trying to used a american debit card in the philippines

[robertlower]

anybody that want to vist the philippines and used your amercan debit,it can not be done,until you guys change this it going killl anybody coming,we allready have a guy in russion with out any money and he could not get to his money in the states,they think he was homeless until somebody talk to him,he back in the states now,you do not need to be in the philippines with a 1000 in your bank but can not get to it,and that can happen very easy,we get dollars not your persos,so the only safe way is buy your 2 way air fare and have ather 3000 dollars or above 6000 persos ,that if you stay in the philippines,you need a bank there where you can get to your money at any time





I am so frustrated with the credit card and debit card processors in the US that I've decided that I'll do as little business with them as possible. I have a US-based debit card that I can't use in the Philippines. Every time I try to use it to buy online, it gets rejected with some message about "fraud alert".

Why I use a Debit Card

One of the problems I have is with PayPal. Since I no longer have a US bank or credit card attached to my PayPal account, they won't let me do a direct payment with PayPal if the merchant sets up the product for an instant purchase. The interface won't let me get past the stage of linking a new credit card to the account. This is the only reason I've been using a PayPal debit card until recently. It's a MasterCard debit card issued by the JP Morgan Chase bank and seems to work fine if I use it via my olders son's computer (using a VNC login) in the US, but not so fine if I do it from here. Apparently, they're flagging anything from a Philippines IP address as possible fraud.

I won't be using it anymore. In fact, as soon as my US PayPal account is empty, I'll be closing it completely. I don't need it because I now use a Philippines-based PayPal account linked to my EON VISA Electron Card from UnionBank of the Philippines. I don't need to use the PayPal account as much as I used to because I can make purchases, pay for my web hosting on Media Temple's developer server and pay other fees which can use credit cards for payment with that debit card. I haven't switched it over yet, but I'm sure I can pay my monthly Skype bill with it as well.

Until I figured out how to get a VISA debit card in the Philippines, without the strange requirements that a credit card would entail, I was stuck with the US versions. Well, not anymore.

Overseas Locations and Tourism

Regardless of the reasons, fraud alerts and usage restrictions hinders tourism and traveling in overseas locations. I wouldn't want to have to call the bank every single time my debit or credit card is declined and it's not that easy to make an overseas phone call (not to mention the expense) in many places. What would a tourist do when their ATM withdrawals are declined like mine have been? I'm fortunate that I can use Skype to reach any phone number in the US, but a tourist may not know they can do that from a local Internet cafe.

What's really sad about all this is that the technology is available to clear the transactions without triggering a fraud alert. An example is that they could check my static IP address against my account, once the IP address was cleared manually the first time. They could also clear the transactions when I attempt a withdrawal from an ATM machine anywhere in Olongapo City after storing my city location and checking it against the account.

I feel for the traveler passing through who needs to get money from a US bank account. How many hurdles does a person need to jump over to get to their own money? Before I moved and decided to remain living in the Philippines, I didn't rely on getting money locally. I always carried more than enough cash with me. It was dangerous, I know, but it was the only way I could be sure to have enough cash to last for the entire trip. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. I tried using American Express travelers checks once and the hassle in converting them back to cash made the entire ordeal seem like a joke. It took me hours to convert those travelers checks at the American Express office at the Subic Bay Naval Station (in 1986) and it's the same freaking company!

Avoiding Frustration and Unnecessary Hurdles

In the more than four and a half years I've lived in the Philippines, things have improved in finance tremendously. Using local banking services is a whole lot easier than trying to get along with a country on the other side of the world.

My incoming Google payments go directly to my Philippine National Bank direct deposit account via a branch in New York City, as does my monthly pension. My other online incoming payments are going to my Philippines PayPal account. The only thing that requires my direct intervention is depositing Philippine pesos at UnionBank of the Philippines after I withdraw US dollars from the Philippine National Bank. Since I run all of my monthly errands at once, it isn't a big deal.

The only way for me to remove as much frustration as possible and reduce the hurdles to one is to stop doing business with US banks. Thankfully, that is now the case.

[youngj]

I was able to use my debit card without any problems when I was in Cebu. Maybe it is the bank that issues the cards that may be the problem. The card needs to have the right links to the ATM machines, and those links are shown on the back of the card.

