You can also use SIP to pay for nursery, prep, elementary and high school fees.

For accredited schools, you just ask the school cashier to swipe your BPI Express Credit card.

For non-accredited schools,  submit school assessment slips or statements and school receipts to a BPI Express Center or a BPI/BPI Family branch. You’ll receive cash through your BPI account the next banking day if you apply at an Express Banking Center or within 3 days if you apply at a branch or a check within 3 days of application.

Here’s an alphabetical list of colleges and universities accredited by BPI for instant credit card payments at school cashier counters:

Ama Computer College
Asia Pacific College
Asian Institute of Management
Assumption College – San Lorenzo
Ateneo de Manila – Quezon City
Ateneo de Manila – Rockwell
Ateneo de Davao University
Central Philippine University
Centro Escolar University
Colegio De San Juan De Letran
Colegio de San Lorenzo
College of Oral Implantology
Don Bosco Technical College
Far Eastern University
Fatima Medical Science
FEU-East Asia College
First Integrated Educational Systems
Holy Child School of Davao
Informatics College Manila Inc.
ICCT Colleges Foundation
Kester Grant College
Lyceum of the Philippines
Meycauayan College
Meycauayan Doctors
Miriam College
MSA Group Inc.
National College of Science
Our Lady of Fatima College
Our Lady of Perpetual Succor
Pasig Catholic College
Philippine Women’s College of Davao
Saint Pedro Poveda College
San Beda College Alabang
San Juan De Dios Education
Siliman University
Sotogrande Teaching Institute
Southville International School
Southwestern University
St Jude College
St Paul University
Thomas More College
Trace College
University of Asia and the Pacific
University of San Jose Recoletos
University of Santo Tomas
University of Perpetual Help
University of San Carlos
University of St La Salle

*The list of accredited nursery, prep, elementary, high schools and other institutes will be included in another blogpost.

Other notes:

1.  The monthly add-on rate ranges from 1 to 1.5 percent.

2.  The minimum amount to be charged is 3,000 pesos.

3.  You must be in good credit standing with BPI.

4.  Your SIP credit limit can be increased up to 3 times depending on how long you’ve been a BPI credit cardholder and how you’ve handled your payments.

5.  The promotional interest rate can change without prior notice.

How to Compute Your Monthly Payment:

Multiply the loan amount by factor rate (Refer to the table)

Example: Loan amount is 20,000 pesos with term of one year.

Monthly payment = 20,000 pesos x 0.093333 = 1,866.66 pesos

You pay BPI 1,866.66 pesos every month for 12 months.

Ang total payment mo would be 1,866.66 x 12 = 22,399.92

Ang total interest na babayaran mo ay 2,399.92

Related Articles:

Tuition Fees at FEU and Some Other Universities in Manila, Philippines
Low Interest Personal Loans in the Philippines
Some Cheap Loans in the Philippines Are Not Really Cheap

This is the only credit card in the Philippines which has no annual fee for life.

Except of course those premium cards for the very wealthy, and those cards whose owners accumulate enough points to get annual-fee waivers.

I’ve related in my other posts that I finally became free from the bondage of credit cards last February 15.   I had eight credit cards, and after paying off all the balances, I canceled all of them, except my local BPI Classic.

But because I need a credit card for my Internet payments, I had to choose one credit card good for international purchases.  I like BDO Shop More, but if I have to cut costs, I should retain one with no maintenance fee.

So I finally chose the M Free Mastercard of Metrobank.  After canceling my old Metrobank card, I requested for the no-annual-fee card, and it was given to me.

More than a year ago, I applied for this no-annual-fee Metrobank card, but I was told I need to first use an annual-fee Metrobank card for at least a year before I can qualify for the free annual-fee credit card.

If you need to maintain just one card, consider this no-annual fee credit card.

Amid the pain of selling something meaningful to us, my husband and I sold the lot we bought in the 1990s just so I can be free.   Over the past few years I became a slave to lenders, as I accumulated more than 200,000 pesos in credit card debts.

Even with a higher-than-average salary, I couldn’t make a dent on the principal balances even if all my payroll money goes to paying the monthly card bills.  I had to work overtime everyday, even on Sundays.  I couldn’t even visit my aging parents in the province because there’s nothing to set aside for fares.

There’d been a lot of pain… and other awful things too embarrassing to describe here. It’s enough that now I’m free.

(by bluesemotion, photobucket)

And I thank God that amid my many grave financial mistakes, there’s one good  investment that I did when I was younger — that is to buy a lot in a good location and pay the amortization faithfully through the years no matter how hard.  And now, it was the one that saved me.
Credit cards are not evil per se. They can help. They have helped me when people I love had to be hospitalized and when tuition needed to be paid.

