The Lady Programmer

UPDATE: Please wait for the official announcement from Payoneer for their virtual bank account service. This service is not yet available in most Payoneer account holders and is still in its pilot program where Payoneer selected a number of account holders to take part of this new service. Payoneer is aware that I am writing about their stuff and they had permitted me to blog about this so that Payoneer users are aware of this upcoming service.

I have encountered some Filipinos especially those who are new to freelance internet jobs who are wary of using the Payoneer card as a method of receiving payments. I find it a great way for me to receive payments and what even amazes me is that they come up with new ways that can benefit us – such as the Paypal to Payoneer withdrawal arrangements.

I was participant in their pilot program which involves tying up the Payoneer card to a virtual bank account. As I was able to do the test transfer successfully, I was greatly satisfied with the service because the transfer was very fast. Paypal to Payoneer transfers only took two working days before it was funded into my account. Best of all, the transfer is entirely free - at least for the pilot program – but the fees involved in the transfer is yet to be determined by Payoneer.

This service will go live within the next few months and will be available for any Payoneer account holder. The new services does not come automatically for existing Payoneer users: registration is still needed to avail of this cool new service. Although the transfer that I had made was with Paypal to Payoneer, anyone who wishes to fund their Payoneer card can simply put down the bank name, bank routing number and account number to withdraw from online funding institutions such as Paypal.

If the transfer from Paypal to Payoneer card remains to be free after the formal launch of virtual bank account service, then I will consider withdrawing my funds from Paypal into this card. The transfer is a lot faster for me: it takes me three or more days for Paypal to Unionbank transfer but with Paypal to Payoneer the transfer only took me two days. The transfer time depends on which institution does the transfer – thus Paypal to Unionbank transfer is longer because the money has to be cleared from one country to another while Paypal and Payoneer are both on US soil, so it follows that the transfer is a lot a faster than the latter.

UPDATED: February 18, 2009

The Payoneer virtual bank account is NOT yet offered to all cardholders. This facility is currently under pilot stage where few selected account holders were invited to take part in this new service that will be out soon. To learn more about Payoneer, click to my experience on receiving my Payoneer card.

Here is great news to Payoneer card account holders: Payoneer will be offering virtual bank account services. Payoneer cards of account holders will have the option to avail of a virtual bank account with its issuer First Bank of Delaware Metabank. This opens up more possibilities of loading the card – such as doing a Paypal to Payoneer transfer.

I am using an oDesk Mastercard which is powered by Payoneer. I will not be depended on oDesk to fund my oDesk Mastercard to fund it because I have Paypal to Payoneer transfer as another option to load my oDesk Mastercard.

Payoneer virtual bank account with SERVICES menu enabled

I got the invitation from Payoneer to participate in this pilot program through email, and after some email exchanges I had agreed to participate in their program. The first thing I had noticed is that the SERVICES menu which was normally disabled is now enabled – that was where I saw the virtual bank account service which contained the account number and the bank routing number.

Payoneer virtual bank account

I added up a new bank account in Paypal. Then I decided to send a test amount of $13.90 from my Paypal account. Paypal processed it in their system for one day, a normal occurence to anyone initiating a bank account withdrawal. I received those funds in my Payoneer account after another day. The duration of the entire Paypal to Payoneer transfer was only two business days. I made several transfers and unless there are bank holidays, I often get the funds into my account in just two business days.

Aside from that fast transfer, I think Payoneer has a superb customer service – I had already used their live chat assistance for inquiries and account problems.

The only downside to using Payoneer cards are the loads of fees that are being charged when one uses the card. I hope this post on how to save more from Payoneer withdrawals can help on how to minimize Payoneer fees. Nevertheless, I still want to keep Payoneer as another option to withdraw earnings online just in case my Paypal account fails.

I tried to compare the exchange rates of Paypal and Payoneer to check which of these give better exchange rate. Payoneer puts on a 1 to 3% currency conversion fee as dictated by Mastercard, while Paypal puts on a 2.5% currency conversion rate on top of their wholesale exchange rate.

I got into my personal accounts at Paypal and Payoneer and tried to make a tally of the transactions where currency change was in effect. In Paypal, there is an exchange of currency when I decide to withdraw funds to my bank account. Payoneer, being a Mastercard, a change of currency occurs when I decide to withdraw funds from an ATM or decide to purchase an item off a store with a different currency other than the US dollar.

Here is the comparison between Philippine Peso and US Dollar exchange rate (I’m just simply shy to show you the withdrawal transactions). Exchange rate = value in pesos/value in dollars
There are three observations that I have noted from this data:

1. In Payoneer, higher Peso exchange rate is seen when items are bought off purchase than that by cash withdrawals.
2. In Payoneer, there is no fixed exchange rate of the day: it varies a lot – the transactions worth Php 184.60, Php 1084.00 and Php 418.35 were all card purchases done in a single day.
3. At a glance, there seems to be no huge difference between the exchange rates of both payment methods.

The data could have been quite accurate if I had been able to get data that spans for several transactions: However, I have just gotten my Paypal verified only last month.

Overall, it seems to me that the exchange rate for both methods does not differ much from each other, so using any of these two payment methods would be great. Remember that if you are trying to purchase in US dollars then currency conversion fees does not apply to both Paypal and Payoneer.

Mastercard has a list of ATMs – amazingly they have a list for the Philippines. I tried to locate on in my location (Baguio, Philippines) and I really found a lot of ATM machine locations listed – enough to for me to save on gas in finding an ATM around town.

For the Philippines the list has 208 locations listed when I wrote this post – there are 30 Mastercard ATM machines around the city and most are located in Session Road, the busiest street in my place.

This is useful indeed, to those who have their own oDesk debit Mastercard.

A lot of bloggers had written about the success of Paypal withdrawals in the Philippines; I stumbled on a lot of these when I had to figure out how to withdraw my earnings from my Paypal account – to do this in the Philippines I need to have a verified Paypal account first.

I think that getting a Paypal account to work along with Payoneer account is good so that I get to have my earnings if one withdrawal method fails. In case there is a problem with Payoneer, then I can still have my funds from oDesk through another source. I’ve written about the comparison between the different withdrawal methods used in oDesk.

Here in the Philippines, a verified Paypal account is needed to be able to withdraw Paypal funds to any Philippine bank account and even purchase from online sites.

How did I able to get a my Paypal verified?

I was successful in using two cards for this:

• Unionbank EON card
• oDesk debit Mastercard powered by Payoneer

The oDesk Payoneer card is a debit Mastercard which I find flexible in many ways. Aside from using it to verify my Paypal account, I used it for internet transactions and POS purchases in groceries and malls around town. Withdrawal through any local Mastercard ATM is possible too.

The Paypal EXPUSE number is a number attached to the $1.95 amount that Paypal deducts from the credit or debit card for verification. According to Paypal, the number can be seen in account statements, but in the case of my Unionbank EON card, the EXPUSE number did not appear on my account statements – a call or an email to the bank’s customer support is necessary for them to say what has been the EXPUSE number provided with the account.

If you happen to use a debit card for verification, be sure to load the card with $1.95 or at least Php 100 for Paypal to properly debit the account. The deducted amount from the card, if successful, goes to the Paypal account so you have nothing to lose. If verification was not successful then the funds are credited back to the card.