Banco De Oro (BDO)

I opened a Banco De Oro (BDO) US Dollar deposit account in order for me to handle US Dollar checks here in the Philippines. I have always been wary of opening an account with BDO, having seen the long queues in the two branches near where I live. But when I earned a few dollars and got paid in USD checks, I looked for a Philippine bank that offered the least opening amount and least maintaining balance. Banco de Oro, at 200 USD, was it.

After I had opened my BDO account, my fears would soon be realized. I am not even talking about being handed a savings passbook (haha) and not an atm. This is not just BDO after all, USD bank accounts in the Philippines are done via savings passbook. But certainly making your customer queue for an hour or more to even make a face to face inquiry with a teller definitely falls in the category of horrendous customer service.

Aside from USD checks, I also earn a few US dollars here and there and get paid via PayPal. I have already linked my Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) peso account to my PayPal account, and have withdrawn from a USD PayPal balance, auto-converted to Philippine pesos, without a hitch.

But naturally, since I have now a USD bank account I would want to deposit all USD amounts to my USD bank account. I checked BDO's website to find out if this is possible, I was not able to find the information.

And anyway, I still had a 10.50 USD check that I have been too lazy to endure the long BDO queue to get deposited. I'll make the inquiry with a teller and deposit the 10.50, those two birds combined surely is worth the hour-long queue.

Finally, once I had my precious face to face with a BDO teller, I asked her about the possibility of withdrawing PayPal USD money into a BDO USD account. She didn't know. She asked a higher authority in the bank, then came back to me and answered in the affirmative. This information confirmed, I withdrew my PayPal USD money into my BDO USD bank account. Three days later, I got a phone call. Someone from Banco de Oro is now telling me that there is problem. The PayPal deposit, originally in USD amount, is being auto-converted into Philippine pesos. And being in the wrong denomination, can not be saved into my USD bank account. He is now asking me to contact PayPal.

I contacted PayPal via email, and was answered within 8 hours of sending the email. They explained to me that Philippine laws do not allow PayPal to transfer funds into the Philippines without auto-converting it to the local Philippine peso currency. PayPal normally charges 250 PHP for cancelled or returned transactions, but was willing to waive that this one time as a courtesy.

Following morning, first business hour, I texted the BDO person that called me the previous day. I explained to him what PayPal explained to me via email, and reminded him that in fact, I inquired first with their bank before I attempted the fund transfer. Two hours elapsed, and I got no response. So I had to call BDO once again. Once I got hold of the guy, he told me that he got the text message two hours before. He got it, but I guess didn't have the common courtesy to reply with a "k".

As of posting this right now, my USD money is still neither here nor there. It is neither with PayPal nor is it with BDO, and tomorrow is the weekend.

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UPDATE:

September 3, Monday morning. I checked my PayPal account to try and see if my money has returned. It has not. I emailed PayPal and got a reply within 4 hours. If BDO indeed cancelled the failed transaction I can expect my money to return in 4 to 5 business days according to the email.

Pissed with the lousy service from BDO, and the fact that my account was now below minimum, I went to the branch and tried to close my account. That's one last hour of queueing to end my personal BDO hell. Or so I thought. I explained in detail to the teller how the PayPal fiasco has brought my account balance to below minimum. Because I am  unwilling to jump through the hoops of withdrawing from my BPI peso account, convert that to US dollars, then deposit said dollars to the BDO USD account, I have chosen to just close the account. Give me all my money. This has not been a good idea.

She quickly checked my account on her computer, and told me that I can only draw 150 USD which is 20 USD less than my available balance. Of course I had to ask why. I was so pissed at this point that the teller had to ask for a manager to come and talk to me. He explained that my last check deposit of 10.50 USD has not cleared. This means, I need to keep 20 USD in my account just in case that check does not clear and I need to pay the penalty. Uhm, okay. But just so you know, I calmly explained to him, I opened a USD account less than 2 months ago, in that time, 34 USD in PayPal money remain unaccounted for, and now another 30 USD is going to be held in BDO limbo. If ever I can work up the energy to queue again for that last 30 USD, I pointed at the long line behind me, that's minus 5 USD at least, since now I will definitely have to pay the below minimum monthly penalty. Yeah, thanks so much for that.

That settled, the teller counted my money. As she handed me my my cash, I apologized and explained to her that I am just a "small amounts" depositor. 34 USD is not a lot but that represents 34 hours of me doing odds jobs on the internet. 34 hours plus another hour of queueing in BDO hell.