First Country Bank’s Katuparan Special Savings

If you’re not averse or allergic to rural banks, you may want to try placing your money in First Country Financial Bank. Located in Mega Plaza Building, San Miguel Avenue, at the back of Robinson’s Galleria, FCB offers interest rates way higher than the traditional and commercial banks.

I personally have an account with FCB. After reading the feedback and comments of Pinoy Money Talk members, I decided to give it a try. Mine is the Katuparan Special Savings, a time deposit account that earns a minimum of four-percent interest (30-day period). Here’s the interest rates table of FCB’s Katuparan Special Savings:

 

	30 Days	60 Days	90 Days	180 Days
PhP5,000 to 19,999	4%	4.25%	4.50%	4.75%
PhP20,000 to 49,999	4.75%	5%	5.25%	5.50%
PhP50,000 to 99,999	5.75%	6%	6.25%	6.50%
PhP100,000 to 499,999	6.75%	7%	7.25%	7.50%
PhP500,000 to 999,999	7.75%	8%	8.25%	8.50%
PhP1M to 2,999,999	8.75%	9%	9.25%	9.50%
PhP3M to 4,999,999	8.75%	9%	9.25%	9.50%
PhP5M and up	negotiable

If you’re interested to check FCB, visit its website at http://www.firstcountryfinancial.com/index.html and check out other FCB products.

 

Christmas Gift Idea #4: Myra E Christmas Pack

For a very reasonable price of PhP99, you can get a very nice Christmas gift for your girl friends!

This special Christmas pack from Myra E comes with one 50mL Myra E Facial Moisturizer and one 50mL Myra E Hand and Body Lotion. It also comes with a nice kikay kit pouch, which you can bring anytime and anywhere. And if you intend to give these as gifts for your female friends, the pouch already has a gift tag so you don’t need to wrap these up.

You actually save money with this Christmas promo because the regular retail price of Myra E Facial Moisturizer (50mL) is PhP66 while the Hand and Body Lotion (50mL) is PhP53. You save about PhP20 if you buy the Christmas pack.

The Myra E Christmas Pack is available in Mercury, Watsons, and leading supermarkets.

SMART is not so smart

For the last two weeks, I’ve been trying to check the balance of my SMART Gold’s postpaid account. Three times a week, I would text BILL? to 211 in the hopes that I will know how much I need to pay the next paydays.

Lo and behold, I still haven’t checked my balance yet. Each time I text 211, I get the same auto-reply, “This transaction is currently unavailable due to ongoing system enhancements. Thank you for bearing with us.”

Fed up that I still haven’t checked it (the hard copy of the billing statement hasn’t arrived either), I called *888 to inquire.

For two consecutive times, and to my much consternation, I was automatically put on hold for at least 15 minutes. The first time I called *888, I hung up because my ears were hurting. The second time I called, I was still on hold even though I already chose the option “Lost cell phone.” This was terribly annoying and inconvenient. If some unscrupulous cell phone robber really took my cell phone, he could have made at least PhP1,000-worth of pasa load because it would take me a long time to have the line cut off.

And then there’s my SMART Bro account. The cutoff of my SMART Bro is every 25th of the month. And because I registered my SMART Bro online, I can access the billing statements via http://smart.com.ph/Corporate/Support/Smart+Bro+Online.htm

In the previous months, I was able to view my billing statements three to five days after the cutoff. But it’s already Dec. 4, almost 10 days after the cutoff, but SMART Bro still hasn’t updated my billing online.

Really, is this a smart way to treat SMART’s customers?

Make it a habit #2: Save automatically

Most people find it hard to start saving, especially after years of just spending their entire paycheck monthly. But according to Automatic Millionaire author David Bach, the road to creating your wealth starts by learning how to save automatically.

So how does one do this? There are now local banks like BPI that offer automatic savings. Through BPI Direct, you can automatically transfer a set amount of money from your payroll account (preferably BPI, as well) to your BPI Direct account. It can be as small as P500 per pay day.

The great thing about saving automatically is that you are forced to make do with the amount you’re left with. If you’re receiving a monthly net salary of PhP8,000, you will be left with P7,500 after the automatic transfer. Through this, you are conditioning yourself that you can live by with just P7,500.

At first, the amount may be small and at times, you will find yourself getting impatient. But just hang on there and before you know it, one year is over and you’ll have PhP6,000 in the bank (plus earned interest)!

Personally, I am a fan of saving automatically. I am blessed to work in a company that promotes this kind of saving facility. On my third month of employment, I already enrolled in the program and have authorized our accounting to delete 10% of my gross salary monthly. And every time I would get a salary increase, I also adjust the amount to be saved automatically.

In just four years of employment, I already have close to Php150,000. And because our money earns high interest, I earn about PhP4,000 to P5,000 annually.

Give it a try right now and ask your favorite bank if they offer this kind of savings plan.

Important Reminders from BPI

I got this from my latest billing of BPI WorldPerks credit card. This is connected with the eight-day banking holiday.

With the upcoming eight-day holiday, we would like to ensure that we are able to service your needs during this peak shopping season. Please be informed of the following:

1) Payment of your Credit Card Bill. Payments made from Dec. 25, 2008 to Jan. 2, 2009 will only be posted to your account on Jan. 3, 2009. Thus, your credit limit corresponding to your payment will only be available for use on Jan. 3.

2) Replacement Cards. Requests for replacement of cards received from Dec. 25 to 28 will be delivered on Dec. 30. Requests received from Dec. 29 to Jan. 2 will be delivered on Jan. 5.

3) New and Supplementary Cards. Requests for another BPI credit card or supplementary card will be processed on Jan. 2, 2009.

BPI Express Credit Advisory

Just received this advisory text from BPI.

Shop anywhere and get a free weekend shuttle ride from mall to mall (TriNoma to Glorietta to Robinsons Manila) for a minimum of PhP1,000 charge slip.

Not to sound offensive but with this promo, BPI is just being true to its slogan, “We’ll take you farther.”