# "Cashless Payments"



## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

I tried to make our monthly payment in our municipality and the Bayad centers can't perform that task right now and so on our monthly trip to the bank we got in line at the Electircal comapny office in Sta Cruz Laguna... wow is all I have to say and I coudln't figure out why we had to wait 4 hrs to get this accomplished at 3 hrs outside and 1 hr inside but nearly every single customer brought in all their billing statements so they can make a reduced or modified payment of up to 6 months, so they have 6 months to get caught up on their bills, so the cashier has to figure this out and it can take 10 minutes plus each customer.

Someone had mentioned that many here would have trouble paying for their electricity and sure enough that's the case and so the ONE cashier at times, (other staff members fixing problems it looked like) has to insert each bill and then figure out the accounting WOW... our day started at 8:20 am a trip roughly 7 miles or 11 kilometers each way and the bank was realitivily empty and two cashiers but I took me nearly an hour so many delays? I can't explain they just kept delaying me? to get my money and I withdrew as much as I could because of the many hassles to travel on a trike to our nearest city and then 4 hrs to pay our electrical bill.

We then stopped at McDonalds, I finally was able to order a Quarter Pounder meal inside Sta Cruz Laguna the other branch of McDonalds along the highway only sell cheeseburgers, so I ordered many more burgers to go and next stop was to find items for the home such as appliances ect...we can't get in our small municipality and it seemed like minutes and it was already 4 pm and so the next rushw as to make it to a large chained grocery store and so we finished up and got home it was already 6 pm, so a trip to the bank, pay our electrical bill, fast food stop, one store for shopping and then the grocery store and an all day task.

On a lighter note I was so hungry for those mini Buko pies (coconut pies) they sell sometimes on the public buses (not running) it's been since this Covid quarintine started and sure enough they were selling from the trike my kids and grand kids also like these so everyone was very happy when we returned also bought a large family fried chicken share box for the kids.


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## HELL0741 (Mar 30, 2018)

Assuming your electric provider is Meralco, there's no need to wait at the office to pay your bills.

Just register your account online at: 

meralco.com.ph 

(I can't put the direct link since I don't have the five posts yet.)

If you have a credit or debit card, you can now pay your bills online without problems.

To my astonishment, it works!!! In the Philippines!!!


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## bobby1947 (Apr 15, 2020)

aah Yes The Electric Bill ( Meralco ) its the only bill we cant pay online The Meralco website says you can pay at 7/11 using the cliqq app but theres no Meralco listed ! we usually pay Meralco either in Savemore when the wife buys her monthly Diabetic medicines at Mercury drug in Lopez avenue
where we also pay our cable TV or we pay it in Robinsons 2nd floor even LBC if theres not many people inside ! the wife paid this months Meralco bill in a Bayad payment centre 2 doors up the road ! printed receipt as well! but this Virus thing has thrown a big spanner in the works!
long lines everywhere ! 
we keep a Monthly spreadsheet of everything we spend and I do mean everything ! my wife being a Filipino wont pay over the top for anything ! when we first came here I bought one of those plugin power testers that shows how much power everything uses the 3000 watt kettle was the first to go! currently we are running 2 fridges the A/C in the bedroom this pc, router,2 insect killers killers a 4 camera CCTV system power consumption as im writing this is 499KW
out power bill is half of what we were paying ! and that includes a fan running most of the day in the living room on 110V keeps me cool and less noise! when the A/C and both fridges are cooling the power goes to 595KW our normal bill is around 1500pesos june was 3020 ( its hotter)
but im ok with that. still a lot cheaper than the UK !! and now things are getting back to normal I ordered 8 bottles of Cider and 12 other fruit drinks from lazeda, just opened my Southern comfort so bobby is a happy bunny again, just want my Tablet repaired now !and a new screen for the PC


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## HELL0741 (Mar 30, 2018)

Now you *CAN* pay your Meralco bills online, just register your account to Meralco online et voilà!


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## HELL0741 (Mar 30, 2018)

But of course, who needs internet when you have a filipina wife?


