Maintaining balance by bank: every Philippine bank's minimum and below-balance fee

Maintaining balance, initial deposit and below-balance fee at 12 Philippine banks.

Short answer A basic peso savings account at a traditional Philippine bank needs ₱500 to ₱10,000 kept as an average daily balance, and the monthly charge for staying below it runs from ₱200 to ₱1,000. BSP rules let a bank collect that charge only after two consecutive months below the requirement, and cap any dormancy fee at ₱30 a month. Six digital banks publish no maintaining balance at all.

At a glance

• Lowest maintaining balance in this table₱500, LandBank Savings Account with ATM AccessLandBank ↗ · checked 2026-09-27
• Highest below-balance fee in this table₱1,000 a month, UnionBank peso savings and current accountsUnionBank ↗ · checked 2026-09-27
• When a below-balance fee may startafter two consecutive months below the required average daily balanceBSP ↗ · checked 2026-09-27
• Dormancy fee ceiling₱30 a month, and only five years after the last activityBSP ↗ · checked 2026-09-27
• Basic deposit account₱100 or less to open, no maintaining balance, ₱50,000 ceilingBSP ↗ · checked 2026-09-27
• Maintaining balance removed at Metrobank eSavingsMay 2026Metrobank ↗ · checked 2026-09-27

Maintaining balance and below-balance fee by bank

One row per bank, for the basic peso savings account each one sells with a debit card or over the counter. Maintaining balance means the average daily balance (ADB) the bank asks you to keep in the account each month.

What sits behind the softer cells:

• PNB. The figures come from a client advisory published June 13, 2025 and effective August 15, 2025, printed as a from-and-to conversion table. A second PNB advisory on the MyFirst conversion gives the same ₱3,000 maintaining balance and ₱350 penalty for Debit Savings, so those two hold; the column alignment of the initial deposit rests on one document only, and neither says how many months pass before the penalty (PNB ↗).
• Security Bank. The fees page gives ₱30 a month starting on the 61st month, while Security Bank’s help centre still lists ₱350 a month, effective October 15, 2018 (Security Bank help centre ↗). BSP caps a dormancy fee at ₱30, and the fees page is the newer document, so ₱30 is what the table carries.
• UnionBank. Personal Savings has no required opening or maintaining amount, but it carries a ₱500 annual service fee, effective May 1, 2025 (UnionBank ↗); UnionBank says ₱10,000 in ADB waives the fee for the following year (UnionBank ↗). The ₱1,000 charge applies to peso savings and current accounts that do carry an ADB requirement.
• China Bank. The ₱300 monthly fee for peso savings and checking comes from China Bank’s fee schedule, effective January 2025 (China Bank ↗ · checked 2026-10-13). China Bank’s general terms state the timing: a fee applies when the balance “falls below the minimum monthly ADB for at least two (2) consecutive months” (China Bank ↗).
• BPI. The ₱300 figure comes from a BPI advisory published November 16, 2020. BPI’s current account maintenance and transaction fee page lists no below-ADB charge (BPI ↗), while its terms and conditions keep the two-month rule.
• RCBC and EastWest. Both publish an amount (₱500) without a month count, so the timing column stays empty rather than borrowing the BSP minimum as if the bank had stated it. RCBC’s retail terms say only that “Dormant Accounts that are below monthly maintaining average daily balance (ADB)” face service charges (RCBC ↗).
• AUB. The product tabs on AUB’s deposit page did not render, so the account’s published name is unconfirmed. The no-dormancy-fee line comes from an AUB fee schedule dated 2018 (AUB ↗).

Banks with no maintaining balance

GoTyme’s “no minimum maintaining balance” wording covers GoalSave, its savings pocket. For the main deposit account, GoTyme’s terms say a monthly maintenance fee applies below a required ADB. Two traditional banks open no-maintaining-balance accounts in-app as well: Metrobank eSavings, and PSBank Peso Savings for new clients, where ₱5,000 is the ADB to earn interest (PSBank ↗). AUB lists an ATM savings account on the same page as its passbook product with no maintaining balance, ₱1,000 to earn interest and a one-time ₱150 card fee, but the product name did not render (AUB ↗).

