Paypal update
September 30, 2007 by Bob
More good news for those who want to use Paypal in the Philippines! It seems that a lot of people are excited about this, and are figuring out ways to get full (or close to full) support on a Paypal account here in the Philippines. You don’t need a US Bank account to withdraw cash! Paypal also supports transferring cash to your Credit or Debit Card, if it supports the Paypal transfer. Good news is that there are a number of card accounts that indeed support Paypal payments that are fairly easy to get in the Philippines!
For a list of accounts that you can use to access your Paypal funds, check here.
My choice will be the Eon Account from Unionbank. I had an Eon account with them before, and it worked great. Basically, the Eon account is a bank account that gives you a Visa Eon Card. You access your funds by using the card at any merchant that accepts Visa, anywhere in the World, or through a Unionbank ATM machine (I assume other ATMs will work too, although I haven’t tried it).
In addition to being able to withdraw funds with the Eon card (and others listed) I am told that you can also use those cards to become verified with Paypal too! In my opinion, with these options, it is virtually full Paypal Support now available in the Philippines. I predict that with this development the e-Commerce economy in the Philippines will grow by leaps and bounds!
How about the GSIS eCard being issued to all GSIS members. It has VISA logo and numbers? Those cards are issued by Unionbank.
Hi Joseph - On the Union Bank site, they say that all of their cards work. You can call their customer service dept. and ask for certain, though. Good luck!
Hi Bob, how are you? I was thinking of visiting the philippines soon. Is it possible for a foreigner to open a philippine bank account? Even the expat accounts here recommend opening a local account but I would only be going for a couple of weeks this time. I would like to increase my chances of some stability over there for the future. I would then be able send money through paypal. Also, is a peso account or dollar acount recommended over there?
Thank you.
Regards
Phil
Hi Phil - Nice to hear from you! If you are here on a tourist visa you probably will have trouble opening a bank account. If you have a resident visa, no problem at all in opening an account.
Whether you want a dollar or peso account is a personal choice, other than your preference it really doesn’t make a difference which currency you choose.