It turns out that even celebrities also suffer from headaches regular people encounter every day – that is, paying bills, sending money to their family members, shopping online, or even as simple as booking a movie to watch during weekends. For actor and TV host Drew Arellano, mobile money payments is the way to go.
The host reveals that he has been using the GCash App to handle the goings-on in his daily life. He admitted to not having enough time, and that slashing a few minutes off of his busy schedule handling payments would be a very big help for him attend to his loved ones.
“In the real world, time is of the essence. For me, I’m a very busy guy, so if I can cut time for other things, I’d gladly do it. I have to go back to my family…so we have more time to do stuff, like tickle Primo.”
He agrees though that the concept of mobile money payments intimidated him initially, but it all went away after figuring out how secure and convenient GCash is. “My lolo, my lola, a lot of older people have trust issues with mobile payments, and I completely agree, because this is a relatively new technology for some. But for me, I’ve been using mobile to do payments. I guess, if you think about credibility, think about the 7 million users using GCash. Think about its partnership with Alipay, with Ayala, with Globe. And think about Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas regulating this app,” he says.
Asked about mobile money on a bigger picture, he claims that this technology has the potential to help with financial inclusivity/the unbanked Filipinos. “Everyone has a mobile phone but not everyone has a bank account and having a GCash account is definitely a way to go. You can put in your money here and use it for all your daily needs,” Arellano adds.
The Philippines has one of the biggest unbanked populations in the Southeast Asia region, with some 69% unable to get proper financial services offered by traditional banking, and with 36% having no access to physical banks.
GCash allows customers to create a financial profile within seconds, allowing users to be able to pay cashlessly at malls, send money to other users in the country at the snap of a finger, and even create a virtual card that one can use to shop online – something that would take months to get approved via the traditional banking model.
So what should be next for GCash according to Drew Arellano? ”More shops that can use GCash QR code to pay! So I don’t need to bring my wallet, just my driver’s license!”