Tip Maya Savings and the Maya wallet are different products. Maya’s terms for the wallet set “a monthly account maintenance fee of PHP 30” deducted from the wallet balance (Maya ↗), while the savings account has no minimum to start.

BSP rules on below-balance and dormancy fees

A bank may charge for a shortfall only if the requirement and the fee are disclosed in the account’s terms and the balance has stayed “below the required minimum monthly ADB for at least two (2) consecutive months” (BSP ↗). The same 2016 circular, which amends Sec. X263 of the Manual of Regulations for Banks, allows a dormancy fee only five years after the last activity and sets the ceiling: “The monthly dormancy fee shall not exceed thirty pesos (P30.00)”. We link that circular instead of citing a number, because the file BSP publishes and the number printed in its header do not match.

Dormant status arrives earlier than the fee. The circular classifies a “Savings account showing no deposit or withdrawal for a period of two (2) years.” as dormant, which is why several banks in the table name year two for dormancy and year five for the charge.

A charge on an account that met its requirement is not allowed. BSP told banks that a fee on “accounts that meet the required monthly ADB is considered a violation” of Sec. X263 (BSP Memorandum M-2011-030 ↗).

Basic deposit accounts and who offers one

BSP Circular No. 992 created a deposit product built for people who cannot fund a regular account: “Opening amount Not more than P100.00”, no minimum maintaining balance, no dormancy charges, and a ₱50,000 ceiling above which the bank converts it to a regular account (BSP ↗). BSP’s own summary lists “no maintaining balance, no dormancy charges, P50,000 maximum balance” with simplified ID requirements, adding that “A client should only have one (1) BDA in a bank.” (BSP ↗).

Among the banks in the table above, two call a product a basic deposit account on their own pages. RCBC Basic Savings invites you to “Start saving with a basic deposit account”, with ₱100 minimum initial deposit, no required ADB, a ₱50,000 maximum balance, no interest and ₱500 for closure within six months (RCBC ↗). China Bank Savings, China Bank’s thrift subsidiary, sells a Basic Deposit Account with no initial deposit requirement and “No minimum monthly Average Daily Balance (ADB) requirement”, opened only through its CBS Go app (China Bank Savings ↗).

LandBank PISO and PISO PLUS carry similar terms on LandBank’s deposit poster, a ₱50,000 ceiling with the service charge and dormancy fee waived, but the poster does not label them basic deposit accounts (LandBank ↗). BSP’s list of banks offering basic deposit accounts was not available on bsp.gov.ph when we checked (BSP ↗), so this section names only what the banks themselves publish.

Warning The “Basic Account” inside BDO Pay is not a basic deposit account. BDO’s own terms say it is “not a deposit account and is not insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Company”, and describe it as “an e-money instrument that can be redeemed at face value” (BDO ↗). The same terms reserve a ₱50 monthly inactivity fee after one year. BDO’s product page does promise no initial deposit or maintaining balance and a ₱100,000 maximum balance (BDO ↗), but PDIC insurance does not follow the money there.

Passbook accounts and their requirements

The passbook version of the same product usually asks for more.

BDO’s published initial deposit for the passbook account is lower than its maintaining balance, which means an account opened at the stated minimum starts below the requirement. RCBC is absent from this table because its passbook page states ₱5,000 for both the initial deposit and the ADB (RCBC ↗) while its comparison page puts the passbook and the ATM account together at ₱3,000 (RCBC ↗).

What counts as dormant

Two years without a deposit or withdrawal makes a savings account dormant under the BSP rule, and the fee only becomes possible three years later. The banks state the clock differently: BDO collects “five (5) years after the last client-initiated activity date” (BDO ↗), LandBank from the fifth year reckoned from the last financial transaction, UnionBank and Security Bank from the 61st month of inactivity, and EastWest for accounts dormant five years and above whose balance is below the maintaining balance (EastWest ↗). Every one of those also requires the balance to be below the requirement, so a dormant account that still holds its ADB should not be charged.