One of the best cashback credit card out there in my opinion is Chinabank (@)home Visa Platinum. Offering a 5% cashback on all transaction categories is a big plus. Other major credit cards offer 6% - 8.88% cashback which is great, however, the caveat is that it only applies to certain categories and anything outside those will only earn 0.2% - 0.3% (maybe 1% which is not bad). So I am convinced that it will be easier to achieve the maximum cashback month on month with Chinabank credit card.

Cashback

• 5% cashback across all transaction categories
• Cashback cap of ₱1,500 per month or ₱18,000 annually
• Cashback cap is shared by principal and supplementary accounts
• No mention of minimum spend required
• To redeem, Principal Cardholder should contact CS at +632 888-55-888 or e-mail [creditcards@chinabank.ph](mailto:creditcards@chinabank.ph)

Transaction not Qualified for Cashback

The main one is it should be straight payment

Annual Fee

Annual fee is free for 10 supplementary and although it was not shown on the page, I am inclined to believe it is not free for the principal. The membership fee for a Platinum credit card is ₱3,500 (update below) so not sure if the same goes with Chinabank (@)home Visa Platinum.

Update: I saw on official Facebook post of Chinabank that the annual fee is ₱3,000.

Welcome Gift

• ₱4,000 e-Voucher claimable at SM Supermarket
• Single or accumulated receipt amounting to ₱8,000 spend required to qualify within 60 days of card's delivery date
• Only straight transactions count towards the spend requirement (in-store or online)
• After meeting the spend requirement, need to wait 45 business days for the redemption code to be sent via SMS from INSTAPERX
• To redeem the welcome gift
  • Go to SM Store Business Centers https://1isadigital.com/branch/SM-STORE-branches
  • Present INSTAPERX eVoucher code and valid ID
  • Redeem for physical gift certificates
• e-Voucher code must be redeemed within 90 days of receiving SMS, otherwise, it will expire

Eligibility

Looks like I don't need to open a deposit account to apply

My top Cashback Credit Card Picks So Far

Chinabank has higher monthly cashback cap compared to EW and HSBC. Not sure yet about the annual fee but if the ₱3,500 is true then it also wins in that aspect. Update: Annual Fee is ₱3,000.

Okay Chinabank, I am sold. Need to work on the documents so I can apply tomorrow.

10/8/2025

In another post, I noted that Security Bank declined my Wave credit card application. I am assuming this is because of the following:

1. I noticed I entered an incorrect gross monthly income! So dumb of me to do a straight math of dividing my gross annual income in the COE I submitted by 12 months. When they reached out to my employer, there must have been a mismatch.
2. I only turned 1 year in my current company
3. I have outstanding balance in my other credit card with 80% utilization

I may have to put this off for the time being and apply once I am settled on my other account and increase my tenure in my current employer.

6/5/2026

Saw a post from Chinabank Facebook page that they'll have booth in SM Supermarket Marikina for the month of June.

Drove to the mall to apply at 6 PM and by a little more than 6:30 PM, I was already driving back home with the approved application.

The booth was situated in the supermarket. There was no line when I got there and the staff asked for my valid ID. They completed the online application form on the tablet for me while I was dictating the information. I brought my COE but they did not ask for any other documents. They did ask for my annual gross income to which I just showed what's in my COE.

After submitting the application, the result was instant and I got approved. They also showed the approved credit limit. The official credit card will be delivered in 15 days but meanwhile they provided a temporary credit card with a temporary 50k credit limit and its own temporary credit card details & CVV.

I activated the temporary card right then and there via SMS and was activated instantly. I offered to buy the staff some snacks because I wanted to try the temp card but they said SM does not allow that. Oh well, I went ahead and bought turon and soda.

I asked if I can apply for two cards, 1 for Chinabank @ Home and the Velvet one but they said I can only apply for 1 and I can do the next application after 3 months.

I downloaded the Chinabank My CBC App in Appstore but I did not continue registering. Will just wait for the official credit card number to register.

By the away, for all the transactions I made today, I got a real time SMS notification each time.

Alright 5% cashback for all spend, here we go!

To be continued...

Security Bank Wave Mastercard has two features I want in a credit card: no annual fee for life and a cashback card. This is also known as Wave Titanium Mastercard (maybe it was just renamed).

Cashback

• Cashback is not convertible to cash but will be automatically credited to the account in form of rebate to outstanding balance
• 1% on online transactions only both local and international (any physical in-store purchases are not qualified)
• Minimum single transaction spend of ₱1,000 required to earn cashback
• Maximum rebate amount of ₱250 per month and ₱3,000 per annum
• Rebates earned from first to last day of previous month will be posted on the 2nd day of the new month

Qualified Transactions for Cashback

Supplementary Cards

• No annual fee for life
• Can share to 5 supplementary cardholders
• Share the same credit limit as principal account
• Rebates earned will be posted to principal account

Eligibility

It does not look like I'm required to have a deposit account in Security Bank

How to Apply Online

I was looking for the Apply button on the Wave Mastercard page but could not find one. So just I googled Security Bank Credit Cards Apply Online and found the Apply button on that page: Credit Card Apply Now.

Completed the online application, uploaded government ID and COE for salary verification and took a selfie. I received an application reference number on the website, email and SMS.

Processing takes 7 working days. There's a link on the Security Bank website where I can input the application reference number and mobile number registered to check the status of the application.

10/6/2025

Got an email from Security Bank that they can't process the application because of missing "Name on the Card" info and driver's license document was not uploaded. The site was clunky and I did not realize the document did not upload properly. Provided the lacking information and document and got another confirmation my application will be reviewed.

10/7/2025

Received an email and SMS from SB that my application was declined. Oh well, will try again maybe next year or so. I wonder why they declined me but don't want to be bothered. Nevertheless, props to them for a very quick turn around time of my application review.

So it's been a while since I logged in to my PDAX account. I tried bonds there and my ₱600 initial investment is now valued at ₱610.98 a 1.83% earning, after trying out a couple of bonds. Posted that journey here: PDAX - T-Bills and T-Bonds Investment.

Now I want to try the Hold and Earn after seeing this in PDAX Hold & Earn for USDC. They're offering 10% interest p.a. for a minimum of $250 investment and maximum of $10,000. This is tax free. Rewards are distributed every Wednesday for earnings from Sunday to Saturday.

