GCash to charge fee for linked BPI, UB cash-ins

CEBU, Philippines —  Mobile wallet operator GCash has announced to charge cash-in transactions of GCash-linked bank accounts starting October 2023.

In a virtual press briefing, GCash president and chief executive officer Martha Sazon explained that the convenience fee of P5 per linked bank transfer is a fee charged by BPI (Bank of Philippine Islands) and UnionBank, which had been shouldered by GCash since the start of their partnership.

This time, Sazon said GCash cannot anymore subsidize in full the convenience fee, saying “What we have been doing all this time, that is known to many, is that we have been subsidizing significant part of our operations with all the expenses of this cash in. Unfortunately, given our scale and growing business and cost from our partners, which have also been increasing, we cannot afford anymore to subsidize them in full.”

Compared to another service fee for GCash cash in, which is P25, the P5 for linked accounts is way too low, she added.

Sazon attributed the company’s decision to collect transaction fees for linked account cash-in due to rising operational costs.

According to Sazon, even with these charges, GCash will continue to subsidize and will remain committed to keeping its services accessible to many Filipinos and ensure that operations will remain seamless.

“The fee that we collect all goes to our partners. Nothing goes to us,” explained Sazon, admitting that the subsidy is an additional burden.

In order not to be burdened by convenience fees, Sazon suggested that users should plan their cash-in transactions from other banks to GCash wallet.

GCash partner banks that use InstaPay, on the other hand, collect varying service fees. GCash now has over 40 partner banks.

Cashing in via over-the-counter outlets until a user reaches a monthly limit of P8,000 remains free. After reaching this limit, a service fee of two percent will apply for every over-the-counter cash-in transaction. The fee will be deducted automatically from the GCash wallet.

The Ayala-led GCash remains the dominant Finance Super App in the country, bannered by ubiquity across its active user base, which is 5x larger than the next e-wallet, based on statistics from reputable third-party provider data.ai, and the largest digital ecosystem with 6 million merchants and social sellers and over 900 merchant partners hosted in GLife.

Built on trust and the security of its brand and platform, GCash was recognized in the PAHAYAG 2023 Second Quarter Survey, an independent and non-commissioned survey commissioned by PUBLiCUS Asia, as one of the most trusted and loved brands in the country, with an endearment rating of 80 percent and trust rating of 57 percent significantly besting the next financial services provider at 22 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

Moreover, GCash boasts of having the most comprehensive suite of digital financial services, covering savings (via GSave), investments (via GFunds and the recently launched GStocks and GCrypto), and insurance products (via GInsure). On credit, backed by its proprietary trust platform and credit scoring via GScore, GCash has provided access to credit to over 3 million borrowers, of which more than 60 percent are from lower socio-economic classes and more than 60 percent are women.

These milestones were achieved through game-changing lending products covering credit lines (GCredit), cash loans (GLoan), and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL, via GGives), providing loans to more Filipinos who need it the most, continuously paving the way to its vision of Finance for All.

Under GCash’s mission to provide Finance for All Filipinos, it has gone beyond the nation’s borders and now offers payments in 13 countries through GCash Global Pay. GCash also empowers overseas Filipinos in 6 countries to manage their finances through GCash Overseas, providing access to services such as Buy Load, Pay Bills, and Send Money. Moving beyond transactions, GCash incorporates sustainability with innovation. The GForest movement empowers users to accumulate green energy and plant trees by simply using GCash.

As of the second quarter of 2023, more than 2.5M trees have been planted, enabling our users to build a greener tomorrow.