photo coverage: BPI cards Wonderworld launch @ Seventh High

I was there last night at the launch of new BPI cards and I gave a live testimonial about the BPI My ePrepaid card, I was one of the early users and told them how it became beneficial to me, I featured it here in my blog post: BPI launches BPIcards.com, Dealmania.ph, Prepaid MasterCard and virtual credit card and my review here at : BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard - review and experience

here's my photo coverage of the event.

here are some info about the new BPI My ePrepaid card

How to satisfy women with shopping deals and a 3.5-incher

BPI rolls out digital innovations for Filipino online shoppers

Shopping has always been on top of most women’s to-do lists. But while it has become ‘conventional wisdom’ that women love everything that exudes beauty and elegance, here’s a lifestyle change of the digital age: Filipino women today use online shopping to de-stress and reward themselves.

Profile of a Filipino online shopper

In a virtual marketplace, a gorgeous dress and a bottle of skin moisturizer sell every 3 minutes; a handbag and a pair of earrings and necklaces are put inside an online shopping cart every 5 minutes; and a unit of the latest mobile device welcomes its new owner every 10 minutes.[1]

Lorraine de Guzman, a 25-year-old entrepreneur who buys and sells dresses, bags, and shoes through the Internet, is one of the many Filipino women who have discovered the joy of online shopping. Like her, most online shoppers have been increasingly moving from crowded stores and intricately designed boutiques in malls to the one-click virtual platform known as online shopping. In fact, Filipino women account for 3 out of every 5 active online shoppers, according to a recent study[2], which also claims that 74% of all virtual shoppers in the Philippines purchase lifestyle items—such as shoes, bags, and dresses—via the Internet.

As tech-savvy individuals who are constantly on their laptops and computers at home or in the workplace, most Filipinos today have now turned to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to buying their fashion must-haves and other lifestyle items. More and more people have been turning to online shopping with the proliferation of group-buying sites, online travel bookings, and downloadable software and apps, among others. But while online shoppers today have grown tremendously in number, there are still more Filipinos who do not do so because they do not have a credit card or they are concerned with the security risks of transacting online.

So the question now stands: What does it take to satisfy the legions of Filipino women who shop and want great deals online? The answer: 3.5-inch cards and tons of shopping deals from the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).

In celebration of its 160th anniversary this year, BPI is rolling out new digital innovations that will provide customers—both men and women—with an easier way to make more secure card payments while presenting them with endless shopping opportunities: BPI eCredit and My ePrepaid Cards, BPICards.com, and Dealmania.ph.

Blazing a trail in the age of virtual shopping

BPI has always been known for staying a step ahead in terms of innovative banking technologies by pioneering best practices that have become the standard in today’s local banking scene. “The explosion of social media the past 2 years has given way to opportunities for increased interactions and connectedness. We have seen the tremendous growth of eCommerce, yet, there are many more who are wary of shopping online due to concerns on security and payment inconvenience,”” says Ginbee Go, Senior Vice President and BPI Cards Issuing Business Head. With this in mind, BPI is set to launch trend-setting innovations—BPI eCredit and my ePrepaid Cards, BPICards.com, and DealMania.ph—that will surely make online shopping even more fun yet safe, secure and convenient.

Harnessing the best of today’s modern technology, BPI opens up a new world of shopping for digital shoppers! With the BPI eCredit Card, the first-ever virtual credit card exclusively designed for online shopping, BPI MasterCard cardholders enjoy greater peace of mind when shopping online. Because it is a companion card of the BPI Express Credit MasterCard variants— Blue, Gold, Edge, Petron and Skymiles—it uses a different card number with its own sub-limit that cardholders can set and adjust as they need it. But for those without a credit card, fret no more as BPI introduces the My ePrepaid card—a no-hassle, no-approval-required, reloadable prepaid card that empowers its holders to buy whatever they want from the widest selection of MasterCard-affiliated online shopping sites without having to worry about submitting documents or maintaining a balance. “Now, everyone can buy airline tickets, concert passes, gadgets, fashion must-haves, and coupon deals easily and in an instant with the BPI eCredit and My ePrepaid Cards,” shares Aileen Lamasuta, Vice President and BPI Prepaid Cards Business Head.

In addition, BPI is also launching BPICards.com, an interactive website where one can obtain up-to-date information on BPI cards features, promotions, and other items of interest to cardholders. No BPI Card yet? Exclusive to the website, and another first in the industry, will be the Profiler feature, where those looking for the right credit card for them will first be asked about their lifestyle and preferences so BPI can recommend the credit card that suits them best. “BPI understands that choosing a credit card is not as easy as 1-2-3 so we have made it easier for them through BPICards.com’s Profiler,” says Angie Florentino, Assistant Vice President and BPI Credit Cards Channel Management Head.

