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Hi Bazatt suggest you keep going with HSBC, I have opened my account there remotely no issues at all. If you want I can give you the contact of my account manager in HSBC Makati, maybe that can help speed things up.

aklokow wrote:

Hi Bazatt suggest you keep going with HSBC, I have opened my account there remotely no issues at all. If you want I can give you the contact of my account manager in HSBC Makati, maybe that can help speed things up.

One form of ID that is easy to get, if you have a drivers license, you can get a PH drivers license without any tests. PH drivers license will have your photo on it.

With your passport you will have two forms of ID.

aklokow wrote:

Hi Bazatt suggest you keep going with HSBC, I have opened my account there remotely no issues at all. If you want I can give you the contact of my account manager in HSBC Makati, maybe that can help speed things up.

Hey, thanks for this. I’ll send you a pm. It’s getting frustrating now and I’ve actually put my expat account opening on hold as well. Can’t fathom why they’re so bad. Really considering just going with a local bank tbh.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

aklokow wrote:

Hi Bazatt suggest you keep going with HSBC, I have opened my account there remotely no issues at all. If you want I can give you the contact of my account manager in HSBC Makati, maybe that can help speed things up.

One form of ID that is easy to get, if you have a drivers license, you can get a PH drivers license without any tests. PH drivers license will have your photo on it.

With your passport you will have two forms of ID.

Thanks for the tip! Just got back from the LTO, a relatively painless if a little drawn out process. Had to wait until my visa extension was approved first but licence should on its way soon.

NBI clearance is the easiest PH ID to obtain and good for opening a bank account.

Bazatt wrote:

Really considering just going with a local bank tbh.

If so, check first if it has joined the bank guarantee system and pay the fees. Some of local banks have, some havent. If not you will loose all your money if the bank go bankruptcy - which  local banks do now and then.

You use to be able to open an account in PNB they have a few branches in the USA you do everything in the USA than go to the branch you picked in the Philippines and get your ATM cards and other

We were able to open two joint savings accounts (peso & US$) at BPI without ACR-I. My wife is a dual citizen (PH+US). It was not difficult but, like most tasks here, time-consuming. I had my passport, PH drivers license, proof of residence (copy of lease). We also got a BPI Visa card in both our names, handy for online purchases.
We were unsuccessful at PNB and BDO. But we did open a joint savings peso account at Metrobank w/o ACR-I card.

Went back to BDO after getting the ACR-I and was able to open a peso joint savings account, and also 3 passbook direct deposit (Social Security) peso accounts, one for me, one for my wife, one for my daughter with wife as "representative payee" because she's a minor. The SS peso passbook account has no ATM card, no online access, etc. You must go there in person to withdraw. We move the funds from passbook to regular savings so we can use debit card, have online access, etc. And we don't have to exit the bank lobby with a big wad of cash.

Billy

I do not have an ACR-I card because I am SRRV with SRRV member card. They may accept that as an alternative like they are supposed to but banks often do not even know what SRRV is. Anyway, I will not go to some bank here and get rejected because of an ACR-I card and I wonder why in the world anybody would want to put money in a Phils bank; for one thing their deposit insurance is only $10k, when you withdraw funds at the counter they ask what what you are going to do with the money, too often they are offline because of internet problems, for SSA you have to appear at the bank and wait in line (like in the 50's with a passbook), if your account is in their opinion "inactive" as in letting savings sit there and draw interest with not much activity, then without warning they will start stealing significant amounts of you balance for service fees (can be in the the hundreds of dollars) and banks here can much more easily go bankrupt leaving you to deal with PDIC to get your money back.