Opening a BPI Savings Account - My Emergency Fund

I had a good experience with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) when I was working in a BPO company before. It was the preferred bank for our payroll. I love the online banking experience with no hassle at all of checking my balance. But then, I got no access when I decided to resign.

When I started working on Odesk, I discovered that I can do Local Funds Transfer straight to BPI with free of charge. I don't have to transfer my money from Odesk to Paypal, then Paypal to Union Bank (occasionally, I do this). So I opened a new BPI savings account to the nearest branch from my place.


The usual requirements:

• 2 valid ID's (bring photocopy of the two ID's)
• 1x1 picture ID
• personal appearance

I chose the account with the minimum deposit of PhP 500. Its withdrawal fee is PhP 5.00 from BPI ATM and PhP 15.00 from another ATM machine. This account served as my emergency fund. I seldom withdrew my earnings here because I have Union Bank for my other earnings. So my earnings are totally divided.

The reason I opened a new BPI Savings Account is because of BPI Direct Save-Up with its Automatic Savings + Insurance. I was already aware of this before but never used this product. I had no insurance so I decided to enroll. I'll discuss this to my next blog post.

There were moments that I had no full-time job and occasionally, I withdrew some amounts there. Your emergency fund should be three to six months worth of expenses. Fortunately, my expenses in a month is not  really that huge. Also, I can't imagine myself not to find another online job within three to six months. Although I did not have a full-time job then, I had other part-time jobs. I always find myself productive.

So do you have your emergency fund already?

Related posts:
Received my BPI Direct Save-Up Card