Monday, November 3, 2008

BDO vs LandBank: Saving Money for the Future!

Several months ago, I received my EON Cyber Account ATM card from Unionbank (Philippines). It was a personal savings account that I applied online in their website. It was a milestone move for me because I really wanted to save some money for myself. Aside from that, I wanted to use my Unionbank EON Cyber Account for future online transactions. If you don't know yet, EON Cyber Account can be used to apply for Paypal. Unfortunately, after months of struggling to my personal finances, I wasn't still able to save some money. Pity me. Huhuhu. Maybe because, everytime I needed some money, the Automated Teller Machine is just a breeze away. So the only options I have left is to look for bank establishment to help save money using a passbook instead of an ATM card.

Photo courtesy of moms-life.com.



And so, I recently went to some nearby banks in our place in search of the more reliable, more dependable, more convenient and much lower maintaining balance for a passbook savings account in a bank establishment I can apply for a personal savings account. I also checked their service and customer accommodation status so that I would feel that banking with the one I will choose is such an ease. So far, I only managed to check on two (2) bank establishments — The Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and Banco de Oro (BDO). Here's what I have found out with their passbook savings account application and maintaining balance:

For Land Bank of the Philippines
• Opening of personal savings account would cost you an initial deposit of (1) P500 for ATM accounts with P500 maintaining balance for all ATM cards; and (2) P10,000 for passbook savings account with P10,000 maintaining balance for all passbook personal savings account (applicable for peso accounts only).

Whoa! Even though their ATM card account has a very low maintaining balance of P500, I really don't need it this time around because I have an ATM card account already, which is the EON Cyber Account from Unionbank. But I wanted is to have a passbook personal savings account, and I cannot have an initial deposit of a whopping P10,000! I just said to myself, "No, thanks!" And so I went to my second option, Banco de Oro (BDO).

For Banco de Oro
• Opening for personal savings account would cost you an initial deposit of (1) P2,000 for ATM card with a maintaining balance of P2,000 for all ATM cards; and (2) P5,000 for passbook savings account with P5,000 maintaining balance for all passbook personal savings account with FREE SM Advantage Card for all passbook savings account holders (applicable for peso accounts only).

Okay. In case you don't know, an SM Advantage Card is a privilege card of SM Department Stores that is, when used in shopping (take note, this is not an ATM card or a Credit Card), you'll get points that you can exchange of freebies and perks. The SM Department Stores are affiliated to BDO.

So, weighing both of my options, I think, investing on BDO is a wiser choice, not just because of their FREE SM Advantage Card, but because of their low maintaining balance that I wanted to have initially, for opening a passbook personal savings account. Initial opening deposit is not that heavy for a would be saver like me.

How about you? What do your banks have to offer?


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7 comments:

  1. excuse me, i am a trainee in Landbank and here is what they ask about opening and maintaining balance on passbook account, only P5,000 same with BDO. how about the BDO's ATM, 2000 so expensive unlike Landbank only 500 even a student like me can open easily.

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  2. i want to open an account particularly ATM account. im just a student with low allowance, can someone advice me what bank offers low opening and maintaining balance on their ATM account aside from landbank? thanks, i hope there is someone out there can help on this thanks...

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  3. @anonymous 1: I inquired personally in Landbank about their opening and maintaining balance last october and what you have read above is just what exactly they have told to me. I only relied on what the accountant had told me. Otherwise, thank you for correcting the information, very much appreciated...

    @anonymous 2: you can try opening an account online with the Unionbank Cyberaccount... I can assure you that it is the one you are looking for because the cyberaccount has no maintaining balance... all you have to do is go to their website at http://www.unionbankph.com and apply your cyberaccount online! just follow the instructions on where you can get your atm card... after that, you only pay I think P350 for the atm card service... and then... that's it! you can now save up with an atm card! I hope the information has helped you!

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  4. kahit maraming pakulo ang BDO, panget pa rin service nila lalo na ung atm kainis, saka me history sila of spewing fake money bills.. I tried a lot of bank accounts na at ang best para sakin so far BPI but I still have my BDO pa rin kasi un ung payroll namin ngaun...

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  5. there are other banks with low balance requirements such as chinabank - P1,000 to open and maintain an ATM/passbook account, chinabank savings - P500 for an ATM or passbook account, and sterling bank of asia - no amount to open (but P2,000 to maintain). sometimes its better to go to "smaller" or community-based banks because they are more accommodating :)

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. hello everyone...just checked with world partners bank few minutes ago and their initial and monthly maintaining balance is only 500...i gotta go and check it personally later today coz i too, just like you guys would like to save but so pissed off with that so high initial and mmb...i think for now i have to try smaller banks though i have phobia with them since they are not stable ones..

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