Payment and Remittances have gone a long way. Being cashless is no longer worrisome nor impossible.
The consumers consider convenience to go cashless.
“I can go to Manila to buy school supplies even without cash, as long as I have my GCash and debit card,” said Ma. Asuncion Salvador, an educator from Bulacan.
Safety and security matter, too.
“I may double check if the person requesting is really someone I know personally in case he or she requested for my GCash number for payment transactions,” Joseph Lara said. Lara used to go home in the province from Manila to Legaspi City if there are longer breaks in school.
Everything is done at home, there is no need to rush to Meralco to pay electric bills.
“It is so convenient and safe to pay at home, no need to worry about traffic and long lines in Meralco,” said Jenny Basco of Pasig City.
Convenient Money Transfer and Cheaper Remittance Fee
The following top the list: LBC Padala, M Lhuillier Kuwarta Padala, True Money Padala, GCash, PayMaya for remittance, Smart Padala, Villarica Pawnshop and Cebuana Lhuillier.
A consumer will have to check from to time which financial service provider offers lower remittance fee. Oversees Filipino Workers are not that privy about this, they consult co-workers which among the Money Padala are not charging high since they value every dollar earned abroad.
Now, everything is made possible for consumers even without bank accounts. E-wallets have become popular in so short a time, like: GCash, Maya, Grabpay,Coins.ph, 7-11 Cliqq and Paypal.
There was a time that Smart Padala was widely used in Sari-sari Stores seven to nine years ago, but in the course of events, the most practical right now is GCash. It can be used practically anywhere, from office supplies to agricultural produce in the market.
“One is no longer afraid of any untoward incident on the street in Manila since I am not carrying cash in my wallet,” said Pia Nolasco, a native of Pio Duran, Albay.
Thus, it gave way to more financial service providers in the country. The growth was detected as early as 2019.
A Cashless Society in the Future
Some advantages that a cashless society may provide to consumers: lesser crime rates, less money laundering, less paper trail, reduced time and cost in storing and depositing paper money, and easier currency exchange when travelling outside the country.
For disadvantages, consumers will have to deal with these: personal information that may lead to data breach, no alternative money in case something happened with cashless transactions in stores, difficult to monitor spending habits of consumers and when consumers faced that reality that they need to learn many things in a short period of time, which is best understood if someone can explain to them the learning curve on this.
Well, for one, consumers have tendencies to rely on what is available on google and youtube, for process and methods that they wish to learn right away.