Secured Credit Card - Getting My RCBC Instacard

Update: Funds are now released! Yey!


Finally! I got my RCBC Instacard! After deciding to apply for one last February 22, and having my qualms about it not being able to be converted into a regular credit card, my Instacard arrived at my office address yesterday, March 30. That gives about a month or so from application to approval to delivery. Not bad.

What is Instacard?

Instacard is a Secured Credit Card (SCC) from RCBC. SCC means you have to place a time deposit for a year and you’ll be automatically given a RCBC credit card of your choice, subject to time deposit amount range.

In my case, I opted to place a Php10,000 hold out amount. This means that the card I would be getting will have a credit limit of Php10,000 as RCBC offer 100% credit limit unlike BPI's version of it (Express Start) which only offers 80% - 90% of your hold amount. The good thing with BPI though, is that you can have it converted to a regular credit card after a year of usage (subject for approval of course). This information actually the reason why I also opted to open one with BPI.

Anyway, of all the cards that I applied for last February (I applied for eight, 2 were SCCs, got declined by 3, got approved by 1, while the remaining two have yet to do their credit investigation), this was the one that got delivered the latest. I've already got my PNB Essentials Mastercard, and my BPI Gold Mastercard (secured) so receiving this card is some sort of anticlimax for me. I have yet to decide whether to use this regularly or just keep it for emergency use. Since this is by far, the one which has the lowest credit limit, this I suppose would be the least used card.

'Til next update.