Aside from this, the site is a revolutionary concept in itself as it also hosts DealMania.ph, a deal-buying site exclusive to BPI cardholders which is featured on the main page of BPICards.com. It gives up-to-date information on ongoing sales and promos

from partner restaurants, hotels, wellness establishments, and many others more. At DealMania.ph, BPI cardholders enjoy huge discounts, price offs and more.

BPI continues to provide customers with easier banking experience and maintains a history of innovation aimed at shaping modern lifestyles and empowering more Filipinos to better access products and services here and abroad, in store or online.

For more information about BPI and how it continues to make it easy for Filipinos, please visit www.bpiexpressonline.com. For BPI Cards Digital initiatives, you may contact Mr. Jan Montifalcon at jvlmontifalcon@bpi.com.ph. And, for merchants interested in building their online capabilities with BPI, you may also contact Mr. Jeff Arrienda at jfgarrienda@bpi.com.ph.

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[1] [1] eBay Philippines Online Shopping Trends Report, July 2011 (http://cuttongarments.blogspot.com/2011/07/online-shopping-trends-as-of-july-2011.html)

[2] eBay Philippines Online Shopping Trends Report, July 2011 (http://cuttongarments.blogspot.com/2011/07/online-shopping-trends-as-of-july-2011.html)

BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard - review and experience

Here’s my take, review and experience in using the all new and all different BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, the card that can be loadable with money and used only in buying items online and pay bills like a credit card in all affiliated Master Card stores, all we need to do is key in the codes or swipe it! But for my case here is a little bit different, because I got this BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard few days ago and I tested it in purchasing stuff online via group buying sites. Online shopping habit was full blast because it is easy to purchase online and not worry about credit card hacking whenever I use it to pay and transact online.

read my story and review below

The first thing that I did was to search for some items posted for sale online

1st attempt

I logged on to my Multiply.com and search for some gadgets and useful items for me, I saw some cool items but some sellers are not accepting any credit card or MasterCard payments and they still require bank deposit and Paypal payment, I saw some stores that they allow MasterCard payments but I need to phone them in order to buy and inquire, so it’s a NO for me already to buy in Multiply since its hard to give details of my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, so my next move is to look for online stores that have a working shopping cart and MasterCard online payments.

2nd attempt

I log on to BPI exclusive group buying deal site – Dealmania.ph, my eyes are on that set meal at Mabuhay Palace resto in Manila Hotel for only P940, I saw that first and I talked to my wife if she want the deal and for us to have a date in Manila Hotel. So after she agreed, I registered on the site and purchase the deal smoothly using my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, logging and input carefully with the 16 digit number of the card and CVC is so easy, after the purchase I saw the details under my account in Dealmania.ph that the voucher for the meal is okay and on pending, I just have to wait till 10 people bought the same meal in order for the deal to be On or open. I’m glad that I am buyer number 8 and as of this now 1 buyer is still needed.

3RD attempt

I told my wife to search for ok and cool deals online, so we surfed on some group buying deal sites for the whole day and we debated on some deals because some of it are not that beneficial to us or for me, or well…I’m not that interested, I was targeting for a Sony Bloggie HD video camera but I can’t find a right LOCAL gadget-PC store that sell this, because some of our local stores like Asianic, PC Corner, and etc accept MasterCard payments upon delivery, but they don’t have a Sony Bloggie on stock. So my biggest trial is to purchase it on international sites, I want to try it by purchasing it on Ebay.ph, but there’s no local seller there that accepts MasterCard payments, and then I went to Amazon.com, I saw a store that sell the item and accept card payments, but they are not available to ship it here in the Philippines, so I scrap out of the idea in purchasing one video camera for me, I’m still sad about It and now owning a HD camera today, I still miss my Flip video camera after it got lost on my way to Philippine Fashion Week in SMX.

4th attempt

My honey wife IM me with lots of deals she found on line, I was busy browing at ThinkGeek.com and I decided to buy that floating inflatable balloon Shark with remote control, but all dealings will not for myself only and I just agreed with her to purchase these Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Marquez live viewing with breakfast buffet in Sofitel tent this November 13. I bought 2 tickets in Cash Cash Pinoy for us and I used the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard again in purchasing, and as usual, the transaction is so smooth and I never encountered any problem, except I saw some errors on their site during the payment processing, but I’m glad that the payment went through and landed on a report in my account.