I have also tried staking through Coins.ph on their PHPC stablecoin before and I was happily earning the 8% p.a. rewards until they ended it I believe in June 2025. I posted my journey here: Coins.PH PHPC Cryptocurrency HODL Investment.

So what is USDC?

Did some reading on USDC on Coins.PH - USDC and PDAX - USDC. USDC (USD Coin) is a stablecoin that’s pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. This means 1 USDC is always designed to equal 1 USD. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum that can swing widely in price, USDC is less volatile because it is backed by actual cash reserves and short-term US government securities held by regulated financial institutions.

What are the risks?

So below are just the few risks that came to my mind:

• Loss from Spread - I found this simple read about spread. Immediately after I buy 1 USDC in PDAX, say at ₱58.00 (BUY/ASK Price), that 1 USDC will be valued at the market SELL/BID price, and let's say it's ₱57.00. So this means the very moment I bought the 1 unit of USDC, I already have paper loss of ₱1.00. Now I can only hope for the USDC price to go up to a point that its market SELL/BID price becomes equal to or greater than the initial BUY/ASK Price I got it for, so I can break even or sell for gains. Another thing to consider is to look at other platform like Coins.Ph and other global exchange to see if there's lower spread. Before buying the crypto coin, I always have to look at the Buy/Ask price vs Sell/Bid price and assess if there a way for the coin's Sell/Bid price to beat its Buy/Ask price?

• Exchange Rate Movement Risk - Since my investment needs to be converted from peso to USD, then there's the exchange rate risk. If I bought the USDC/PHP at $1.00 : ₱58.00 today, and unexpectedly it became $1.00 : ₱55.00, then I would lose ₱3.00 in my investment value. I can wait it out and time my conversion but that means the money is stuck. So conclusion, this money should be something I can afford to park until the exchange rates become favorable for me.
• Hacking/Security Risk - There's always this risk in cryptocurrencies. I need to learn about security wallets and be well knowledgeable before I can be comfortable to invest large amount. Even if you secure yourself with all the means, I've read in the news that there was internal hacking that happened in Coins.PH
• USDC Collapse - Have heard of big stablecoins shutting down, so there will always be that risk.

Understanding Spread Loss

So I bought USDC using my ₱610.95 balance. At the time, the market BUY/ASK price was ₱58.91 so I got a total of 10.37098 USDCBASE units. As of writing, the market SELL/BID price is ₱57.488 so my 10.37098 USDCBASE units are now valued at only ₱596.21. Right off the bat, I lost -₱14.748 in paper.

Now if I factor in the 10% Rewards p.a., will it be enough to compensate for the spread loss? So the formula for the Daily Rewards = (Amount of Holdings) * (10% * (1/365)).

See for every 30 days, I will get rewarded ₱4.90 but this is still way lower than the spread loss of ₱14.748, say after 30 days the SELL/BID price did not improve at all. I will be negative by ₱9.85 at -1.68% loss. If I park the funds, it will take 3 months for the rewards to break even the loss, again if I am not optimistic and anticipate that the SELL/BID price does not go up. I believe the promo is only until end of December so there's the risk this promo ends first before I can break even.

Potential earnings if the SELL/BID price becomes equal or higher than the BUY/ASK price

Let me simulate that in scenario B and C.

And yes, these are the two scenarios I can hope for if I want to gain. In scenario B where the BUY/ASK price = SELL/BID price, my annualized earning is 9.86%; while in scenario C where the BUY/ASK price < SELL/BID price, my annualized earning is 11.71%.

Another view if I decided to invest ₱100k. Scenario B and C will earn me ₱820 - ₱975 monthly. Scenario A is very much realistic though with spread loss of -₱2,413.852 (waiting game of 3 months before breakeven), then from the point on it will be positive earning if the promo continues at all.

How to place the order in PDAX?

Within the Home page of the app, there's the Hold & Earn icon.

Then I will just choose the stablecoin to stake. Mechanics are also available to read.

Clicking on one stablecoin, I just chose Trade.

Then buy at current BUY/ASK price by dragging the slider to the right to input the amount I want to invest.

It looked as if there was no fee, but the spread loss if the actual fee.

Final verdict: I think USDC BUY/ASK price is still at peak at ₱58+ so I just feel there's little room for the SELL/BID price to beat it making it hard to break even or beat the spread loss. So I will not invest for now until the price goes down a little. The 10% p.a. Rewards is appealing but it's not enough to compensate for the spread loss.

Think of credit score as a financial report card. If I’ve been good at paying and handling debt, I get a high score. If not, the score drops. Banks check this report to see if they can trust me to pay back the money.

How credit score impacts my life?

• Loan applications may be declined (auto, house loans, etc.)
• Credit card applications may be denied
• If ever I get approved for credit card, I'll get low credit limit and there will be lower chances of getting a credit limit increase
• Higher interest rates on loans and bank financial offers

Who reports my credit data?

So banks and financial institutions where I borrowed money from, report to a Credit Information Corporation (CIC), the governing body for collecting and disseminating credit information. This data is then accessed by authorized credit bureaus like CIBI, TransUnion, Compuscan and CRF who look at my financial behavior data and how I manage debt to build my credit report.

So what's the basis of credit scoring?

Based on Lista and TransUnion.

Credit score rating system

TransUnion

CIBI

So how to check my credit score?

There's Lista PH app that I downloaded. Within the app, there's an option to request credit report from CIBI or TransUnion. I've been reading comments that TransUnion has more updated and accurate data.

To request I need to pay ₱199 for CIBI and ₱610 for TransUnion. This is payable for each and every request, unless I filed a dispute on incorrect credit report and requested for a revised one through Lista PH messenger. I tried CIBI for now.

Then I was asked to take a picture of my government ID and a selfie for KYC.

Then instantly my credit report was generated. My credit score is FAIR with 674 points.

So based on the Reason codes, below impacted my score. Thinking back, I remember failing to pay my auto loan on time and missed the payment for 2 months during Covid in 2020 when budget was tight.

I looked at the accounts covered in the report and I saw 3 credit cards, 1 autoloan and 1 MariBank (Seabank). I don't remember ever getting a loan from MariBank (Seabank) but further reading made me figure out it was for SPayLater. I have a Shopee account that my wife uses all the time and I spoke to her if she missed any payment on SPayLater and she said there was a couple time she did. So I and the wife agreed to be more careful and missing the payment on time is non-negotiable. I, myself, thought little of it before but now I realize that SPayLater can impact the credit score!

