My BPI banking experience.

Yesterday, I was out with my GF, and I decided to finally open my savings account. My first bank of choice was BDO, since I love the fact that they open on weekends and are open longer than most banks. Add the fact almost all of the BDO branches are located within SM malls, it was a no-brainer.

So I lined up with all my requirements, or so I thought, at the BDO branch in SM Bicutan. When I got to the customer service rep, she mentioned that the 1 of the IDs I presented; my college alumni card, wasn’t valid and that I needed a 1x1 ID pic.

I know its my fault for not asking earlier, but I’m simply disappointed coz I remembered this:

BDO – We find ways.

It was from this commercial:

Ironically, for someone who says “they find ways” they never did anything to find a way to help me in opening my savings account.

So I went to Megamall with my GF, to simply buy my Gundam kits, and resigned myself that I prolly will be opening an account next payday when I have all the necessary requirements ready.

As me and my girl were walkin in the mall, we noticed there’s a BPI Express on there entertaining people who wanted to open their savings account.

So I inquired if I can open, but I told them outright that I only have my company ID and my alumni card as IDs. Initially they did mention that the alumni card ID is not a valid ID, however, they asked if I had any accounts with BPi in the past. I told them that yeah, I had a payroll account under BPi when I was working for a call center company. The attendant then asked his manager if they can do something for me, and they immediately entertained my savings account application!!

The sweet thing about opening a savings account in BPI was that they only required an initial P500 deposit to open an ATM account unlike BDO which required a minimum of P2000!! Sweet~

So I went ahead and filled up the form and they used the 2 IDs I had with me (take that BDO!!) and they started processing my application!! Remember I don’t have any 1x1 ID pictures with me earlier when I applied for a savings account in BDO? Well the manager in BPi simply shrugged that problem off by simply taking out his digital camera and taking a picture of me on the spot while I was applying for my savings account. WOW!! Now that’s what I’m talking about finding ways.

And to top it off, they were generous enough to offer me credit card application (which I was planning to do prolly later this year) and they simply used all of the information I supplied earlier with my savings account and a copy of my latest payroll slip. They didn’t ask for a copy of my certificate of employment anymore, as they said, they’ll do the legwork in investigating my employment with my current company. Also they were patient enough to explain to me throughly all of the stuff that I needed to know about my credit card and all the possible charges, etc. It was uber-convenient and I can see that my GF was kinda jealous at the level of service I got from BPI compared to when she opened an account with BDO.

I got my ATM card 5 mins after I applied for it, and its now ready for use. Man that’s gotta be the BEST banking experience I’ve ever had. And as much as it sucks for BDO, but seriously BDO, you ought to change your tagline to “We find ways… to make life harder for you”. I’m definitely a BPI fan now. Great job guys!! I loved how you took my banking experience even farther. Thanks BPI!!

PS: I just found this commercial from BPI. Their tagline with “Let’s make it easy” and I agree. They definitely made everything easy for me yesterday, and I couldn’t be more happier. Here’s the commercial:

And here’s another commercial of BPI: