Last week, I visited BDO to get the statement of account for my checking account. While waiting for the BDO personnel to get the document, I saw BDO’s flyer for its BDO Gold Credit Card.

Reading the Terms and Agreements of BDO Gold, I found that you only need an annual cumulative purchase of PhP180,000 to waive the annual fee. This also applies if the combined usage of the principal cardholder and the supplementary cardholder is PhP180,000.

However, this benefit only applies to the principal cardholder. If you are a supplementary cardholder, the annual membership fee is free for the first year only. You will charged for the succeeding years, irrespective of amount of card usage.

Why is this important? Because it is clearly stated in BDO flyers, BDO cardholders have the definite knowledge on how to waive its annual fee. Cardholders wouldn’t be given the runaround like what I experienced from BPI when I requested to have my annual fee waived (see story).

The PhP180,000 annual purchase is also not too bad. This is just about P15,000 a month. But always remember to pay in full after charging purchases to your credit card.

After two months of emailing BPI (see first post), it has finally given me a 50-percent waive of the annual fee of my BPI World Perks. This is quite significant as this means P1,250 savings on my part. Yes, the annual fee of BPI World Perks is P2,500, which is why I was hell-bent on getting the waive.

Here’s the email I received from BPI E-mail Banking Team.

Greetings from BPI Express Online!

We apologize for the delay in our reply. We have your request re-evaluated and we are pleased to inform you that 50% of the annual membership fee was already reversed. You may confirm this by checking on your next statement of account.

If you need further assistance or have other concerns, you may send us an e-mail at expressonline@bpi.com.ph.

Thank you for choosing to bank with us online!

The BPI E-mailbanking Team

Thank you for all who commented and gave their support and tips on how to waive the annual fee. May this experience be helpful to everyone who’s wanting to get a waive for their credit card annual fee.

As a final note, I know that many think that credit card holders are not entitled to any waive of annual fee and that the waive is merely a favor given by credit card companies. I do respect your views but I also believe that credit card holders have the right to demand for a waive. After all, credit card companies charge an average of 3.5% interest every month and the waive is but a small amount from their coffers.

Pinay and Money advocates taking charge of our personal finance and this includes saving money where it can. If this means, demanding the credit card company for a waive, then by all means, do so.

By now, you have heard all sides of the Boyet Fajardo case. People involved have made their comments (and apologies), support groups have launched their causes, media had a blast in their ratings, and the Internet world is filled with related blogs.

Now that the controversy has died down, are there money lessons that we can learn from this?

1. Sign your credit card.
This is where the controversy began when the Duty Free cashier saw that Boyet Fajardo’s credit card is not signed. It’s common sense, really. When you receive your credit card, sign it IMMEDIATELY. This is to protect you from unscrupulous people who may want to use your identity and purchase a lot of items that you will be paying for.

2. Bring IDs.
This is also basic. I don’t know about you but my parents have always taught me to bring identification cards in my wallet. In case of an accident that I’m not able to speak, people can easily identify me and track my family. When traveling abroad, an ID (especially a passport) is very important to ensure that I don’t get picked up by the police for suspicion of being an illegal alien.

An ID is also very handy if you need to present your credit card. Because of the increasing incidence of identity theft, more and more malls in the country are requiring credit card holders to present at least one ID before you charge anything to your card.

3. Be courteous.
Okay, this is not a money lesson, but this is also a basic value. Wherever you are in the world, whoever you’re talking to, please be courteous. Your fame, high education, wealth or background are insignificant if you don’t know how to respect people.

Last April 2, I posted that BPI turned down my request to waive the annual fee of my BPI WorldPerks credit card (see related story). Thanks to comments left by Pinay and Money readers, especially Joey, I emailed BPI again to request for the waive of the annual fee.

Within a few hours, I received an email from BPI. Notice that it is exactly the same letter that I received when I first requested for the waive.

Greetings from BPI Express Online!

We received your e-mail regarding your request for the reversal of your membership fee. We regret to inform you that we are unable to grant your request for Annual Fee waiver. Please use your BPI Card more to qualify for Annual Fee waiver next year and enjoy more perks such as free Goldilocks signature dish for a minimum single receipt of P1,000 from any establishment or cash advance transaction using the BPI Express Credit Card.

If you need further assistance or have other concerns, you may send us an e-mail at expressonline@bpi.com.ph.

Thank you for choosing to bank with us online!

Sincerely,
The BPI E-mailbanking Team

I replied, stating that I know for a fact that there have been instances that BPI waived the annual fee even if the credit card holder didn’t meet the required monthly purchases. And again, after just a couple of hours, I received another email from BPI:

These are the keywords: However, we regret that we are unable to grant the waiver of the annual membership fee on the basis of reasons that are confidential and we are not at a liberty to disclose.

Could the reason be so grave that BPI refuses to disclose it to me? How could a reason be confidential? And is this what we call quality customer service? It’s like refusing to sell an item to a buyer and telling her, “Sorry I can’t sell this to you because it’s confidential.” What the?!

I wonder if this is a generic reply that BPI E-mail Banking Team gives everytime it rejects the requests of credit card holders. Because I have proven (thanks to Pinay and Money readers) that the charged purchases is not BPI’s basis to waive the annual fee, is BPI resorting to this kind of reasoning (confidential daw!) so that the credit card holder won’t insist anymore.

I’m very disappointed. As a loyal BPI customer since I was a little girl, I have always liked how BPI treats its customers. I have always believed that I will be given the same treatment as everybody else. But then again, maybe I am wrong.

How was your Holy Week? I hope you had the chance to rest and reflect on the blessings you’ve received. Now that everything is back to normal routine, let me start with the question, “What can you buy with PhP446,000? Perhaps a China-made car? A European trip?