5th attempt

I purchase that 2 hour spa in Makati with a price of P578 each….and my wife want it so I tried registering and clicking the buy now button in Buyanihan.com, I bought two vouchers and I used my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard again to purchase it online, And there I encountered my first ever problem in group buying sites, the deal didn’t went through my Buyanihan account after I saw that error on their site, It means that the payment processing didn’t went okay on my end and that’s according to the message I saw on my laptop screen. I got worried that the site error might reflect a deduction of my money in BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard so I checked my money balance via SMS, and there I discovered that the payment went through and I got deducted a P1158, this is emoney we are talking about in my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, so the 1st thing that I did is that I contacted their customer support via email and told them the problems that I encountered, and then they replied right away told me that they will make sure that I won’t be charged after the purchase error, but then I checked my balance in BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard account after a few hours and saw that they money never returned, so Okay, that’s a different system and story and not that ATM money that can be returned right away after a few hours when you withdraw on a ATM machine and money didn’t came out and you got charge after that machine error. Here in the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard I think it is a lot more different, so I waited for some couple of days and I checked my balance and saw that the money is not returned digitally.. So I emailed again the customer support in Buyanihan.com to let them know that I’m interested on the spa offer and its okay not to process back the money that got charge in my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, but then the support person emailed back and told me that I should talk to the issuing bank for this concern and they will send a note to their payment department about this issue, and then I told them that I’m using the new BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard just to let them know that it is a different card and not a credit card.

update: Buyanihan payment department re-entered again my purchase and now I already received the e-voucher in my email and also in my account, now I purchase the deal via this card. I also reported this to the BPI team on how they can resolve this issue, but they told me that money should be brought back if there are any cancellation of purchase.

6th and final attempt

So I lost Php 1k money in my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, but I just gonna let it go for a while and ask for help soon after I finish all my work at home, so there my wife found a nice gadget for me and it’s a iTheater movie eyeglasses, a gadget that you can watch movie in a eyeglasses. I click the buy now there at Cash Cash Pinoy and purchase the gadget smoothly using my BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, I’m excited on that because I want to have a remembrance on my first ever purchase online using BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard and my first ever purchase at a group buying site.

REVIEW

The card that I’m holding is a demo card from BPI, I’m one of the tester of this BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard and I haven’t even experienced yet on how to apply it and use my money in loading this BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard. Purchasing is so easy and paying all of it online is like opening and replying to an email, the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard is the answer to people who are afraid of owning a credit card, and that includes myself because I don’t want the bank to charge me of some bills that I didn’t even bought or purchase online, I read lots of horror stories of people who started as not a responsible MasterCard or credit card users and end up paying bills so late and interest started to go up until time goes by. That’s one of the freaky incident that I want to avoid and I know I can avoid that but what if someone got a hold of my card number and purchase online? So here by the use of a BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, you can load it with real money, but you can only use the card for online purchase only and can’t be used in withdrawing real money, its like a game of chess… touched. move! the money that you loaded to your BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard will be an emoney forever and can’t be converted back to cold cash and can’t be used in getting money with a ATM machine or over the bank counter, the bank counter personnel will not honor your BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard in withdrawing money, so the use of this is to pay online the services or items you bought and also prevents you for carrying too much money on hand whenever you go or TRAVEL, you can pay in an instant by showing your card and let them do the swiping with their machine and you sign the pay slip. It is so smooth and never worry for exceeding expenses for the day.

the benefit of BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard for me are

1. It will teach me on how to budget the expenses needed for a month

2. I can now purchase items that require credit card payments, my next purchase is an Android Market placement subscription for my Android app.

3. I can carry an emoney whenever I travel, most stores worldwide carry the MasterCard logo

4. I can keep my other debit card at home and use this preloaded BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, so that I can monitor my budget and buy stuff in case of emergency

5. No bank bills coming at home

6. No bank persons calling me at home

7. No need for me to apply a credit card because I’m so afraid to use it.

8. BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard is the future and I want to be part of it.

BPI launches BPIcards.com, Dealmania.ph, Prepaid MasterCard and virtual credit card

This is a big announcement from BPI (Bank of Philippine Islands) as they launch another pioneered innovation in secured services to us that can give us a smooth payment system and transaction online and offline. I’m talking about the payment some stuff that you bought from online stores and also from physical stores. Four kinds of services that was launched by BPI – the BPicards.com, BPI Dealmania.ph, BPI My ePrepaid Mastercard and BPI Master eCredit Card. The new cards are basically like a credit card that you can use it for transaction with online shops and mall stores, it has a secured number like a normal credit card but it has a prepaid feature that you can load it with money and it is easy to apply unlike the traditional credit card we know, and on other hand if you are an existing BPI credit card holder, you can use one of the prepaid card in order to set yourself a buying limit or money install limit in the prepaid card, so that you can prevent yourself in buying too much online or offline and also secure your original credit card when you purchase items online.

