2024 H1 Banks and Credit Cards Update
We’re halfway through 2024 and a few things have changed with regards to some banks and our credit cards. Here is an update for some of them.
UnionBank Completed Migration of Citibank Clients
Last March, UnionBank finished migrating Citibank clients (savings, investments, credit cards, etc.) to their own system. They also integrated the concept of tiered banking from Citi (Citi Priority, Citigold) and created UnionBank Access (1M TRB) and Elite (5M TRB). The requirements and benefits for both memberships have roughly remained the same.
Unfortunately, as someone who works in or is familiar with IT would know, merging two different systems into one is very difficult. In fact, a lot of users experienced downtime, bugs, and complications with their accounts during the first few weeks. Even worse, users were unable to get in touch with customer service on a timely manner. Some even waited on the phone for hours. Others even resorted to visiting UnionBank branches only to be referred to their telephone and call their hotline. Still, system uptime has improved although customer service remains to be a problem.
In line with the merger and acquisition, other users have also started receiving their UnionBank-branded credit cards although I have yet to receive the replacement for mine. Hopefully it gets delivered soon! Definitely looking forward to how UnionBank would fill in the shoes left by Citibank.
BDO brought back PAL Mabuhay Miles Redemption to Diners Club
Early this year, Philippine Airlines Mabuhay Miles Facebook page released a post promoting their miles redemption through BDO’s Diners Club credit cards. However, the post was deleted a few days after. It wasn’t only until recently when they finally announced its availability again.
With this, Diners Club Premiere becomes one of the cards with the lowest spend to miles ratio for Mabuhay Miles. One can earn a mile for every PHP 30.00 spend on non-dining transactions and PHP 15.00 spend on dining transactions. This is even lower than PNB’s Mabuhay Miles co-branded credit card with a spend of PHP 38.00 for a mile (PHP 30.00 if you have 100M TRB with PNB).
And that’s it for now. I’ll update this post when I find anything new. Be sure to check in from time to time!
