10 Philippine online payment methods for consumers and merchants

Low banking and credit card penetration in the Philippines has been a factor hindering the growth of the country’s ecommerce sector in its earlier years. With a mere 27 percent banking penetration and two percent credit card penetration, the prospect of increasing ecommerce transactions doesn’t look promising.

But today, online vendors can encourage consumers to purchase online through alternative online payment methods. Ewallets and payment gateways are bringing bank and non-bank payment options to the table.

To help the up-and-coming Philippine online merchants and online buyers to find the payment gateway that fits their needs (and budget), here’s our list of payment players in the Philippines:

Ewallets

1. Smart Money

Smart Money, one of the first ewallet services in the Philippines provided by telco Smart Communications, provides a payment service for both merchants and online shoppers.

It offers a web-based payment service for merchants to accept payments. Regular consumers must have a Smart SIM. The user will then have a designated account number that gives them the capability to purchase online. It’s linked to MasterCard, which means any payment from the ewallet will be equivalent to a credit card payment. On top of that, an SMS notification will be sent to the user when the account is used for any transactions.

Apart from online purchases, it also allows users to pay bills and top up their phone credits using their ewallet balance.

Fees: Users are charged a one-time fee of Php 120 (US$2.71) upon applying for the Smart Money account, and will be charged an additional Php 2.50 (US$0.06) for every online purchase and credit top-up.

2. GCash

GCash, telco Globe’s counterpart to Smart Money, is also being used by online sellers and shoppers, and other payment gateways. Users likewise have to own a Globe SIM. By activating a GCash account, users just have to put in their mobile number linked to their GCash account on the designated ecommerce site, and the balance will deducted from the wallet. It also uses an SMS notification feature that informs the user of transactions.

It also offers bill payment and phone credit top up directly from ewallets.

Fees: GCash users are billed Php 50 (US$1.13) every month.

Payment gateways

3. DragonPay

4. JuanPay

5. PesoPay

6. PayEasy

7. MOLPay

8. WeePay

Other payment methods

9. 7 Connect

10. Coins.ph