easy peasy.

BDO:
1. Log in to your account.
2. Under the "Navigate" tag, near the bottom, click "Send Money".
3. Under "Choose an Option", click "Send Money to an Unenrolled BDO Account".
4. Just fill in the account data and amount and you'd be sent a passcode that you need to input within 5 minutes. After successfully giving the passcode, the transfer will be confirmed. So easy diba?! Sayang ang mga interbranch fees na binayad ko dati. :(

 

BPI:
Transferring money to other unenrolled BPI accounts does not work on PC-based browsers (Firefox, Chrome, IE). You have to download the app first to your phone. BPI has apps for IOS, Android, and Symbian (for Nokia phones).
1. Log in to your account.
2. Tap "Transfers" at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap "Transfer to Anyone".
4. If you have just downloaded the app, BPI will send you an activation code that you must key in. Then you can proceed with the actual transferring of money by filing in the account data and amount and confirming the transfer.

This only works when transferring within the same bank. If you want to transfer, say, from Unionbank to BPI, there is an interbank fee and the transfer isn't real time -- it takes approximately three days for the money to be deposited to the recipient account.

So there, dear friends. Hope this helps. Let's be frugal together!

ADDITIONAL INFO FROM EKSTRANGHERO:

• BDO (and possibly BPI) has a transfer limit of 10K daily. [I think this applies to all banks per Banko Sentral circular...something to do with preventing money laundering.]
• Interbank transfers also work for BDO to Metrobank, and vice versa BDO and Metrobank to other banks. It has a 100-peso charge, which, as pointed out by Mr. E, is quite fair, given the time and money you're going to use to actually go to the bank.