So here’s the new digital services provided by BPI and it will run starting this month of November 2011. (more story below)

BPIcards.com

A new website is built exclusively about credit and prepaid cards, promos and offers, I like the idea of this because for my experience I got lost in browsing their other site when I was about to apply something with BPI, but here in the new website for credit and prepaid cards, BPIcards.com can help you choose the right card for you according to your age and lifestyle, I tried the digital quiz form the site and I just learned that I needed the edgy die cut credit card version that reflects to my teeny techie lifestyle. – hahahah., I laugh because the result of the quiz is quite true.

BPI Dealmania.ph

This is a special site by BPI and they are now jumping on the trend of the group buying deal sites, the offers are okay and it is exclusively available only to BPI card holders, the site is powered by managed byBuyanihan.com. Here we can use our BPI prepaid ecards and credit cards

BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard

This is now considered as the 1st ever ePrepaid card that empowers people to transact online via straight purchase. Thanks to the prepaid trend that was first used by our local telcos, in here we Filipinos learned on how we can budget ourselves and use money and acquired services wisely. The BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard is a reloadable prepaid card that let the card holder to buy what they want from the widest selection of affiliated online and offline shopping stores from local and abroad with the label and logo of MasterCard. The awesome part for the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard is that this is the most easy card to apply for because it will offer a 100% approval to the card applicant and there’s no maintaining balance and no killer credit card bill that will arrive to your home, all you need to have is a money that you can preload to your BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard.

Here are some info that I just learned from BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard

- the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard can be used offline when you pay for the food you eat in a resto or shop items in the grocery and malls. It doesn’t require any PIN when paying, all you need to do is present your BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard and let the cashier swipe it to your card reader machine and sign the sales slip.

- The expiration of the card is up to 2 years only, and there’s no expiration even if you ran out of loaded money

- Money in your BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard will never have any interest because it is not under a deposit account.

- card users can check their money balance via SMS by txting BALEC (16 digit number of BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard) and then send it to 2274 for GLOBE, 3274 for SMART. Each balance inquiry will deduct P2.50 from your sms load. You can also inquire via phone by calling 89-100

- with this prepaid card you can’t use it in withdrawing money from the ATM, the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard is not fit for ATM use and money loaded in the card are not convertible to a physical cash, it can be used only in paying online and offline. Also you can’t use it to withdraw money over the counter, the money you loaded are now forever digital money.

- If anyone want to apply for a BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, all they need to do is visit BPIcards.com

- If you are an existing BPI account or credit card holder, you can apply and enroll your credit card or account for a BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard and set a money limit for the prepaid card.

- 10 years old above can apply for a BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard

- You can load money to your BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard by BPI Express Online, BPI ATMs and CAMs,or through over the counter deposit in a BPI branch.

- Paying online is just easy, all you need to key in the info provided in the BPI My ePrepaid MasterCard, just make sure that the online store has a MasterCard logo and select the payment mode MasterCard and input the 16 digit number, Card verification code 2 (CVC 2) and the card validity period.

BPI Master eCredit Card

Here’s another pioneered card by BPI, it is the first ever virtual credit line exclusively designed for online shopping, it can enable card holders of BPI Master eCredit Card to shop securely on the internet and never worry of credit card hacking because you’re going to use a right amount of money to purchase items online, it will sport a new and different card number from the card holder’s BPI Express Credit MasterCard, and card holders can set up their own limit if they need to. Generally, the idea here is that you can load a P10,000 money in your BPI Master eCredit Card if you need to purchase something online with a price tag of P8,000 (shipping price not yet included on that), its up to the card holder on how much money they can load to their BPI Master eCredit Card, money will be used from their credit card. Perfect for people who are always shopping online. Imagine, having a two credit card will give you a new style of budgeting and another secured service for your original credit card.

So what do you think of BPI new services "?

I have a prediction that frequent online shoppers will apply for this, especially to those who are having a hard time applying for a credit card, Freelancers and work at home people will take this advantage for sure, especially to online communities who are into group buying sites, hotel and travel purchases, domain and hosting payments and to dads that give money to their wife to buy groceries, with this new prepaid card I wont worry now in giving a preloaded BPI Master eCredit Card because it has a money limit installed, now the original card without limits can stay now inside the dark caves at home.