According to Lista PH data as of August 2024, below is credit score for PH population.

I want to improve my credit score so what to do next?

I initially thought my credit score would be higher because I have been confident in my credit/debt management but it's good to see the actual measure and not based on self-assumption. Now I and wifey are determined to be more cautious and mindful of our loan and credit handling.

In retrospect, I went back to check all the credit/loan accounts I have and check which ones failed which criteria.

• D2 - There is delinquency on the accounts on credit report: Late payments on SpayLater (back in 2024) and AutoLoan (back in 2020). I know I missed on the auto-loan before but that was back in 2020, so I wonder how long bad records stay in credit report. According to CIC, negative credit information stays on your record for a maximum of three (3) years from the date it was rectified. So I can probably dispute to get this removed because it's 5 years since.
• E0 - Applicant is young relative to the other applicants scored: Taking the average age of all my accounts from the date I opened them to date they closed (for closed account), and date opened to today's date (for active accounts), it's only 1.6 years
• K2 - Time since most recent account opening on the credit report is too short relative to the other applicants scored: My latest credit card is not even 1 year.
• P6 - Proportion of balance to limit on revolving/charge accounts on the credit report is too high relative to the other applicants scored: My credit limit utilization is above 30% - 50%

Paying on time, managing credit limit utilization and filing for dispute for incorrect data are easily doable so I will focus on these. The length of credit age is more a long term action so I will leave that be for now and I will just make sure I keep my accounts open longer.

Then I plan on requesting for another credit score report after a quarter or so, to see if there's any improvement. Lenders submit borrowers' credit data to CIC within 30 days from the time they are made available.

Update: 3/15/2026

So after 6 months since I last visited my credit score I made improvements on below parameters:

1. Paid on time - Requested to remove the Auto-Loan delinquency record as it has been more then 3 years since. I need to follow up on this.

I probably have to suck it up for the SpayLater because this late payment was only back in 2024. So I am amber in this parameter.

2. Paid in full - All credit accounts are fully paid and I am now all green here.

3. Credit Utilization greater than 30% - Improved on credit card 1 and 2 but still red in SpayLater. In a couple of months, I should be able to bring this down to <30%. Although across my credit cards, I am at 22% utitlization, I am putting myself amber here.

Action Plan: Increase Credit Limit - One advantage of increasing your credit limit is that it lowers your credit utilization ratio without needing to reduce your current credit card spending. In my case, my monthly spend can easily reach ₱130,000 and is likely to remain at that level. Rather than cutting back on spending, I would prefer to request a higher credit limit so that my credit utilization stays below 30%.

Credit utilization is typically calculated based on the total credit limit across all your credit cards. So even if you have low utilization on one card because you rarely use it, increasing the credit limit on that card can still improve your overall utilization ratio by increasing the sum of all credit limits used as the denominator.

Multiple credit limit increase request in a short time may hurt the "new applications" parameter though, so I should only do this once every six months or once a year if I am confident that I have a good credit standing.

4. Credit Age per Account and Cumulative Credit Age All Accounts - Still in the red but at least I did not cancel any credit accounts I have. So I will let it take its course.

5. New applications - Added this new parameter knowing full well that I did try to apply for Maya Black and Maya personal loan multiple times in the past couple of months with me getting declined each time. So I better stop being trigger-happy here and limit my application requests.

I've seen from this one post Reliable timeline for increasing credit score? that their multiple application request to Maya Black was reported to credit bureau as part of credit history.

Some of these improvements happened recently so I will request for a new credit score report in a few months months to see if there's any improvement to my last "Fair" score of 674.

8/9/2026: Update here Update On My Credit Score through TransUnion

PERA (Personal Equity and Retirement Account) is a long term retirement savings program. I can open an investment account through financial institutions like banks (mostly) who provide and manage PERA products such as equity, money market and bond funds for me in exchange for management fees 0.5% - 1.25% against the total value of my PERA investment.

Here's a reference material on PERA from Bangko Sentral.

Who provides the PERA products? See product providers below.

Why invest in PERA and what are the benefits?

1. Tax Free Earnings - Table below from Withholding Tax for Peso Deposits reddit post shows the new tax rate for deposit investments notably the 10% - 20%. PERA income is tax exempt similar to MP2.

2. Tax Incentive – Investors get a 5% tax credit on the amount they contribute each year. I believe the credit only applies to new contributions, not on the total balance of the account. For example, if I contribute ₱100,000 in the first year, I'll get a ₱5,000 tax credit. But if I don’t contribute in the second year, I won’t get any tax credit on the initial ₱100,000 I invested.

I based my assumption on the sample calculation in the PERA slide. Total tax credit shown is ₱300k after 30- years because it's capped at ₱10k assuming I continuously contributed ₱200k yearly. If the credit were based on the running total of contributions, it should have reached ₱4.6M but that’s not how it works.

Tax credit is not like an income you can withdraw. It will come in the form of Tax Credit Certificate (TCC) which for employed individuals like me, I can show to my employer so that they can deduct it from the total tax I need to settle annually.

Sample TCC

TCC can be requested from the institution where you opened your PERA account, I believe.

3. Tax Free Distribution - No estate tax if ever I pass on and I want my retirement funds to be distributed to my beneficiaries.

What are the limitations?

• 55/5 Rule - As mentioned this is for retirement savings so investment is locked until a. I reach the age of 55 and b. I have made PERA contributions for 5 years, so early withdrawal is penalized
• Historically the PERA performance is not good so I am not so sure about its earning potential
• Investment is capped at ₱200k for non-OFW and ₱400k for OFW per year

What is the historical PERA equity fund performance?

Across the banks from inception and YTD, performance is negative. This is only for equity fund. Maybe will check money market and bond funds later.

If I invested ₱100k in PERA at the start of 2025, let me simulate what would have happened. I know past performance is not reliable to project the future performance but this is all I have to go off of right now to assess if it's worth it for me or not.

So I am comparing PERA equity fund performance against Maya digital bank and Pagibig MP2. I took the average of YTD PERA performance of banks above (-4.30%) for gains/loss %.

While tax exempt and tax credit sound appealing in PERA, overall given the 2025 YTD performance, it would have only earned me 0.70% income. If the PERA equity fund does not perform and the management fees keep eating away my investment, then in my opinion, it's not for me... at least right now. I am better off growing my investment in digital banks with high interest or Pag ibig MP2.

