I am positive i am not the only person who has been refused payment by credit card. Whether it be Pure Gold, Robinsons or the hospital they flatly refuse. I had to threaten one hospital with the Department of Trade and Industry. Why will they not accept payment when they have terminals for that purpose? By the way, using those words department of Trade and Industry goes a long way. They jump through hoops when you mention a complaint to the DTI. I still love the PH though.
cash is king in Asia not just the Philippines so I'm not really surprised that they refused to honour a credit card EXCEPT at the hospital. Hospitals were one place where cards WERE accepted when they were almost never accepted anywhere else. People can run up big bills there and even Filipino vendors don't expect people to have like 200,000 pesos on them just like that. using cards as payment has come on a lot in the Philippines in the past few years, especially if you have a Philippines bank account. I can use my BDO or BPI debit card in any 7/11. I haven't tried my foreign cards. I'd be stupid to, as I'd get charged the foreign fee, but I bet they wouldn't get accepted in a 7/11. cards are much more accepted in Manila and the NCR than they are elsewhere and they are definitely coming in much more. The Philippines financial infrastructure is still bad. But it isn't quite as appalling as it used to be. the place is improving, but it is still one of the poorer countries in a region that is itself far from being the world's most prosperous. It has improved compared to before when you could hardly use cards anywhere, except in an ATM and often not even there. You shouldn't expect the financial infrastructure to be anything like it is in a rich country. I'm sure they weren't quaking in their boots at the hospital when you decided to 'threaten' them with the Department of Trade and Industry. It's far likelier that they just laughed their sandals, or in this case their socks off because they have a formal dress code there, as soon as your back was turned.
In the 9 years or so that I lived there, card payments were never refused regardless of card type or whether issued by a UK or by a local bank. But cards are not as universally accepted there as they are in Manchester, London or Ryde; offering to pay for your round of SMLs by card at a Sari-Sari will inevitably be met by a frown accompanied by a few choice words in the local dialect.
it's getting better without a doubt. You can even use cards to pay in Jollibees and stuff like that now which you definitely couldn't 10 years ago. However, you should not forget that over 60% of Filipino adults do not even have a bank account. Good luck with getting them to pay with a card. In the UK, it is 3%.
I was last there earlier this week, and last used my British credit card there last week... to buy a some hi-fi equipment. Never had any problems using it there. Do tell your bank and credit card company that you're going to be in the Phils though, before you go.
The hospital accepted my credit card once i told them i would report them to the dti.....as did a jeweler who was trying to scam me in the mall of asia. You would be surprised what happens when some government official might look at their trading standards. I never said they were quaking in their boots. But i definitely got what i wanted.
Don`t forget..Technology works sometimes here but not always. Your Technology is good in the R.P but cash is always king!!
this guy thought a jeweller was trying to 'scam' him in a shop in Mall of Asia, and then 'threatens' said jeweller with the 'Department of Industry' as if any vendor in the Philippines, scammer or not, is going to give a rat's ass about that, and then gives this 'scammer' jeweller his credit card anyway! why did you give a 'scammer' your credit card? Wouldn't it have been better to just walk out of there, and give your credit card to some other jeweller, that wasn't a scammer? no wonder so many Filipinos think foreigners are total idiots.
He didnt try to scam me on the credit card. I just paid for some work done thats why i paid with the card . The scam was an amount of gold on a ring. Get the facts before you start implying people are idiots pal or you come across as an idiot yourself. I've never been scammed successfully in the PH. The DTI is back up just like the ombudsman in the Uk.
You should not forget that you have protection using your credit card under section 75 of the consumer credit act (if your British).in November 2015 I bounght with American Express some gold jewellery in Addis Ababa duty free. I reported it as poor quality and American Express refunded me £1500 and I got to keep the gold jewellery as well!
no credit card is free. You always have to pay transaction fees with those, and it is significantly higher than the debit card fee too Which is one of the reasons why I have only used a UK credit card in the Philippines once, to settle a 60,000 hospital bill 5 years ago. I'm sure I had to pay some sort of a transaction fee for that. The one credit card I have now, which I only keep in case of an emergency, charges a 5 pound flat fee for every ATM withdrawal, AND there is the 200/250 peso Philippines fee on top of that. That is like 600 pesos, which is a lot of money in the Philippines really. 5-600 pesos is about what my average daily spend or walking around money is - grocery shopping, beers, meals, transport etc, and I wouldn't want to give that to some bank just to make a small withdrawal from an ATM. not sure about using foreign debit cards in transactions in stores as I have never used them, I use my Filipino cards in a store, if I use a card at all, which is rarely but I would have supposed that yes they do charge a transaction fee with foreign debit cards. I only opened up my first Philippines bank accounts last November, and I've started to use my Filipino cards sometimes in stores, which I had never done before, with foreign cards. But I'm still conditioned to carry out 90% of my transactions in cash. I haven't used my UK ATM cards for months, but the last time I looked I know that with ATM's you have to pay a 200/250 peso transaction fee, levied at the Philippines side, with all UK debit cards except when you use HSBC ATM's - and there is only two HSBC ATM's in the entire country outside of Manila.