BUT credit cards are like knives — they can kill if not handled carefully.

There are many important things I have to tell my children.  But there’s one  thing they don’t have to hear about — the consequences of credit card use. They’ve seen how I suffered and almost got drowned in torment.

Credit cards in the Philippines

• you cannot pay the total amount due each month
• you can only pay the minimum due
• and you may have to be late some of the time,

then do not get credit cards that have high late-penalty fees and that are strict on payment dates.

NOT RECOMMENDED:

HSBC — charges 600 pesos for every month that you are late even by just an hour or a day.

If you call them and explain your situation, your 600 may be reversed only once in every 6 months, and that depends on your reasoning and the mood of the bank representative at the time you are calling.

Next month, I’ll be receiving some money  (Thank you, Lord!),  and this HSBC card will be the first I will pay off fully and say goodbye to forever.  Good riddance!  Wow, how nice it would be to cut my HSBC card!

I was late in paying after the Ondoy floods, but the HSBC never heard my explanation.  No soul!  Only business for them.

STANDARD CHARTERED — also charges 600 pesos for every late payment… even by just an hour.  Remember, the date changes at midnight?  Or maybe the cutoff hour is every 6 am?  So, after midnight or after 6 am, and your payment is not there, the 600 pesos is charged, presto!

How do I know?  I have both of them.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Fortunately, there are credit cards in the Philippines that have retained some bits of kindness,
and I’m glad that the local banks  (although they have foreign shareholders) are the leaders.

Aside from forgiving late payments, they also charge lower fees.

BPI EXPRESS CREDIT has been very kind to me in terms of late payments. As long as my payment-due doesn’t remain unpaid until the next statement date, I don’t get charge a late-penalty fee.

Kahit ma-late ako ng 5 days or 10 days! But, of course, I don’t abuse it. I oftentimes pay very early too. An I’ve been using this BPI credit card since March 2000.

And when a late-penalty is deserved — because the next statement date has passed and my due remained unpaid — eto yong times na may mga unexpected major expenses –
the penalty fee was only 6% of the total amount due.

One time I was late in paying 1,715.40 by 13 days (almost 2 weeks!).
And you know what?  My late payment was only 102.93!  Compare that to HSBC and Standard Chartered which charge cardholders 600 pesos for being late for only an hour or a day!

EASTWEST is also kind.  It forgives a few days of delinquency.  And the charge is only 200 pesos — when the next statement date has already passed.

BDO SHOP MORE charges 300 pesos or 5% of amount due, whichever is higher.

METROBANK charges 600 pesos or 7.5% of amount due, whichever is higher. This is one local bank that charges high, although this bank offers an annual-fee-free card and a low-interest Cash2Go loan.

Update as of March 2011:  Metrobank M Free Mastercard now charges 700 pesos for late payments.

BPI EXPRESS CREDIT charges 6% of the amount due for the month — no fixed fee, no whichever.

This rule considers the poorer ones like me — 6 percent of 1,000 is only 60 pesos, but when a rich credit card holder is late, the 6-percent fee for 100,000 is 6,000 pesos.  But, oh well, I’m not a gold cardholder; the late-penalty rules for gold credit cards could be different.

When charged a late penalty fee, call the bank.  Give a valid reason.  Oftentimes, they forgive, as long as you are not late often.

Related Articles:

Free from Credit Cards, At Last!

BPI, BDO, or Metrobank Fees — Why Keep Paying Them?

EastWest Bank is a subsidiary of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), one of the country’s top conglomerates. FDC owns Filinvest Alabang Inc. which is developing the 244-hectare Filinvest Corporate City in Alabang and Filinvest Land which operates the wildly succesful Festival SuperMall, Cyberzone Properties and Filinvest Asia. FDC also owns Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp. which runs three sugar companies.

The letter says that the acquisition will be completed in the second quarter of 2009 after the completion of regulatory approval.  EastWest has 80 branches across the country.

The letter also assures holders of AIG credit cards that the transition will be orderly and will not affect AIG credit card transactions.

EastWest Bank also announced this acquisition on its web site. It said that the purchase will increase EastWest’s number of branches to 89 units, 54 in Metro Manila and 35 in other cities. EastWest will  become the 6th credit card issuer in terms of number of credit cards in force and amount of card receivables.

How will this acquisition affect cardholders like me? I am curious about how they will handle AIG credit cards, which have higher interest rates. EastWest credit cards charge only 2.25% for gasoline, supermarket and drugstore purchases and 2.75% for others while AIG cards charge 3.5% for all kinds of purchases. Will EastWest leave AIG cards as a separate card brand or convert them to EastWest cards?

