Toyota Mastercard: Discounts at Toyota/Petron but Metrobank Direct Online is...

I have the Toyota Mastercard credit card that gives me 10% discounts on labor and certain parts from Toyota dealers for Scarlett, my 2011 Toyota Innova E A/T.

I also have 3% rebate from my gas ups at Petron gas station

what's the problem with Metrobank Credit Card?

I pay by credit card bill using Chinabank Online

But when I log on to Metrobank Direct, all my recent purchases and payments do not reflect there until the next monthly cycle, the information is not real time nor posted the day after (for online payments like Chinabank Online or BancNet Online, it's about 3 days due to bank processing)

Metrobank Direct does not display updated information is really hard to track your purchases and payments, much more detect if any fraudulent use of my credit card just in case.

I think I'm going to terminate my Toyota Mastercard Metrobank card should this be the case a few months from now

I'm just going to maintain my BPI Mastercard and Citibank VISA for now who both offer better online banking experience at the moment

BPI Credit Card Promo: Jollibee, Chowking?

It's simple, I have a BPI Petron Mastercard that I use to gas up at Petron (where else) and the good thing about it is that for every full tank of Scarlett, my Innova E diesel, I can eat either at Jollibee or Chowking depending on the BPI promo in place since my full tank is just around PhP2000.00 There's a downside to the lower gas prices with diesel hovering around PhP42/liter, even if my fuel gauge indicator is already lit, and even if I say to the gas boy that it's not automatic filling but sagad (to the brim), my total bill won't fill up to reach PhP2000 to ge myself a free meal at Jollibee or Chowking the downside of low gas prices ;( BPI Credit Card Promo are available but usually late to annouced from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. I get the latest BPI promo on the arch along Buendia in Makati and probably though their officical twitter and facebook page

Credit Card Remittance Scam

Here's a warning to those people fond of making a few savings from sending money to the Philippines:

A modus operandi of scammers using stolen credit card information to send money to the Philippines and beyond:

How do the miscreants behind the credit card fraud do it? The scums do it by setting up entities claiming to be remittance service providers in connivance with unscrupulous individuals outside the Philippines. Their "foreign" partners send money to the Philippines by using stolen credit card numbers and information thereby defrauding unknowing cardholders.

The scheme is made complicated by doing fraudulent money transfers by agents in an initial recipient country like the Philippines, then send the money to another country where the final recipient is located, making the Philippines sort of a "trans-shipment point" of stolen funds.

In the process, the recipient can receive the money sent to him/her but at the expense of the credit card holder.

Lesson: In sending money to the Philippines, choose legitimate remittance companies and just fly-by-night ones. You might find yourself in the middle of an investigation if you're not careful.

Credit Card Woes

For years now, I have been living life without that plastic called a credit card sought after by most people. There was only a time when I had a BPI Express Credit card mailed to me by BPI since I have two bank accounts with them.

I used that card for at least a year then deactivated it not wanting to pay for the annual fee of P1200.

Twice, in my "past life" I received a card from AIG sent to my office. The first one was due to an officemate who referred me. The second time was when the unethical head of Human Resources gave the list of employees to AIG (I found this out when I asked the AIG agent how they got my contact number and how come all of my officemates received one)

Both cards I didn't activate unlike my officemates. Because of this I got a call from a lady working for AMI, some sort of market intelligence company, who visited me in the office, interviewed me why didn't I activate the cards sent to me, unlike almost everybody else. So many questions asked that I simply answered I don't need one, I still prefer cash even the occasional cash purchases. The lady even ask my opinion on how can they sign me up for a card. I said, I don't really need one. The lady just told me I'm "one of a kind."

That lady was actually pretty and so my officemates asked me why I was interviewed? I told them why and asked me if they could be interviewed too plus the freebie mug I was given as gratitude for taking a few minutes of my time.

Years later, I now tried to apply for a Citibank credit card upon the suggestion of a friend when she learned I was contemplating on applying for one. I needed one to use for an upcoming trip to Hong Kong for I wanted to avoid usual $100 deposit at the hotel if I don't have a card.

A day after I was informed by a friend, her friend from Citibank called me up in the office and sent me the application form through a courier, who asked me to sign the form and submit a copy of my payslips, income tax return and company ID.

After a few days, I got numerous calls from their guys asking me for information on this and that even asked for his calls to be transferred to our personnel administration office to verify something. The guy even called up my home phone to verify the information I submitted.

My Hong kong trip was nearing so I tried to follow my application with my friend who in turn followed it up from her friend at Citibank where I was told the application was already approved and just wait for a few days.

Another week went by and I just got a letter from Citibank that my application was not approved for unknown reasons.

I just shrugged the whole thing off thinking it's Citibank's loss and not mine. I don't know how the risk management guys of Citibank were thinking but I find them stupid. Yes, S-T-U-P-I-D stupid!

I'm not sour graping. I still can't imagine why I was denied even without a bad record in my name, a respectable amount in my three bank accounts many times the initial credit limit they told me, and a salary of a management level employee and yet they denied me.

In the letter, they informed me I could try again after six months. Oh no, Citibank, don't expect me to cross paths with your stupid people again.

For now, I continue living without that plastic card and loving it!