Philippine Bank Charges Compared

As banks adopt the digital age, they’ve become more useful and convenient. Being able to transfer funds, check your balance and sometimes even deposit a check all through your phone is hassle-free and saves a lot of time. However, banks do charge a small fee when using their services. To demystify what’s written on the fine print, we’ve compiled the transaction fees that these banks charge their clients for using their most popular services: balance inquiry, withdrawing funds, bank transfers, as well as their withdraw limit.

Author’s Note: These fees apply to these bank’s basic, savings, and debit accounts. Other accounts may have different transaction rates. Also, since most banks’ services are free when using their own ATMs, the fees we compared are when you’re using competing banks’ ATMs.

Here’s a table of ATM fees of 9 of the most popular banks in the Philippines:

Most banks in our list offer free or discounted services when using their ATMs for your transactions. Most fees typically come from transacting with a competing bank’s ATM. Inquiring the remaining Balance of your account costs PHP 1.00USD 0.02INR 1EUR 0.02CNY 0.12 per transaction at PSBank, Security Bank, Land Bank, and China Bank, while BPI charges PHP 1.50USD 0.03INR 2EUR 0.02CNY 0.19. BDO, Metrobank, PNB, and RCBC charge PHP 2.00USD 0.03INR 3EUR 0.03CNY 0.25 per transaction. Lastly, Unionbank charges the most at PHP 10USD 0.17INR 14EUR 0.16CNY 1 when checking your balance from a different ATM.

If you’re looking to get an ATM mainly as a way to store and withdraw cash, then PSBank, Security Bank, and Land Bank are your best options as they only charge PHP 10USD 0.17INR 14EUR 0.16CNY 1 when using other bank’s ATMs. BDO and PNB are the second least expensive at PHP 11USD 0.19INR 16EUR 0.18CNY 1, followed by UnionBank who charges PHP 12USD 0.20INR 17EUR 0.19CNY 1, then RCBC who charges PHP 14USD 0.24INR 20EUR 0.23CNY 2, then BPI and China Bank, who charge the most at PHP 15USD 0.26INR 22EUR 0.24CNY 2 per withdrawal.

For interbank fund transfers, UnionBank offers the lowest rate at PHP 10USD 0.17INR 14EUR 0.16CNY 1 (when using InstaPay, followed by PSBank who offers fund transfers at PHP 15USD 0.26INR 22EUR 0.24CNY 2 (when using InstaPay), followed by Metrobank, Security Bank, PNB, Land Bank, and China Bank, who all charge PHP 25USD 0.43INR 36EUR 0.41CNY 3 per transaction. Both BPI and BDO are the most expensive, and they charge PHP 50USD 0.85INR 72EUR 0.81CNY 6 for Interbank transfers.

If you withdraw large sums of cash at a time, then BPI is your best bet since it allows you to set your withdrawal limit to PHP 60,000USD 1,022INR 86,676EUR 974CNY 7,446.  RCBC, Security Bank, PNB, and Land Bank, on the other hand, all offer a PHP 50,000USD 852INR 72,230EUR 812CNY 6,205 daily limit to withdrawals, but you can withdraw the most per transaction (PHP 20,000USD 341INR 28,892EUR 325CNY 2,482) with RCBC. PSBank and Metrobank both allow you to withdraw PHP 30,000USD 511INR 43,338EUR 487CNY 3,723 a day, and lastly, China Bank, UnionBank, and BPI (if you’re a personal client) only allow its clients to withdraw up to PHP 20,000USD 341INR 28,892EUR 325CNY 2,482 per day.

While you should take note of transaction costs as they add up over time, it’s not the be-all-end-all of banking. Make sure you choose a bank that has all the services you’d use, with a branch and ATMs located near you.

And there you have it! A table of transaction fees that banks charge their clients. We hope this article helps you in choosing which bank to use in the future.