Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Unionbank EON Debit Card


I'm surprised that some Filipino netizens are still unaware of this very invaluable piece of plastic especially for those who want to purchase products online but doesn't have credit cards. I just had my EON card renewed 3rd quarter of last year and will probably still keep it for years to come since I only have a Mastercard via my credit card and this one has the Visa Electron logo.

Currently there is only one way to apply and that is to go directly to the bank. Before 2009, you can apply online but they have since disabled that. So better put on your smiling face and prepare to talk to a grouchy personnel. Bring photocopies of two valid I.D.'s such as:

1. Passport.
2. Driver's license.
3. PRC I.D.
4. TIN card.
5. Voter's I.D.
6. SSS I.D.
7. Postal I.D.
8. Current Company I.D.
9. Current Student I.D.

You only need to pay for the card and there is no maintaining balance. However, it has a yearly 350-peso fee much like a credit card, albeit much much lower than the usual 1500-peso a year fee for classic credit cards. Also, if you withdraw funds through the counter, there will be a 100-peso fee and in your third Unionbank ATM withdrawal, there will be a 10-peso fee, and a straight up 10-peso fee per transaction on non-Unionbank ATM withdrawals. So, they're basically saying this card is designed as a prepaid credit card and encourage you to use it as such. Don't worry though because it's accepted in all establishments that bear the VISA logo.

Prepare at least 700 pesos, 350 for the card fee and the rest for your deposit so your card already has funds when you pick it up it in a couple of weeks. This is important because when verifying your card in your paypal account and registering it as your primary card for your google wallet account, these two services will need to withdraw a certain amount each from your account to verify your cards. About $2 or 100 pesos is the magic number so make sure you have that amount in your card when you verify. But don't worry, they will refund the amount and this will be back in your account in no time or in my experience in about a couple of days.

But before verifying this card in your paypal account, it is best to enroll it in Unionbank's online banking facility first. This will only take at least two days to activate and there is no need to go to the bank to fill up some forms unlike in other banks. I'm looking at you Metrobank and BDO. This way you could verify your Paypal account quickly because you could see your transactions online where you will find the four-digit EXPUSE or Expanded Use number that you will use to verify your card in your paypal account. You could also call the customer service to ask for the EXPUSE number if that's your thing, but I like to do things privately. One word of advise, make sure your billing address in your EON account is exactly the same with your billing address in your paypal account.

Also, having an online account, you could easily track your funds and your transactions so you don't need to check your balance in the ATM, which unfortunately also has a fee and quite inconvenient if you ask me. How much though, I'm not sure because never once did I check my balance through the ATM machine, but I'm sure there is because I always read the fine print.

Registering your EON account as your primary card in google wallet is fairly easy. Just register it like a regular credit card and it's all done. No more verification numbers to think about.

After verifying with paypal using the four-digit EXPUSE found in your transaction detail, you can now register and use your account in any online shopping sites that accepts this as a form of payment (i.e. ebay) and shop till you drop, of course I mean as long as you have funds in your EON account. And with your google wallet/checkout account, you can now purchase apps in the google play market for your android device.

Some disadvantages though are you cannot book hotels online, you cannot pay airline tickets, and you need to go to the bank and deposit funds before you could purchase things online, but at least you can.

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So let's summarize.

1. Go to your nearest Unionbank to apply for an account.

2. Pay 350 pesos for the card together with a deposit (For convenience of course. You can always deposit more funds when you pick up the card).

3. Wait two weeks to pick up the card.

4. Enroll your EON card to the online banking facility and wait for it to be activated.

5. Verify your card in your paypal account.

6. Check your transaction details and look for the description with PP or Paypal in it with four numbers and enter those four digits as your paypal verification code.

7. Register it to your Google wallet just like a regular credit card (No verification number needed).

8. Enjoy your online shopping freedom.

27 comments:

  1. UnionBank of the Philippines is it consumer fault na nagkaroon kayo ng system error kung bakit hindi na cancel and card... then after 2 months you are asking to settle balances na charge! hello!!! how very convenient naman ang transcactions niyo dyan, 2 months delay ang cancelling tapos kung makasettle kami ng payment gusto niyo agad agad! Feb 2012, paid full and I asked to cancel the card, sabi niyo okay mam, processing na ang cancellation.. April 2012, may balance ako na isesettle????!!!!!! Stop reasoning me out about your "system error"... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is BullShit!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Tessa. I assume you are talking about your Unionbank Credit Card. I have heard horror stories about the services of Unionbank. I only opened the EON card with them for this same reason. In fact, when I was there, the person I talked to was actually kind of rude and decided not to do any other transactions besides my EON account. I even have someone else deposit for me because I do not want to talk to these people.

      I suggest the next time you talk to them on the phone, try to record your conversation as proof. I also believe they record conversations between customers and CS so I suggest you try to point that out to them and reason out that they should not have charged you additional fees.

      Regarding your balance, you have two directions that you can go forward to. You can either pay them out and insists this time that they cancel it and follow up on them every week until they do so or if they insist that you should pay the balance, do not pay but suffer a hit on your credit report.

      Your final course of action of course is consulting a lawyer and ask what are your best options to make this problem go away. God bless and good luck!

