Had I not looked at it closely and not let my curiosity bother me, I would not have noticed or probably cared what the differences are among BPI, BPI Family Savings Bank and BPI Direct. I know in my mind that I have always wondered why there are these different labels but I did not really take an effort to find out. Like for example there is a BPI Express Teller and there is BPI Family Savings Bank Express Teller. It confuses me why would there be a separate Express Teller for BPI and BPI Family Savings Bank when they are both BPI for me!
Since I am planning to open an account,
I did my due diligence of research and had a quick look at the rates and interest details. Well boy I found some answers to my questions. They may be both Express Teller but the rates and interests differ among BPI, BPI Family Savings Bank and BPI Direct! Like for example, Express Teller of BPI has a maintaining balance of P3,000 while only P1,000 for Express Teller savings of BPI Family Savings Bank! Same with interest rate, one has interest of 0.250% and 0.500% on the other.
But why? How is one better than the other? Why would they offer lower maintaining balance or higher interest rate on one and not the other?
So I called the Customer Service and the pleasant lady I spoke with explained to me why this is so.
I found out that BPI basically is the main company and BPI Family Savings Bank and BPI Direct are subsidiaries. And if you have a BPI account for example, you can only transact with a BPI branch and not with BPI Family Savings Bank branch and vice versa.
I was told that the main difference between BPI and BPI Family Savings Bank is the number of branches they have available. She said that BPI is more suitable for corporate accounts as this has more branches available and can accomodate more business transactions since there are many branches.
While BPI Family Savings Bank is more appropriate for consumer account. It looks like this is the better option for the masses as this gives depositors higher interest and lower maintaining balance. Though this has fewer branches, I was told.
As for BPI Direct, this is apt for those who are abroad (OFWs) because there is no requirement to transact with a physical branch and this can be done over the phone or probably online.
Each type tries to meet the different needs of the customers depending on what type of depositor they are.
I have also read somewhere that the type of account you have may affect the basis the bank will use in processing your loan requests. For example, if you don't really have a business but you got a BPI account which is for corporate, then they may check your business history as a basis for your loan approval.
You can read more about that here: http://www.philstar.com
So technically, these 3 differ when it comes to rates (maintaining balance and interest rate), branch availability, and type of depositor suitability.
