Remote workers are quite adept at earning money anywhere in the world. Online means to grow a career is quite second nature to us. But are there other options to make your money work for you online?
Here you can now save and grow your money online with the advent of digital banks. Digital banks are quite safer compared to other financial instruments like stocks and cryptocurrencies.
And right now, there are quite a lot to choose from.
Why Choose Digital Banks?
As of the moment, there are 41 million Filipinos who are unbanked. It’s not a surprise because most Filipinos, especially the poor, find it expensive to maintain a bank account.
Most digital banks offer no maintaining balance. And compared to commercial banks, the interest is way higher at around 2% – 6% as of date. Digital platforms can do this because they don’t have hefty overhead like bank branches.
The saved-up costs are then used as a marketing expense in the form of high-interest yields. Some even have free transfers and extra perks. It has PDIC insurance also like regular banks.
Most only need a valid ID to open an account online.
Are There Any Downsides?
What’s the downside? Well, it’s not perfect.
There’s no physical bank branch, so depositing and withdrawing your money might be hard for some. Some digital banks even charge a fee for both deposits and withdrawals. A few have debit cards but most have also a fee.
So you might need a regular bank or e-wallets alongside your digital banks to deposit and withdraw money from it.
Which One to Choose?
But if you got that covered, with no maintaining balance, high-interest rates, and other perks, it’s an excellent way to park your hard-earned money to grow. Which one to choose?
Here are the 5 best digital banks and the Philippines and their features.
GSave via CIMB
Almost every Filipino has a Gcash account. In fact, 60 million Filipinos have one. If you get your payments from clients to Gcash (most do because it has direct cash-in from Western Union, Paypal, and Payoneer), you might want to consider Gsave via CIMB.
Gsave offers 2.60% PA interest. And it can go up to 4% if you have at least 100,000 PHP deposited. Although, this is just a promo and might be gone in future months.
It’s also automatically connected to CIMB, its partner bank. You can make transactions on CIMB like free Instapay and Pesonet. Enjoy the features of Gcash and the free transfers with CIMB with your Gsave.
Maya
Gcash closest competitor Maya (formerly Paymaya) rebranded to become a full-fledged online bank. But should you even bother with it?
Surely because of the features unique to Maya today! To level the competition, Maya is offering a 6% PA interest up to 1,000,000 PHP until August 31, 2022.
It also has a personal goals account where you can organize your money with different savings goals and free Pesonet transfers until July 31, 2022. You can also participate in missions and get rewarded with vouchers.
Furthermore, what’s unique with this financial product is it can also serve as a crypto wallet. So if you’re planning to hold some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, it’s a digital bank worth trying out.
Diskartech RCBC
One of our local banks, RCBC, also offers digital banking solutions for Filipinos. Depositing will earn you 3.25% PA interest.
The Diskartech app aims to target “negosyanteng madiskarte” so the offering caters to business owners. The loan facility in this app shows that by having negosyo loans, Agri loans, auto loans, and even housing loans. It’s an app to raise the needed capital of every negosyante using it.
It also has missions where you can earn cash by doing simple tasks. What more can you ask for?
SEA Bank
Did you know that Shopee has its own bank now? Introducing SEA bank, named after its parent company SEA ltd.
SEA bank currently offers a 6% PA interest until September 2022. But what’s unique about this is the 6% is compounded DAILY! So you can see daily credits of interest.
So far, SEA bank has the highest interest because of its daily compounding. It also has free Instapay for your transfers.
Tonik
Tonik is probably my favourite digital bank. It offers a 4% PA when you use its “Stashing Accounts.” Basically, these are accounts where you can separate the money for your saving goals. Similar to Maya’s savings goals. And it’s not a promo.
Likewise, you can have a “group stash” or group savings accounts where you can save with your friends, family members, or special someone. The group stash offers a 4.5% PA interest.
If you have extra money, you can avail of their 6% PA interest time deposit for 6 months. It works like a time deposit but it’s withdrawable. If in case that you withdraw it before maturity, you will still earn 1% from holding the balance.
There’s also free Instapay and cash-in for select banks.
Conclusion
It’s a great time to use digital banking with all of its features today. But make sure to research for reliable ones to try out. There will be upcoming digital banks in the coming months. So bookmark this page to be updated with the latest in digital banking. Cheers!
