Why I dont like Gcash

@Filamretire Why not take GCash too? GCash allows you to spend only what is in the account. You can replenish your wife's account as needed.

She can download a confirmation of each and every payment (I believe) and send that to you. Then you have a complete audit trail of expenses and transfers.

I will never again use GCash after losing $200. It was OK until the money I sent from WU to load GCash was held up for a couple days. I called GCash and WU and spoke to some agents. I was working in the yard when I received a text saying the money had finally cleared but then a short time later I received an email saying my Lazada purchase was successful, then another, and another. Someone had sent my GCash money to their Lazada top off account. GCash wouldn't do anything because they said I had linked my GCash to Lazada. I told them that was true but the money didn't go to my Lazada account. They told me to contact Lazada. Lazada gave me the guy's name and deleted his account but did not refund my money and told me to contact GCash for the refund.

@Moon Dog I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience with GCash. It sounds like you were caught in an unfortunate situation where both GCash and Lazada were unable to help you. While I currently have a Gcash account, I am considering shifting to Maya instead, as I have heard Maya provides greater security for financial transactions. However, customer service was awful as well.

@georgemiller I like Maya and have had good experiences so far. I really like the security and convenience of face ID. I can pay for Shopee purchases directly with Maya and fund the Lazada Wallet also. Even when ordering birth and marriage certificates from the PSA Helpline I can pay with Maya and all I have to do is scan the bar code that comes up on my laptop screen and it goes through instantly. I fund Maya with Western Union or Remitly and I like to keep a couple hundred bucks in there.

I use Gcash since its tarted and over the years its one of the most reliable apps. Sure customer service is not as oood as its just virtual, but the app itself is working always.

    I use Gcash since its tarted and over the years its one of the most reliable apps. Sure customer service is not as oood as its just virtual, but the app itself is working always.
   

    -@GoetzPhil

Sure I have seen some videos by you on you tube recently

I have doubts about the reliability of Gcash.  My partner lost money and never had any justification for the shortfall, so I heard from several people who know her about it.

I never had any problem with GCash. But I never transfer large amounts of money neither. I connevt my Pesos PayPal to GCash and pull from PayPal. Once in PayPal you can send USD from dollars PayPsl to Pesos PayPal. You do lose on the exchange rate but any other platform will take money on the exchange rate anyway. Once on PayPal you can pull from most Philippines linked banks or debit card.

martinezjosei said. . . . in PayPal you can send USD from dollars PayPsl to Pesos PayPal. You do lose on the exchange rate but any other platform will take money on the exchange rate anyway.

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Paypal has a horrible exchange rate, other platforms will take far less money.
   

 

I lost around P11K using GCash. Someone transferred the money to a Lazada top up account. GCash only refunded 20 pesos of the 11,000. They said since I had linked my GCash to Lazada they were not responsible. I tried to explain that the money did not go to the link I created, it went to a link someone else created. Lazada had all the dude's info and canceled his account but that was the end of it. GCash is part of Globe and that is all I need to know. I've been a loyal Maya customer since that day.

I learned something about PayPal this morning. I sent $800 to Ripley, West Virginia for a deposit on a Ford Ranger pickup. The receiver had to enter their tax ID and $50 was taken out for tax. They should recover the $50 at tax time since it is not earned income, but it adds paperwork. Anything over $600 gets taxed. If I knew that ahead of time I would have sent $400 twice.

Sorry to hear all that Moon Dog I've never had a problem with G Cash in 3/4 years, simply pays the bills, credit on the mobile etc.

Lazada/shoppee for me is all COD and worked perfectly for 5 years, I would never link a credit/debit card any site/seller in this country, too risky. Worst would be GCash.  BTW congrats buying a Ford ranger for 800 bucks deposit. Sounds like you are serious with your move back to the States, good luck.

Cheers, Steve.

Thanks Steve. I have a little money in GCash now because my wife is getting all these police and court clearances for the adoption and they prefer GCash. Cash is not accepted.

