Easytrip Reloading Fees and Processing Time

Here's my reloading experience from Easytrip, ordered from best to worst:

1. UnionBank - ₱0.00 (FREE), instant

2. Lazada -  ₱12.00, instant

3. Shopee - ₱12.00, sometimes instant, sometimes 4 days

4. BDO mobile banking - ₱0.00 (FREE), minimum 1 business day

5. ING - ₱0.00 (FREE), 2-3 business days

6. GCash - ₱12.00, 1-2 days

7. Justpay.to - 3.5% + ₱25.00, instant

 

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If you don't have Shopee yet, you may sign up using my referral code MONSH232 to get ₱100 off your first order.

 

On top of that, you can earn rebates when paying bills via Shopee when you use Shopback. Use my referral code wtseqN or click the link below.

 

If you don't have GCash yet, get ₱50 GCash to buy load, pay bills, and many more. Just use my referral code DWGP8Y when you register.

Download the app: iOS / Android. For more information on GCash, please click here.

Earning Miles on Citibank Rewards

Citibank Rewards credit card offers 1 point for every ₱30 spent. The point gets tripled if you spend it on department stores, shopping boutiques, restaurants and Cebu Pacific tickets.

Citibank has one of the most (if not the most) extensive network of airline partners in the Philippines. You can convert your points to Etihad Guest, Emirates Skywards, Air France Flying Blue, EVA Air Infinity MileageLand, Jet Airways Jetprivilege, Qantas Frequent Flier, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, British Airways Executive Club, Philippine Airlines Mabuhay Miles (not available as of this writing), Qatar Airways Privilege Club,Turkish Airlines Miles&Miles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.

The conversion rate is 5 points = 1 mile. On normal spending, ₱150  will give you 1 mile. On transactions where you earn 3x rewards, ₱50 = 1 mile. A bit high if you ask me.

GCash Bills Payment Fees Update

Merchant	Fee	Test Month
Easytrip	15.00	July 2020
Globe Postpaid	FREE	March 2020
Maynilad	FREE	March 2020
Meralco	FREE	March 2020
PLDT	7.00	October 2018
PrimeWater	5.00	March  2020

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If you don't have GCash yet, get ₱50 GCash to buy load, pay bills, and many more. Just use my referral code DWGP8Y when you register.

Download the app: iOS / Android.  For more information on GCash, click here.

GCash Bills Payment Fees

Update:

I'm compiling my own list.

Merchant	Fee	Test Month
Easytrip	15.00	July 2020
Globe Postpaid	FREE	March 2020
Maynilad	FREE	March 2020
Meralco	FREE	March 2020
PLDT	7.00	October 2018
PrimeWater	5.00	March  2020

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Origina post:

I cannot find anywhere the fees GCash charges whenever you pay bills. I know they partnered with Bayad Center but there are no published rates from their sites.

GCash mentions it though in the payment page that you will be charged a convenience fee. How much? You gotta click next first.

I tried PLDT and was charged 7 pesos for it. I don't know if it's fixed or by percentage. Other bills payment are free. Like this one:

If paying PLDT bills, PayMaya is better. There's no convenience fee.

How much did you pay extra for you bills payment with GCash? Please comment below. I'll update this entry when I find a list from Globe.

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If you don't have GCash yet, get ₱50 GCash to buy load, pay bills, and many more. Just use my referral code DWGP8Y when you register.

Download the app: iOS / Android

For more information on GCash, click here.

BDO to PayMaya

Update 2020:

There's now an easier and more instant way of transferring funds from BDO to PayMaya—via InstaPay.

From PayMaya's website:

1. Log in through BDO Personal Banking or Mobile Banking.
2. Choose Send Money >> To Another Local Bank
3. From the drop down, choose PayMaya
4. Fill in the details
5. Enter the One Time Pin (OTP) sent to your phone or generated by your BDO Mobile App's OTP Generator
6. Confirm details

You will be notified via SMS that transaction is successful.

*There is a Php50 charge for every successful BDO to PayMaya add funds transaction via InstaPay. (Free until August 31, 2020).
*Minimum add funds amount is Php100
*Maximum add funds amount is P10,000 per transaction.

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Original 2018 post:

It's so easy to cash in to PayMaya via BDO. I just followed these steps from PayMaya's website:

1. Log in to your BDO Online Account and Select “Pay Bills”.
2. Choose source account and select “PayMaya” under “Company/Biller.”
3. Fill up the payment details, including the desired amount (min. P500, max. of P5,000 per day), your mobile number in PayMaya (format: 639XXXXXXXXX) and name.



Photo from PayMaya

4. Receive the confirmation message from BDO on your screen.
5. Wait for the confirmation message from PayMaya via SMS once the money has been credited to your account.