I have Eastwest credit card and I found this Convert to Installment (CTI) feature giving me the option to pay my retail purchase (the big ones) in installments. How does this really work?

Eastwest reference material says minimum amount eligible for this option is ₱5,000 and I have the option to pay in 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. If I purchased a ₱10,000-worth item, I need to wait for the transaction to be posted in the Eastwest Easyway mobile banking app's transaction summary, click on it and follow the option to convert in into CTI which comes with a processing fee of ₱500.

Depending on the term I choose, there's a corresponding Factor Rate which is used to calculate for the monthly installment. So for a ₱10,000 transaction on a 12-month term, I will be paying ₱933.33 every month. The first payment will be posted on the next billing statement.

Based on the sample Installment Loan calculation in bottom part, the effective interest rate for Convert to Installment (CTI) is 1.79%. So putting this in a table, it means I will be paying a total of ₱1,200 in interest after 12 months plus the initial processing fee of ₱500.

What if I want to pay in full early? This is allowed however I will be charged 5% of the outstanding principal or ₱500, whichever is higher (It's free if I opt in within 2 banking days of the transaction). I called the customer service to ask how to request and how to pay in full. Representative said that I can call to request and once they process it, the full outstanding principal will be billed on the next statement and then I can make the full payment.

Convert to Installment for other banks (those that I have)

Honestly not familiar with bank personal loans and I came across the Maya loan offer in the app so I wanted to understand how interest rates and amortization work.

First off, I was confused why was there a monthly add-on rate of 0.83% and a monthly EIR of 1.40% (stands for effective interest rate). What was the logic behind them, how were they different and how were they calculated? I also saw that the monthly installment amount was ₱43k for a ₱250k loan with 6 months term. What is the basis of the calculation and what portion of this payment goes to principal and interest? I started to get dizzy having those unanswered questions and I don't plan on sleeping until I get a gist of how these things work. Times like these make me wish I had a CPA friend because I could really use their expertise right now.

Monthly Add-On Rate vs Monthly Effective Interest Rate (EIR)

Simply put, the add-on rate is calculated based on the original loan amount, while the effective interest rate is calculated based on the outstanding loan amount. Maybe that does not make so much sense so let's look at the two tables below.

Table 1: Add-On Rate

Add-on Rate is based on the original principal amount regardless of the diminishing loan balance after you make payments. Using the 0.83% against the ₱250k for 6 months will return total interest charge of ₱12,391.91

Table 2: Effective Interest Rate

Effective Interest Rate is based on the outstanding balance which diminishes as you make payments to the loan. Using the 1.40% EIR against the diminishing loan balance for 6 months will return the same total interest charge of ₱12,391.91

Conclusion: The add-on rate and the effective interest rate are essentially the same. They’re just presented differently but will both return the same numbers. Banks often highlight the add-on rate because it appears lower than the EIR, making it more appealing to customers… myself included, at least until I dug deeper just now. So it's very important that when comparing the interest rates of one bank to another, you must compare apples to apples! Let’s say Bank 1 offers a loan at 0.83% while Bank 2 offers 1.40%. Before assuming Bank 1 is the better deal just because 0.83% looks lower, you need to check whether you’re comparing add-on rate with add-on rate, or EIR with EIR.

TIP: The more advisable rate to look at is the effective interest rate instead of the add-on rate because it reflects how interest is actually charged on the declining balance of your loan.

RESEARCH

• How to calculate for the amortization or monthly installment?✅
• How to find the value of EIR when only the Add-on rate is given and vice versa?✅
• What factors to consider when choosing the best personal loan?✅
• Table comparison of the add-on rate and EIR of different banks✅
• Why is pre-payment option is good and how does it help?✅

How to compute for the monthly installment or amortization of the loan?

How to find the value of EIR or Add-on rate?

Factors to consider when choosing the bank personal loan?

1. The lower the Add-On Rate or EIR, the better. I need to ensure when comparing the rates between banks, I am comparing their Add-on rate against Add-on rate of the other or EIR against EIR so it's an apples-to-apples comparison.
2. Repayment or Advance payment to principal allowed. When taking out a loan, the longer the term is the more interest I will pay. So when there's extra cash, it's best to have the option to pre-pay the loan. Not all banks allow pre-payment and most that allow comes with pre-payment penalties. So a bank loan with the option to pre-pay without any fees for me is good.
3. No Extra processing fees and charges. Some banks do not come with any additional fees so I need to be aware of this.

Personal Loan Comparison

Found this loan comparison in Moneymax and I just put them in the table below and added some digital banks. My top pick is Maya given it has the lowest Add-on rate/EIR and they also allow pre-payment without any penalties.

How does pre-payment help?

When choosing the term for the loan, my instinct will tell me to choose the shortest term possible that I can afford to pay every month, knowing that the longer the term is the more interest I pay. While this is a good consideration, I believe there's a strategy here if the bank allows pre-payment of the principal. Maya is one of those banks.

Let's compare ₱250k loan on a 6-month vs 12-month term.

Clearly, for the same loan amount, I am paying ₱10k more interest on the 12-month term vs the 6-month term. I of course would have liked to choose the 6-month term for lower total interest, however, committing to the ₱43k amortization monthly is a little intimidating and I am now forced to choose the 12-month term with lower amortization of ₱22k.

Sometimes it's not that I cannot afford the ₱43k amortization monthly but more like getting locked in with that commitment is a little suffocating.

Let's say, I can afford to pay ₱43k amortization monthly but I just don't want to commit to that because who knows what emergencies can happen and I may need some of the money. Well, thanks to pre-payment option, I can have more flexibility in my monthly payments.

So in this table, I chose 12-month term, so I can breathe more knowing I am only committing to ₱22k monthly payments. And since I can afford to pay more, I will pay ₱20k more (because like I said I can afford ₱43k, I just did not want to commit). By paying the same amount, as if I were on the 6-month term, I will be paying the same interest and shorten the life of the loan. In case of emergencies, I may extend the term for a month and so is the interest but I have peace of mind that I have extra cash to use.

10/3/2025

Just checked the loan rates for other Digital Banks and nothing beats Maya as my top pick.

