Banks. Money. Banks.

The streets of Binondo --- especially Quintin Paredes Rd. is lined with money --- err banks that is. Although most of my personal banking transactions I do through online banking, there are some errands that I have to do face-to-face with a teller. Fortunately, I work in the bank district of Binondo. I am a client of BPI, UCPB, Chinatrust, and BDO….and sometimes Security Bank. No, that doesn’t mean AT ALL that I have lots of moolah lying around. I guess it pretty much says that I have a lot of outstanding loans in different banks. LOL.

The good thing of banking in Binondo is that all the major banks are here. Name it and it’s just within walking distance from my office --- actually our office is in the same building of yet another Equitable turned BDO branch (but I prefer to transact in the original BDO branch across the street). And mostly they have extended transaction hours till 4:30 PM (except for UCPB which closes at 3 PM).

Luckily, the tellers at all the four banks I frequent are very pleasant. They at least know me by face and in the rare times that I don’t have an ATM when I badly needed to withdraw at BDO, they didn’t need me to show many IDs. The only sore spot for me is Chinatrust which doesn’t have many tellers and takes a bit longer to do transactions. The plus though is that they got chairs where you can wait for your turn and read the papers. The BDO branch below my office doesn’t let you sit while you wait for your turn which can take really long --- that’s why I prefer to go to the other BDO branch where there are seats.

Just today, I was able to withdraw, deposit, and make payment transactions at BPI, UCPB, and BDO --- all under 10 minutes! Luckily there wasn’t any line at all and all 3 banks were right beside each other.

I still think online banking is the way to go but having banks this near you --- face-to-face transacting is still a good option.