I’ve already written different blogs on digital banks, such as GSave, Tonik and ING, and how they are a great way to store emergency funds and savings. Unfortunately, one of my favorite digital banks, ING, is leaving the Philippines soon. That’s why I’m going to share with you the newest digital bank in town, SeaBank! I personally have transferred a huge portion of my ING funds to SeaBank.
What’s so special about SeaBank? It’s the only digital bank that offers daily interest! Yes, you read that right, it’s a daily interest. Imagine waking up everyday a little richer, not to mention compounding interest (interest earning interest) works here as well.
SeaBank also currently offers a promo of 6% interest per annum up to September 30. The base interest rate is yet to be finalized. SeaBank will disclose this 30 days before the promotional rate ends. UPDATE: the interest rate is 4.5% per annum for the first ₱350k and 3% interest for excess.
SeaBank Philippines is the partner bank of Shopee, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia. This means you can transfer from Shopee directly to Seabank. You can check the promos where you can get Shopee coins by just depositing a certain amount and holding for a period of time. Seabank is also PDIC insured up to ₱500,000 per depositor just like any traditional or digital bank.
You can check a sample computation of daily interest below. There’s also no minimum balance, no cap for interest, and no lock in period which means it’s just as liquid as any other digital bank.
How to Start?
Just download the app in the Playstore or App Store. You can either use your mobile number or your Shopee account. Then ready your valid government ID for the usual KYC (Know Your Customer) process. You can use the referral code ED409341 when signing up to get 50 pesos, just make a one time deposit of at least 1000 pesos and hold for at least 3 days. It usually takes 1 business day before getting verified. You’ll know if you’re verified if you already have an account number. You can check the FAQs here.
Cash-In Options
You cannot cash in directly through banks to SeaBank. You can cash in instead using PesoNet and Instapay transfers from banks (Take note of possible charges/delays) using your account number and that’s it, you’ll have daily interest starting tomorrow.
Cash-Out Options
You can transfer to any bank for free through PesoNet or Instapay. You can add them as favorites so you won’t need to manually input the details every time. Currently, Seabank doesn’t offer any ATM for withdrawals, so you’d need to transfer to your bank account first before you can withdraw. UPDATE: Seabank offers 15 free transfers per week.
Final thoughts:
Our main goal for using digital banks is to have monthly interest, or in the case of SeaBank, daily interest, along with having free cash in and cash out. Because even if we have interest monthly (ex: ₱10), with transfer charges of 15 pesos each transfer, that just defeats the purpose of using digital banks.
With that, I highly recommend checking out TeamZeroFees as it guides you on how to incur zero fees on cash-in and cash-out transactions! My favorite feature is that you can just search for your traditional/digital bank or e-wallets. Then it’ll show you all the options available for cash-in and out. You can check out the super detailed matrix, It’s also updated regularly to include any changes or new banks.
Even though SeaBank’s daily interest is too good to pass up on putting all our savings, I still recommend diversifying to different digital banks, especially since each one is only insured up to ₱500,000 pesos. So that in the case one digital bank is on maintenance/not working properly, you’ll always have a back up.
Join FinLit, a Facebook group that I founded that reached 100,000 members in less than 19 months! I highly recommend joining the Digital Banks PH FB group to be updated in anything regarding digital banks. Lastly, join the Seabank FB group for specific updates.
