UnionBank - it's a love-hate relationship

The employees in the near UnionBank were not helpful in the recent visits I made:

1. They don't know which banks their ATMs allow funds transfer to ("E subukan na lang nila." ~ "Just tell them to try and see for themselves.")
2. They don't know how to resolve the infamous PayPal username-UnionBank username matching problem (and the few employees that do know this still don't give useful advice to people who inquire about their PayPal tie up).

Background information: PayPal would allow bank transfer only to a Bank Account that matches your PayPal name exactly. Since PayPal does not consider your middle name/middle initial and UnionBank does, you're left with two options:

• Create a new PayPal account that would match your existing UnionBank EON account -- that would mean you also have to create a new email account for this and go through the tedious process of PayPal verification, or
• Test the system (thinking, "they must at least be smart enough to consider the situation!") and risk paying Php250.00 if you're wrong.

Side note: that's 70% of the current Minimum Daily Wage (approximately Php350) in the Philippines.

UnionBank was able to partially redeem itself in my view when I successfully transferred funds through their online banking system. The whole process took 10 minutes - that should have only been 5 but they require that you provide the beneficiary's address (for some unknown, incomprehensible reason) so I had to ask.

Their online funds transfer is a smooth process all in all and pretty secure based on my experience: aside from your ATM PIN, you also have to provide the username you registered with. That will let you view the recent transactions in your account. In order to transfer funds and to pay bills online, you also have to provide your Transaction Password - which is something that most people forget.

If you're of the unlucky ones who forgot their Transaction Password, call 84186 - option 5 to talk to a customer service representative.