Secured Credit Card in the Philippines

I just wanna share my thoughts and experience with secured credit card in the Philippines. Until now, there are still a lot of people who are confused about it. I hope that this blog can help shed some light about it and also help you decided whether secured credit card is for you or not. BTW, the information that you can get here are purely based on my knowledge and experience. It is still best to ask more information from your bank of choice.

After working for several years, I came to a point where I wanted to have my own credit card. Why? It's because of the convenience and the privelege that comes with it plus I can buy things I want and pay it on installment basis. It can also help stretch out your cash flow provided that you use it properly. And when I say properly, what I meant was swiping only the amount that is not more than your monthly salary and paying your bill on time. Before I had one, I have applied numerous times to different banks but I always got declined despite being qualified based on their requirements. It was really frustrating until I decided that I will give secured credit card a try. I wasn't very familiar with it so I tried to search for information online about it. There were very few information at that time but then I still decided to take advantage of it so I can build my credit history and eventually get a regular credit card. I was initially torn between RCBC's instacard or BPI's express start. Since instacard offers a credit limit that is equivalent to 100% of your hold-out deposit while BPI only provides 80%, I decided to apply for Instacard. It was a decision that I regret coz I had an extremely horrible experience with my application which I will talk about in another blog. I ended up cancelling my time deposit and my application for Instacard and applied for BPI Express Start program to a branch near my provincial home. The bank rep discouraged me to apply for express start and recommended that I try applying for a regular card first then apply for express start in case I get declined again. My hopes became so high again because the bank rep said that based on her assessment, I am really qualified and has a very high chance of getting approved but then I ended up getting declined for the Nth time. I really wanted a credit card for myself at that time so I decided to apply for BPI express start program at their Ayala 2 Branch in Makati. I can't remember the exact date I applied but it was around last week of February 2014 if I'm not mistaken. Then, 7 banking days later, my credit card was delivered to my provincial address. Ever since then, I have been enjoying the privelege of having a BPI credit card. Then a year later, those banks who declined my application before kept on calling and offered a credit card from their bank. 

Below are some of the questions that you may have in mind. 

Philippine Secured Credit Card Q & A

1. What is a secured credit card?

A secured credit card is a type of account that requires cash, that will be put on hold by the bank, which will serve as a collateral in exchange of a credit card from them.

2. How is secured credit card different from a regular card?

Secured credit card requires a deposit, which will be held by the bank, in exchange of a credit card. A regular card, does not require any collateral.

3. How much credit limit can I get with a secured credit card?

It actually depends on the amount of deposit that you will allow the bank to place on hold while you are using their credit card. Depending on the bank where you will apply, they may give you a credit limit that is equivalent to 80-100% of your hold out deposit.

4. Is there a minimum or maximum hold out deposit required to get a secured credit card in the Philippines?

From what I know, the lowest minimum hold out deposit is Php5,000. Some banks require at least Php10,000 or more. I haven't heard or read aything about maximum hold out deposit though. I think Philippine banks doesn't have maximum hold out deposit. You may deposit as much as you want provided that you will allow the bank to put it on hold while you're using their credit card.

5. Can I choose which card type I want?

Yes, but it is still subject for bank approval. Usually, they will give you a credit card that will match your hold out deposit. For example, if your hold out deposit is Php10,000 then the bank will allow you to choose from their classic cards. If your hold out deposit is Php100,000 or more then the bank may offer a gold or platinum or their other premium card.

6. Does secured credit card have annual fee?

Yes, except if you apply for secured credit card at the time that your bank of choice has free annual fee for life promo.

7. Can I use my secured credit card for installments?

Yes, provided that your available credit limit is equivalent or more than the total amount of the one you are purchasing. Sometimes, it will also depend on the merchant or bank. There are merchants that only accept installments for a specific bank. There are also credit cards that can't be used for installments though. But from what I know of, most if not all banks that offer secured credit cards can be used for installment.

8. Can I withdraw my hold out deposit after I got the credit card?

No. Unless the bank where you applied agreed to release your hold out deposit.

9. When can I request release of my hold out deposit?

Usually, a year after you applied for secured credit card. By that time, you already built a credit history.

10. Can I request conversion of my secured credit card to a regular credit card?

Yes, but it's still subject for bank approval. Usually, they will require you to submit income documents for evaluation. If you pass their evaluation then they will release your hold out deposit and convert your card to a regular card.

11. Can I cancel my credit card and request release of my hold out deposit?

Yes, provided that you do not have an outstanding balance on your card.

12. Can I use my hold out deposit to pay for my final bill?

From what I know of, you have to pay for your outstanding/final bill then after that will be the time that the bank will release your hold out deposit which will take around 30-60 days. I am not sure if the bank will allow you to use your hold out deposit to pay for your final bill without affecting your credit score.