Last March 20, my husband received a letter from Citibank, advising him that the credit limit for his Citibank-Shell credit card has been increased to PhP446,000. He laughed out loud when he read the letter and thought that yes, he can probably buy a low-priced car.

This is probably Citibank’s way of rewarding him for charging his purchases to his credit card. Citibank probably thinks that he has the capacity to pay for such a huge amount. After all, he was able to pay off PhP320,000 worth of charges in just one payment!

But before anybody reacts, the PhP320,000 he charged late last year was the hospitalization bills of his mother (God bless her soul). Because his family didn’t want to bring such a huge amount of cash, hubby just volunteered to charge the bills to his card and the payment will just be paid off online.

I wish I could say that we’re both eager to charge a lot of purchases in my husband’s newly granted credit limit. But commonsense tells me to just let the daydreaming pass. Masarap lang mangarap pero hindi masarap magbayad ng utang.

Every February, I am charged by BPI the annual fee for my BPI World Perks credit card. This is the second year that I am using this credit card. In February last year, I was granted a 50% waived in the annual fee.

This year, I requested to waive the annual fee again. So I emailed BPI via expressonline@bpi.com.ph and made my request. After all, the annual fee for World Perks is P2,500! To my dismay, I received this email, informing me that BPI will not waive the annual fee.

The key words are “Please use your BPI Card more to qualify for annual fee waiver next year.” This simply means that I haven’t charged enough to my credit card. So I replied and inquired how much is required to qualify for the annual fee waiver. Here’s the reply:

Dear Pinay and Money:

Greetings from BPI Express Online!

For the BPI Express Credit WorldPerks MasterCard, simply spend an average of PhP 30,000 per month to qualify for an Annual Fee waiver next year.

Sincerely,
The BPI E-mailbanking Team

Wow! This means PhP360,000 worth of purchases a year! I wonder what compelled BPI to give me a 50% waive in my first year. I certainly didn’t charge even half of PhP360,000 in the first year. Otherwise, I would have earned enough airline miles to get tickets anywhere to Southeast Asia.

Last night, while watching CNN, I was shocked to see that Citibank Hong Kong is charging its credit card holders almost 50% interest rate. According to Citibank, the interest rate is applicable to Citibank credit card holders who miss their cash advance payments.

It appears that in December 2008, Citibank announced that 44.73% will be imposed on cash advance customers who fail to make their first payments and 49.86% for those missing their second payments.

Because of the backlash and protests, Citibank issued another statement recently, stating that effective March 2009, it is lowering the rate to below 45% for customers, “whether they’ve missed the first, second or third payments” for cash advances (see full story).

As it is, the current interest rate in the Philippines for credit card holders is pegged between 24% to 42%, depending on what card you’re using. But still, the interest rate imposed by Citibank Hong Kong is enough to make you faint.

I somehow have the feeling that because the US government bailed out Citibank, it needs to make more money to pay the government. And one way of paying back is to jack up the interest rates for its credit card holders.

I wonder if Citibank Philippines will follow suit.. What do you think?

Just a few days ago, I posted that Chinabank lowered the interest rates for its time deposit accounts, effective Jan. 13, 2009 (see related story). In just a week, Chinabank again lowered the interest rates. This is the third time since the start of the year and the move is a disappointment for many of its time deposit account holders, including me.

Effective Jan. 20, 2009, the interest rates for the Diamond Time Deposit is posted below. Chinabank lowered its interest rates by 0.25%.

 And here is the interest rate for the regular time deposit:

 As it is, I’m already thinking of pulling out my money from Chinabank and place it in First Country Bank (see related story). At least, my money in FCB earns 5.75%. If Chinabank continues to lower the interest rates, I may just pull out everything.

After I posted the entry about Citibank charging its credit card holders P40 transaction fee for staggard payments (see related story), I emailed the Citibank Philippines website. Here is the reply:

“We wish to inform you that we added the new fee because we would like to encourage our cardholders to use our electronic channels such as:

- Citibank Online (CBOL)
- Citibank N.A. ATMs
- Citibank N.A. Cash Payment Express Machines
- Citibank Savings Inc. ATMs
- CitiPhone Self Service Telephone Banking (AVR)

Due to the high cost of processing payments through other payment centers, these electronic channels allow you to pay as often as you want at no added cost to you. However, we recognize that you may want to pay in certain payment centers so we allow for two (2) payments a month at no cost.

Basically, the P40 transaction fee is for the cost incurred by paying in other payment centers. This, I find, is very irresponsible and unfair. Being the big company that it is, Citibank can accredit payment centers that are not expensive. If the cost is expensive, why not just drop payment centers that charge them such exorbitant fees?  Two, why pass the burden to the public, to Citibank credit card holders? With the 3.5% interest rate that it charges every month, can’t Citibank shoulder the transaction fee instead?

P40 may not be a lot to most people but P40 is already a one-way bus fare from Fairview, Quezon City to Boni MRT station. P40 is equivalent to almost two kilos of rice. P40 monthly can conservatively grow to almost P2,000 in 20 years.

People should regularly read Victor Agustin’s Cocktales Column published in Manila Standard Today. He writes about talks going on around the business community, which, most of the time, turn out to be true. He also writes about what’s happening in the banking community so, from time to time, you can get to read some issues before it even reaches the ears of other reporters.

In today’s issue, a small anecdote about Citibank caught my eye. You can also read the entire column in his blog.

Most creditors are only too happy to receive payments from debtors in these trying times, but Citibank even penalizes with a P40 transaction fee those who opt to stagger and pay more than twice a month their Citibank-issued credit cards.

If this is true, then I am very, very, very angry. Hubby has a Citibank-Shell credit card and there are months when we pay on a staggered basis. If Citibank is indeed charging credit card holders who pay more than twice a month, then screw you, Citibank!