BDO Shop More has also many features that most other cards don’t have:

1. BDO charges 3.25 %, lower than the usual 3.5% rate charged by other  Mastercard or Visa providers in the country.
2. The total annual membership fee is P900, which is much lower than the P1,600 charged by others of the same card class. What is even nicer is that BDO doesn’t charge you the whole P900 in advance. It just adds P75 to your due every month. The others bill you P1,600 at the beginning of your annual period, with you paying interest for it from month to month if you don’t pay it in full at once.
3. BDO also has products that help you avoid the very expensive Cash Advance during emergencies. These are EasyPAY Cash, which requires you to present official receipts of cash purchases and EasyPAY Cash Tuition Assist, which requires school receipts. In terms of cash release, BDO does a bit better than BPI because you can get your cash immediately over the counter after some minutes of paperwork. Interest rates vary from 0.88% to 1.6% monthly, depending on the amount and term.
4. BDO has launched a Charge-on-Demand facility for Meralco bills. This is good for cardholders that don’t like to auto-charge bills. You just phone BDO with your bill on hand. The only hassle with this system is you have to fax the bill to BDO after the phone call.
5. Just like the others, BDO also offers balance transfers, with rates ranging from 0.70% to 1.6%, depending on  the amount and term. Unlike BPI Classic, BDO pays directly to the other card, to prevent you from diverting the money.
6. In terms of where and how to pay dues, BDO gives the least hassle because it keeps longer hours and it seems to have a branch in every corner nowadays, in addition to its SM mall branches and customer service centers which are also open on weekends and holidays.
7. Lastly, the BDO card comes with a free SM Advantage Card, which you can use to collect cash points at SM, Petron, Ace Hardware, Watson and other SM affiliates.

WARNING for some credit card applicants: Apply for a credit card only if:
- you haven’t changed your old but functional Nokia phone
- you’ve only a few pairs of good shoes
- just enough good clothes
- and if your usual routine is home-to-work-then-back-to-home.

In short, you have complete control over your spending.

If you can afford to pay your balance in full every month promptly, whatever the amount, then a credit card for you will be a tool, and not a problem. And yes, you can buy all the phones, clothes and shoes you want.

A few years ago, I had 9 credit cards, and these cards almost killed me physically, mentally, and emotionally. I wrote about this in this post — Free from Credit Cards, At Last! — if you’re interested. I thank the Lord always I was able to get out of that deep, suffocating debt pit.

Now, I only maintain two credit cards: one is a local card with no annual fee, and the other is also a local card with low-interest-rate loan options.

——————————————————————————

What does BPI Classic Credit Card offer that most other cards do not?

1. BPI charges only 2.75 % a month on the balance while most other cards charge 3.5 %. Paying earlier than the due date has also an effect with BPI because it considers the Average Daily Balance when it computes your finance charge.

2. For emergencies, you don’t need to use the very expensive Cash Advance remedy, which charges you about P600 (for most cards) for using the ATM and which immediately activates the interest rate clock. BPI has Credit-To-Cash, Balance Transfer and Special Installment Plan ( SIP) in Schools. If you have a BPI or BPI Family account, you can get your cash the next day.

For Credit-To-Cash, you just present your card at a BPI Express Center.

For SIP in Schools, you present your child or kin’s school receipt or account statement.

For Balance Transfer, present your other card’s latest bill. With BPI, balance transfer proceeds are given directly to you and not paid to the other card’s bank. In effect, you can divert the money. But be careful with this. You can end up getting buried in more debts. But if you’re wise, this is a good feature because you can have your cash for only 0.70% monthly on the Special Installment Plan (SIP). (Update June 2011: from 1.00 to 1.25% depending on terms)

3. (Probably no longer offered; no longer on my statements) BPI offers every card holder a free Ayala Life Insurance coverage. The insurance amount is 12 times the average monthly purchases and SIP payments for the previous three months.

4. Annual fee is still P1,250. Most others charge 1,600 for the same card class.

5. BPI also has auto-deposit ATMs. You put your peso bills into the ATM any time any day (no more envelopes, no more writing) and then pay your BPI card bill through your BPI ATM Check-Free feature.

6. Your first supplementary card holder is not charged with an annual fee during the entire life of your card.

7. Then, of course, BPI offers what most other cards offer, such as:

– 0% appliance and other big-item installment purchases
- Internet and phone payments and checking of credit card accounts
- promos from time to time, such as restaurant freebies for referrals/purchases
- frequent-user rewards.