Metrobank Over-the-Counter Payment

Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (MBTC), or Metrobank, for short, is the biggest Philippine commercial bank in terms of Capital Accounts at PHP 70.1 billion as of 2Q2009. It consistently ranks 2nd or 3rd overall in terms of Assets, Loans, Trust Accounts, and Deposits along with BDO and BPI. It has the second largest branch network in the Philippines at 727, and the 3rd largest ATM network at 1,109 (all data as of 2Q2009).

The Metrobank Group is owned by taipan George Ty. Its business interests include real estate (Federal Land), money remittance, insurance (in partnership with AXA), credit cards (in partnership with ANZ), retail (Federal Brent), and car dealerships (Toyota).

Customers who make purchases from Dragonpay or PayEasy accredited merchants can pay through any Metrobank branch nationwide even if they do not maintain an account with the bank. They just need to fill-up a deposit slip and validate their payment online. In most cases, validation is not even necessary as Dragonpay's system can automatically detect the deposit and advise the merchant in real-time. Note however that Metrobank charges a PHP50.00 handling fee in provincial branches.

Cash Handling Fee for Provincial Bank Deposits

Majority of Philippine banks practice the charging of handling fee for deposits made in territories outside the area where the account was opened. For example, if you opened a bank account in Metro Manila, and someone tries to make a cash deposit to that account from Cebu, that person trying to deposit will be levied a handling fee. The fee varies from bank-to-bank but generally falls in the range of PHP50.00 to PHP100.00.

Metrobank and its savings bank, PSBank, charges PHP50 for provincial handling fee. Strangely, check deposits do not get charged any fees even if deposited in the province. Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Landbank charges PHP100. Chinabank charges PHP50. Banco de Oro (BDO) charges PHP50. Security Bank also charges PHP50.

The more progressive banks do not charge this fee, and rightly so. Unionbank and EastWest Bank do not charge provincial handling fees. Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has also decided to forego this fee recently. RCBC does not charge handling fee for its larger branches, but charges PHP100 ~ PHP110 for its smaller, remote branches.

Dragonpay accepts over-the-counter (OTC) bank deposit from banks with handling fees and those without. If the bank branch charges you a handling fee, do not deduct this from your total amount payable. Any handling fee should be borne by the customer. Dragonpay expects the exact amount due to the merchant to be deposited net of any charges.

If there is a BPI, Unionbank, EastWest Bank, or Sterling Bank of Asia branch near your area, choose those as your preferred OTC banks as they are sure not to have handling fees.  Some UCPB branches waive the fee for the first provincial deposit of the day.  Some RCBC branch also do not charge handling fee (but not all).  It is best to ask the teller first whether they charge the fee or not before making a deposit.

Unionbank Over-the-Counter Payment

Unionbank is now an over-the-counter payment option for Dragonpay users. Customers can go to any of Unionbank's 180 branches nationwide to make a payment for a purchase from a Dragonpay merchant. No Unionbank account is required from the customer. Just fill-up the deposit slip and validate the payment online, if necessary.

Dragonpay also supports Unionbank Internet banking for regular checking/savings and EON account holders for real-time online payments.

EastWest Bank Over-the-Counter Payment

EastWest Bank joins BDO as an over-the-counter payment option for Dragonpay merchants. Buyers can go to any of EastWest Bank's 114 branches nationwide (as of this posting) to deposit their payment to the bank teller. Buyers paying using this method do not need to have an EastWest Bank account. They just need to fill-up a deposit slip and validate their payment online. In most cases, validation is not even necessary as Dragonpay's system can automatically detect the deposit and advise the merchant in real-time.

Dragonpay also supports EastWest Bank's online banking facility for real-time online payments of EastWest Bank account holders.