These days, it’s all about speed and convenience. From purchasing something that you want online or satisfying that food craving at 11pm, the quicker the better.
With virtual wallets like GCash, that’s exactly what you get. Pay your bills, transfer funds, request payments, buy cellphone load, shop online, or even buy movie tickets using just your smartphone.
Read on to find out what else you can do with your GCash account.
How do you sign up for a GCash account?
To enjoy the features of this service, you need to register for an account.
There are two ways to do this: via the mobile app or the official website at www.gcash.com.
A mobile phone number is required. After you input your number, you will then receive a verification code.
The next step is to assign a mobile PIN (MPIN). This is the 4-digit PIN that you’ll need to key in every time you log in and make a GCash transaction.
Sign up for a Basic account with only 5 features and up to 50,000 PHP cash-ins monthly.
Or you can sign up for a Partially Verified GCash account when you upload a selfie and electronic signature. This one has up to 9 GCash features and as much as 100,000 PHP cash-ins per year.
But if you want to avail of all GCash features and have as much as 100,000 PHP cash-ins per month, complete your profile and unlock the Fully Verified GCash account.
Not a Globe subscriber? No problem! You can still sign up for a GCash account even if you don’t have a Globe mobile number.
What are the features of GCash?
For the uninitiated, logging in to the GCash app and seeing the full menu of features can make you feel overwhelmed. Don’t worry because we’ve listed the most useful features right here.
Cash In
To use GCash, your wallet must be funded. You can load your GCash wallet in a variety of ways. Refer to this table below:
| Over the Counter |
|
| Online Banks | BPI, UnionBank, Mastercard/Visa Bank Cards are preferred but you may also enroll AUB, BDO, LandBank, Metrobank, PBCom, PNB, PSBank, RCBC |
| Remittance | MoneyGram, Western Union, PayPal |
Send Money
You can send money to another GCash account or to a local bank account.
- If you’re sending money to someone through the Express Send feature, just key in their mobile number and select the amount you want to send (50 PHP, 100 PHP, 200 PHP, 500 PHP or 1000 PHP).
- Did you know that you can also personalize your fund transfer with the Send with a Clip feature? Key in the mobile number, the amount you want to send, and add a short message. You also have the option to attach a photo, video or audio clip.
- There’s also the GCash Ang Pao feature. You can send a minimum of 2 Ang Paos that you can put equal or random amounts of money in. The recipient has up to 72 hours to claim the money, otherwise it will be returned to your GCash wallet.
From your GCash wallet, you can also send money to the following bank accounts:
| BPI / BPI Family Savings Bank
BDO Unibank Metrobank LandBank of the Philippines Security Bank Union Bank PNB Chinabank EastWest Bank RCBC UCPB PSBank Asia United Bank PBCom AllBank Bangko Mabuhay Bank of Commerce BDO Network Bank BPI Direct Banko Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank China Bank Savings CTBC Bank |
Coins.ph
Dungganon Bank East West Rural Bank Equicom Savings Bank ING Bank ISLA Bank Malayan Bank Savings and Mortgage Bank, Inc. Maybank Philippines OmniPay Inc Partner Rural Bank PayMaya Philippines Philippine Business Bank, Inc. Philippine Trust Company Philippine Veterans Bank PNB Savings Bank Quezon Capital Rural Bank Robinsons Bank Sterling Bank of Asia Sun Savings Bank UCPB Savings Bank Wealth Development Bank |
Save Money
Open a GCash Savings account (powered by CIMB Bank) and enjoy one of the highest interest rates per annum at 4.1%.
There’s no maintaining balance, and you can withdraw or deposit funds anytime.
Click on Deposit and the amount you want to deposit, and then Confirm to proceed.
If you have GCash Coins, you can also transfer them from your Piggy Bank to your GSave Account.
GCash Coins are earned from rebates and cashbacks. Also, the more you use GCash, the more you’ll earn GCash Coins.
Buy Load
Just key in the Globe or TM mobile number you want to load for. Select the kind of load and how much to load (from 10 PHP to as much as 1,000 PHP).
Pay Bills
This app also lets you pay for your utility bills. Enroll your electricity, water, cable, internet, or telecoms bills.
You can also pay for the following:
- Credit cards
- Loans
- Government
- Insurance
- Transportation
- Real estate
- Healthcare
- Schools
- Payment solutions
- Foundations / charitable institutions
Pay QR
If you shop at any GCash merchants, simply scan the QR code and key in the amount you need to pay.
GCredit
It’s a revolving credit line right from your GCash account similar to how a loan or credit card works. Enjoy low interest rates at 3% and up to 30,000 PHP credit line.
Click on Manage Credit to see your GScore. You need a higher GScore to unlock the GCredit feature.
To increase your score, keep cashing in, paying via QR, paying your bills with GCash, or using the save and invest features of the app.
You will be notified that you can activate GCredit once you hit a GScore of 400.
GCash KKB
It’s an easy way to collect payments from friends and family when you dine out, travel, or shop together. It saves you the hassle of collecting money from them one by one.
Choose a KKB Category, set the due date, select Split Equally or Split by item, and then select the people you want to collect the money from.
But to use this feature, they also need to have their own GCash account so you can add them to the KKB group.
Other Features of GCash
GCash for shopping or streaming
There’s a Lazada button right in the app, making it easier for you to browse through deals of the day or flash sales.
You can also use GCash to shop online at Sephora or National Bookstore.
GCash American Express Virtual Pay
Have your own American Express virtual card to shop online at international websites. Unlike regular AMEX credit cards, there’s no need to pay annual fees. Registering for an AMEX Virtual Pay is also free of charge.
Request Money
Request money from people on your GCash contact list and receive it quickly and easily.
Borrow Load
Ran out of cellphone load? You can use this GCash feature if you are a prepaid subscriber of any network.
The maximum amount you can borrow is only 30 PHP, though.
Invest Money
For as low as 50 PHP, you can make an investment in money market instruments. No need to open a bank account!
Final Thoughts
If you like convenient, cashless transactions, virtual wallets like GCash are definitely good to have.
Downloading and registering for an account is free, and it only takes just a few minutes.
The requirements to open an account are simple. Upload them and have your GCash account fully verified in minutes.
Most online transactions and fund transfers have no extra charge, (bank to GCash wallet, PayPal to GCash wallet). Transfers are also completed in real time.
This makes it great for personal use, especially when transacting with small amounts of money, or when you need to make several transactions a day.
But if there’s anything that would discourage you from using this app, it’s that GCash can just crash without notice. When this happens, you cannot log in to the app, or some services will be unavailable.
Also, there are not enough communication channels where you can report issues with the app, or with funds that do not show up in your GCash wallet, for example.
But overall, it’s a good app. It saves you a trip to the bank to make withdrawals, deposits, remittances, or fund transfers.
It’s packed with very useful features that will encourage you to save and invest your money.
There are also over 73,000 merchants in the Philippines that accept GCash.
Are you a GCash user? How are you liking it so far? Let us know in the comments!