13. What if I have unpaid credit card from another bank before? Can I still apply for a secured credit card?

From what I know of, you may still apply for a secured credit card. It will help you rebuild your credit history but it will be best if you settle your unpaid credit card bill first before doing so. I have read a story wherein someone applied for a secured credit card from the same bank where she has an unpaid credit card and the bank took her supposedly hold out deposit to pay for her unsettled bills.

14. Is secured credit card 100% approval?

According to advertisement, yes, but I read somewhere before wherein a woman was still declined despite having hold out deposit. She assumed it was because of her bad credit score due to unsettled credit card bill from another bank. There was also an instance wherein a guy with a bad credit score from unsettled credit card was able to get a secured credit card. I guess, it's a case to case basis but I personally think that settling your unpaid credit card first will be the best move for you.

13. Who can benefit from secured credit card?

People who has always been declined for a regular card. People who does not have income documents to provide but has enough money to shell out as a hold out deposit. People with bad credit history wishing to rebuild their credit score.

14. What are the documents needed?

In my experience with BPI, they only required me the submit a copy of valid IDs, proof of billing and my hold out deposit. Other banks may require other documents.

15. What are the banks in the Philippines that offers secured credit card?

As of this writing, these are the only banks I know that offers secured credit card. Please let me know in the comments section if there are other banks that I missed.

Bank of the Philippine Islands
Union Bank of the Philippines
RCBC
Security Bank
Metrobank

16. Which bank should I get a secured credit card?

I will be biased since I only had a BPI secured credit card. I haven't experienced secured credit card from other banks but I highly recommend BPI or Metrobank since they are "major" banks in the credit card business. And when I say major, what I meant was that if you have a credit card from BPI or Metrobank, it would be easier for you to be approved for credit card from other banks. It's not gonna be a guarantee but it will be like additional pogi or ganda points for you.

17. Should I get a Visa or Mastercard?

Both are widely accepted. You may want to review the perks from every bank and compare them. It will depend on your lifestyle and the perks that you can get from it. I have several credit cards now but most of it are mastercard. I only have 1 visa card so I can't say for sure.

18. Can I use my secured credit card as reference to a regular credit card application?

Yes, but most of the time, banks require that you have been using your credit card for at least 9 months or more before you can apply.

19. Will the other bank where I am applying for a regulard card know that I have a secured credit card? Will it affect my chances if getting approved for a regulard card?

I am not 100% sure of that. My hold out deposit was 37,500 and BPI gave me a Php30,000 credit limit and I was approved a regular card from other bank without being asked if I was usig a secured credit card or not. But I read somewhere before wherein the bank evaluator asked the applicant if he was using a secured credit card or not. He assumed it was because his credit limit was just Php5,000 or Php10,000. I really can't remember the exact amount of his credit limit coz it's been a long time and I wasn't able to follow up with him if he was approved a regular card or not. So I guess, if you're planning to get a secured credit card then after some time apply for a regular card, it would be better if your secured credit card limit is Php20,000 or more just to be safe.

20. How long before I can apply for a regular credit card from another bank?

It varies from bank to bank. Most of the banks require a minimum of 9 months but some requires at least a year of using the card before you can use your existing credit card as a reference card for your application.

I hope I was able to somehow shed some light regarding secured credit card. If you have any question or if you want to correct me, then please post it on the comments section below. I will answer your questions with best of my knowledge but then again, it is just purely based on my knowledge and experience. It will still be best to ask for more informatiom from your bank of choice.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day! God bless you. :)

How to change the wifi name and password of the PLDT Home Fibr Modem

As I've said on my previous blog, I recently had PLDT Home Fibr installed in our provincial home in Batangas. I wasn't home when the field tech installed the service so when I came home, the wifi name and password was already configured. I didn't like it because the wifi password is something that I think could easily be guessed so I decided to customize it. So today, I'm going to share with you how I did it. BTW, this will work for PLDT Home Fibr Huawei HG8245 modem. It's gonna be easy. You don't have to be very technical to do it. 

First thing you gotta do is to make sure that your computer/laptop is connected directly to the modem via ethernet/RJ-45 cable aka yellow/blue cable. You can also use a tablet or smartphone provided that it's conmected wirelessly to your modem. Open up an internet browser. Any browser such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox will do. In my case, I used my iPad so I used safari.

On the address bar or URL bar (on this browser, it's the search bar at the very top) type in 192.168.100.1 (the default IP address of this modem) then press enter/return. It will go to a page that looks like this.

By default, the account is "root" and the password is "admin". After you type the info, click on login and it will go to a page that looks like this.

Just click/tap the WLAN tab and it will go to the WLAN Configuration page.

