Common Newbie Question: Is there a maintaining balance for a COL Financial Account?

"What will happen to the initial fund that I will deposit to my COL Financial account?" That same question was running  through my head before I opened my COL Financial account.

Minimum Portfolio Balance per Account

For COL STARTER account, the minimum portfolio balance is ₱5,000. That ₱5,000 can be used to purchase the stocks you want.

Instead of me just writing about what it is, I will also write more of what it is not.


It is not like every month you have to deposit ₱5,000 on your account. Definitely not. That is not a requirement. That amount is just a minimum fund required by COL Financial to open a COL STARTER account.

It doesn't work like the 'minimum deposits' or should I say 'maintaining balance' required by most banks. 

Let me compare it by citing an example. To open a bank account you will be required to have a Minimum Initial Deposit, say ₱10,000. In Banco De Oro (BDO), they call this *MADB (Monthly Average Daily Balance) if the money on your bank account (*MADB) fail below ₱10,000 you will be charged ₱300 for that. How cruel are the banks! Right?

The Cash Balance on my COL PLUS account is below ₱25,000.

Good thing that is not the case for COL Financial.

COL Financial will not charge you if your Cash Balance falls below ₱5,000 for COL STARTER or below ₱25,000 for COL PLUS. Because there is NO maintaining balance!

There are new questions however, that just popped out for me right now: "What if I withdrew 90% of what is inside my COL Financial account including the total trade value of my stocks?" Are they going to downgrade my COL Financial account from COL PLUS to COL STARTER?" "Will they close it?" "Will they charge me for that?"

I have yet to experience my portfolio to fail below ₱25,000 (which is the minimum portfolio balance for COL PLUS). So I am really in the dark here. Anyone reading this, care to comment below if you find out the answer? Thanks!

Is there a charge for BDO Online deposit to COL Financial?

In case you are wondering whether BDO Online will charge you on your COL Financial deposit, the answer is YES and basically NO.


YES, BDO Online will charge you ₱10 if you make a deposit to your COL Financial account with less than the amount of ₱500.

And

NO, BDO Online will not charge you for a deposit amounting to ₱500 and above.

I received the notification below from COLFinancialhelpDesk indicating the ₱10 charge. It did not show how much online deposit I made, but I am sure it was below ₱500.
 
For this specific instance, the ₱10 charge was debited from the funds available on my COL Financial account, not from my BDO Savings Account.

November 10, 2014

Attention: ESCUDO SPARKS,

This is to inform you that we have debited your account with details as follows:

Account No. : XXXX-XX00

Amount : Php 10.00

Remarks : Bank charge for deposit below P500.00

Should there be any discrepancies in the details above, please contact us within 3 days so we can make the necessary corrections.   You may call 636-5411 to 24 local 186 from 8:30am to 5:30pm, Mondays to Fridays, or you may email us at withdrawals@colfinancial.com.

Very truly yours,

COL Financial Group, Inc.

___

Important: Please do not reply to this email or send any account instructions, confidential and sensitive financial data through this and other regular emails. It is not our policy to request from customers confidential information via regular emails.

Is your COL Java Ticker not working?

For a few months now my COL Java Ticker has been non existent (Please refer to screenshot A).

Screenshot A: Not working COL Java Ticker

 I have tried updating my internet browsers, even uninstalled, reinstalled and updated JAVA settings on my browsers, but to no avail it is still not working. If you have done the same and there is still no result, please continue reading.

 I  thought that is just Firefox and Internet Explorer misbehaving but the reason is my "COL Settings".

Yes, you heard me. 

COL Settings. 

Change it and you are all set! 

Let me show you how. Click (or hover  your mouse to) Home, then My Settings, and finally click Use Classic Version. That is it!

Just change the data display type from "Streaming" to "Classic Version". Then you'll see it will work (Screenshot B).

Good luck!

 

Screenshot B: Working COL Java Ticker

 Please see video below for the step by step guide to make your COL Java Ticker work.