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

bobby1947 said:


> aah Yes The Electric Bill ( Meralco ) its the only bill we cant pay online The Meralco website says you can pay at 7/11 using the cliqq app but theres no Meralco listed ! we usually pay Meralco either in Savemore when the wife buys her monthly Diabetic medicines at Mercury drug in Lopez avenue
> where we also pay our cable TV or we pay it in Robinsons 2nd floor even LBC if theres not many people inside ! the wife paid this months Meralco bill in a Bayad payment centre 2 doors up the road ! printed receipt as well! but this Virus thing has thrown a big spanner in the works!
> long lines everywhere !
> we keep a Monthly spreadsheet of everything we spend and I do mean everything ! my wife being a Filipino wont pay over the top for anything ! when we first came here I bought one of those plugin power testers that shows how much power everything uses the 3000 watt kettle was the first to go! currently we are running 2 fridges the A/C in the bedroom this pc, router,2 insect killers killers a 4 camera CCTV system power consumption as im writing this is 499KW
> ...


Okay... the Bayad centers in our area won't accept payment and that's how I normally pay both bills, I'm able to pay my PLDT Internet bill, I paid that today online but I've run accross many problems paying Meralco from Bayad centers they won't do it at times we have Cebuano Hullier and a 7-Eleven and they won't process it in our Municipality.

My bank card is from the US and that's not accepted online only local banks and my local bank a major bank... they don't accept payments from it also, only BDO, I think BPI and another chained bank.

My bill this month was at 5,800. Ha haaa .... yea I bought a couple cases of San Miguel but would like to try Jaggerimister and Chivas Regal it's been a while.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

HELL0741 said:


> Now you *CAN* pay your Meralco bills online, just register your account to Meralco online et voilà!


Only certain banks and not mine unfortunately.


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## HELL0741 (Mar 30, 2018)

M.C.A. said:


> Only certain banks and not mine unfortunately.


Don't know what kind of bank you have, (I have Metrobank)
Even if you only have an simple atm card from a filipino bank, you have a mastercard or visa or whatever 16 digits number, (similar to but not credit card) and so any bank member of banknet is accepted, I just rechecked the Meralcoonline site to be sure.
Anyway, registering your account at meralco online is useful, you will see all your bills online before the paper bill arriving to your home.


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## HondaGuy (Aug 6, 2012)

I pay my Meralco electric bill, Maynilad water bill and PLDT Fibr Internet bill all through BDO Online's Bill Pay. Don't have to leave the house to pay anything any more.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

HELL0741 said:


> But of course, who needs internet when you have a filipina wife?


Hi and welcome to the forum. I agree with what you say and it seems to be more a case of getting out and about/shopping, in my case anyway.

Cheers, Steve.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

HELL0741 said:


> Don't know what kind of bank you have, (I have Metrobank)
> Even if you only have an simple atm card from a filipino bank, you have a mastercard or visa or whatever 16 digits number, (similar to but not credit card) and so any bank member of banknet is accepted, I just rechecked the Meralcoonline site to be sure.
> Anyway, registering your account at meralco online is useful, you will see all your bills online before the paper bill arriving to your home.


I don't have a local bank card yet but It doesn't look like Meralco will accept PNB ATM cards, I've already enquired, I was actually thinking about switching to BDO but we've been with PNB a very long time the staff are very friendly and plenty of seating and plenty of parking area the only problem is that we have to wait nearly 45 days before we are allowed to withdraw our money.


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

I recently signed up for Gcash, pretty painless but as of 6 July they will charge 2.6% for loading from some credit cards and will also charge for cash loading over 8000 p.

That is not too bad as I have to pay a 200 p fee to withdraw 10,000 cash out of network.

If the government wants all to go to cashless payments they should mandate lower or no fees for companies to offer this service. Also they should universally accept them themselves. ( PRA for one only accepts folding US cash.)


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Manitoba said:


> I recently signed up for Gcash, pretty painless but as of 6 July they will charge 2.6% for loading from some credit cards and will also charge for cash loading over 8000 p.
> 
> That is not too bad as I have to pay a 200 p fee to withdraw 10,000 cash out of network.
> 
> If the government wants all to go to cashless payments they should mandate lower or no fees for companies to offer this service. Also they should universally accept them themselves. ( PRA for one only accepts folding US cash.)