By default, the SSID aka wifi name is set to WirelessNet and it doesn't have a password. So just clear out the SSID name box and type in the name of wifi that you wanna use. Remember, wifi name should not have any space. To customize your wifi password, first, you have to select an Authentication mode. I recommend using WPA/WPA2 coz it's more secure than WEP plus you can use both letters and numbers for the password unlike in WEP, wherein you can only use numbers. Once you have selected WPA/WPA2, another box below Authentication Mode that says Encryption mode will pop up. Just select TKIP&AES then type your preferred password on the password box which should have at least a minimum of 8 characters (includes letters and numbers). Just click on apply and you're all set!

Depending on how your device is connected, it may or may not get disconnected after you click on the apply button. If your pc/laptop is hardwired (connected via ethernet cable) to the modem, it will not get disconnected but if you're gonna use a pc/laptop/tablet/smartphone that is connected wirelessly, your device will definitely get disconnected from wifi since you changed the wifi name and password. All you have to do is to reconnect wirelessly. Just search for your wifi name, click connect and you'll be prompted to enter the wifi password. Just enter the new wifi password and you'll be good to go! 

Hope this helps! If you have other questions, feel free to comment and I'll try my best to answer it. 

God Bless and Have a good day! 

PLDT Home Fibr Experience

I recently had PLDT Home Fibr installed in our provincial home. I really didn't want to get it coz I have unlimited mobile data plan on my phone but my parents who are working abroad wanted to get it so they can cut down costs on international mobile phone calls coz we can just use the facebook call feature or skype. A PLDT agent went to our home to have me sign up for the plan. I signed up for Home Fibr plan 1299 which they do not advertise on their website. There are other plans available but it costs too much for what we need at our provincial home.

(photo credit to PLDT Home Fibr website - http://pldthome.com/fibr)

The PLDT agent told me that the due date will always be 5th of the month and the first bill would cost around Php 3,000+ because we have to pay for the Fibr modem then Php 1299 thereafter.  The Fibr plan 1299 comes with 1Mbps internet speed plus landline and a free 3 months trial of their caller ID. 

I know, I know 1Mbps is like a dialup connection for others but I think that would be enough to make facebook calls or skype, right? Besides, my aunt and cousins who also lives here only use the internet for facebook, instagram, candy crush, zynga poker and alike. They're not into heavy downloading nor video streaming plus the fact that I have unlimited data plan on my postpaid line so this 1Mbps plan just suits their needs. Anyway, the installation technicians went to our home a week after I signed up for the service. The activation of the service only took about less than 4 hours unlike before wherein it takes 24 hours to get the internet up and running. The first thing that I did was to run speedtest coz I wanted to make sure that we get what we pay for. I was aware that we're not gonna get 1Mbps coz it depends on several factors such as internet traffic, etc but surprisingly, the speedtest result was more than what I expected. I was getting a download speed of about 4-5Mbps. 

I initially thought that it could just be because it was just installed but so far, it has been 2 weeks now and it's pretty much consistent. I'm still getting a range of 4-5Mbps everytime I ran speedtest. We have no problems with it so far and I just hope we're not gonna have any. By the way, I just got our first bill today and I found out that the Fiber modem costs Php1964.28 so if you're planning to get PLDT Home Fiber plan 1299, expect to pay about Php 3.3k on your first bill. 

Smart's Free Internet

Smart recently launched it's free internet promo for their prepaid/postpaid and even smart bro customers starting this month until January 2015. When I first learned about it I was really surprised coz I never thought that it's something possible or something that our local telcos can do. I was like, "Really? Wow! That's nice." I wasn't that much thrilled coz I have an unlimited data postpaid plan but then I still think that it's something cool and interesting. I think this promo will attract more customers especially for prepaid. Why? Hello? That's FREE! And who wouldn't want a free product or service, right? But being a skeptical consumer that I am now, the next thing I said was, "What's the catch?" I'm not sure if you'll agree with me but at first, it sounded too good to be true but when I finally saw it on Smart's website, I told myself, "It's true then". According to the website, you have to register everyday and you must have at least 1 peso balance on your account to qualify for the promo. To register, you have to send FREE to 9999. Beware though. Just because they call it FREE internet, it doesn't mean that you can do everything online for free. It has a limit of 30MB per day which will let you do basic browsing, email, google searches, etc. It wouldn't let you stream youtube videos nor download large files over the internet. I think this promo is great coz it'll give others the chance to access internet for free but my main concern was how other customers and its postpaid subscribers like me will be affected. I immediately thought of my mobile internet becoming slow coz I know that the number of users will greatly affect the internet speed. It'll be a nightmare for me. (LOL.) Smart claims that they are prepared for it and will not affect internet speeds. I became more skeptical about it but as they say, give others a benefit of the doubt so I told myself, "We'll see." When it was officially launched, at first I didn't notice much changes but then as days passed by, I sensed some changes. I am not 100% sure if it has something to do with the promo or there's really a connection issue but I noticed that my connection became a little sluggish and occasionally intermittent as well especially around 7-8PM. My roommate who has a Smart postpaid pocket wifi account also noticed the same thing. Another thing I've noticed is that the internet speeds became slow too. Though it's not completely slow like a dialup, the speed test results I got on some areas where I used to get very fast internets speed has decelerated as well. For instance, I used to get around 20-45Mbps in a Mcdonalds branch in my hometown but after the promo started, I am only getting around 4-10Mbps on the same location. It wasn't a big issue for me coz it was just enough for me to do what I usually do online which is to check emails, exchange messages with family and friends on iMessage, wechat, viber, line and alike, watch youtube videos, stalk my crush on social networking sites (LOL.) and of course, play my favorite mobile game Clash of Clans. For me, it wasn't completely bad coz I'm still able to do what I need and what I wanna do online. It may or may not be an effect of the free internet promo, I don't know, but all I can say is that I saw a difference with speeds while browsing and even the speed test results. How about you? Have you experienced the same thing or have you noticed anything with Smart's internet after the promo started? I hope you can share your experience as well. To know more about Smart's free internet promo, click on the link below the photo. (credits to smart website.)