Speaking of police, we have had a couple meetings with the local Cabucgayan PNP chief. I donated a badly needed computer system and my wife would slip him a thousand pesos for "gas money" that was gladly accepted. We just visited the Biliran PNP to get her police clearance. When we were finished my wife offered 500 pesos for snacks, but they refused the money saying "we don't do that". The Biliran PNP deserves an honorable mention for their honesty.

I believe I have it set up now. I was worried that when my plane landed in Charleston at 8:30pm I would have to stay the night in an expensive hotel and spend $149 the next morning for the 70 mile ride to Rainelle. I came up with a plan. I would buy an older furniture hauling Ranger I liked in Ripley, which is on the way to Rainelle, but I would still have to pay $150 on hotel and Uber to get me to Ripley the next morning. I mentioned to the Ranger guy that if he would meet me at the airport when I arrived I would give him the $150 instead of giving it to hotels and Ubers. He jumped on it. So my one last issue is how to get a key for the house from the realtor lady so I don't have to spend the night in the driveway of my new house in freezing weather. I'm going to see if she will send a key to the Ranger guy then everything will be good.

Interesting. sounds like the budget is tight and I gather that's it pancit and we may see you in 5/10 years, still want your fire proof solar cubby house.

Good luck on your next journey.

Cheers, Steve.

I don't trust unregulated companies like GCash or Maya. Can someone explain to me what's wrong with just paying the old fashion way with just a bankcard? I use a PNB debit Mastercard and haven't had any problem using it or lost money from it and can draw money from any PNB teller machine all over the Philippines whenever needed without fees. And I top up my PNB bank account from overseas with Wise which virtually has zero exchange rate which is where the biggest cost comes from and a very tiny fee.

@ Ivan Cristante

I have had Gcash for many years and never a problem, drop P8K into the account every couple of months in the local supermarket, pays our internet, phone top ups etc. Using a debit/credit card won't work to pay my power bills nor will Gcash.

They only accept folding pesos, dark ages. 21st century no power bills now with stand alone solar.

Gcash seems to work for us so we stick with it.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl said. . . . I have had Gcash for many years and never a problem, drop P8K into the account every couple of months in the local supermarket, pays our internet, phone top ups etc. Using a debit/credit card won't work to pay my power bills nor will Gcash.
They only accept folding pesos, dark ages. 21st century no power bills now with stand alone solar.
Gcash seems to work for us so we stick with it.

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Myself I use the BDO debit card to pay online:  Meralco Electric, Sky Cable (Internet/TV) also a load from Globe (from time to time) in order to receive those SMS from BDO & Shopee.

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I also use it for shopping at Lander's/ S&R.

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Once or twice a month I transfer $ to P from Citibank USA to BDO, as needed, never keeping any significant money at BDO, I prefer keeping my cash in the US.

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The other day when shopping at Pioneer Center I was able to spot two different BDO's within eyesight of each other.

@Filamretire I'm not using GCash anymore, the problem I lost 500 php for online purchasing.

@Filamretire

Why Man you don't like Gcash? Please explain

What you can recommend? Digital wallet

So I'm totally confused. Tried to sign up for G-cash, I was informed they are not accepting any nationals from outside the Philippines.

Regards

Keith

I refuse to trust money to online apps I hardly know and have no way to guarantee contact with.

I love the ease of online apps but I only use ones from banks I know if it comes to above 50 dollars or so.

That even applies to the biggest non-bank apps here.

I use 2 PH online wallets to pay bills and load prepaid phones, MAYA and GCASH. Of the two, I use MAYA 95% of the time for  water utility, electric, cable, postpaid globe and purchasing prepaid globe. To put money into these wallets I just transfer from US bank via Remitly. Of the two, Maya is much more user-friendly than globe GCASH and it seems to be more stable. I do not leave large amounts of cash in either because, if something goes wrong, I can see that the default position of either is, customer loses money. But for Maya I have no problem transferring 20k from my US bank and then immediately using it to pay bills online. I have GCASH as a backup; in order for it to work I had to register as a Filipino resident using Phils driver's license...I just couldn't register with my passport and SRRV card after trying many times. Maya on the other hand took my foreign registration and verified it with my passport to the higher level right away. Maya also sent me a debit card after I applied; you just make application and deduct a few pesos for the cost and they send you the card. I have lost money, like a few hundred pesos with GCASH although the mistake was my own They are unforgiving when you specify a wrong account or phone number so you lose the money. Gcash is a good backup but as I said, I rarely use it. I favor Maya.

