7 Best Savings Account With Free Life Insurance
If you are looking for ways to maximize your savings, getting a savings account with free life insurance is one of the wisest things to do. In this post, I’ll explain the advantages of getting yourself one, as well as the best savings accounts with free life insurance here in the Philippines.
When I started working, I knew that I should save some money from my paycheck every month. But the problem I encountered in those early years is that I’m just saving but I don’t know what I’m saving for.
I don’t have a target amount as well. When my savings reach the 10k to 20k mark, I’m already thinking about what I will buy or where I should spend it.
I thought that’s the purpose of saving, to buy and spend it on things that make me feel good. And this cycle continued until I came to realize my savings were going nowhere.
Yes, young, dumb, and broke as they say and I’m sure I’m not the only one who experienced this. But that’s okay, we all commit mistakes and the fact you’re reading this article right now proves that you are getting serious with your money.
There are a lot of savings accounts that banks here in the Philippines offer. But there is one in particular that offers more than just interest. It’s savings with free life insurance.
What does savings account with free life insurance mean?
This is a type of savings account that gives interest plus free life insurance in just one product. The coverage of free life insurance is usually computed based on your average daily balance (ADB) or the total deposited amount.
Savings account with free life insurance in the Philippines
Actually, there are quite a lot of banks that already offer this type of account. But I will only enumerate the products which I think are the best ones for you to easily choose and for you to save time. And that’s the purpose of this blog, after all, to provide you an easy-to-read article that recommends the best financial products out there.
Please note that all information shared here is based on the current information posted on their websites when this article was written.
1. BPI Save-Up with free accident and life insurance
BPI Save-UP is savings account that allows you to set automatic debit from a BPI savings account to your Save up account. It comes with a free accident and life insurance, and an Info card which serves as proof of the free life insurance coverage.
Initial deposit: No initial deposit required
Maintaining balance: Php 1,000
Balance to earn interest: Php 5,000
Interest Rate (Per Annum): 0.25%
Low Transfer Amount: You can set as low as P250 to transfer to your Save-Up account.
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage worth 5x your ADB of the past three calendar months, up to a maximum limit of Php 2 Million.
Free Accident Insurance: Accident insurance coverage worth 5x your ADB of the past three calendar months, up to a maximum limit of Php 2 Million.
2. BPI Pamana Savings Account
For the BPI Pamana Savings Account, you can either choose an account with a Debit card or a Passbook. Both earn a 0.25% interest rate per annum and come with free life insurance.
Debit card:
Initial Deposit: Php 25,000
Maintaining balance: Php 25,000
Balance to earn interest: Php 25,000
Flexible Access: Use your debit card to withdraw at ATMs, do online transactions and debit purchases.
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage worth 3x your ADB of the past three calendar months, up to a maximum limit of Php 2 Million.
Passbook:
Initial Deposit: Php 75,000
Maintaining balance: Php 75,000
Balance to earn interest: Php 75,000
Convenient Monitoring: Easy record-keeping through a passbook.
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage worth 3x your ADB of the past three calendar months, up to a maximum limit of Php 2 Million.
3. CIMB UpSave Account
CIMB Bank Philippines (PH), an all-digital bank through their mobile app, offers this savings account with free life insurance once you hit a balance of Php 100,000.
Initial Deposit: No initial deposit required
Maintaining balance: No maintaining balance
Balance to earn interest: Php 1.00
Interest Rate (Per Annum): 4.00%
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage worth 2x your ADB of the past three calendar months, up to a maximum limit of Php 2 million.
4. Maybank Philippines Save ‘n Protect Savings Account
Maybank Philippines Save ‘n Protect is a savings account with a Passbook and a regional ATM card which you can use at any Maybank ATMs in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei free of charge. This also comes with free life insurance as long as you maintain a P50,000 in Average daily balance.
Initial Deposit: Php 50,000
Maintaining balance: Php 20,000
Balance to earn interest: Php 20,000
Interest Rate (Per Annum): 0.25 %
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage equal to 2x of the previous month’s ADB, up to a maximum limit of Php 5 million per account.
5. RCBC eWoman Savings
RCBC eWoman is a savings account specially designed for women. It comes with a Passbook and Debit card.
