*Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on this but I’m posting my exerience in using my BPI Mastercard for installments.
It’s been almost a year ever since I got my BPI Mastercard. It was a bit scary at first because I’ve heard about people incurring very large debts. I’ve pretty much worked out a system and figured out how BPI does things.
Avoiding Finance Charges
A finance charge occurs if you have made any of the following:
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If you’ve made any straight charge and/or cash advance AND didn’t pay it off on your billing deadline. It doesn’t matter if you paid the minimum amount. A finance charge of the amount or remaining amount will reflect on the NEXT bill. (Ex. straight charge of 5k. Your bill was generated on May 18 with a deadline of June 6. If you have not paid by June 6 or paid only partial or minimum amount, what amount is left by the next billing date or July 18 will incur a finance charge)
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Unpaid installment charges. Of course any amount that is not paid will incur finance charges.
So basically, try to avoid any left-over amount on the next billing date. According to some people I’ve talked to, if you’ve managed to pay approximately 72 hours after your deadline, sometimes there’s no finance charge.
Just to remind you, any cash advance automatically has a corresponding charge of cash advance interest of 4%, this is not the finance charge.
Installment Promos
Most of the purchases I’ve done so far was with the 0% interest rate promo of BPI. As what the agents have explained, there’s no hidden charges for this. So ask the establishment if there is a promo of BPI. As long as you pay the monthly installment rate, you will not incur any finance charges.
There’s also the SIP but that’s another post for today.
If I’ve made any errors, please feel free to comment.
Addicted :P 
mavie Said:
on April 29, 2016 at 8:47 pm
Thank you so much or this blog! Very helpful! 😉
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C.A.T.Guy Said:
on April 29, 2016 at 8:52 pm
No probs
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mavie Said:
on April 30, 2016 at 12:02 am
“what amount is left by the next billing date or July 18 will incur a finance charge”
If have 5k balance and I only paid 2k, does it mean that the base amount of the finance charge would be 3k? not 5k?
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C.A.T.Guy Said:
on April 30, 2016 at 12:05 am
Approximately it would. The whole computation does include the number of days you paid but to make it simple, any amount left over is the base for finance charge. The number if days just provides a small increase to the amount.
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C.A.T.Guy Said:
on April 30, 2016 at 12:06 am
It’s also the reason why most people’s debt grow. They pay only the minimum amount.
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