Saving for a rainy day

MANILA, Philippines - Four days after typhoon Ondoy struck large parts of Metro Manila and Central Luzon, Jeremy (not his real name) went back to his devastated house somewhere in a middle-class subdivision in Quezon City to check the family residence. Everything had been wiped out.

Their once comfortable lives had been jolted by the tragedy. Jeremy lives with his three children. They had to take temporary shelter in a small hotel for several days. It happened on a weekend.

However, Jeremy was still lucky despite the circumstances. He was able to save for this particular rainy day.

The importance of saving for an emergency such as typhoon Ondoy applies to everyone. However, many Filipinos find it very difficult to save, especially when the urge to splurge becomes overwhelming.

Even lolos and lolas taught children and grandchildren to fill piggy banks with their savings.

“Save for a rainy day,” the elders would say. Filling up piggy banks with coins used to be so easy when we were children but as adults, saving for a rainy day is tough. It usually becomes a last resort for everyone, employed or unemployed.

Ayala-owned Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) tries to address this problem. Through its Save-Up facility, individuals can start their Save-Up account with no initial deposit. They can save for a rainy day or for a better future through an automatic savings account managed by BPI.

BPI’s Save-Up account is an interest-earning peso savings account that conveniently comes with any ATM-based savings account. There’s no initial deposit required. Individuals can build up the account by deciding how much money they want BPI to debit from their savings account.

“BPI Save-Up helps you fight the temptation of shopping and impulse buying, just decide how much you want to save every payday or every month and it will automatically be transferred from your ATM-based savings account to your Save-Up account,” BPI said.

The bank said the account would really build up individuals’ savings account because the contribution to the fund is automatic as it is done by the bank.

“It’s for a worry-free future,” BPI said.

It is the Philippines’ first automatic savings account that comes with free life insurance coverage, the bank said.

It also earns higher interest than a regular savings account.

Furthermore, during the first three months, the service charge of P150 is waived to allow the savers to really build up the account.

The required minimum monthly balance is P1,000. “During the first three months, even if your balance is below P1,000 the service charge of P150 is waived,” BPI said.

The saver will decide on the amount, frequency and schedule of transfer.

As an added feature, the BPI Save-Up account comes with free Life Insurance Coverage from Ayala Life Assurance, Inc.

The insurance is equivalent to as much as 10 times the account’s balance up to P4 million. There are no premium payments required and no medical check-ups needed.

With these features, BPI’s Save-Up account is truly worth a try. Individuals could really be forced to save for a rainy day. And when that day does come, there’s no need to break one’s piggy bank.