Written by: Allen Atienza
Hard to earn, yet easily stolen, cash is literally the power on paper. The more you have it on you, the heavier it actually is. It can be a liability on a mental level, and although credit cards try to solve that problem, you still fear being robbed of your wallet. But what if you could use your phone? What if you could store your hard-earned money in a gadget, an E-Wallet, that the majority of people in the world possess? Right now, the Philippines is experiencing a new inbound norm; the “Mobile Banking”.
So, why should you try Mobile Banking? What is its edge over cash or even bank accounts?
1. Convenience and Efficiency
With a mobile bank, you can register quickly. E-Wallets such as Paymaya and GCash can process a transaction at the scan of a QR Code. It is quick, clean, and you can even send money to another person’s mobile bank. Majority of e-wallets even allow overseas transactions.
2. Discounts, Cashbacks and Offers
Mobile bank subscriptions have frequent discounts and cashback offers. This is really USEFUL for paying bills, because cashback offers sometimes give you back money by a PERCENTAGE. The bigger the cost, the better the savings.
3. You can Track your purchases
When you load, purchase, and do other transactions with your mobile bank, it leaves an actual record for you to keep track. If you are confused on how you manage your money, you can just check the e-wallet record.
4. Security
E-wallets were made in the intention to minimize the amount of physical cash carried. Along with user password protection, it also has modern encryption, keeping user information private. The likelihood for having vulnerabilities in e-wallets are minimal, since it would be very costly to hack one.
5. Limited Risk
If you are wise as the majority of e-wallet users, you will only put about a few days or even a few weeks’ worth of pay. If you lose your phone, you just lose the account with its loaded money. It is a minor setback compared to losing access to an entire bank account by losing your wallet, along with the number of credit cards that are stored within it
Now, we talk about which e-wallets are worth noting. Here are a few e-wallet companies to help you, especially if you are interested in starting out.
#1: GCash
First on our list is the Ayala Corp-led e-wallet—GCash. Standing amongst the top finance apps, GCash features bills payment, QR payment, and even loading prepaid numbers. It also has a point system that serves as a loan service, and an investment platform.
#2: PayMaya
PayMaya can serve as a virtual MasterCard. That means you can use it for other options that require details found only in debit cards. You can also transfer cash from one PayMaya account to another, so you can just send each other PayMaya load instead of looking for the nearest loading station.
#3: Coins PH
Coins.PH is an e-wallet you can use without a credit card. What sets it apart from the others, is that it can be used for cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, or even Ethereum. Not only that, it can also be used to reload beep cards.
#4: GrabPay
Grab, one of Asia’s top mobile technology companies, made GrabPay. It is better known for its easy payment process for Grab ride and Grab express deliveries. They even give out 100php cashback in SM Cinema tickets.
#5: PayPal
Used by lots of online freelancers (full or part-time), Paypal is an American e-wallet company that has been considered a powerhouse in an international level, meaning it can be used as a worldwide payment system. Although there is a service fee in receiving money, it does not charge sending it.
Here’s a side by side comparison of the e-wallets’ features:
Mobile wallet companies are aiming to modernize the Philippines' payment system. While they’re aggressively competing for both consumers and merchants to adopt, it’ll still take some time before modernization takes place. Right now, only a handful of users are using e-wallets, and it is up to us if we would like the retrofitting to be a success.
References:
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