@Moon Dog

My friend has two mobile phones only one of which is linked to a Gcash account. By mistake, I sent $300 to the wrong number, the phone with no Gcash account. We expected the money to bounce back to my account with no harm done so imagine our surprise when the transaction was not only accepted but, on follow up, Gcash informed us the money had been withdrawn. When we responded that there was no Gcash account linked to that number, Gcash ceased communicating with us. I contacted my bank who contacted Gcash but they were also informed the money had been withdrawn. My bank said there was nothing more they could do - fair enough. The whole episode left me wondering whether Gcash was some unregulated criminal enterprise hahaha Could they so blatantly steal money?

@Brojeslov Yes, that is what happens with GCASH. Something very similar happened to me. You have to accept it, nothing else you can do, but, if I did not also have Maya I would still use GCASH to pay bills online out of the great convenience online payments affords. I do not know what happens if you make a mistake with Maya but Maya is what I usually use. In the US I believe GCASH would have problems defaulting payments to themselves with no reimbursements when customers make mistakes. They would be caught in annual financial audits and also IRS taxes on the gains would be an issue. Banks audit themselves every day,in the US, to the penny, but apparently GCASH can just absorb the money with no accounting. I keep my balances in gcash and Maya low, usually around 500 pesos.

    My wife was asking for a gcash account. Not that I dont trust her, but Gcash is registered to a phone number ie an app with security code. You can deposit to gcash many places using cash and send money to anyone. The problem is I have no way of seeing the account online. It is all done as cash. How do I know how much of the monthly budget ends up being sent to someone? No way to know other than looking at her phone, and I dont want to do that! Am I wrong?
   

-@Filamretire

With my Gcash and Maya accounts, I can see my account balances online on the phone apps and also a record of transactions. I use the transaction record as my receipt to prove the bill has been paid. You can only see the account online by a phone app, not a desktop, and only on the with a SIM with the same phone number as registered to your account. I keep balances low. I prefer Maya (both Maya and GCASH are similar Philippine online wallets).

@Brojeslov

...and thats why I dont like Gcash, plus they have an awful lot of your identity documents, I dont trust them one iota

@danfinn

...and thats also why I dont like Gcash, its tied to one phone. If its my phone, fine, but family phone then no way

@danfinn

Thanks for the info on Maya. I'll have a look.

I don't have any problems with Gcash nor does the better half, we both have accounts and simply use it to top up phones, pay internet and Cignal tv. You are always asked if you entered the correct number before proceeding. Account balance and transactions are available on your phone and worked for years for us with no glitches.

If your wife's phone is a family unit then don't give the access code to family members to use Gcash. Just a thought.

Cheers, Steve.

@mcreybarraquias8 I got scammed.

    @mcreybarraquias8 I got scammed.
   

    -@johndaler586

How did you get scammed?

Cheers, Steve

@bigpearl

Shock horror. The guy got scammed in the Philippines.

        @mcreybarraquias8 I got scammed.        -@johndaler586

How did you get scammed?

Cheers, Steve
   

    -@bigpearl

Not sure if you will get an answer but what I have found is if you give a wrong account or phone number, they apparently deduct the money and you never get it back. You cannot talk to a human. They can say it is not their fault, they do not care. Is that a scam? Well, if globe saw that these mistakes were common yet decided to keep the money where the accounts or phone numbers did not exist, then yes it would be intentional but nobody is going to prove it. If you make a mistake with GCASH or Maya you just lose, period. Usually the amounts are relatively small but sometimes  certain bills like electricity can be big (as you once encountered) and in those cases you need to be especially careful that you made no mistakes.