Initial Deposit: Php 15,000
Maintaining balance: Php 15,000
Balance to earn interest: Php 25,000
Interest Rate (Per Annum): 0.15%
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage is thrice (3x) the 6 month’s ADB, up to a maximum limit of Php 2 million.
6. RCBC iSave
Isave is a virtual savings account that earns interest with free personal accident insurance and hospitalization benefits.
Initial Deposit: No initial deposit required
Maintaining balance: No maintaining balance
Balance to earn interest: Php 5,000
Interest Rate (Per Annum):
Php 5,000 to < Php 100,000 – 0.150%
Php 100,000 to < Php 500,000 – 0.175%
Php 500,000 and above – 0.200%
Free Personal Accident Insurance and Hospitalization Benefit : (no information available on their website on how much is the coverage of these, you can visit their branch or call their customer service if you’re interested in this product.)
7. Security Bank All Access Checking Account
All access is both savings and checking accounts. It comes with a passbook, checkbook, debit card, and free life insurance.
Initial Deposit: Php 5,000
Maintaining balance: Php 25,000
Balance to earn interest: Php 100,000
Interest Rate (Per Annum): 0.10%
Free Life Insurance: Insurance coverage up to 3x your ADB of the past three months, up to a maximum limit of Php 3 Million.
Savings with free life insurance VS. Savings and a separate life insurance
If you’re just starting out on your financial journey or a millennial who doesn’t have dependents yet, savings with free life insurance is really a good option where you can put your savings or emergency fund. It will allow you to “hit two birds with one stone”, to build savings and to be insured.
But this is not really sustainable especially in the long term. Since this is your savings or emergency fund, most likely you will use the money you have saved once the need arises which will affect the insurance portion.
If you noticed on the products I mentioned above, the amount of your insurance is based on the amount deposited or account balance.
Let’s say you have a Php50,000 ADB of the past three calendar months on your account, assuming you have the BPI Save up which gives you an insurance coverage of 5X your account balance, this will only give your beneficiaries Php 250,000 if ever something bad happens to you. Which is still a good amount but not really significant once you already have dependents.
If you already built your emergency fund then I suggest that you now get a separate life insurance. This will ensure that even if you use the money on your savings or you choose to close the account, you are still insured with a significant amount that can help your dependents if ever the inevitable circumstances happen.
You will also be able to choose an insurance product that fits your needs and not just one that solely provides a death benefit. It will cost you since you’re now going to pay a premium but you can just redirect the funds you used to put into your savings.
If you are putting Php 2,000 per month to your savings before, you can now allocate this fund to pay your premium since you already completed your emergency fund.
Claim Process
Claiming for the free life insurance of these savings accounts have different processes.
What I suggest is that you should at least tell one or two of your family members or beneficiaries that you have free life insurance tied with your savings account. And they may call the customer service of the banks or visit the branch where you opened your savings account in case of a claim.
The free life insurance should be treated separately from the savings account. So even if the savings account is frozen subject to the payment of estate taxes, the beneficiary will still be able to claim the insurance proceeds right away upon completing the required documents.
Final note
Savings with free life insurance only proves that there are a lot of financial products to choose from that can help you reach your financial goals. You just need to think and look carefully at what you actually need.
Don’t fall into a trap when someone tells you to invest in something that will double your money in no time or asking you to join at something where you just need to pay a membership fee for monthly payouts.
Even if those are true, are those what you really need right now? How about the financial and mental disaster it may bring you if those are scams? And I really bet those are.
As cliche as it may sound, investing in your own self still pays the best interest. Educate yourself first before getting any financial product.
A lot of people think they are in good financial status when they have “INvestments”, bitcoin, stocks, hype sneakers, etc. These are illiquid investments, meaning you cannot just easily sell these if you urgently need money. That’s why it’s very important to have a good financial base.
Start saving for an emergency fund first and then get life insurance, or consider what we have discussed, get savings with free life insurance.
3 Comments
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j Dela Cruz
This is great for those who are building their emergency fund! having savings and insurance in one product is better than separate (more expensive?) product, this may not be compared to other insurance product but it’s a great start.
Sheila
Definitely agree with you, j!