[Pink Scene] Help the 2012 Manila Pride March Happen!

The Metro Manila Pride March is a labor of love when you get down to it. It's put up by volunteers who do their best to keep the LGBT Pride spirit alive and expect nothing in return.

And thus every year, putting up the Pride March is always a worthwhile challenge - and Task Force Pride needs your help! There's a lot of expenses that go into paying for all the permits and renting the necessary equipment to make the Pride March successful.

This year if 1,000 people donated P150 each, you'd be helping us make sure we have lights and a sound system and generator for the program; food for the people who will be performing for free; rent for band equipment for the band members; tokens for our speakers, etc.

Show your support for the LGBT community and our continued fight for equal rights and better representation in government. Any donation that you can contribute will go a long way towards making this year's Pride March a success!

[Finances] UnionBank and PayPal Philippines

Ever since news broke out that PayPal Philippines now accepts payments, many of my friends have been asking me about ways of taking advantage of this new service. One item that always comes up is the UnionBank Eon CyberAccount so after explaining the concept to several people already, I figured I might as well put all this research to good use by documenting all this in a blog entry.

So here's what you need to know:

1. So are UnionBank and PayPal now working together? - No, this is not a business partnership of any kind. PayPal Philippines allows you to enroll credit cards and debit cards associated with the major brands like Visa and Mastercard. The UnionBank Eon card counts as a Visa debit card, thus it's compatible.

2. So I don't need to get a UnionBank account to use PayPal? - Again no, you just need a compatible Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card. Other banks have started to offer ATM cards that double as debit cards like ChinaTrust (through Visa) and BDO (through MasterCard). If you already have a Visa or Mastercard credit or international debit card, then you can just use that with PayPal instead. Be sure to check the status of your card with your bank.

3. Do I need a separate savings account? Is the UnionBank Eon card something like BPI Express Cash? - No to both. BPI Express Cash cards are practically like load wallets more than debit cards since they don't rely on an international union like Visa or MasterCard in order to function as an international debit card. They are dependent on other accounts to load new content into it. The UnionBank Eon is interesting since it is in fact a savings account. UnionBank is marketing it as a "CyberAccount" given that it's not tied to any particular branch and you do your transactions mostly online or over the phone.

4. How is the UnionBank Eon CyberAccount different from regular savings accounts? - One, it doesn't have a maintaining balance. While it promises higher interest, you cannot earn interest unless you maintain an Average Daily Balance (ADB) of Php10,000. After that it only earns 0.5% interest per annum. Also, it requires a Php350.00 annual fee to cover related expenses for it being a Visa Electron card. You can also issue "CyberChecks" which do not require you to own a checkbook and these checks can be delivered to the intended recipient. You must have at least one transaction per year to avoid penalties and at least one transaction in two years to avoid account closure due to dormancy.

5. Can I use the UnionBank Eon CyberAccount with my existing savings account in another bank? - Yes, the UnionBank CyberAccount allows for interbank transactions with a P10.00 per transaction fee. Your current bank receiving the funds transfer from UnionBank may charge other fees.

6. What other fees are associated with this account? - The UnionBank CybertAccount only allows 3 free ATM transactions per month. Beyond the third withdrawal at a UBP ATM, there is a P10.00 charge per transaction. For any withdrawals made at non-UBP machines within the Philippines, it costs P12.00 per transaction. You have a maximum daily withdrawable limit of P20,000 including payments made to merchants. If you use the CyberCheck option, it costs P10.00 for any checks that the payee must pick up at a UBP branch or for checks that will be delivered to the recipient it costs P50.00 within Metro Manila and P60 outside of Metro Manila.

7. What do I need to open a UnionBank Eon CyberAccount - You will need to appear in person at any UnionBank branch with at least two (2) valid IDs and the accomplished application form that can be found on the website. You will need to appear in person at the branch and you will be called when your card is ready for pick-up. Be ready to pay the Php350.00 annual fee.

7. But I can receive PayPal payments for free, right? - No it isn't entirely free. It's only free to use PayPal to make payments, but to receive payments there are various fees. If you have a Personal (free) account, it is free only if the payment is made using PayPal Balance / Transfer / InstantCheck. To withdraw funds from your PayPal account, you must withdraw a minimum of $10.00 USD and you will be charged a $5.00 USD transaction fee for withdrawals made in the Philippines. For payments made using credit / debit cards, you cannot receive this with a Personal Account and will need to upgrade to a Premier or Business Account and will still be subject to a 2.4-3.4% transaction fee plus $0.30 USD. There are additional fees associated with currency conversion plus a 2.5% spread above the wholesale exchange rate charge that PayPal is made to pay that they will retain.

I hope this answers everyone's questions and how we can't all be 100% excited about PayPal offering its services here. We're subject to higher rates than in the US or Canada and still cannot directly enroll savings accounts with PayPal and are forced to use credit or debit cards. Still, it's a better alternative compared to other services as long as you expect higher volume transactions.

If you have other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to find the answers for you.

[Web] Now on PayPerPost!

EDIT 10.23.12: I'm not sure why this 5+ year old post spiked in views recently, but I thought it appropriate to clarify that (a) I did not enjoy the types of topics available on PayPerPost, (b) I think I only tried posting 1 or 2 articles, (3) I was very worried about things I had read about how such posts can result in penalties in your SEO rankings, although I have not fully validated this and (4) ultimately I did not pursue an active relationship with PayPerPost or even the mentioned Sponsored reviews. I've updated the links to nofollow links to add to my non-endorsement of the service.

Well, I finally got approved for PayPerPost today, right on the heels of my approval for SponsporedReviews. All bias aside, it's been an interesting first day and given the similarity of the programs, I doubt I can avoid comparing the two services. While it's very early in the game, I think one site has taken an early lead over the other so far...


