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.
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.
