By 
I rode a taxi in Singapore and I paid using Gcash
From my hotel room in Stevens Road, I had to take a taxi to get to the tourist central Orchard Road. But instead of using Singaporean dollars, I whipped out my phone and scanned the QR code using my Gcash e-wallet to pay.
Yes, Gcash now works in select stores not just in Singapore but also in Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Gcash and Alipay+’s partnership enabled the e-wallet to be used in stores that accept Alipay+ payments.
Gcash users just need to “find the plus” or the Alipay+ signs to see where it is accepted.
Available in Japan since last year and in Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea this year, Gcash’s cross-border payment feature helps Filipinos abroad as well as travelers to save money since it adopts real-time foreign exchange rate and no fees like credit cards, GCash Lead for International Joaquin Gatmaitan said.
“We’re seeing now that the world is continuing to open up and we at GCash, we want to expand to these new areas,” Gatmaitan said.
“We’re continuing to serve the Filipinos wherever they are and as part of our strategic initiative with Alipay+, cross-border scan-to-pay is really about enabling transactions between the Filipino GCash user and the network of Alipay+ merchants present in airports, tourist areas and even shopping malls,” he added.
When using the QR-code payment overseas, travelers don’t need to stress out (and spend on transport) searching for the nearest money changer or the ones with the best rate since the app offers the current exchange rate, GCash Head of Growth for Usage Michelle Gallegos said.
Unlike credit cards, transparency is also underscored with receipts that include the amount in both the Philippine peso and Singapore dollars (depending on which country it was used), the current exchange rate as well as discounts applied, so it’s easy to keep track of spending abroad.
With hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in Singapore and the number of tourists visiting the Lion City, enabling the QR cross-border payment for the e-wallet is relevant to users, Gallegos said.
Launching the feature is also in line with revenge travel and overseas trips for the holidays, she said.
“We are steadfast in our goal to grow the organization. Our goal is to provide finance for all and in doing so, it is our mission to make GCash the everyday e-wallet by providing relevant usage and different use cases –such as sending money to the 71 other million GCash users, pay for essentials and even non-essentials — for every Filipino, whoever and wherever you may be, especially those who go on trips outside the country,” she said.
More F&B and retail shops in Singapore are already using Alipay+ including some stores in Plaza Singapura, Lucky Plaza, Takashimaya, 313@Somerset, The Paragon, Wisma Atria and ION Orchard, among others. More stores are coming soon, GCash said.
Within the most popular tourist spot Universal Studios, Filipinos can use their app to pay for locker rental, select in-attraction F&B shops, select souvenir shops and the Malaysia Food Street, among others.
It takes a little getting used to since some stores, such as the gift shop, will ask you to generate a QR code and then they will scan the code, while in some shops you need to scan the code yourself.
To use it, just go to the GCash app, click the QR icon below and press the “Pay abroad with Alipay+” tab.
Filipinos who have tried using it said they felt proud using a local app in an international setting.
GCASH, ALIPAY+ DRIVING DIGITAL PAYMENTS
Alipay+ is a digital solutions platform that’s enabling the use of local wallets for overseas purchases as well as supporting global merchants accept a suite of wallets such as GCash. The Philippines’ largest e-wallet GCash is operated by Mynt which is the fintech partnership among Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp and Ant Financial.
Alipay+ Global Partnerships and Ant Group Regional General Manager of Southeast Asia and Europe Jia Hang said Ant Group is committed to support digital transformation and local economies by supporting the growth and evolution of e-wallet such as GCash.
“We believe there is no similar business model like Alipay+ in the market
… Through Alipay+, we are enabling the cross-border acceptance of wallets like GCash and new growth potentials for these wallets,” Hang told ABS-CBN News.
“To lower the cross-border transaction cost for cross-border travelers is important because everyone knows that if you use credit card for cross- border payment, it’s quite expensive so I think that we should make it much cheaper,” he added.
GCash said the goal is to expand the global coverage of cross-border payment to empower Filipinos wherever they are.
Comments