Ben has Gcash on his phone, loads 5 or 6K pesos when shopping at PureGold, painless at the checkout apparently as he is going through. He pays our Globe at home internet, credit on our Smart (dumb) mobiles and other things. 3 days ago he put P200 load on my phone and it only cost P190 so a 5% discount, asked him how that works and if we also get that discount on all transactions,,,,,,,, not sure,,,,,,,, that's why I'm the book keeper and will scrutinise in future.
I have a tech savvy partner but for some reason not real good at looking after the pennies.

Cheers, Steve.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Debit card no fees, I have never used a credit card in any country, that could get scary. I perhaps tell a lie here on reflection,,,, there was always no matter the country visited been an exchange rate fee from my bank, minimal but that's how they make money. Now 5 bucks no matter the amount, securing the best exchange rate with minimal input, lurking, watching etc.

Cashless transactions are the way to go but here in PH the ball seems to have been dropped, even paying our electricity bill must be cash and stand inline; Australia the bill is emailed to me and when due is automatically debited, like my cars registrations, my council rates, my insurance unless I want to change something
The pool maintenance and yard care all automatic but guess what I watch and occasionally query the bills.
I am happy to go cashless, both Ben and I simply use a debit card in Oz, no one but yourself touches the card with paywave or whatever they call that there. Not that simple here,,,,,yet.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Cashless works here but it's irregular and inefficient. We've never managed to get PLDT to work online, Penelco doesn't and Globe did until last month when it stopped.


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

bigpearl said:


> ...
> 3 days ago he put P200 load on my phone and it only cost P190 so a 5% discount, asked him how that works and if we also get that discount on all transactions,,,,,,,, not sure,,,,,,,,
> 
> 
> .


 I get the 5% on load, to a max of 50 p a month. I was not aware of the 5% discount on any thing else. If that is the case then I would be money ahead, even with the convenience fee to use Gcash.

If it was easily usable, I would like to use it even ahead of cash. I get charged 200 on a 10,000 withdrawal out of network and can only make one withdrawal a day.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

I don’t know if this will help anyone but here is how I deal with financials here.

I have my main bank accounts in the US. I use TransferWise to put enough for our monthly needs into a BDO account here which costs me around $15 usd In TransferWise fees once per month to transfer. My Landlord allows me to pay them via TransferWise each month which includes our electric so another $15 usd for that transfer. 
From BDO, I pay my PLDT Fiber bill each month.
I use grabFood a lot and add money on there from one of my US cards. 
With Grab, you can also pay some bills so I use that to pay my back up internet, Sky. I may be able to use BDO for that as well, haven’t checked since it’s easy en0ugh to just keep paying it via Grab. 
Since I keep money in Grab, I never have to give cash to Grab. You can also tip your driver via the Grab app.
FoodPanda, yeah, I use them a lot too. Hahaha..
With FoodPanda, they have a PayPal option to use for payments so I don’t have to have cash for them either. Just a tip for the driver in cash as that cannot be run through PayPal. PayPal and Xoom are owned by the same, so they give you a rather crappy conversion rate in both PayPal and Xoom. 
I generally use Xoom to reload phones. For a 500 ph load, it costs around $10.55 so not too ugly but at today’s rates, they give you around 47 and change to 1 usd. 
If we need cash and the BDO card doesn’t seem to be working which seems to happen all too often even at the banks own atms, I just use Xoom with PayPal’s crappy rates and a $4.99 transfer fee to send money and pick it up at M. lhuillier. I try to limit those though if at all possible.