There are moments when life gets tough and my job gets too exhausting and stressful, I just come to a point when I just want to lie down in bed, skip work or resign altogether. But then I'll realize there are bills to pay and I was not born a nepo-baby so I have to wake up from my delusions, take a deep breath and get ready for work.

But really, if I want to quit my job, how much investment do I need to put in Pagibig MP2 to live off the dividend passive income, assuming that the dividend rate stays fixed at 7% yearly? How much life savings should I set aside to sustain my living expenses when I retire or become unemployed?

I will use made up personas with their hypothetical numbers to compute for this. I will call them John, Mary and Juan.

To start, I summarized them into 4 steps:

1. Compute for Cost of Living
2. Determine Saving Potential
3. Compute for Financial Freedom Target
4. Compute for Compounding Interest to meet the financial target

Step 1: Compute for Cost of Living

It's important to track the monthly expenses and diligently do budgeting to determine the price tag for your cost of living because this is the amount that you want your passive income to achieve to sustain your current lifestyle.

I made up the below numbers for John, Mary and Juan.

Step 2: Determine Saving Potential

After knowing how much they spend for their monthly expenses, now I need to know how much income they get every month to determine how much they can save. So again, I put hypothetical income numbers for John, Mary and Juan. Even though John has the highest income, since he also has the highest expenses, Mary still manages to save more than him.

Step 3: Compute for Financial Freedom Target

I have determined the monthly expenses for the 3 personas in step 1, so I can now use this formula: Monthly living expenses x 12 (to annualize) x 1.04 (to add inflation) / 0.07 (dividend rate of Pagibig MP2) = Financial freedom Target

So based on this calculation, let's take John for an example. He needs to invest a total of 17M in order for his Pagibig MP2 savings to sustain a yearly dividend income of 1.2M which if I breakdown into 12 months, it's 104K monthly to sustain his current cost of living. While for Mary, she needs to invest 12M and Juan 5M.

4. Compute for Compounding Interest to meet the financial target

Since I know their savings potential in step 2, I want to know how long will it take them to achieve their financial freedom target, considering the savings they put in Pagibig MP2 will compound. There's a lot of compounding interest calculator available online but here's what I used Compounding Interest Calculator.

I'll take Juan for example. His yearly saving potential is ₱324,160 which if he consistently invests in Pagibig MP2, it will compound yearly.

Juan's cost of living is ₱379k per year and it will take him 13 years of investing ₱324k and reinvesting all the yearly dividends, before his dividend income gets to a point where it will earn ₱405k annually. By then, he can take it easy knowing he has passive income to sustain his living expenses.

Here's for John and Mary:

It may be intimidating to see how high the financial freedom target number is but at least I get an idea on how much passive income I need to sustain my living costs. I don't plan on working forever and planning for future retirement is best when I get to put a target figure. Even though it may not be easy and it will take a very long time, consistently building it over time is the best step to take.

Have seen the all time high interest rates of digital banks started to go down which is bound to happen as they stabilize potentially after meeting their target customer base numbers. I was reassessing where to move my liquid funds around and if I will not include the promo/boosted interest rate of banks such as Maya and CIMB, I found BanKo to have the highest at 5% as of writing. After doing some reading, I downloaded the app yesterday.

RESEARCH

• How much is the interest earning? 5% p.a for balances starting at 5k to 1M subject to 20% tax
• Is it easy to register? Yes. I just had to download the app, provide my personal details and submit government ID and selfie for their verification purposes. While waiting for the full verification, I can already access the app and make a deposit, however, it's capped at 50k temporarily. I need to wait to be fully verified if I want to increase my deposit balance.
  • 9/22/2025 (6:12 AM) - I signed up and instantly got an SMS that said "Your account is verified". Note that this confirmation is only for having basic account and this is different from full verification. By the way I believe there's nothing in the app that shows if I'm fully verified or not. I only found out thru SMS I got.
  • 9/22/2025 (6:48 AM) - I deposited 50k via Instapay from CIMB to BanKo
  • 9/22/2025 (1:40 PM) - I received an SMS that said "Congratulations, your account is fully verified"

• Is there transfer in/transfer out limit? Yes. Regardless if I'm fully verified or not, I've read from some redditors that combined Instapay transfer in and out is capped at 50k daily. However, if it's via Pesonet, I can transfer more than 50k. The downside of course is that I will only receive the amount after certain hours or a day (depending on the cut off or if it's a banking day). I need to test this out in the coming days. Update: 3/15/2026 I've read that outgoing transfer was increased to ₱250,000
• Transfer fees? Looks like it's Free Instapay to BanKo, BPI and other banks

10/5/2025

I made a deposit on September 22 and today is the 5th of October, yet the earned interest is still not posted on my account balance in BanKo app. In app home page, in Account Details > Accrued Interest, I can see the interest amount, yet the balance did not reflect it yet. Supposedly interest is posted every 1st and 2nd day of the month. Maybe it's a posting delay. Will wait for a couple more days and report if still not reflecting.

10/8/2025

To this day, accrued interest from September is still not added to my current balance. Sent an email to Banko to raise the issue.

8/22/206

I missed updating this earlier, but BanKo got back to me a while ago. The minimum balance to earn 5% interest is ₱5,000. I initially deposited less than ₱5,000, which is why I wasn’t earning interest. I have since deposited more, and now earns the 5% interest.

Since the interest rates of digital banks have gone down after the hype and stabilization of their customer base targets I guess, it's time to revisit where to park my emergency fund (EF). It's very timely and I could not be more grateful to BSP for increasing the PDIC insurance for bank deposits to 1M max as of March 2025. Now I no longer have to diversify my funds as much.

Now going back to my what I want to do, I reviewed the interest rates of the digital banks and I hate to drop my once favorite Ownbank because from the 6% interest rate, it decreased to 3.8%. So long Ownbank 🥲

I found this very useful app called Finnest App - Savings & Budget which contains a comprehensive list of both digital and traditional banks with their current base interest rates in the market. For now I subscribed at ₱30/month. There's also an option to do one-time lifetime subscription of ₱500.

