E-WALLETS IN THE PHILIPPINES

WHAT IS AN E-WALLET?

An e-wallet is an electronic wallet where you can store your money digitally. Also known to be called as "digital wallet" or "virtual wallet," it often comes in the form of a mobile app or a website and provides many different ways to transact, such as:

• Paying bills
• Online shopping
• Money remittances
• Mobile load purchases
• Buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
• buying gaming pins and more!

CASHLESS. More often than not, E-wallets come in the form of a mobile app or a website. You can transact from the convenience of your mobile phone. Thus, you can do the transactions even if you are cashless! And with today's unstoppable smartphone usage, e-wallets are an even more logical alternative than actual wallets.

SECURED. Money safety is one of the most important concerns about these electronic activities.  Most reputable e-wallet providers safeguard your account information with security measures such as One-Time PINs, passwords, 2-Factor authentication and others.

Below is a list of some popular e-wallets now in the Philippines:

COINS.PH One of the most popular e-wallet in the Philippines, Coins.ph Wallet lets you access financial services from your phone even without a bank account or credit card. You can add funds to Coins.ph e-wallet with no minimum balance required, and use it for remittances, bills payment, mobile load purchases, online payments, and even digital currency purchase (such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP).

DISKARTECH DiskarTech, the only TagLish super app in the Philippines offers all-in-one online banking services. It allows users to pay bills, send money, and buy mobile load. It also let users open a savings account, get a loan and apply for an insurance.

STARPAY Starpay is another app that provides electronic money services for everyday use and convenience. Users can send money to and from different Starpay wallets, pay bills, and load-up your prepaid devices.

SHOPEEPAY ShopeePay is e-commerce Shopee's official in-app e-wallet regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. This allows users to quickly and conveniently top-up mobile load, shop online, and withdraw through ShopeePay.

PAYMAYA PayMaya e-wallet allows you to do more than just paying bills, buying gaming pins, and online shopping, as you can also book flights, ticket concerts and stream music. It also has a scan-to-pay feature that can be used to scan the merchant's QR code for easier payment. PayMaya Philippines, Inc. (formerly Smart eMoney, Inc.) is the pioneer in mobile money and payments and is a subsidiary of Voyager Innovations, the digital innovations company of PLDT and Smart.

GCASH GCash is another household name for convenient electronic transactions. It enables you to pay bills, make bank transfers, send money, invest money, book movies, buy mobile load, pay with GCash QR, shop online and more! GCash is under Mynt, a fintech firm owned by Globe Telecom, Ant Financial and Ayala Corporation.

GRABPAY Originally started as a ride-hailing app, Grab now has GrabPay e-wallet. It is a virtual prepaid card that lets you go cashless through GrabPay Credits and enjoy Grab rides, GrabExpress, pay for food and shopping online and in stores (via QR code), buy mobile load and pay bills. GrabPay partners with Mastercard and is accepted worldwide.

LAZADA WALLET Lazada Wallet is the e-wallet of e-commerce site Lazada. It offers you hassle-free shopping with one click payments. Lazada Wallet lets you enjoy online shopping, mobile load top up, promotion coupon and refund. You can load the wallet up to Php50,000 via 7-Eleven, SM, MLhuillier, ECPAY, BDO, Metrobank, TrueMoney, and more!