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## siamjeff (Dec 14, 2014)

M.C.A. said:


> I tried to make our monthly payment in our municipality and the Bayad centers can't perform that task right now and so on our monthly trip to the bank we got in line at the Electircal comapny office in Sta Cruz Laguna... wow is all I have to say and I coudln't figure out why we had to wait 4 hrs to get this accomplished at 3 hrs outside and 1 hr inside but nearly every single customer brought in all their billing statements so they can make a reduced or modified payment of up to 6 months, so they have 6 months to get caught up on their bills, so the cashier has to figure this out and it can take 10 minutes plus each customer.
> 
> Someone had mentioned that many here would have trouble paying for their electricity and sure enough that's the case and so the ONE cashier at times, (other staff members fixing problems it looked like) has to insert each bill and then figure out the accounting WOW... our day started at 8:20 am a trip roughly 7 miles or 11 kilometers each way and the bank was realitivily empty and two cashiers but I took me nearly an hour so many delays? I can't explain they just kept delaying me? to get my money and I withdrew as much as I could because of the many hassles to travel on a trike to our nearest city and then 4 hrs to pay our electrical bill.
> 
> ...


All bayad centres in Alaminos, Laguna have long queues outside every time I pass by.
I pay online with BPI from the comfort of my home - Meralco, MasterCard, Cignal and PLDT.
Takes about 10 seconds each.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

siamjeff said:


> All bayad centres in Alaminos, Laguna have long queues outside every time I pass by.
> I pay online with BPI from the comfort of my home - Meralco, MasterCard, Cignal and PLDT.
> Takes about 10 seconds each.


Welcome to the forum SiamJeff. Of all the banks I could have picked 10 years ago I picked PNB and it appears that nearly all the other major banks can pay bills online and even when it comes to US Government transactions such as a renewal of our Passports, these 3 banks can only be used for money orders BPI, BDO, SBC.

Do you also have many people cashing their SSS Checks or other govenrment assitance checks? Or have you noticed this?


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Tim_L said:


> I don’t know if this will help anyone but here is how I deal with financials here.
> 
> I have my main bank accounts in the US. I use TransferWise to put enough for our monthly needs into a BDO account here which costs me around $15 usd In TransferWise fees once per month to transfer. My Landlord allows me to pay them via TransferWise each month which includes our electric so another $15 usd for that transfer.
> From BDO, I pay my PLDT Fiber bill each month.
> ...


There are ways to avoid all those fees. Not sure why you would want to pay your landlord with Transferwise. You say that the fees are $15 but Transferwise fees vary by amount sent. A $1500 transfer would incur about $15 in fees. Your net pesos on Transferwise would be 73253.07.

Look at Moneygram. A $1500 bank to bank transfer will net you 74,227.50. About p1000 more.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

DonAndAbby said:


> There are ways to avoid all those fees. Not sure why you would want to pay your landlord with Transferwise. You say that the fees are $15 but Transferwise fees vary by amount sent. A $1500 transfer would incur about $15 in fees. Your net pesos on Transferwise would be 73253.07.
> 
> Look at Moneygram. A $1500 bank to bank transfer will net you 74,227.50. About p1000 more.


Yes I don't take any notice of the fees, it's the net pesos that count at the end of the day.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

Appears PNB has online bills payment function. 

https://portal.pnb.com.ph/mib/login.do?app=PN

Check their FAQ section.

Chuck


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

DonAndAbby said:


> There are ways to avoid all those fees. Not sure why you would want to pay your landlord with Transferwise. You say that the fees are $15 but Transferwise fees vary by amount sent. A $1500 transfer would incur about $15 in fees. Your net pesos on Transferwise would be 73253.07.
> 
> Look at Moneygram. A $1500 bank to bank transfer will net you 74,227.50. About p1000 more.


MoneyGram transfer rate as of this writing seems to be 1.0000 USD = 48.2478 PHP
TransferWise currently is 49.4100.
The $15 Fee that TransferWise charges really isn’t that big of an issue. I’ve been using them for over 2 years, their exchange rate is generally pretty good, the payment is placed in the accounts like clockwork and I don’t have to worry about it. Less things to worry about in the Philippines is worth it’s weight in gold so to speak. At least, for me.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Tim_L said:


> MoneyGram transfer rate as of this writing seems to be 1.0000 USD = 48.2478 PHP
> TransferWise currently is 49.4100.
> The $15 Fee that TransferWise charges really isn’t that big of an issue. I’ve been using them for over 2 years, their exchange rate is generally pretty good, the payment is placed in the accounts like clockwork and I don’t have to worry about it. Less things to worry about in the Philippines is worth it’s weight in gold so to speak. At least, for me.