I also tried using BDO mobile app:

1. Log in to your BDO Mobile Account. Select “Pay Bills”.
2. Choose “PayMaya” under “Company/Biller.”
3. Enter the desired amount (min. P500, max. of P5,000 per day), your name and mobile number in PayMaya (format: 639XXXXXXXXX).

   
   

   
   Photo from PayMaya

4. Receive the confirmation message from BDO on your screen.
5. Wait for the confirmation message from PayMaya via SMS once the money has been credited to your account.

One of the differences I've experienced between the web and app bills payment is, subscriber number comes first before the subscriber number. I know it's minor but it disrupts my flow.

Waiting is the most annoying part. For the last two (2) transactions I did, the average was 1 hour 40 minutes for the money to be credited to PayMaya.

Get ₱50 When You Register to GCash

Sharing some love to you guys! Get ₱50 GCash to buy load, pay bills, and many more. Just use my referral code DWGP8Y when you register.

Download the app: iOS / Android

For more infrormation on GCash, click here.

Globe Rewards to SM Advantage Card/BDO Rewards Card

Photo from Google Play

If you read the reviews of Globe Rewards App at Google Play, you will notice that most of the people are dissatisfied with the app. I agree with some of the complaints, they kind of made it harder for people to redeem the rewards. Some people would prefer the old way of redeeming via SMS or USSD (*143#) since they don't have data most of the time. But I'm trying to understand Globe. They need to make this change or they will be stuck with old technology. Globe's phone apps are kinda sucky, I know. But I think they're slowly improving. Improving but very slowly. Slower than all the telcos overseas. But that's not the topic.

I downloaded the app, and tried registering. Everything went smoothly. Then when I was browsing for the rewards, it took me a while to see the reward that I always avail-bill rebates. The bill rebate now is minimum 500 points. I only have 300 points. Last time the minimum was 100. I didn't want to avail other rewards as I find it troublesome to show vouchers or SMS or whatever to their partners. The next easiest thing for me to redeem is SMAC. I tried with 130 points to test the water, and voila! It was credited to my BDO Rewards card instantly! 130 points is equivalent to 100 SMAC points by the way.

+1 for Globe on this one.

SSS Website Security

If you have an SSS account, you will notice that you have to change your password every now and then. For security purposes, they will require us to change the password every 90 days. Okay that's acceptable. Here are the two things that I find really stupid.

1. When you change password, they require the password to be at least 8 alphanumeric characters with at least 1 numeric character. Since I usually put special characters on my passwords for added complexity, I tried putting some and voila!

Why are you not allowing me to make my passwords harder to crack!

2. After successfully changing your passwords, you will receive an e-mail about it:

Dear Sir/Madam,

You have successfully updated your password.

You may now log-in to the SSS Website Member tab using the information below:
User ID: registered_user_id
Password: YOUR EFFING RAW PASSWORD

Should you encounter any problems accessing your account, please call the SSS Hotline at (632) 920-6446 to 55 (available 24 hours from Monday to Friday except during holidays) or email us at onlineserviceassistance@sss.gov.ph for assistance.

Thank you for using the SSS Website.

This is a system-generated e-mail. Please do not reply.

The f*ck is this SSS!?! You don't encrypt passwords you save on your database? Who the hell designed and developed this system? Ugh. No wonder our systems are so advanced.

Sun Life Additional Investment via BDO Bills Payment

Since August, you can already add subsequent investments to your Sun Life mutual funds through BDO Bills Payment (online and over-the-counter). Please see the published Sun Life guidelines here.

The good thing about this service is, if you're using online bills payment, you can set up a recurring payment to the mutual fund account of your choice. You don't need to enroll to the auto-invest option  and be tied to their schedule which is the 5th or the 20th of the month. Terminating the auto-investment is also easier as you don't have to fill out and submit forms. You can just stop the recurring payment.

Comparing this new service with their old way of adding investments (bank transfer to their BDO account then submit a screenshot of the transaction through Sun Link Online), I noticed the earliest period the funds can be transferred to your funds is 1 business day. If you use the old service and make it before the 12 noon cutoff, that day's NAVPS will be applied. 

Either way, both facilities are good as it gives us more ways to add investments. 

Happy investing!

GrabRewards Points to KrisFlyer Miles

Grab has recently added KrisFlyer to its list of GrabRewards partners. You can now convert GrabRewards points to KrisFlyer miles with the exchange rate depending on your tier.

Platinum members will be able to convert 11,000 GrabRewards points for 1,000 miles. Since it was just launched recently, there's an introductory double miles offer. Instead of 1,000 miles, you get 2,000 miles until October 31, 2017.

Gold, silver, and normal Grab users can exchange 12,000 GrabRewards points for 1,000 miles. The introductory offer is also applicable for these users.

I converted my points to miles and the transfer was fast. It's not instant, but it took them day. That's already good!