Casita del Rose: Lifehack

Showing posts with label Lifehack. Show all posts

Need to send money on the fly and can’t manage to activate that 3^rd party fund transfer from your BPI mobile app? I got just the solution. Try BPI Online Beta.

Its web based and uses the same username and password you use for your BPI Expressonline account. Site address is https://beta.bpiexpressonline.com/portalserver/onlinebanking/sign-in

The facade is very, very clean and transactions are easily manageable from the left-side condensed menu.

Compared to the current BPI Expressonline site, where your accounts are readily visible upon log-in, BPI Beta opens to a welcome page. You'll need to click the My Account link to view your balance. It's actually nice and allows you to hide your finances from snoops.

To transfer money, simply click Transfer Money and follow their 3-step prompt.

1. Choose the account where the fund would come from and the value to transfer.

2. Click whether to transfer the account to your other BPI accounts or to a 3^rd party. Choosing 3^rd party will prompt you to enter the account number of the receiver.

4. Review your transaction details and click Confirm.

5. An OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number.

6. Enter the OTP number on the space provided.

7. Lastly, you’ll get a successful transaction page.

Traveling is always a fun activity. More so if you’re traveling to a different country with your love ones to meet familiar faces and places. However, let’s face it apart from hounding the net for cheap flights, there’s almost no way in getting around the dreaded Philippine Travel Tax.

According to the TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority), the travel tax is a levy imposed by the government of the Philippines, under Presidential Decree (PD) 1183, to all departing passengers. The price depends on the type of ticket you purchase and only OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) are fully exempted from paying the tax. So yes, even you’re kids would need to pay up.

TRAVEL TAX RATES	FIRST CLASS PASSAGE	ECONOMY CLASS PASSAGE
Full Travel Tax	PHP 2,700.00	PHP 1,620
Standard Reduced Travel Tax	PHP 1,350.00	PHP 810.00
Privileged Reduced Travel Tax for a Dependent of an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)	PHP 400.00	PHP 300.00

But it’s not all pain. The tax does go to worthwhile endeavors. At least half of it.

TIEZA portions that money, with 50% going to TIEZA, 40% to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for tourism-related education programs and courses. Lastly, the 10% goes to the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA).

But if you’re a family of 4 going to see Mickey Mouse in Hong Kong, that P1,620 could easily balloon to P6,480—roughly the same price of one passenger ticket to Hong Kong and back.

So, I was very happy to know that I wouldn’t have to pay the full price. Being an OFW dependent, my gang and I can avail the reduced price of P300. An 80% decrease from the full price.

All OFW dependent can avail this privilege, even if you’re not travelling with the OFW. As long as:

1. Your destination is the same country where your OFW is deployed.

2. You’re part of the OFW’s immediately family.

a. Parents

b. Spouse

c. Children

3. You have proof of family relation

a. Original NSO copy of Marriage Certificate for Spouse

b. Original NSO copy of Birth Certificate

4. Proof of OFW deployment

a. Copy of EOC, issued within a year

5. Passport and Booking confirmation

To avail of the reduced travel tax, go to the TIEZA desk at the airport and submit all your documents. Don’t worry about handing out your NSO files. They will hand it back to you. The most important part is the OEC of the OFW. They should be registered and active in the POEA system.

Afterwards, you’ll be asked to pay P300 for each passenger. A receipt and OFW dependent certificate would be given to you. This you’ll present to the check in counter as proof of travel tax payment.

So next time you travel, don’t forget about this neat trick. Go ahead and visit your OFW.

I like staying on top of my bills; and with Casita del Rose being about 40km away from our house, it would be difficult getting the Meralco billing statement physically and paying it on time.

No electricity at Casita del Rose is a big NO-NO!

It's a good thing that Meralco now has e-Meralco billing statement. You can access your account online and see your billing statement even before they are physically delivered to your address.

There's also e-mail notification where they would send a copy of your billing statement to your registered email.

To register, follow these simple steps. You'll need your Meralco bill. The oldest bill you can use is 2-months.

Register here.
Agree to the Terms and Condition
Enter the needed information, which you can get from your Meralco bill.
Click 'Enroll'
Create your username and password
Tick the “Do you wish to be notified of your bill due date and bill amount through email?” *You'll still receive a paper copy of the bill even with the e-bill

You can now log-in to your account.

You can enroll multiple Meralco account under a single log-in account. Just go to Options > Enroll Another Service.

Visit Meralco you have more questions about e-Meralco Bill.

We all love BPI.

They're very convenient with their bank anywhere feature, mobile banking and internet banking. Plus, there's no additional charges for these features.

But we hate calling them. Their 89-100 hot line is a mess!

You'll have to wait forever for somebody to pick up from the other line.

What many people don't know is there's a way to get BPI Customer Care to call you back at your convenience. No waiting on the phone or loosing precious time and load.

Tweet them! That simple.

Just get on your twitter and send them a tweet that you'd like a call back from them. Don't forget to follow their twitter handler. Its @TalktoBPI.

@TalktoBPI

They will follow you back and would ask to DM to them your name, contact number, preferred time to call and your concern.

After that, just wait for their call.

@TalktoBPI is available from Monday to Friday, 8AM to 4PM.

Disclaimer!
Casita del Rose is in no way getting compensation from BPI for this post.