How to add COLFinancial Account as a BDO Merchant

One of the ways to fund your COLfinancial Account is by BDO online transfer.

Steps:

1. Log in to your BDO online account.

2. From the left panel, choose "Enrollment Services". >Company/Biller. >Enrol

3. Fill up the Enrollment details. The "Subscriber Number" is your COL Account number. Then hit, >Submit.

4. A confirmation page will be shown and an email will be sent to your registered email address for the success of your Merchant Enrollment.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year.

Online Enrollment for your BDO Savings Account

Have a BDO Savings Account by visiting one of the nearest branches in the Philippines. It took me around 1 hour to open an account in Iloilo branch (a lot of clients that time).

As an OFW, it is an advantage for us to have our savings account enrolled and linked in Internet Banking provided by the banks (that's for free). This is to facilitate our online transactions (fund transfer, remittance, pay bills, fund investments, etc).

The following are the steps for enrolling your account online:

1. Open your Savings Account (as an OFW, I opened the BDO Kabayan Savings Account. Refer here for for more info).

2. When ready to enroll online, go to https://www.bdo.com.ph.

3. Hover your mouse pointer to the upper right of the page and click "Not yet enrolled? Enroll Now."

4.  Fill up all the required fields in the form and submit.

5. You need to print a copy of the "BDO Quick Enrollment Acknowledgement" page and bring it to the bank where your account is maintained OR visit to one of the any ATM machines and activate your enrollment there. Don't forget to copy the activation code as you will need it in the ATM machine. Instructions will be emailed to you also including the Activation Code.

6. After Activating, you will receive an email again stating that you can start accessing your account and do banking transactions 24 hrs after receiving such email notification.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year.

Send Money online to PNB and BPI through POSB

Filipinos in Singapore who want to send money online may do so through POSB by:

1. Go to Philippine National Bank (PNB) in Lucky Plaza, Orchard Road and fill-up some forms to allow you to transact online using POSB account. From there, PNB will issue to you a "14-digit remitter beneficiary number". Ask for the same beneficiary number for your BPI Account also. These numbers will correspond to your Philippine bank account you wish to transfer money (PNB or BPI account numbers). Example of the 14-digit number for a BPI Account is 17600001234567.

2. Log-in to your POSB online account.

3. Go to >Payments, >Bill Payment, choose from dropdown menu "Philippine National Bank", >Submit

4. Choose from what account will you get the funds, fill in the amount and provide the 14-digit remitter number provided to you by PNB in "Consumer Reference No." field. Submit.

5. You'll receive a confirmation page that transfer is successful.

NOTE: Transaction was done on a Tuesday at 10:14 PM Singapore Time. Funds Available only to BPI account on Thursday.

When transaction done on a Thursday after 10:00PM. Funds is available to BPI account on the following Monday.

According to my collegues, you can also do this online transactions with BDO and Metrobank.

How to monitor your Stocks and Mutual Funds

One way to monitor your investments in Stocks and Mutual Funds is to have a Bloomberg.com account. You can create watchlists and label them (Long Term, Short Term, Mutual Fund, Mobile, etc.). 

Watchlists can track gains, loses and performance over time.

Steps:

1. Go to www.bloomberg.com.

2. Complete the registration form to create your account.

3. Sign-in after your successful registration.

4. After you signed in, go to Watchlist.

5. To add your stocks or Mutual Fund, click Add Positions.

6. For example, I want to add JFC (Jollibee Food Corp). In Bloomberg, Philippine Companies have a suffix :PM, for example JFC:PM.

7. JFC is now added in you watchlist.

8. After you added your stocks, go to "Edit" then "Add New Lot".

9. Add Date, Position and Price.

10. Then, Save Changes.

Learn to Earn.

How to pay your Kaiser Health Premium through BPI online

Steps to pay your Kaiser Health premium online through BPI Express Online:

1. Go to http://www.bpiexpressonline.com/.

2. Log in to your BPIexpressonline account.

3. Go to "Payments & Reloading" > "Bills Payment" > "Enroll all other Bills".

4. Fill up your ATM Card Number, JAI Number (available on your ATM Card). For the Company Name, choose from the drop down menu "KAISER INTERNATIONAL HEALTH (KAISER)" and for the Reference Number use your Application Number and NOT the policy number. Your application number starts with "8" and followed by a series of numbers. Replace this "8" with "0"; so your application number should be in this format: 00001234567. After filling up, hit the "submit" button below.

4. You'll received a confirmation of Enrollment of Bills. And an email from BPI.

You can now pay your Kaiser Premium:

1. Go to "Payments & Reloading" > "Bills Payment" > "Pay Bills Today".

2. From the drop down menu of "Pay", choose your KAISER Account (you can rename it to your preferred name). Enter the amount of your premium and choose from which of your bank account you want it paid. For my records, I put on the remarks field the month and year of the premium paid. After filling up, hit the "submit" button below.

3. You'll receive Bills Payment from ATM Account confirmation. And an email from BPI.

It is time to invest in the Stock Market



The years before, I was so skeptical joining and investing in the Stock Market. I thought it was only for the rich. I thought it would be very difficult to read the charts.

But after watching the videos of Pesos and Sense in Youtube (the whole season 1); I was encouraged to know more about investing in the Stock Market. 

It was easy to open an account for us OFW's:

1.) Print and fill-up the forms (available here)

2.) Prepare your valid ID's, i.e. valid government issued ID's or your passport (I used my Voter's ID, Passport and Singapore issued pass)
3.) Billing Statement - Recent, no later than 3 months past

4.) Scan and email the forms to colfinancial's customer service representative. This is for them to check if you have filled the form correctly and completely.

5.) If your form is complete, they will advise you to send them the form. I send mine by Singapore Post's registered mail.

6.) Once they received your application form, they will email you to fund your account. Once your account is funded, you can already start to be a business partner of big companies like SM, BDO, BPI, Jollibee, and a lot more.

Timeline when and how I started:

     - Friday, June 08, 2012: Emailed COL (see email below) if I can use my Singapore address when opening an account

     - Monday, June 11, 2012: COL representative replied and instructed me to provide the latest billing statement 

               with a Singapore address and advised me to send in the form first by email for pre checking before 
               sending it by courier.

     - Sunday, June 24, 2012: I send the form to COL for pre checking.

     - Monday, June 25, 2012: COL replied and advised me to send the forms through courier

     - Tuesday, June 26, 2012: Mailed the form through SingPost (receipt here).

     - Friday, July 06, 2012: COL emailed and notified me that they received my forms and my account was already 

              aproved and ready for funding. They provided me my Account number also in the email and instructions

              how to fund my account.

     - Sunday, July 08, 2012: Added COL Financial Group Inc to BPI Bill's Payment.

     - Sunday, July 08, 2012: Funded my COL account through BPI Bill's Payment.

     - Monday, July 09, 2012: Forwarded to COL copy of my payment. COL acknowledged the receipt of my email, 
                                         informed me that my account is processed and ask me to wait for my log-in details
                                         within 24 hours. In the same day (afternoon), my COL account was activated already.
     - Tuesday, July 10, 2012: I received my "Notice of Deposit" from COL.
     - Monday, July 16, 2012: I bought my first stock, SMPH.
     - Tuesday, July 17, 2012: I bought my second stock, BDO.

Happy Learning and Earning Everyone!