Aside Dan and as said you have to verify the account you are sending to, check the details and all others go to the back.

Cheers, Steve.

Gcash, Nocash, Johnny Cash.

I keep things simple, I use bill pay on BDO & Citibank USA. The bill pay app for both banks is simple just click on the payee and the bill is paid.

I also use auto pay for recurring bills.

I use Wise to transfer money from Citibank to BDO, then use debit card at terminals or to withdraw cash at ATM's.

If at last resort I use designated charge card that immediately notifies me of any charges made.

No mumble jumbo with telephone or account numbers prone to error on apps.

    Gcash, Nocash, Johnny Cash.
I keep things simple, I use bill pay on BDO & Citibank USA. The bill pay app for both banks is simple just click on the payee and the bill is paid.

I also use auto pay for recurring bills.

I use Wise to transfer money from Citibank to BDO, then use debit card at terminals or to withdraw cash at ATM's.

If at last resort I use designated charge card that immediately notifies me of any charges made.

No mumble jumbo with telephone or account numbers prone to error on apps.
   

    -@Enzyte Bob

The main point here is to use BDO bill pay (and a BDO debit card like others use their USA etc. debit card). It seems like a very good process.

As stated before, I never wanted a Phils bank account as I saw no purpose in it plus IRS reporting issues if you ever accidentally exceeded $10K once in a calendar year. In your case you are using BDO for specific services and only as a transitory place of deposit for wise transfers for bill payments. You never need to hit $10K. I never knew BDO had a bill-pay service like banks in the USA have. I suppose you set that up by inputting the bank account information for all of your payees. Or does their bill-pay automatically include your major billers? GCASH and MAYA do include those billers plus they have services to load prepaid phone numbers (you can do the same with Lazada I suspect). They have even more services but neither allows foreigners to use their banking services.  Right now, I use Remitly to transfer to MAYA (usually) or GCASH and pay from there. I do see the advantages with your process because BDO is more stable and reliable than those mobile wallets GCASH and MAYA (in my opinion).

Danfinn said. . . .  The main point here is to use BDO bill pay (and a BDO debit card like others use their USA etc. debit card). It seems like a very good process.

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My bill pay at BDO is Meralco, Sky Broadband and Globe Mobile Reload They have hundreds of others you can choose from or you can enroll your own. BDO confirms payments by email.

Between BDO & Citibank USA bill pay, all my needs are covered. For Citibank USA you can enroll those not covered. I enrolled my Grandson in order to send him his birthday gift. It is not deposited in his account but Citibank will mail him a check without a fee to me.

Late to the thread, but would like to add that Metrobank also offers bill payments electronically to many companies and utilities.

@Skip Scott I tried to open an account Metrobank last September using my alien cert of registration. They refused. Since then I have been told that you have to go to several branches.. it's all up to each banks manager. Did they give you any problems opening an account? Thx

    @Skip Scott I tried to open an account Metrobank last September using my alien cert of registration. They refused. Since then I have been told that you have to go to several branches.. it's all up to each banks manager. Did they give you any problems opening an account? Thx
   

    -@mrbillone

Is your ACR for tourist or permanent visa like 13A? That seems to make a difference at some branches. If you are American like me and you go to a smaller branch your are a bit undesirable to begin with because of US government reporting requirements for them on USA accounts, FATCA etc.. My wife has a PNB account to receive her Phil SSS payments only, per sss process. She is a US citizen but the bank treats her (as SRRV) like a Philippine citizen. The jury is still out for me as to whether SRRV holders can open accounts here. As you indicate they want to see an ACR but SRRV holders are not in the BI system and we do not get ACR cards, annual reports, ECC etc., they just give us an SRRV card. Most banks don't know what that is; GCASH will not verify foreigners with SRRV cards as they only ask for ACR...they declined my SRRV card but my nephew got me a GCASH account using my Phils driver's license, probably ad a Filipino resident which is technically true, though not a citizen lol.