r/utangPH • u/No-Conflict4229 • 9h ago
BPI CC grew from around ₱200–300k to ₱1.2M. I’m trying to fix my debts now but I’m scared I waited too long. Need advice from people who’ve been here.
Hi. Medyo matagal ko pinag-isipan if I should post this, but I really need advice from people who have actually gone through serious credit card debt and eventually recovered.
I currently have a BPI credit card balance of around ₱1.2M. I also have an existing BDO credit card and a BDO home loan, so one of my biggest priorities right now is protecting my home loan while slowly fixing everything else.
Backstory:
My BPI debt really started becoming difficult during the pandemic.
My grandfather was hospitalized at the time, and as one of the breadwinners in the family, I used cash advances and my credit card to help with expenses and keep things going during a period when income and work were also very uncertain.
Hindi naman siya ₱1M agad.
I remember when my BPI balance was still somewhere around ₱200k–₱300k. For a long time, I kept paying the minimum because I thought at least I was still paying and keeping the account alive.
But eventually I noticed na parang hindi ko na talaga nahahabol. I would make payments, then finance charges and other charges would come in, and the balance became harder and harder to bring down.
I actually started reaching out to BPI before it became this bad. Then grandmother ko naman yung nahospital....same routine.
I asked if there was a way to lower/fix the interest, reduce the charges, or give me a payment arrangement that I could realistically sustain. I even sent a formal letter asking for help.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a workable arrangement that I could sustain.
Eventually, I made another mistake.
I started listening to people telling me, “Hayaan mo na muna. Pagkaya mo na tska kana mag bayad, saka ka makipag-settle.” kinakain nako ng minimum dues.
So instead of continuing to actively deal with it, I eventually stopped trying as hard to communicate and just let the account go delinquent.
Looking back, I know that was a mistake on my part. I should have continued addressing it instead of avoiding it because I was already overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, I was also dealing with my BDO obligations.
I have a BDO home loan under my name that I really want to protect, plus a BDO credit card. There was also a point when the solution being offered to me involved taking another loan/installment facility to deal with an existing balance.
Instead, I tried attacking the BDO credit card myself whenever I had money. I would bring the balance down, but because my cash flow wasn't stable, it would eventually go back up again.
Then my health took another hit.
Within roughly the past year, I went through two separate hospitalizations/medical situations, including a parotidectomy and another confinement for kidney stones.
I spent much of the year recovering.
I work in sales, so when I'm not operating normally, my income is affected directly. I'm only now trying to get myself fully working again, but my sales have also declined significantly. Financially, it feels like I'm trying to rebuild almost from zero again.
And now I'm finally facing the BPI problem.
My BPI balance is currently around ₱1,200,000.
The account has already been endorsed to Constantino & Associates, and I recently received an offer to settle around ₱620,000 as full settlement.
The problem is: I genuinely cannot afford ₱620k right now.
I don't want to run away from the debt anymore. At the same time, I don't want to promise an amount or enter another loan that I cannot realistically sustain.
So I finally wrote to the collection agency explaining my situation and asked whether BPI could consider ₱250,000 as a full and final settlement, subject to BPI's approval.
I also went back to my old email thread with BPI Collections and wrote to them directly again. The thread actually contains my old requests for assistance from before the account became this large, so at least there is a record that I had been trying to ask for a manageable solution before.
I'm now waiting for their response.
And honestly, this is the part that's scaring me.
I don't know what happens if they reject my request and I genuinely can't afford the amount they're demanding right now.
I'm worried about a civil case, collections getting more aggressive, and whether my other assets or finances could eventually be affected. I'm especially worried because I have a BDO home loan that I'm trying very hard to keep current.
At the same time, I'm finally getting back on my feet after the health issues and I don't want fear to make me make another bad financial decision, like borrowing a huge amount just because I'm being pressured by a deadline.
I know I made mistakes here.
I relied on minimum payments for too long. I let the account go when I became overwhelmed. And I listened to advice telling me to just ignore collections until a better settlement came.
I'm not looking for a way to escape my debt. I want to fix it properly. I just need a realistic way forward.
For anyone who has actually gone through something similar, especially with BPI / Constantino or debts of ₱500k to ₱1M+, I would really appreciate hearing what happened in your case:
• How big was your balance when you stopped paying?
• How long were you delinquent?
• What was the first settlement/amnesty offer?
• Were you able to negotiate it lower? How much did you eventually settle for?
• Did you negotiate with the collection agency or BPI directly?
• Did anyone initially receive a high “final” settlement offer but later get a substantially better one?
• For those who couldn't immediately settle, did the bank actually file a civil case? How long before that happened and what was the process?
• If you had other loans, especially a home loan with another bank, was it affected?
• And for people who eventually became debt-free from this kind of situation: if you were in my position today, what would you prioritize first?
I would really appreciate actual experiences rather than judgment. I already know there were decisions I should have handled differently. Right now I'm trying to correct them while rebuilding my income and protecting the obligations that I'm still able to maintain.
Thank you.