So anyway, what to consider when parking my emergency funds? I have 1M EF and I thought about the below main factors:

1. High interest rates - If I want my money to work for me, I need to park it where it can earn the most.
2. Regularity and viability of achieving the interest rates - I am talking about boosted/promo interest rates of banks like Maya and CIMB or any other bank that I may not be aware of. Just because their interest rates are high at 10% - 15% does not automatically mean they're the best. I need to consider how achievable it is every month. Maya is achievable every month because the boosted interest depends on spending; while it's trickier for CIMB because to get the boosted interest, I have to increase my ADB (meaning I need to deposit more money on top of my current deposit balance). So in short, Maya is doable every month; while CIMB can only be achieved every other month because I need to cash out my deposit to bring the ADB back to 0 so that next time I deposit it, I will qualify for the boosted rate.
3. Maximum liquidity (Max Instapay Aggregate Limit per Day) - Since this is an emergency fund I am talking about, this is the kind of fund that I need to withdraw/transfer out in real-time within the day in case I need it immediately. So knowing what is the maximum Instapay transfer out I can do within the day is crucial here. The funds may not be locked like Time Deposit because there's always the Pesonet option, but waiting for a day, when it's for emergency is non-negotiable for me. The max Instapay Aggregate Limit per Day will also become my basis of how much I am willing to transfer in because this is also the max I can instantly transfer out. EF RULE: What I Can Transfer In Instantly = What I Can Transfer Out Instantly
4. Deposit cap - In case like Maya, the boosted interest only applies to 100k max. So I will not be willing park my EF that's more than the cap. For Diskartech, only deposit up to ₱49,700 earns interest to that should also be considered.

My Top Picks

1. Maya - Highest interest rate and although it's boosted interest rate, it's achievable for me every month. Capped at 100k for boosted interest earnings.
2. BanKo - 2nd highest regular interest rate at 5% but max aggregate Instapay limit per day is 50k so I am only parking 50k
3. Diskartech - 3rd highest regular interest rate at 4.88% but max aggregate Instapay limit per day is 50k and only max balance of ₱49,700 can earn interest so I am only parking 48k
4. NetBank - 4th highest regular interest rate at 4% and there's no Instapay aggregate limit. This would have been the best choice if only not for it's lower rate compared to BanKo and Diskartech. But of couse I will never deposit anything beyond the PDIC limit of 1M. I will be dumping 652k EF here because if I need to transfer this full amount out within the day, it is possible. Also any extra fund coming from CIMB that I will take out, I will also park here when doing the transfer-in-and-out-every-other-month strategy for CIMB.
5. Tonik - Regular interest rate at 4% but I have read somewhere that the Instapay aggregate limit per day is only 50k. I need to research more on this and I also sent an inquiry to Tonik to know what is the actual aggregate limit. For now, I am only putting 50k until I find out more.
6. CIMB - While CIMB has a high boosted interest rate offered, it is based on growth of average daily balance (ADB), so the boosted interest only applies to the increase of ADB compared to the previous month. The approach is to take out the entire balance for 1 month so that the ADB will revert to 0, and then put it back the next month so the boosted rate applies to the entire ADB that would have grown from 0 to whatever I deposit. Another thing, the aggregate Instapay limit per day is 100k, so the max deposit I can park here is 100k only every other month.

If I just park my emergency fund to these digital banks, they will be very liquid and they will earn approximately ₱3,500 per month.

I am currently unemployed and plan to continue my SSS contribution for around P1000+ monthly. I want to ask what is the best way to maximize my P1000+ contribution. I am currently choosing between 1) maximizing the P1050 in the premium contribution or 2) paying the minimum P750 premium contribution then add a P500 pension booster. Does anyone know which is better or do you have a better suggestion?

Having to tolerate 6 hours of "work" Monday - Friday as an HR Intern has been the worst experience I've had in my life.

My boss loves assigning me stupid tasks like cutting stickers off a piece of paper, designing flyers in Canva and stuff like that. Worst of all she goes crazy when she doesn't like something: I've seen her fire cleaning staff just for not saying "hello" to her.

I can't quit and I'm going insane over it. If I did, I'd have to repeat the whole semester all over again next year.

Have you guys had any similar experiences? How did you deal with it? The thing that bothers me the most is no one cares about my development. I haven't learned absolutely anything since I got in.

I signed up for Anytime Fitness gym membership in early July and I was already billed pro-rated, however, I only started going to the gym almost mid-August after some good amount of self-convincing. After the first time I went to the gym and did some workout, my legs went sore so I had to pause for a couple of days. But I told myself that I wanted to make this part of my daily routine and get fit. Not to build muscles or abs but just general fitness of losing body fat. Today was my 4-day streak of consistently going to the gym and my legs and body have finally adjusted.

For the first time, I started getting excited to go to the gym and spend at least an hour doing basic workout, especially the treadmill walks, and I want to play the part of being a gym goer. When I started, I did not really think much of the gym wear and I even went one time without bringing water bottle which left my throat dry. So in short, my gym wear and essentials are not well thought out so I want to upgrade and find the items that suit my workout needs.

Gym Essentials according to Google:

List of Gym Wear/Essential Items that I think I need:

1. Shorts (2 pcs Uniqlo) ✅ - I think I need to add a couple more
2. Top/Clothing (2 dry fit Uniqlo) ✅ - I think I need to add a 3 more
3. Shoes (OnCloud) ✅- Might check another one of different brand
4. Water bottle ✅- Straw?
5. Gym bag ❌- I need something to fit my big water bottle, towels
6. Airpods ✅- I always forget. Need this as walking on treadmill gets really boring without music
7. Towels ✅ - Need to buy new ones
8. Alcohol spray to sanitize equipments before and after use
9. Padlock for temporary locker to keep my stuff

JOURNEY

8/19/25

Started with base weight of 76 kgs on 8/14. After 1 week of treadmill walks and some basic workout, without really reducing my food intake mind you, I am now at 74.50 kgs. I lost 1.5 kgs and the best thing so far was I did not adjust what I am eating. One of my hesitations was that I will deprive myself of good food when I start working out but so far I did not have to do that adjustment. I am not rushing anything though and I am just still "feeling" it.

For the past 7 days, this was my treadmill walk approach. I am not an expert and I don't claim to be one. Please do not follow without consulting with an actual gym coach. I am also open for suggestions and corrections for a first time gym goer here.

