Since the recent full paypal support in the Philippines (withdrawal to credit/debit cards and U.S. bank accounts only), I’ve been closely following what netrepeneurs and professional bloggers are saying about it. I’ve taken note of which credit/debits card will work.

Highly recommended is Unionbank(UBP)’s EON Cyber Account that comes with a VISA Electron card. I do not have credit cards anymore since i left my day job (March 2006) and the fact that credit card cash advance fees are quite hefty, I reckon debit cards are quite handy aside from its cheap withdrawal and maintenance fees — making debit cards more lucrative for paypal withdrawals here in the Philippines.

The only bank here in Sorsogon that offers a VISA Electron card attached to your bank account is Equitable PCI (EPCI) Bank. However, since this bank was recently acquired by Banco de Oro (BDO), issuance of VISA Electron cards has been suspended. Besides, BDO carries the Mastercard logo only.

Anyways… so I applied for an EON cyber account online, i think the first week of October, hoping that the UBP branch in Legaspi will call me once the card arrived ready for pick-up.

I read somewhere that they will call. No call arrived. I called them last week (i found the branch’s contact numbers in the website) and my card was already available.

Picked it up last Friday, the card arrived Oct. 19. Now, I’ve yet to verify my paypal account (and withdraw the funds already received from the recent pay cycle from using paypal as the only form of payment), my VISA card is still not activated. (48 hours activation daw, naipit ng weekend so baka by Wednesday pa!)

I thought I was weeks ahead in securing a VISA card. I should have called UBP-Legaspi earlier. :-(

I hate waiting. The only good thing I’m seeing, maybe the dollar-peso exchange rate will become better by a few cents. But that may be even impossible by the way the peso has been getting stronger kuno these past months.