Verified!

Finally, after a long time waiting, my PayPal account is now verified! That means, I can now have access to my funds, and I can start spending my hard earned dollars! Yey!

I would like to take this opportunity now to thank the one person who has guided me through this process. To Laarni, thank you so much for answering my never ending queries. In each step, she was there to help me. I know I could be very innocent and a little stupid when it comes to things that I am just starting to learn, and Laarni really helped me in explaining bits of things I needed to know.

Let me then do a sort of "paying it forward" thing - I know there are a lot of people who wanted to turn their blogs into a pot of gold, too, so if you're from the Philippines and would like to be a part of us (the intermission writers, as I call it), the very first step you really need to do is to open for a Paypal account, for you will be paid through it. Signing up is free, and you just have to go to their website to set up your own account.

For you to be a verified user, either provide PayPal with a credit card account or a debit bank account. I don't know the steps to take should you prefer to provide a credit card account, but if you're like me who doesn't have a credit card, providing a debit bank account is what you have to do. So far, I think you can only have a debit card thru Unionbank. Here are the steps I took:

>>> Apply for a Unionbank EON Card Cyber Account. I suggest you apply for a card online for it has less hassle and that you can do it from the comforts of your own home. Sure, you can go to a nearest branch to apply in person, but according to a bank staff I got to talk to on the phone, they will also go online to apply for you, so they, too, suggest you do it by yourself just so the information you're providing will actually come from you. You will be asked which branch do you prefer to pick up the card, so after applying, I suggest you also get the phone number of the branch you specified.

>>> Once that's done, wait for at least 5 business days for your card to be processed. On the sixth day, call up the branch where you will pick up the card to check whether your card is already ready. This step took me the longest time, because each and everytime I call up the branch, they always say that the card wasn't there yet. It took me one month of calling the branch, until one of the staff suggested it might be in a different branch within the area. You see, Unionbank has already acquired iBank, so I suggest you also get the phone numbers of the iBank branches near the area, for my card was actually collecting dust in the iBank branch near the Unionbank branch I was always calling.

>>> Once you're ready to pick up the card, be ready to submit two identification cards. I provided my voter's ID and my SSS ID, but you can use any government provided IDs, including your passport. If you don't want to wait long, I suggest you have these IDs photocopied so you can get out of the bank as quick as possible. You will also need to pay 350 pesos for the annual card fee. Since you need to have funds in your card for PayPal, just give the bank staff 500 pesos. 350 pesos for the card and ask the staff to deposit the remaining 150 pesos in your card.

>>> Wait for at least three days for your card to be activated. You can call their hotline (provided in the welcome letter the bank will send in the address your specified) to check. Once it's activated, you may now apply for an EON Cyber Account. Go to Unionbank's website, click on the Cyber Account, and provide the details. Just have your EON card ready for you will be asked to provide your account number and your PIN. Also, you have to think for a username, which you will use to access your cyber account. Wait for another 5 days for it to process. You may call the hotline to check if it's already ready, or you may try accessing your files yourself. If you logged on just fine, then it's activated already.

>>> You can now apply your debit card to PayPal. Your EON Card will be charged 1.95 USD, but it will be refunded to you once the process is over. Wait for at least three days, then call the bank's hotline to ask to get the 4-digit Expanded Use Number PayPal needed in order for you to be verified. The hotline was always busy, and I got so impatient waiting, so what I did was send them a message thru my Cyber Account. Their response came in my e-mail about three days later, with the Expanded Use Number I needed. I immediately typed in the digits, and voila! I am verified already!

Again - big, big thanks to Laarni for helping me out! God bless you, Anne!

*** Jenn ***