Cross that out (Part Trois)

Read the first part so you'll be able to understand the whole process. Part One is here and Part Two is here.

And so, for the final steps

9. Releasing of the cheque. BDO texted us that the cheque is ready for release.

Upon providing the seller with the down payment in item no. 7 (in Part two of this trilogy), we prepared an acknowledgement receipt, two copies, one is seller's copy and another buyer's copy.

This is what the bank required from the seller to provide to claim the cheque. And a valid ID/

10. Bringing home of our car. And so, we went to the seller's house, and gave her two boxes of Tipas Hopia (optional) and finally brought home our car!

Next on our agenda were:

• Giving the car a name
• Buying a car cover (since our garage isn't covered)
• Duplicating the car keys
• Photocopying the OR, CR, Deed of Sale and payment acknowledgement documents.
• Smile. We are now car-owners!

Cross that out (Part Deux)

Read the first part so you'll be able to understand the whole process. Part One is here

6. Providing Bank with necessary documents. Now you need to bring to the bank the documents obtained after the transfer of ownership.They advised us that a car history check will happen, this will take about 3 days and finally advised we pay the down payment to sellers, as they will release the cheque in 3 to 7 working days.

7. Paying down-payment. BDO only allows to pay 70% of the total cost, so the 30% less the earnest money, we provided the seller -- in cash as we don't have a chequing account.

8. Getting a Comprehensive Insurance. After three days, the bank loan officer asked us about insurance. This is where it got a little confusing. The sellers bought TPL insurance in LTO, but what the bank needs is a Comprehensive Insurance with Acts of Nature included. They advised us to get one as the TPL cannot be used at this point.

Being the busy office people that we are, the first thing we did was go to the internet to search for an Insurance. I contacted MAFPRE and followed Standard Insurance's online car insurance auto-calculator for a quotation. Standard Insurance provided lower rates (lower by PhP 5,000), so it was the obvious choice.

For a less than 2-year old car with 3K km on it's mileage, Standard Insurance priced the insurance at Php 11,000. We settled payment online through credit card and the insurance policy was sent through email. They, however, needed to create another version of the policy which has the mortgagee's name (BDO). They asked us for the mortgagee's name and address to include in the insurance policy and asked as well if we want to send the policy to the bank by ourselves or alternately, they can send it. So we let them send it to the bank, one off our plate.

Another 5 working days passed since we sent the bank the Transfer of Ownership documents. Total days, 28 days.

As of 2:33 pm today, this is how far we've gone. I'll post on the final steps again maybe next week. Part 3 is here.

Cross that out (Part Un)

I have always been a fan of listing down things. From the most mudane everyday shopping lists and to-do lists to the more abstract list of things I must do before  turn 20, 30, etc...

This month, I decided to finally cross out GET A CAR off of that list. This is on my list of things to do before I have a baby. Mike and I have only been borrowing cars from my brothers and his dad before. If we get a baby, I don't wanna go through he hassle of having to borrow a car if said baby decides to get ultra ill at 3 in the morning.

So we have decided -- well mainly I decided, if it was up to the boy, he'd get a big bike instead, to buy our first car.

Let me walk you through the process -- which up to now is still not finished. The important documents/points, I'll italicize.

1. Deciding on the car. First things first. What car do we want. Here were our considerations:

• Carbon footprint - being the pseudo-green that I am, I wanted a car with the most gas mileage. 800CC is currently the lowest for cars,  running at 14-21 km/liter.
• Price - we set our budget at the PhP400K - 500K range.
• From here we decided on either a Suzuki Alto Deluxe or Hyundai Eon GLS

2. Brand new or Second hand? Then we started canvassing suppliers. We just typed the name of the cars we're interested in at Sulit.com and out came a myriad of search results both second hand and brand new. We were initially considering getting a brand new Suzuki Alto at first mainly because it's cheaper and for some strange reason that I trust Japan more than I do Korea.

Until my brother showed me an ad for a second hand Hyundai Eon 2012 GLS with only 33K on its mileage, priced at 345K. A brand new one would cost 498K, so that's already 150K savings. And given it's mileage, we're pretty sure it's used very very seldom. Plus there's the add ons of a back up sensor/camera, leather seat covers and 3M tinting. So yeah, we got sold on that. We met up with the seller, left an earnest money of 15K and advised that the rest will be through bank financing.

3. Finding the bank to finance. BPI had this online facility to apply for an autoloan. Since BPI is our primary bank, it immediately became our go-to-bank. I was really hopeful that they'll approve the autoloan. But they didn't. BPI rejected our autoloan application. I am a little hurt with this; Something about me and husband being with an employer for a fairly short amount of time. Not even considering that my husband was with his previous employer for 4 years.

Good thing there's still plenty other banks out there. I went and applied at EastWest bank and BDO. I applied directly at EastWest, and BDO with a broker.

Eastwest was the fastest one to process, though the lack of support to clients kind of turned me off. They approved the autoloan in a day without asking you for any requirement. Just fillout a form which they sent me through email. Then they replied to my email saying I am approved then asked for the details of the seller to have the car appraised. They'll reply again with a long list of requirements without any explanations. I called them to clarify things, though the loan officer seemed very distant and uninterested in our business.

With BDO, it took a little longer to approve because they ask for the requirements first. Then once approved, they'll ask you to come over to their office in JMT Plaza in Emerald Street (in front of Podium). What I liked about this is that the broker was very accommodating in providing all the details.

Requirements which the bank asked us to submit for approval of autoloan were:

• Latest ITR or Certificate of Employment with Compensation and 3 months' payslips of buyer and co-maker.
• Valid IDs 

This took about 5 working days.

4. Choosing the bank among those which approved. With EastWest, we need to open an account to be able to go through with the autoloan. BDO on the other hand, is our secondary bank and we have a savings account and credit card with them. I had to internally decide on this factoring in the fact that BDO is open even Saturdays and Sundays on malls. That basically decided it.

So me and my husband went to the BDO Consumer Lending Office and there we signed the Chattel Mortgage Promissory Note and was provided the Credit Approval Advice Memo (which will also serve as the guarantee letter to the seller). We then went to a BDO branch to pay the Chattel Mortgage fee and then we provided the Credit Approval Advice Memo/ Guarantee Letter to the seller.

At this stage, they provided us with the second set of requirements which will be needed for transfer of ownership:

• Original Notarized Deed of Sale between you and the car owner
• Stencils of the vehicle Engine and Chassis
• Original LTO OR and CR under the name of the new owner

This took another 5 working days.

5. Transfer of Ownership. Now this, the seller decided to do this part themselves. We offered being there on this process, though perhaps there is a fear on their part of us running away with their car, so they said they'll do it for us but we'll just pay for processes/ fees. We agreed. After all, one off our plate. This is the nity-gritty.

To process this, a Deed of Sale needed to be signed and notarized by buyer and seller. Then, the car must be brought to Camp Karingal for PNP Clearance, Stencil and Macro-etching, though the owners said they just processed everything in LTO Laloma where the car was registered. Then they finally processed Transfer of Ownership to new owner (us) by presenting Deed of Sale, PNP Clearance, Stencils, a TPL Insurance (acquired in LTO under Great Domestic Insurance) and the buyer's TIN ID. 

Another 5 working days. Total days spent, 21 days.

As of today, 6:07 pm, this is what we've accomplished. I'll blog again on the next steps. Part 2 is here.