My sibs and I challenged our niece to save up so she won’t be tempted to spend her leftover allowance money buying senseless stuff haplessly and impulsively. She accepted our challenge like a champ so we then decided it’s about time for her to open her own bank account since she’s already 10 years old (under our supervision of course) to teach her the importance of frugality and the value of saving at such a young age. I remember how aghast she was one day after watching a feature story on those who lost almost half of their life savings after termites ate off their precious banknotes as a result of improper safekeeping. The thought of losing the money she fervently saved made her decide to keep her bills tucked inside one of those plastic cups to veer away from mites which was of course an equally very poor way to keep your money. This served as an impetus for us to inoculate her to open a savings account for kids since some banks already allow kids as young as 10 years of age to open an account under their name which I thought was excellent as it will teach a child to save up for the rainy days. I decided to scour online for the best kiddie savings account around and by far BPI is the most hassle free in terms of requirements. I thought, the less requirements, the easiest to comply. I was disappointed though that BPI’s website did not help that much because aside from it's never updated, it was totally incomplete as well. So, I just resorted to blogs instead to know more how BPI Jumpstart works.
BPI Jumpstart
According to one blog post dated years ago, I only need to bring the following requirements to open a Jumpstart account for my niece—child’s NSO Birth Certificate, School ID signed by school head, Two (2) 1×1 ID picture, Initial deposit of Php100 & Utility Bill with your permanent address which I gladly prepared a day before my visit to the nearest BPI where I'm at. The next day, after waiting for my turn for nearly half an hour, customer service advised they only need the following requirements below and gave me this piece of paper to open a Jumpstart account for a child/minor 10-17 years of age:
I thought the requirements for students were quite vague say for example it says 'school ID (w/signature)' of whom?? It did not even clearly state School ID signed by school head. So what I did, I brought along a photocopy of each of the requirements just to make sure which I’m glad I did. I always come prepared to save time and money for fare or gas because I hate 'installment' trips. Below are the actual requirements I carried with me which were all submitted to BPI. Make sure to bring along all the original requirements with you along with the photocopies because the bank representative will compare the photocopies from the original ones or at least I think they will. I believe it's a way to discern if there's any alterations, falsifications or whatever.
1. School ID signed by school head + 1 photocopy of it = the photocopy should show both the front and back of your ID in one page to avoid hassle or so long as the school head signature is visible.
2. Certificate of Enrolment + 1 photocopy of it = You have to personally request this from the school and pay a minimal fee which varies from school to school. My niece’s school only charges P30 (again it varies). It will bear the name of the requestor (parent or guardian), school head/principal’s signature and school seal. I only submitted a photocopy to BPI which they were ok with.
3. Recent Proof of billing (original) + 1 photocopy of it = Any utility bill will do so long as it matches the child’s current address as this is crucial therefore it should match exactly. I gave the first page of my recent PLDT Home Fibr/dsl bill (original) to BPI because I forgot to photocopy it (I'm also enrolled in paperless billing anyways).
4. Two (2) colored 1×1 ID picture
5. Initial deposit of Php100
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| student enrollment certificate sample |
2. Certificate of Enrolment + 1 photocopy of it = You have to personally request this from the school and pay a minimal fee which varies from school to school. My niece’s school only charges P30 (again it varies). It will bear the name of the requestor (parent or guardian), school head/principal’s signature and school seal. I only submitted a photocopy to BPI which they were ok with.
3. Recent Proof of billing (original) + 1 photocopy of it = Any utility bill will do so long as it matches the child’s current address as this is crucial therefore it should match exactly. I gave the first page of my recent PLDT Home Fibr/dsl bill (original) to BPI because I forgot to photocopy it (I'm also enrolled in paperless billing anyways).
4. Two (2) colored 1×1 ID picture
5. Initial deposit of Php100
Sadly, because BPI did not indicate these things on their website for security reasons or whatever, I had to come back the next day to accomplish all of the requirements which sucks big time. BPI though did provide a bank form which my niece was able to partly accomplish at home.
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| BPI Jumpstart ATM/EMV card |
Because I have all the requirements with me during my second visit, my niece was able to finally open her new BPI Jumpstart account and got her ATM/debit card the same day. All we did was accomplish some more forms and changed the pin of her shiny new EMV ATM/debit card and off we go.
Jumpstart account FYI...
• Account balance must not fall below Php1000 which applies after one year (from the date you open the account) to avoid getting charge a fee.
• account must have Php2000 or more in order to earn interest (not mandatory) if you want your money to grow
• and last but not least...you must not empty the account otherwise it will automatically close. Furthermore, please refer to BPI’s website for further details.
• Account balance must not fall below Php1000 which applies after one year (from the date you open the account) to avoid getting charge a fee.
• account must have Php2000 or more in order to earn interest (not mandatory) if you want your money to grow
• and last but not least...you must not empty the account otherwise it will automatically close. Furthermore, please refer to BPI’s website for further details.
I hope this lengthy blog post of mine helps somehow (although sometimes bank requirements changes from time to time). As an end note, no matter how time consuming to visit the bank, if all the information that you need isn’t available online, you still do not have any choice but visit the nearest BPI branch in your area otherwise call their customer service line or shoot them an email first hoping they will respond soon.
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