The Lady Programmer

Are you still using your Payoneer card? I am not using that card as often as before, because I am quite contented with the transfers that I do from Paypal to Unionbank to Smart Money.

Payoneer card for oDesk

-I read an announcement posted in my Payoneer account yesterday. Metabank replaces the First Bank of Delaware as the issuing bank. Here’s a snippet of announcement posted within my Payoneer account:

On February 9, 2009 , MetaBank will replace First Bank of Delaware as the issuing bank for the Payoneer Prepaid MasterCard card accounts.
The transition to MetaBank will not affect card usage. You may use your card as usual without interruption in service or security. Please access your Terms and Conditions for changes.

Now this might explain why the First Bank of Delaware bank account suddenly dropped from my list of Paypal bank accounts. I used that virtual bank account a few times to transfer funds from Paypal to Payoneer (this feature is NOT available yet for all Payoneer card holders). This means I have to add that virtual bank account again with Paypal. I will still have to try adding that bank account again in a few weeks.

Payoneer is an alternative for me to withdraw cash from oDesk, but this card can also be linked to other websites such as ReviewMe, Elance and GetAFreelancer. It is a lot similar to a Paypal account, but this one is a Mastercard debit card that can be easily used to withdraw cash or to pay for purchases.

Even though I prefer to use the Payoneer card for purchase, I find so many Filipinos asking around how to save more on Payoneer withdrawals. I did not want to get the “insufficient funds” message seen whenever I decide to take some funds out, so I decided to fix some amount left in the Payoneer account: I highly recommend leaving around P500 in the account instead of getting the whole amount out.

However, ATM machines are different. There are some machines that allow a higher withdrawal limit than the others. I’ve discovered that the limit imposed on machines is not dependent on the bank or the location of the machine. For instance, I found few BPI ATMs which allow a lower withdrawal limit while the rest of their bunch allow higher withdrawals.

Here is what I have to say about getting more from each cash withdrawal from the Payoneer card:

• Determine which ATM machines allow higher withdrawal limits, if you plan to withdraw higher amounts exceeding P4,000. Some say the withdrawal limit has to do with the bank, I’ve also heard others that the limit has something to do with the location of the ATM. However, it really pays to ask the bank personnel or the guard-in-charge on which ATM machines allow higher withdrawals. The limits are often dependent on the model of ATM machine installed in the area.




• Do a balance inquiry first. Balance inquiry is always free and it is often helpful to determine the amount of money in Pesos that is funded in the account.




• Choose SAVINGS over current account option when doing balance inquiry or withdrawals. You’ll still get slapped with $0.90 charge when you choose the incorrect option.




• Leave P500 in your Payoneer account. Do a quick mental computation after a balance inquiry. You cannot withdraw everything in your account. Despite having a $2.15 withdrawal charge that Payoneer takes away, leaving P100 or even up to P300 will still give you “insufficient funds” error with each withdrawal.




• You can still use the P500 amount left in the card to pay for purchases in department stores, supermarkets and other stores as long as these merchants accept Mastercard payments.




• It is possible to pay the remaining balance of the card for a purchase that is worth more than the amount stored in the card. A card with P400 left can still be used to pay for a P600 item by telling the cashier to withdraw off funds from the card then add P200 more to pay for the purchase.




• The $3 maintenance fee can be reduced to $1 maintenance fee by having more than two Payoneer transactions in one month. Instead of doing a set of load and withdraw transactions in a single month, use the card to pay for some purchases too.

For new Payoneer users, withdrawing money from an ATM can be quite frustrating – if you find out that you cannot fully withdraw your hard earned cash from oDesk (or from other site). Getting “insufficient funds” message in the ATM is something of a concern – because aside from getting stumped at needing the funds to spend for some expenses or want, “insufficient funds” deducts around $0.90 each time.

I’ve experienced a series of insufficient funds too, before I was able to withdraw funds off successfully from my Payoneer account. From those several uses with the Payoneer card, I finally set out to always leave at least P500 within my Payoneer account.

image credit to Adam Sonnett

• Always do a balance inquiry first before a withdrawal. Each balance inquiry done with the Payoneer card is entirely free, I get to decide the amount that I need to withdraw.
• Withdraw funds at P500 less than the amount that you have seen during balance inquiry.

If you have a $75 funds loaded in the Payoneer card, then doing a balance inquiry at any Mastercard ATM should show around P3,000 (depending on the Mastercard exchange rate for the day). The amount that can be withdrawn from the card should only be P2,500 so that “insufficient funds” message will not appear.

I’ve tried leaving funds from P100 to P300 which covers enough of the $2.15 withdrawal charge that Payoneer takes away, but I still get “insufficient funds” message and get deducted. I have not tried leaving at least P400 in my account, so I do not have any idea whether “insufficient funds” will still bug me at that amount.

I’ve been seeing this in my Payoneer account lately: load money with Western Union. I’ve seen this while I was doing a fund transfer from Paypal to Payoneer account. This is a new option that was not available before.

Before Western Union is available, Payoneer cards are usually loaded using US bank accounts and credit cards. I have not tried any of these to load my card – I often got it loaded through Paypal transfers and earnings from several freelance sites.

Western Union transfers are currenly available only in the US. I hope this gets to be available in the Philippines too.

UPDATED: February 17, 2009

I’ve found out a quicker way to verify Paypal account without using a Unionbank EON card. If you happen to own a Payoneer card then you might want to verify your account using this card because the entire process only took me less than five minutes to complete. The Paypal expanded use (EXPUSE) number, which is used to change the status of Paypal accounts from “unverified” to “verified”, is reflected immediately in my online account at Payoneer’s website.

Using a Unionbank EON card to verify Paypal has a lot of disadvantages. A person had to wait for a few days up to more than a week before calling up the bank’s customer service for the EXPUSE number. Calling up the bank’s customer service is often difficult: a Unionbank customer often needs to call up several times to get through a customer service representative. The only option that the customer could find out the EXPUSE number is to make several attempts to reach the customer service to follow up the request.

Remember, you can opt to maintain an unverified Paypal account to receive payments. However, if you need to withdraw the funds to a Philippine bank account then Paypal verification is always needed.

Before doing the procedure, you need $1.95 or more in your Payoneer account for the verification process. That amount will be refunded back to your Paypal account. If you need to know how to load funds into your Payoneer account, then read this post on ways on how to load funds into a Payoneer card.

I’ve outlined the step-by-step procedure that I had followed:

1. Login to Paypal. Create a Paypal account if you do not have one yet.
2. Make sure My Account tab is active; if not, click on that tab.
3. Under the heading My Account Overview, click the link that says Unverified just beside the Status.
4. This will enable you to enter a card and verify it. Take your Payoneer card and enter all the card details that are asked on the screen. Guide instructions are provided on the screen.
5. Login to your Payoneer account and get the Paypal EXPUSE (expanded use) number that is shown in your list of transactions (View Transactions). It is a four-digit number within your transaction history that looks like PP *nnnn Expuse where nnnn is the four-digit number assigned by Paypal. (click the image below for a closer look)
   
6. Return to Paypal by logging in again. Enter the given four-digit number in the transaction statement to your Paypal account by logging in again to your account, under Link and Confirm Card. If this is successful then your status should change to Verified. (click the image below for a closer look)
   

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