http://www1.smart.com.ph/prepaid/freeinternet

Take care and God bless everyone! 

Smart LTE for iPhone 5

I finally got my white 16GB iPhone 5 from Smart last February 15, 2013 at Smart - Robinsons Galleria a week after I submitted my requirements. I subscribed to their iPhone 5 plan 999 with a cash out of Php 19,000.00 and a lock-in period of 24 months. It includes unlimited data and limited free text/calls (I can't remember how much and I'm too lazy to check my contract since I use the data more anyway. hehehe). I was so excited coz I'd get to experience their LTE aka 4G service. After I got my phone, I immediately updated it to iOS 6.1.1 so I can enjoy their LTE service right away. I checked their LTE locations but unfortunately, my home town which is Lipa City, Batangas, is not part of their LTE areas. I was ok with it since I stay in Manila most of the time because of work. I was very happy with the speed of the internet connection plus I get to experience iPhone 5 but I got even happier when my friend accidentally found out that LTE is available in my hometown last March 2013 when she forgot to turn off the LTE on her iPhone. What made me more happy was the LTE speed at my hometown was amazing! She was at Mcdo - Ayala Highway when she ran a speed test and she got 40Mbps download speed. At first I couldn't believe it until i tested it myself. I went there to check it myself and boom! I got an amazing 42Mbps download speed. I couldn't believe it so I retested it and boom! I got 45.94Mbps download speed. Smart's advertisement is true indeed. You may get up to 42Mbps speed but the speed availability varies, depending on the location because the highest speed test result I got in Ortigas, Pasig City was 16Mbps then 10Mbps in Boni, Mandaluyong City. Check out Smart's LTE areas here http://www1.smart.com.ph/bro/lte/coverage . Originally, Smart LTE for iPhone 5 promo was only until April 30, 2013 but according to my friend, they extended it until June 2013 so I'm a very happy camper here. How about you? How was your experience with Smart LTE? Anyone tried Globe's LTE service?

Globe Iphone 5 Reset Plan

I really got excited upon learning about Globe's Reset Program wherein existing postpaid subscribers has the option of upgrading to an Iphone 5 plan even if you still have a contract with them. From my understanding, there wouldn't be an early termination fee for your current postpaid plan but there would be a fee for the phone upgrade (so its almost like the same. hehe) but its better than paying an early termination fee plus the cost of the phone upgrade right? Nice offer specially for me who just got a Blackberry Unlisurf 999 plan last October and has been drooling for the new iPhone 5 since I've learned of it. Haha.. If I did it correctly (hopefully... lol...), it shows that I have to shelf out 16,300 pesos for me to get an iphone 5 if I upgrade my plan from 999 to 1799. How about you? Do you think its worth it? Be the judge. Check out globe's iphone 5 reset calculator at http://www.globe.com.ph/iphone5-reset-calculator

Burpple

Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. A lot of people are addicted to these social apps and so am I. Social media made the world smaller. One day, I got bored with the applications on my iPhone so I browsed the Appstore to check for new app. I stumbled upon Burpple and downloaded it to my phone right away. Burpple is an application that lets you upload pictures of food that you eat or like and share it to other food lovers. This application also allows your followers to "reburp" or reupload the picture of your food on their own profile. Followers can also like your pictures by pressing the "heart" icon. I really like this application but one thing I didn't like was the color pink interface. I just wish I'll have an option to select the color of my profile. Anyway, as of this writing, it is only available to ios but hopefully it will be available to other platforms soon. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars. You may follow me on my burpple account @jgedrick. See you there.