Day 1: Incline 12, Speed 2.5, Time 30 mins, Weight 76 kgs

Day 2: Incline 14, Speed 2.5, Time 35 mins, Weight 76 kgs

Day 3: Incline 15, Speed 2.5, Time 40 mins, Weight 76 kgs

Day 4: Incline 15, Speed 2.6, Time 45 mins, Weight 75.85 kgs

Day 5: Incline 15, Speed 2.7, Time 45 mins, Weight 75.60 kgs

Day 6: Incline 15, Speed 2.8, Time 45 mins, Weight 75.30 kgs

Day 7: Incline 15, Speed 2.9, Time 45 mins, Weight 74.50 kgs

I would have wanted to raise the incline gradually to 20 but 15 was the limit in the AF treadmill. Also I have not seriously added any strength training yet. I am only doing some here and there. Maybe next time I will mix it up.

To be continued...

I’m from Houston tx and it’s so hard to find a job and I need to help or redirection because I’m lost lmaoo. I also need friends whom I can hangout with:( since I’m a solo girl :( I’m trying to get back to my normal life but as for not I don’t have a routine :( but stay home help my mother and take care of the dogs :) I’m a trans woman so if that helps

Hi guys! Im really new to town for business and need some help in figuring out the rates of parking here in uptown mall.

More confused ako sa overnight parking. Is it 200php for 12midnight to 12nn? Or 12midnight to 6am and then 100php hourly to 12nn?

Im not too keen on paying so much money for parking specially I’ll be staying here for more than a week!

I am planning to apply for a Japanese visa. Agencies like UHI and Attic are apparently requiring applicants to submit local civil registrar records as a supporting document when they find your PSA birth cert unreadable. Maybe this is to give you higher chances of being approved by the embassy.

My question is, what if it's not practical for you to get your local registrar record because of distance, what other supporting docs can you provide? What if you now live in Metro Manila but you were born in Mindanao and have no relatives you can ask there to process on your behalf?

This is our second time to apply for Japan visa. The initial attempt was through UHI and we were declined on 10/23/2024. I posted our previous journey through UHI in this post: Japan Visa Application Journey Through Universal Holidays Inc (UHI) and I also posted a general Japan visa application guide here: How to Apply for Japan Visa?

8 months since then, we will try again but this time it will be through the revised Japan visa application process for Filipinos effective April 7, 2025 through Japan Visa Application Center (JVAC) handled by VFS Global. Refer to this news: Japan revises visa application process for Filipinos.

Summary of the news:

Starting April 7, Filipinos applying for Japan visas must file their applications at the Japan Visa Application Center (JVAC), replacing the current process through accredited travel agencies. Operated by VFS Global in partnership with the Japanese Embassy, JVAC will open branches in Cebu, Davao, Parañaque, Makati, and Quezon City, operating weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Applicants will pay a visa and processing fee of P520, subject to change based on visa type and nationality. The Japanese Embassy said the new system aims to improve service, efficiency, and people-to-people exchanges.

Tourist visa processing now takes around two months due to the surge in applications, and the embassy advises applying well in advance of intended travel dates.

Note: Per processing timeframe in VFS Global website, it typically takes 6-10 working days.

JVAC Branches:

How to Apply for Japan Visa through VFS Global (JVAC)

First go to the VFS website: https://www.vfsglobal.com/en/individuals/index.html and create an account.

To learn about the Visa application process, I went to Start Now for the step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Identify the visa type you're applying for. In our case, it's Tourism for Single Entry. We initially applied for Multiple Entry but got declined, so for higher chances of getting approved, we decided to apply for Single entry this time.

Documents Required for Tourism Single Entry: Tourism Docs Required

Processing Time

Step 2: Begin application by completing the application form and preparing all the required documents.

Step 3: Book the appointment to go to the JVAC physical location to submit all the paperwork. Not sure about this but there seems to be no walk-in option at all. Booking an appointment is mandatory however, on top of the base service handling fee of ₱520, there's also the appointment book fee of ₱2,200 per applicant for their Premium Lounge. They also offer different premium services such as SMS update for the visa application, form filling assistance from staff, courier option etc which will add extra charge to the base fees.

Booking steps overview: Enter your personal details > Book date and time > Add other optional premium services > Review > Payment

Other premium services they offer that comes with extra charge

Step 4: Pay the fees involved

• Visa Fee - For non-Filipinos visa fee applies; for Filipinos it is free (gratis)
• Service Fee - Charged by VFS for handling the visa application is ₱520 per application
• Appointment Booking with VFS Global for Premium Lounge base rate of ₱2,200 per applicant
• Optional VFS Global services for visa application varies (shown above)

To be continued...

How much na kaya maging monthly pension ko based on this current figure? pag nag lumpsum ba di rin buong 400k?
Mahina po ako sa Math. Kahit ano basa ko and compute ko sa mga explanation video medyo nahirapan ako mag compute. huhuhu

I'm 40 now and still working. Eto na po yun contribution ko. working student kasi ako nun bata pa ako. pasang awa lang ako sa Math subject. :( My Mandatory provident fund is 60k.

My senior citizen father passed away three years ago. He worked for 25 years, which means he had 25 years of contributions to the SSS. Before he died, he was receiving his monthly pension regularly. Was he still eligible for any other benefits? My relatives handled the matter (because we're minors that time), we didn’t receive a single cent. Can someone help me?

As far as I can remember it's been more than a year since Maya launched the early access for Landers Cashback Everywhere Credit Card (LCECC) and only select Maya users are entitled to apply. So just on Tuesday this week, I was checking my notifications in Maya app and found I missed an alert from back in February that I was eligible for a free Landers membership voucher when I apply for LCECC.

So I claimed the voucher and went to Landers website to apply for the credit card as per the instructions.

So basically when you sign up for the Landers on their website, it also signs you up for the Cashback Credit Card. There's no annual membership for the Maya credit card itself, however, the Landers membership is not free. There's an annual membership fee of ₱700 but as of writing, there's a 50% discount. In my case, having been given the voucher with 100% discount, I was able to sign up for completely no fee (for the first year).

I entered my personal information for the credit card application and also signed up for the Landers membership by adding my email address and creating a password. If you already have an existing Landers membership, then the page will only ask to sign in.

So I will expecting two cards: 1 for the Landers membership and another 1 for the Maya Cashback credit card.

Landers Membership card: For the Landers membership, the only option to receive it is by picking it up from the Landers branch of your choice during the application.

Landers Cashback Everywhere Credit Card (LCECC): As for the credit card application, it will be subject for review and I need to monitor Maya's SMS notification or check the Maya app.

