Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation announced on July 3 that it will remove InstaPay fees for qualifying transfers made through its RCBC Pulz mobile-banking app from July 4. The change gives customers a monthly fee-free allowance rather than an unrestricted waiver: RCBC said the offer applies to the first 30 InstaPay transfers each month, provided each transfer is at least ₱100.
That structure matters for payments operators. It turns an interbank transaction charge into a usage benefit with clear thresholds, encouraging customers to keep routine transfers inside the bank’s primary app while limiting the bank’s exposure to unusually high transaction volumes. For consumers who regularly move money between Philippine banks and wallets, 30 qualifying transfers can cover frequent personal-payment activity without a per-transfer fee.
Rappler reported that transfers below ₱100 or above the monthly allowance will carry a ₱10 fee. The publication also said the bank is extending a different waiver through DiskarTech, its financial-inclusion app. RCBC’s own July 3 Pulz announcement, however, specifically sets out the 30-transfer allowance and ₱100 minimum for Pulz users.
Digital-transfer pricing becomes a competitive feature
RCBC’s move places payment pricing alongside app reliability, account access and customer support as a visible point of competition among Philippine banks. Rappler reported that Bank of the Philippine Islands had already removed InstaPay and PESONet transfer fees from July 1, while Land Bank of the Philippines had lowered its InstaPay fee and introduced a limited daily waiver.
For banks, a waived transfer charge is not simply a marketing discount. It changes the economics of digital engagement. Customers gain a reason to initiate transfers from the bank’s own app, while the bank absorbs or reallocates costs that had previously been passed through transaction by transaction. RCBC’s monthly cap is therefore an operational control as well as a customer proposition.
The design also avoids presenting every transaction as free. The minimum transfer size discourages customers from splitting very small payments solely to use the benefit, while the monthly ceiling gives the bank a defined boundary for subsidized usage. Those conditions should be prominent in app disclosures so customers can distinguish the fee-free allowance from transfers that remain chargeable.
What payments teams should watch
The immediate question is whether the waiver changes customer behavior: more transfers initiated in Pulz, higher app engagement, or a shift away from cash and over-the-counter channels. RCBC did not disclose a forecast for transaction growth, the cost of the waiver, or how many customers are expected to use all 30 transfers.
Payments teams should also watch how competitors respond and whether fee waivers remain conditional. A market can move toward lower headline prices while retaining meaningful differences in transfer limits, minimum values, eligible transaction types and monthly caps. Those details determine the practical value to customers and the cost to providers.
RCBC’s announcement is therefore a concrete pricing change rather than a wholesale end to transfer charges. From July 4, qualifying Pulz users will have a substantial monthly allowance for fee-free InstaPay transfers, and the bank will test whether lower transaction friction can strengthen digital engagement without opening an unlimited subsidy.