At the behest of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Philippine banks waived the transaction fees of interbank money transfers during the quarantine period brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It made sense, as customers flocked to online channels as most bank branches were closed or open on shortened business hours. The waiver was meant to ease the burden of paying additional fees during the quarantine.
But now that the restrictions have been eased, several banks are now ending the waiver of transaction fees for money transfers to other banks or e-wallets.
In the Philippines, there are two ways to transfer money to other local banks or e-wallets (like PayMaya and GCash). You have InstaPay which lets users transfer up to PHP 50,000 in real time; and PESONET which offers same-day crediting for higher amounts.
You might also like: How to transfer money to Grab from your bank account with instaPay
Last August, the Philippine Payments Management Inc. or PPMI released a list of banks and e-wallets who have waived their InstaPay and PESONET fees.
The list below reflects the dates on when these financial institutions are ending the waiver of transaction fees for money transfers. It has been updated to reflect schedule changes based on some of the banks’ respective announcements. Please be guided accordingly.
Free until September 30, 2020
- Bank of Commerce (BOC)
- BDO
- BPI
- Equicom
- GCash
- Metrobank
- PBCom
- RCBC
Free until December 31, 2020
- AllBank
- Asia United Bank
- Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)
- EastWest Bank
- HSBC
- HSBC Savings Bank
- Land Bank of the Philippines
- Maybank
- Philippine Veterans Bank
- Security Bank
- Standard Chartered Bank
- Sterling Bank
- Union Bank
- United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB)
Until further notice
- Bank of China
- Bank of Florida
- BPI Direct Banko
- Cebuana Lhillier Rural Bank
- China Bank
- China Bank Savings
- CIMB Bank
- CTBC Bank
- DCPay Philippines
- ING Bank
- JP Morgan Chase Bank
- MUFG
- Philippine Business Bank
- Philippine National Bank (PNB)
- Philippine Savings Bank (PS Bank)
- Philippine Trust Company
- Robinsons Bank
Meanwhile, you can check how much each bank charges for money transfers via InstaPay and PESONET on this list of banks’ transaction fees. The document is as of end of August 2020.
We advise you to inquire with your bank of account for the updated transaction fees.
Via | Image from Unsplash