First, sign-up and approval. I have to admit both sites had opportunities in this area. While it's true that both sites only promised that you'd get reviewed within 24-48 hours, it doesn't mean you're going to get feedback that soon. Both sites took almost a week before sending back approval feedback - Sponsored Reviews took less time, if that counts for anything.

That leads me to consider how they determine approvals - as best as I can determine, PayPerPost relies mainly on Google PageRank and Alexa ratings to come to a decision, which is pretty standard given the industry. SponsoredReviews tried to be more diverse by also looking at Technorati, and Link Pop, which are okay but not exactly common. SponsoredReviews wins brownie points for trying to be diverse but I'd still have to go with PayPerPost for business sense.
Then comes the marketplace - both have unique methods and circumstances around it. SponsoredReviews certainly presents a pretty robust marketplace but despite numerous applications, nothing has happened yet. Out of 6 bids, only one has responded so far - by declining. Other than that, there's not much else to do there. So far PayPerPost has been a lot more interesting so far given they don't just depend on marketplace opportunities. Instead they also offer a wide variety of affiliate programs for referrals, encouraging users to review your entries for shared income and a way for advertisers to get in touch with bloggers directly, which seems pretty exciting. I'm waiting for my first opportunity.

Lastly comes the income scheme - PayPerPost is pretty direct with its prices. What you see is what you get, as they say. The list price is exactly what you can earn while for SponsoredReviews, they take a pretty hefty percentage of your bidding price - 35%! Ouch! Plus the eventual PayPal fees you'll also have to pay to address things are bound to be annoying and that'll really eat into your profits.

I guess the ultimate difference this early in the process is the fact that I'm writing my first PayPerPost entry now while I'm still waiting on SponsoredReviews to come to a decision. Sure, SponsoredReviews may seem to start in a shorter period of time, but clearly PayPerPost gets you actually working a lot sooner after approval.

This should be a very interesting business relationship.

[Web] Changes to PayPal Philippines

Some time back I signed the petition for PayPal for the Philippines, a movement devoted to getting Filipinos the full benefits of PayPal's services.

Some headway was made late last year with the activation of Philippine accounts but strictly for sending funds or making online payments with a registered credit card. That was cool but of course what more people were looking for was the ability to receive funds in the form of payments and donations given how lucrative our overseas remittance market is here in the country.

Recently I signed up for PayPal and started twiddling with my account when I noticed that it now allows for payments to received, albeit to be credited only to the registered credit card or debit card on the account. Naturally, I went on a bit further to explore the service and paid the $1.50 fee for expanded use for my Personal account, hence the above screenshot.

You'll now see a "Donate" button as part of my sidebar under "Support the Geeky Guide!" just as an experiment to see if it'll get anywhere. Of course I'm only limited to 5 transactions per month in terms of receiving payments given I didn't opt for a Premier account, and I'm undecided if I need to just yet. Of course if you use Skype for sending your PayPal payments, I'm allowed an unlimited number of transactions of that nature. Go figure.

So for all you PayPal fanatics here in the Philippines, it's about time you checked out the site to see if the current services already meet your needs. I'm sure that supporting the site now will lead to more options being available in the future, such as the much-vaunted feature of being able to register a bank account instead of just a credit or debit card.

Cross your fingers now.

[Web] Checkout and Other Payment Services in the Philippines

While I'm not actually a heavy online shopper or anything like that but of course it's always fun to add another Google product to my account and in the chance that I need to make an online payment, I'd rather have Google handle my account information. I guess I really just trust them, huh?

Anyway, based on this help page, technically Google doesn't support users with billing addresses in the Philippines. However when I actually tried signing up at the website, the Philippines is listed as one of the supported countries. I completed the signup process, got my confirmation email along with my $10 sign-up bonus and my credit card information is now saved as part of my Google Account. What's up with that?

Based on another help page, the Philippines is supported as a shipping destination, so this may connect to why I was able to sign-up. On a whim, I tried sending feedback to the Google team in the hopes that someone picks it up and edits the help page to reflect the Philippines as one of the supported countries or perhaps invalidate my account if the case warrants it. In the meantime, I'm holding off on experimenting with purchases until I know I'm not violating the ToS somehow.

On a side note, PayPal has also been made available to Philippine rresidents as of October of last year, which is somewhat good news for people like myself who signed up for the PayPal for the Philippines petition movement.

Before you jump up and down to celebrate that PayPal is available, allow me to clarify to what extent the service is available, especially in contrast to Google Checkout. Checkout is a payment only service that supports online payments but nothing else. PayPal for the Philippines also provides payment support and none of the other features currently available to US users, namely loading accounts through credit cards, receiving funds via PayPal and the ability to withdraw funds into a local bank account. You're also limited to sending only $100 unless you verify use of a credit card or a debit card. So there's no real difference between PayPal and Google Checkout at this point, unless either company decides to expand its portfolio anytime soon.

The only local payment service I remember trying to fill the void of online payment solutions available locally was a site once called PayPlus+ but is now called Kaban and is a member of the Yehey family of products. If you didn't already know, Yehey is a local search engine that has managed to survive over the years with limited success. PayPlus+ was previously limited to ATM signups for BancNet cardholders. The new Kaban now accepts more banks and now supports credit cards. Sadly, it remains strictly a payment site and does not support receiving payments.

Whoever does manage to support actual funds transfers will definitely make a pretty penny in terms of the Philippine remittance market. With at least $12 billion coming into the country every year in terms of remittances, there is a definite market for this service in order to escape the heavy transaction fees charged by services like Western Union.

Are you listening Google? PayPal? Don't you want a piece of this pie?