Whenever people ask me what is the best bank to open a dollar bank account for their Google Checks, I’d point them to Banco de Oro since it only takes $200 to open a new account and $100 to maintain it.
Anyway, my friend just told me that he was having some problems with his account in Banco de Oro (BDO).
Apparently, the BDO Branch was questioning the legality or authenticity of the Google Check. Either they haven’t heard of Google yet or they just can’t believe a search engine pays people in dollar checks.
Then, they required a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between my friend and Google stipulating such transactions and what not. MOA what?
I think it’s a hopeless case and i just told my friend to move to another bank. Say BPI? This could just be an isolated case with the branch as I know several other people banking with BDO and not having similar problems.
[tags]check clearing, dollar deposits, banking, finance, Google Adsense[/tags]
Really? Thanks, I’m staying away from BDO now, I haven’t recieve my check from Google yet, as I’m not earning that much anyways. But isn’t there an option in Googe Adsense where you could specify that the checks mailed to you be in Philippine Pesos already?
I have this setting on in my Adsense account and sent an e-mail to their Adsense team to make sure and they said yeah, my check could be in Philippine pesos when I do recieve my check. (Kelan pa kaya yun?)
Twitter: mparazgmail.com
says:
If it’s your first time to deposit it, it’s their job to be suspicious. Show the manager the statement of account – the detachable part.
Asiatrust Bank has been very accomodating to me. I was even able to open a dollar savings account with just 30 dollars in cash and a 100 dollar google check. They have a branch at Garnet Road in Ortigas, the branch manager was very helpful. She just asked a few questions regarding the check and what it was for, so I gladly explained. I’ve been using them for my dollar transacations ever since.
IIRC, Sassy did a comprehensive review of banks in the Metro Manila area less than a year ago. Same subject. BPI won, hands down in terms of fees per check. They do, though have that $500USD minimum for a dollar account.
My wife (Filipina) and I had BPI dollar and peso accounts for several years in Bulacan. No probs. Due to a long tale of woe we closed those accounts. A month ago when my wife was in Bulacan again she opened another set of BPI dollar and peso accounts. After she got home guess what we found?
Because the branch she used was a former Express Bank .. now BPI Express … the accounts we have can’t be accessed from outside the Philippines … exactly the reason she re-opened in the first place … in preparation for our move. Sad and confusing.
However, even a kano and an old one at that knows what is up with that BDO branch wanting an MOA … I would suspect it’s a case of looking for a little “service fee”. My advice? Insist on an appointment with the branch manager and if s/he is the problem, go higher. It’s the principle. The Philippines can never become the center for international trade and tourism it deserves to be as long as people put up with such nonsense from banks.
Dead tree thinking. These guys don’t believe in the possibility of international automated online prosumer microtransactions. The Long Tail of ad publishing is inconceivable to them.
That’s surprising from BDO, especially that they are trying to buy 100% of Equitable-PCI Bank, maybe they should educate their employees and recheck their policies first.
I first received my online-earned check way back late 1998 it was hard to encash the check then and its not surprising at all, but today? C’mon..
wow. That is simply mind bogling. Thanks for sharing.
-Kev
I had no problem opening my account in BDO with a couple of hundred $$ in cash and my measly $100 Google check.
Well it also helps that the branch manager is internet savvy and is an old mate of mine.
The teller should be educated in banking, not because of he/she didn’t know what Google is, but because there is such a process called “clearing.”
If the check is bogus, it won’t clear—simple as that.
And it takes about 21 days for a dollar check to clear…
Unless, of course, your friend was trying to encash the check, which is totally different.
Twitter: mparazgmail.com
says:
Due to the anti money-laundering campaign, clearing is not sufficient. The banks need to know that the money is coming from a legitimate source. In my case, the voucher is enough. For this reason, a personal check from a friend in the US was not accepted.
Too many Philippine businesses see consumers as nothing more than, as Jerry Michalski puts it, “gullets who live only to gulp products and crap cash”. How dare a consumer actually produce digital products and earn cash!? How dare a company facilitate such blasphemy!? It must be fraud!
I think it’s the same reason why banks such sa Equitable PCI require that the account holder must have an existing peso savings account for at least a year before they allow you to open a dollar or checking account.
My experience with Metrobank was less annoying since I have gotten to know the account officer there and she personally does the processing of my dollar checks. However, when she left the branch, the replacement officer have been curious and a little doubtful of the regular dollar checks I deposit. There was a clearing fee of $4 and they keep on nagging me to tell Google to send the money via wire transfer. I repeatedly say to them that EFT (electronic fund transfer) is not yet provided by Google to the Philippines.
I got tired and moved on to BPI instead. No fuss, no questions.
BPI took my money. No voucher. No questions asked.
Twitter: mparazgmail.com
says:
I guess BPI has so many accounts, they don’t bother to verify!
Well, BDO should educate their branch managers. My goodness internet has been around for years already. My first google checks came two years ago and I opened a dollar account at I-bank Exchange. They questioned it but they understood when I explained to them. BDO they didn’t. Actually, I experienced it two years ago at BDO alabang. There you go.
I have my dollars deposited at SM North branch. I`ve been also tired of explaning where my dollar came from. It took them atleast 10 deposits to stop the stupid questions.
Twitter: momblogger
says:
We’ve had a dollar account at BPI and BDO for the longest time and no problems at all. At BDO, if the amount of the check is more than $1,000, they ask the reason for the check like what is the relation of the issuer to me etc. It’s for their internal use daw. At BPI, no questions on who, where we got the check.
i wonder why google can’t just send wire transfers. even if they charge a 10-20 fee for wire transfers it would be better than the risk of sending cheques via mail.
Migs,
If AML is the reason, all the more BDO is clueless.
AML requires either singe big deposit or multiple repetitive deposits. A $100 check from Google hardly makes you a terrorist or a gangster…
Noel,
Not all Philippine banks are recognized by US wire transfer systems…
Based on my experiece with them dollar checks that was issued by a person not by a company are easily accepted but if its a company in the US thats the time Banco de Oro ask so many questions and in the end they don;t understand especially if its from the internet.
I wish someone from their main branch can find this blog and hopefully they will do something about it.
Duh, with Metrobank, no questions asked. BUT they have a $2.50 clearing fee which BPI does not exact. The minimum initial deposit and maintaining balance is $500 which you can “use” by taking out a Metrobank credit card guaranteed by the minimum balance.
Both BPI and Metrobank require a peso account. BPI requires that the peso account be at least 6 months old prior to opening a dollar account. With Metrobank, the peso and dollar accounts can be opened at the same time.
This uis not directly a cure for any of the banking problems/annoyances, but one thing I find many Google publishers don’t realize is the “Hold” feature, currently featured ob Goggle’s AdSense blog:
http://adsense.blogspot.com/
If you’re not depending on checks for monthly income, you might save a lot in banking fees by “bundling” up the income until December and getting a real 13th month pay.
Once concept to think about. I still think Google is sadly behind the times by not using EFT from the git-go.
A previous comment reagrding Philippine banks not being reachable by US bank’s EFT is not totally correct. There are some differences in coding, but with the number of transactions Google makes it’s really poor business sense for them to be cutting paper checks.
Too much money, too little adult supervision in my view (ooops, my gray beard is showing LoL)
Dave,
Can you elaborate on how my statement can be “not totally” correct?
Use IBank, every other bank including BPI should just shut down. Customer service everywhere else is horrible.