A lot of social media users on Facebook and Twitter were enraged yesterday after rumors surfaced that top Philippine bank Banco de Oro (BDO) will start charging PHP2.00 for every withdrawal made using BDO’s ATM terminals.
The commotion ensued after TV5’s Interaksyon website published a report saying that effective “September 1, it will cost a BDO ATM card holder P2” every time a withdrawal is made from any BDO terminal.
BDO quickly denied the report and instead clarified that they will indeed start charging a withdrawal fee but only to those holders of “Cash Cards” or BDO’s prepaid debit cards, and not to all holders of ATM cards. The Interaksyon news site, for their part, retracted the story and apologized for the confusion.
Clarifying the issue, BDO released a statement saying:
“The P2-fee will only be effective on withdrawals of clients using Cash Cards (or BDO pre-paid electronic debit cards), similar to what other industry players are implementing.”
BDO Cash Card is a “re-loadable prepaid electronic debit card.” Like all other debit cards in the market, the BDO Cash Card can be used for payment in various shops and merchants without using actual cash. However, unlike a credit card, the debit card’s account must be funded before it can be used for payment. As a prepaid card, the BDO Cash Card can be reloaded or topped-up with funds by making a cash deposit or fund transfer to the account.
In the past, BDO does not charge a fee when account holders use the Cash Card to make a withdrawal. With the new rule, all BDO Cash Card users will fork out P2 for every withdrawal made starting September 1, 2012.
All other BDO account holders will not be affected by this new fee.
According to the BDO website, the following fee structure will be charged against holders of BDO Cash Card (prepaid debit card) starting September 1.
BDO Cash Card Transaction Fees
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