[Edwin]

Before I went to the Philippines a year ago I called my bank, my credit card company and told them I was traveling to the Philippines. If you don't do that the bank and credit card company will put fraud alerts on your banking business, and your purchases and spending will be rejected. When I callled them they gave me telephone numbers to call if I had a stolen card or any problems. I had no problems using my credit card in the Philippines because of clearing it before I left the USA for the Philippines.

I used to have a Citibank credit card at one time years ago. I understand it is easier to do banking business in the Philippines using Citibank. I don't know that from personal experience, but that is what I have read. It is something worth looking into if a person were to visit long term or live in the Philippines, and if that were my situation I would research that and fix it before leaving for the Philippines, rather than getting there and then having problems making the banking work.

[youngj]

I have been to the Philippines numerous times, and I have never had a problem using either my credit cards or my debit cards to withdraw cash from an ATM, or to pay for meals in a restaurant, or to pay for purchases at any retail store. I have never been declined, but I guess it could happen someday. All the banks associated with my cards are in the US.

[chaychay644]

it also happened to my fiance the first time he visited here in the Philippines..its a good thing the card worked for purchased and for paying for his hotel bills, but then he wasn't able to withdraw money from it..He even also tried to use Xoom for money transfer but then from that moment his card has been blocked coz they thought that it has been hacked or something..

So lessons learned..bring cash instead..and besides he also said that the interest rate on your card is very high whenever you use your card here in the Philippines for purchasing or paying bills..so from then on, he refrain from using his credit card again whenever he is here in PHP...

[i am bob]

I wonder...

Is it all countries that have this much trouble with Debit Cards or only a few?

I have traveled around the world several times and never had a problem... Of course that was when Debit Cards were first becoming popular... And I'm a Canadian using a Canadian Debit Card...

Wonder if that will make a difference? I'll be finding out in a few months!

[Edwin]

Credit cards are a wonderful blessing if they are handled correctly. My wife and I both had our teeth worked on and put the bill on the credit card. We were both working at the time, and it was easy to pay the credit card bills. I usually always paid more than what was required. The dental cost in this country without insurance is very expensive. We both had teeth that needed a lot of work done on them. I had a very reasonable credit card with low interest rates, so I didn't mind charging on it, and then we had enough money coming in that I could keep it paid. That all changed. I just about got it all paid off, and then Bank of America who bought the credit card company of the card I was using raised the interest rates big time. The only thing I could do was to stop using it and have it shut down, which is what I did. Bank of America sent me another card with a promotional rate, and I was led to believe by the customer service rep. that it was for any purchases I made, so I thought I could use it reasonably for a period of time before the high interest kicked in. I was told incorrectly because the promotional rate was only good for balance tranfers, and I had none of them. I learned that if I paid the card off completely each month that I would never get any charges for the use of my credit card. So that is what I started doing. I can use it from the 25th of the month until the 25th of the following month, then I will owe for that and have to pay that by the 20th of the following month. I have to be very careful that I don't charge more than what I can pay by the following month. I can't afford to build a credit card debt, and have that cost me interest because I don't have enough money to pay it down and stay ahead of it. It has been a lesson about learning to live within your means. I use it to charge gasoline, eating at the restaurant, purchasing necessary items, but I don't just buy a lot of things that I might want, because I can't afford that.

ChayChay, you and your guy have that figured out correctly, because I was told that something like that would happen if I didn't clear it first, so I called the bank and credit card company, telling them I was traveling to the Philippines, and that way they didn't put a block on my card. They gave me telephone numbers to use if anything went wrong. It is true that you get an extra fee charged for using your credit card in the Philppines, and you just have to figure out whether you can live with that or not. I used mine a couple of times for small purchages, and it was okay. I used it once at a hardware store to purchase locks for my luggage bags, and it was a small charge. I also used it to purchase a camera chip that would have cost me much more where I am from, so that was okay. Carol's brother who lives in the Philippines was going to transfer my pictures off my camera, but it didn't wrok out be see him, so I needed another camera chip, which held more picrues, and that chip I got in the Philippines was faster, taking faster pictures, so it worked out great, but I did pay a small fee for using my card in the Philippines, and I wouldn't do it on a regular basis for anything I wanted to piurchage; cash would make much more sense.