It’s been four years since we decided to adopt our youngest son. And since he is our third child, he doesn’t have so many firsts compared with his kuyas. He doesn’t have a baby book or passport (yet).
He hasn’t been on an airplane or traveled abroad, pending the finality from the court.
One thing we did recently though was to open him a bank account.
When I was in grade school, I used to get an allowance of one peso a day in four 25-centavo coins, if you remember the big ones. When I was a kid my dad gave me and my sister these cute little miniature drawers from Japan, where I would put 25 centavos a day. One day the box was full and I felt so rich! (There was probably five pesos in there.)
Saving money is something I like to teach young kids, like my sister Ana and my godchild Reggie when they were five or six years old. Since Christian is almost six years old, I took him to PSBank at The Crescent Building, Ortigas Center to open his first bank account. We chose PSBank because of its child-friendly Kiddie & Teen Savers program to encourage young people to save money.
PSBank’s Kiddie and Teen Savers account doesn’t require a minimum deposit or maintaining balance—but your child gets an insurance coverage of up to five times the average daily balance.
So if your child’s account is able to maintain an average daily balance of P1,000, he or she gets insurance coverage of P5,000. The account earns interest no matter how big or little is in the account.
Because Christian is under seven years old, I had to open the account in trust for him. I chose a savings account with a passbook and ATM card for Christian.
I brought two of my IDs, Christian’s school ID and a letter of guardianship from the court. For other kids, you may bring a birth certificate issued by the National Statistics Office.
I filled out some forms and had my picture taken for their file. We were in and out in about 30 minutes. I kind of like the shape of this passbook.
Joanne said when Christian turns seven, he can have his own ATM card (not that he needs one). Of course, you may also have a joint “and/or” account with your child and he or she will still be part of the program.
It was Christian’s first trip to the bank as a depositor and as you can see from the photos, we had a smooth time.
To know more about the program, click HERE.
Originally published at Chuvaness.com. You can comment here or there.