Finally, there are a lot more things Filipinos
can do now with their ATM cards other than just swipe it in
the machine to get cash. You can now use it like a credit
card to pay bills and go shopping without the trap of falling
into a credit quagmire.
BancNet, an association of banks in the Philippines, launched
www.bancnetonline.com this year allowing BancNet ATM cardholders
to do banking transactions, bills payment, and shopping through
the internet. Visiting the website, ATM cardholders would
notice the VeriSign seal in the site, a symbol that tells
the users the interactive site is protected with firewalls
against internet fraud.
For individuals who are comfortable using the internet,
banking transactions need not be too physical. A balance inquiry,
for example, is just a mouse-click away in the bancnetonline
website. All it takes is for one to input the card number
and the ATM pin number in order to check the bank balance.
This saves you fuel and time to go to the ATM machine just
to see how much dough you’ve got. A transaction log with
trace numbers per transaction can be printed for filing.
What’s more, cardholders can make inter-branch and
inter-bank fund transfers at any time of the day, without
having to line up in long queues. Even if you’re working
abroad, you can have your dollar remittances converted to
peso and wired to your ATM account maintained in the Philippines.
Have your card and PIN numbers with you so that you can still
control the flow of bills payment you wish to make for your
families back home. With the inter-bank and fund transfer
facility, you can send money online to your parents’
Metrobank savings account in Luzon, and to your kids’
RCBC savings account in the Visayas.
As of now, bancnetonline.com allows payment of the following
bills: Globe Telecoms, Islacom, Smart, Visa and Mastercard
credit card of various banks, EdsaMail, Home Cable, and even
donations to Bantay Bata.
And whether you like it or not, the use of cellular phones
have evolved to become a necessity for students. So for your
kids, or brothers and sisters left here in the Philippines,
you can supply them with Prepaid Cellphone Card Reloading
through your BancNet ATM card. Just go to the site’s
Prepaid Reloading section and choose from either Globe, PLDT
Touch Card, Smart Prepaid, Talk N Text, and Touch Mobile to
give your loved-ones uninterrupted cellphone usage.
To keep BancNet up-to-date with e-commerce, it has also launched
shopping online with different partners such as Serbisyo Pinoy,
Yehey, Nitro, and MosCom. Yehey.com is similar to USA-based
Yahoo.com where you can surf information about the Philippines.
Anything from banner headlines such as the recent coup d’etat,
to financial markets update, to showbiz talk. It also has
a PayPlus+ page where a consumer can go shopping at E-2-Door.com.
E-2-Door.com gives Filipinos access to order things in international
merchants such as Amazon.com, Nordstrom, and REI Outdoor Store.
Yehey.com also gives access to purchase vacation packages
and airline tickets. With the use of a BancNet ATM card, Filipinos
working abroad can actually order gifts such as these to surprise
loved-ones here in the Philippines. Truly, the Philippine
banking industry is adapting to the changing times of the
interactive electronic world.
The latest addition to BancNet’s many projects is the
POS or Point-of-Sale transaction. You can bring only minimal
cash in your wallet even if you buy grocery. A BancNet ATM
card can be used with POS-accredited stores to pay for purchases.
Instead of using credit card or real cash, you can pay using
your ATM card as the POS system automatically debits or deducts
your purchases from your bank balance. It’s one way of
avoiding the credit pitfall and instead allowing you to manage
your budget using only what is available in the ATM card.
The transaction is good as cash, without the burden of carrying
cold hard cash.
As of July 2003, the following BancNet member banks are
already available for any transaction in the bancnetonline.com
website: Allied Bank, Eastwest Bank, Security Bank, Chinatrust,
Metrobank, Standard Chartered Bank, Chinabank, Rizal Commercial
Banking Corporation (RCBC), Citibank, and RCBC Savings Bank
(RSB.) The following banks will soon be available: 1st eBank,
Centennial Savings Bank, Merchants Bank, PS Bank, Asia United
Bank, Exports Bank, PBCom, Banco Filipino, Manila Bank, Philtrust
Bank, United Overseas Bank, Citystate Savings Bank, Malayan
Bank, and Planters Bank.