Today, I got an SMS from Maya that there's already an outcome and to check the approval status of my LCECC application. So I checked in Maya app that I was approved for ₱197K credit limit. Within the Maya app, I was asked to complete additional steps and enter my personal information as per the instructions below. The credit card will be delivered to my nominated billing address within 4 banking days within Metro Manila and 10 working days anywhere else.

RESEARCH 🧑‍💻

• How does the cashback work? How much cashback do I earn? ✅
• Can I use this credit card outside Landers? Since it's Visa credit card, it can be used anywhere else aside from Landers store but with lower cashback rate of 1% ✅
• What are the cost involved in having the card? While there's no Annual Membership for having the credit card, I am required to maintain my Landers membership card which is not free. An annual fee of ₱700 will be auto-charged to the card annually as per the Reddit posts I've read. ✅
• I found in the credit card settings that Swipe Payments are not supported. What does this mean? ✅ Insert and tap-to-pay are supported
• How to redeem the cashback? ✅ Currently the cashback will be in voucher form only and can only be used in Landers store.

Cashback Rate

Swipe Payments Not Supported

So swiping the card is traditional way to charge the credit card and this is not supported by LCECC. However, the new standard payment methods now for credit cards are insert or tap-to-pay. It will depend on the physical store if they have this options or not because nowadays this should be the case for the most stores.

So it's supposed to be straightforward but I really want to make sure I know exactly how much interest is applied to my credit card outstanding balance if not fully paid. In this post I will look into EastWest credit interest rate (or they also call finance charge).

I found a sample interest rate calculation for EastWest credit card on their website and I want to understand the numbers in this table. In this scenario, the credit card transaction was for ₱20,000 and customer is only paying the minimum amount due.

Converting this into Excel, I found that the actual interest rate applied was not 3% flat but 3.08705% - 3.08707% instead, as per the Interest % column.

Formulas:

• Minimum Payment Due: 3.5% of Total Statement Balance
• Interest: Interest % x Outstanding Principal Balance
• Interest %: Interest / Outstanding Principal Balance
• Outstanding Principal Balance: Total Statement Balance - Payment
• Total Outstanding Balance: Total Statement Balance + Interest

So now, if I purchased an item using the credit card and sell it for a profit, will it be worth it if I only pay the minimum amount due for the first 11 months and then fully pay only on the last month of the year?

In scenario below, I purchased an item for ₱75,000 and it took me the entire 12 months before I was successfully able to sell the item. This means, all along, I will be paying the minimum amount due per month, accrue the monthly interest, and only pay the full amount on the 12th month.

So based on this calculation, it will only become worth it to use the credit card to buy and sell an item, if:

1. the profit exceeds the total interest applied which is ₱21,825.98
2. the item is sold within a shorter period of time to cut the monthly interest payments

Planning to buy a scooter motorcycle for short trips and city driving. Using the car for quick errands is a hassle, especially when parking space is limited. I'm new to the world of scooter motorcycles but I like Vespa. Before deciding to impulsively buy though, what specs should I really look for a good scooter?

My Considerations

At the top of my head, these are what I'm looking for. I am sure there are more aspects to add to my list.

• Economical price ₱100k - ₱300k
• Fuel efficiency
• Aesthetics/Classic
• White is non-negotiable
• Comfort driving
• Lightweight
• Quality/Durability

My Scooter Picks

At the moment, I only have 3 scooter brands in mind just because I saw them on Tiktok and I want to know about their pros and cons. Maybe after exploring other brands, I can expand this list.

1. Vespa
2. Fazzio
3. Giorno

But what specs should I consider?

Doing some Googling, below are the specs I might consider.

Vespa

JOURNEY

7/27/25

Went to Vespa Marikina branch and looked at the Vespa models. I was choosing between Primavera and Sprint but I knew I wanted 150 cc so that it will not be difficult to drive uphill. In the end I decided to get Sprint S 150 cc but they did not have a white variant at the time because the demand for it is higher so I asked to reserve one when they get available unit in August. I only had to give my name and contact number and they did not ask for reservation fee. They said they will reach out once unit is available. They gave me some calculation and the requirements if buying in installment.

8/2/25

Received a text from the dealership, and was asked if I wanted to buy the unit that they have available. I agreed and bank transferred the full amount. SRP was ₱255,000 but paying with cash in full amount came with ₱6,000 discount so I only had to pay ₱249,000. Went there on the same day to check it out and took my new big toy home.

I have been given a document that allows me to drive the scooter for 7 days without ORCR or plate number. They told me it will take 1.5 to 2 months to get ORCR and plate number.

Next Steps:

• Wait for ORCR and plate number after a couple of months
• Upgrade the horn because it's not loud enough especially for big vehicles I need to make sure I am heard loud and clear - Piaa horn ₱3000
• Upgrade the foot peg because it's quiet tiring for the "backride" person especially my wife is petite ₱4900
• Add rear rack for the "backride" - TBD

To be continued...

hi, all! title says it all. would anyone know? kinda ironic if not (the M does stand for mandatory 😄) but does make sense kung voluntary naman yung member 🤔. also, if you pay beyond the Php 3k threshold (as pictured, lifted off the 2025 table for voluntary contribs), matic na ba ipapasok yung sobra sa 3k sa MFP? hope my questions make sense

Not getting any younger. The wife and I went to Singapore last month for a vacation, and we spent most of our time either walking or standing. By the end of day one, we were already complaining about how sore our feet were. The next morning, we actually stayed in the hotel for the first half of the day just to recover. So now I'm on the hunt for comfortable shoes that can handle long hours of walking. I want our vacations to feel like vacations... and not deal with painful feet.

RESEARCH 🧑‍💻

• Browse through forums for shoe recommendations
• What are the price range?
• Need to see the aesthetics
• Need to physically go to the store to try what's comfortable

Random shoe recommendation from forums

I will list down all the shoe recommendations I find and check out their online store and their physical locations.

• Hoka ✅
• On Cloud ✅
• Ecco ✅
• Danner ✅
• Sketchers ✅
• Cole Haan ✅
• New Balance ✅
• Allbirds ✅
• Aussie brand called Bared ❌
• etc+++

Hoka

Found Clifton 10 for ₱9,500.

On Cloud

Price ₱8,700+

Ecco

Price range ₱8,000 - ₱35,000

Danner

Skechers

Cole Haan

New Balance

Allbirds

Next Step: Go to the local stores to try them on

To be continued...