Opening Bank Account - No Acr I-Card

[Americano]

Bob,

 

I believe you are correct and the reason is the bank manager has the authority to change the requirements for opening an account.  That's what I was told in the past.

[Jollygoodfellow]

Bob,

 

I believe you are correct and the reason is the bank manager has the authority to change the requirements for opening an account.  That's what I was told in the past.

 

My guess is if you walk in and say you want a bank account to place a x amount of dollars in then if the figure was high to their standard most would open you an account. But I could be wrong.  :)

[FlyAway]

This is all going to come down to who you know and who in the bank is willing to help setup the account. When we setup our BPI account here in USA the woman in charge used to be a BPI branch manager in Philippines. She knew all the right contacts and know how to set it all up. By contacts, I mean she knew what person to send correspondence to, she may not have personally known the person. She is no longer with the remittance company and no one there now has a clue about setting up accounts.

 

Since everything sort of works in slow motion in Philippines, I would try setting up a simple savings account. Then start building it up. You can then get ATM cards when you are in Philippines. May take a few weeks of course. Once cash is flowing into the account you could approach them about other types of accounts. Bankers in Philippines are going to be super over cautious about potential fraud.

 

 

[Americano]

Mr. Fly could be correct but sounds more like a conspiracy theory to me.  One thing he got correct is everything works in slow motion in the Philippines.  Never expect anything to be accomplished fast and easy in the Philippines.

[Markham]

It is possible to open bank accounts here with either no ACR-I Card or with one. BUT: there are two kinds of ACR-I Card: those issued to tourists and those issued to permanent residents. Under Central Bank rules, Banks can only accept the full, permanent residents' card if you want full-service banking, ie: the ability to credit your account(s) with Philippine Pesos, regardless of where those funds originate.

 

The above is a statement of the law but it is not always practised by individual bank officials quite as assiduously as they should. I have heard of visitors opening accounts here within days of arrival and who truly believe they can pay-in Pesos; in some cases they may be able to but that will only last until the next inspection by CB officials.

 

This can, of course, cause some difficulty to tourists who gamble successfully since they are prohibited to (attempt to) take more foreign currency out of the country than they declared on arrival and in no event more than $10,000.