You have to change the tick boxes from the defaults to bank to bank. Rate is 49.485, all in. Here is a picture.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rDML8nSYp3t3yYi98

Transferwise rate is not 49.41. You are not including the fees. Currently they quote 49.42 + fees. The net amount is p73,395.63. Divide that by 1500 and your rate is 48.93 all in. Here is a picture

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nHxMQHzbDst4JK4R9

A penny saved is a penny earned. In your case, $30 a month X 12 months is $360. 5 years of that and you are out $1800.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

DonAndAbby said:


> You have to change the tick boxes from the defaults to bank to bank. Rate is 49.485, all in. Here is a picture.
> 
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/rDML8nSYp3t3yYi98
> 
> ...


I don’t know, I see a very different picture from yours.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Tim_L said:


> I don’t know, I see a very different picture from yours.


You have debit / credit card checked. Check the one above it, Online Bank account.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

DonAndAbby said:


> You have debit / credit card checked. Check the one above it, Online Bank account.


Interesting. When I logged back in and put the numbers in again, now I get a $2.99 debit fee or zero fee for online bank account. Nice, thank you. I’ll send a test transfer to BDO and see how it goes.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Tim_L said:


> Interesting. When I logged back in and put the numbers in again, now I get a $2.99 debit fee or zero fee for online bank account. Nice, thank you. I’ll send a test transfer to BDO and see how it goes.


Honestly, I don't know how Moneygram is giving such a great net rate on the bank to bank. That rate is better than the XE mid-market rate! Perhaps that is their loss leader and they make money off of the other types of transactions.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

I've only ever paid $5-6 fee with Transferwise.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Gary D said:


> I've only ever paid $5-6 fee with Transferwise.


Correct me if I am wrong, but it is totally dependent on that amount, right.

The example I used was 1500 usd, which is about 1201.11 GBP

1201.11 GBP on Transferwise has a fee of 6.32 GBP, which is about 7.89 USD. Definitely less that the $15 fee on USD.

Bottom line, 1201.49 GBP gets you net p73,858.33

1500 USD gets you net p73,524.82

So somewhere in there, GBP gets you ~300 pesos more on Transferwise.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

DonAndAbby said:


> Correct me if I am wrong, but it is totally dependent on that amount, right.
> 
> The example I used was 1500 usd, which is about 1201.11 GBP
> 
> ...


Sending GBP there is no extra fee as when you send USD.

Chuck


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

i want thank everyone who recommended the Gcash to me I used today for the first time to pay my Meralco Electrical Bill, that's one less stressor to deal with and no more waiting in line for 3 hrs behind people who have to split up their bill charges outside the Meralco Office.


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

There are paying services ment to add income for tiny businesses as sarisaris. Some of them cost very litle to join so I got the idea just paying the joining fee to get it for OWN use from home.

Everyone can check such services and see if the bills they have are at the list each can handle. Offers to joins such have been "everywhere" where adds towards small businesses are posted.


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

The problem I am having with Gcash is that my bank will not do a direct transfer to my Gcash account, so I need to go tro a 7-11 to make a cash deposit. Once I exceed 8,000 p a month they charge 2% for additional cash in.

Gcash has stopped accepting payments on line by my card.

Now I need to open an account with a bank that makes Gcash transfers, transfer from HSBC to that then transfer to Gcash.


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## Shadowman (Apr 20, 2020)

Tim_L said:


> I use grabFood a lot and add money on there from one of my US cards.
> With Grab, you can also pay some bills


Love Grab Pay, you can use your US credit card to pay all your bills, rides, and food.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Grab Pay Application*



Shadowman said:


> Love Grab Pay, you can use your US credit card to pay all your bills, rides, and food.


Interesting Shadow! Okay I'll look into this and hopefully I'll be able to pay my Electrical bill and PLDT this way. So I'll post a link to this service.

https://www.grab.com/ph/pay/


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