Banking in the Philippines: A Horror Story 1

Banking in the Philippines is a horror story.  It is a horror story because it would seem like you lost in the casino whenever your bank would charge you fees for their service.  Talk about point blank robbery.  Case #1:  I admit that I would have senior moments occasionally, and at one time, I forgot my PIN totally.  So in order to access my account, which i hadn't done for almost 6 months, I had to also secure another card.  To secure a new card, I had to go to the bank, sign anew and wait for 5 days, of course, you guess it right, I had to pay a service fee of P150.00.  Isn't that great?  Now, the horror story does not end there, since I want to withdraw some funds from my account, I had to withdraw over the counter.   And, why was I not surprised:  To withdraw my money at the bank where I am a depositor, I had to pay another P100.   Wait, there is more,  which is curious to me.  In this bank of mine,  I would be deducted P12 from my account even if I withdraw from my bank itself.  I can understand interbank charges, but to pay a service charge even if I withdraw from my own bank, that is a big question to me.       

An American friend of mine asked me once if I am a big saver. Because my parents are not big savers, I said that I am also not a big saver, what's there to save anyway?   In a country where 70% live below the poverty line, saving is an alien concept.   I know I started saving when I reached the age of 30.  And I couldn't keep the money in the bank.  For some reason, I did not know yet, the concept of spending only the money that you have and avoid getting into debt.

But I digress, what really irks Filipinos is the fact that banking in the Philippines is a horror story.  Let's take the story of Maria.  Maria got successful as an entrepreneur in the Visayas.  She kept her P300,000 in the bank to test if her money will grow any interest.  To her dismay,  after a certain period of time, Her P300,000 only earned 2,000, ain't that grand?  And what really is funny?  That on top of the 2,000 interest, the government still taxes it.  I don't know how much she earned after the deductions.  Go figure, guys.