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  2. Do you need to have to register to paypal in order to register to google wallet? Is it possible to register to google wallet alone without registering to paypal?

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  3. You don't need a paypal ID to register for a google wallet account. Your unionbank eon account is enough.

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  4. Have you tried receiving money from Google Checkout into your UnionBank EON account? How was it? Or is that even possible? I haven't heard anything about Pinoys receiving funds from Google Checkout into their EON accounts.

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  5. I believe it was possible (and still may be) to receive money to your Google checkout account back when it was still called the latter, but I'm not sure if that's still the case when it was changed to Google wallet. I haven't tried transferring money from Google to any other accounts though so I apologize if I cannot help you with that. I always use paypal for receiving funds because it is still the most common way of transferring funds online so I haven't really had the chance to try Google's services yet.

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  6. Hi,

    Have you tried requesting for a refund from Google play? If yes, how many days was your payment charged back to your EON account?

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    Replies
    1. You know what, I'm really really sorry but I cannot help with your query. I haven't had a single refund from Google play yet. Most probably because the only time I buy apps is when they're on sale (usually the $0.50 sale) or if I really really really need it (productivity apps like cam scanner). I suggest you ask them directly through your Unionbank online account mail. It'll only take one working day for them to answer and I'm sure they will be more helpful.

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    2. Thanks for the reply. I was a bit worried, but I got it back after a few hours.

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    3. No, I should thank you. LOL, I guess you kind of helped me instead because now I know how long to wait if I ever needed to get a refund. :-)

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  7. Just signed up at Google Wallet with EON. It worked just as you described. Was able to purchase at Graphicly instantly. Thanks for the post.

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    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Ask ko lang po, kasi nagtry ako magregister sa Google wallet using my eon debit card. but it says "Invalid Card" then may required din po ba na balance bago maregister. Hope you can help me. Thanks.

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    3. Yes po. You need to have at least one dollar in your account for verification when you enter your card sa google wallet. Kapag ayaw pa rin, it's best to go to your bank and ask if you need to activate online purchases kasi I have been hearing lately that some are unable to use their eon cards online.

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    4. Ok po.. then kailangan po ba talaga dollar? or ok na yung peso as long as equivalent xa sa 1 dollar?

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    5. Peso lang po. Just make sure that your pesos deposited should be equivalent to a dollar. Don't base the exchange on what you see online because it fluctuates. Siguro if 1 dollar is equal to 43 pesos for example, add ka ng additional 2 pesos just to make sure.

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  8. hi,
    once you had your eon card renewed, do you need to verify again your eon card to paypal?
    thanks,
    jane

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  9. Hello, I'm a student po and planning to get a debit card. Namimili po ako between RCBC and Unionbank and I was anxious cos it's gonna be my first time.. Umm so based on your experience po, how was Unionbank's service? Satisfied po ba kayo so far? Thanks po in advance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly, I wasn't quite satisfied with their customer service. May pagkamasungit yung mga employees nila from our branch. Pero I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt kasi a few doesn't automatically mean the whole. It's been quite some time since I've had my eon card. I have since moved on. There are now some new debit cards that I think is better. BPI has its own now. In my personal experience, BPI is one of the best so I think you should consider them too. You should also consider getting a secured credit card. It's a great training tool. Tell me if you want to know more about secured credit cards and how they work.

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  10. hi! it's been a year now na di ko nagamit yung eon card ko at wala na sya laman. i'm planning to close the account na. i'm wondering if they gonna charge me for the annual fee and penalty fee of 200 pesos since no transaction for a year now (bale ika 13th month na this month na walang transaction). sisingil pa din ba ako ng penalty fee kahit ipaclose ko na sya? pwede lang ba tumawag sa unionbank para ipaclose yung account? i'll appreciate your response po. thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can just let your account sit still until they close them. They will send you a letter informing yoi that your card is about to expire and you need to pay the fee so you can continue using it but will automatically close your account when it expires. Don't worry about getting a bad rap from the bank. You're a paying customer after all. I let a metrobank account closed before but i was still able to open a new one with them.

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    2. i'll take your advise po. thank you for replying!

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  11. Hello Edwardson,

    I am an EON user as well. Have you encoutered a problem when logging in to you cyber account? I've been using this card for a year and never had an issue logging in to my EON online banking.

    These recent days although I input the correct detilas UID, Pin, it says "Please enter a valid user ID or card number"


    Also I would like to ask can I use my Eon visa debit card to purchase some In-app purchases (IAP) on Google Play?

    Thank you very much looking forward to your kind response.

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  12. Sir Edwardson, gusto ko pong malaman bakit hindi ko ma-aadd 'yong eon card ko sa google wallet. Sinasabi raw na hindi nila ma-authorize ang card ko. Tapos ko na pong na-iregister ang eon sa cyberlink acct. saka tapos na rin kong nai-connect sa paypal.

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  13. Hi Edwardson, ask ko lang kasi expired na yung card ko EON Debit Card.. Pwede ko ba mawithraw yung pera sa account ko over the counter? Thank you

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  14. Hi Edwardson, ask ko lang kasi expired na yung card ko EON Debit Card.. Pwede ko ba mawithraw yung pera sa account ko over the counter? Thank you

    ReplyDelete