GCash moves to turn tide of savings for Pinoys

A doctor has saved many lives but has no savings in the bank. An art director churns out a successful savings campaign but is failing her bank account. A lawyer who has tried many criminal cases pleads guilty to being broke. An overseas Filipino worker toils for years to give his family a bright future but still has zero savings.

These were just some of the narratives in GCash’s #PlsSaveMe campaign that resonated well with Filipinos as they bared on social media the ugly truth about their spending habits and financial woes.

Now, the leading mobile wallet is offering a silver lining to every Filipino’s cloud of debt and financial troubles with a follow-up campaign called #LetsSaveTogether, which seeks to translate conversations about being penniless into actions of saving and practicing good money habits.

GCash launched #LetsSaveTogether in the run-up to World Savings Day on Oct. 31, encouraging Filipinos to start saving money and to take advantage of GSave, a digital savings account available on the GCash app in their journey to building a stable financial house.

Recent studies show that majority of Filipinos have a savings crisis.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 2017 Financial Inclusion Survey, 52.8 million Filipino adults do not own bank accounts, which means they have nothing set aside for a rainy day. Of this number, 60 percent said they don’t have enough money to open one. It also showed that only 1.3 percent of Filipino adults have electronic money (e-money accounts).

The World Bank’s 2017 Global Findex Database also showed that 66 percent of Filipinos do not have any formal savings account.

“Many Filipinos have taken a step towards financial wellness by acknowledging that they are struggling financially and that they need help. Now, help has come their way; all they need to do is to take a step forward to be able to achieve their financial goals,” said Anthony Thomas, president and chief executive officer of Mynt, the company behind GCash.

Mobile bank account GSave, a collaboration with Malaysian Bank CIMB, is a simpler and more accessible alternative to grow one’s savings. It offers a higher interest rate at 3% annually or 12 times higher than interest earnings in traditional banks.

The latest feature allows users to open and maintain a bank account straight from the GCash app without the cumbersome requirements of a traditional bank: no minimum deposit or a required maintaining balance. All users need to open a GSave account is one valid identification card.

“The solution is already at their fingertips. It’s now time to turn the conversation of not saving enough into action of actually saving for the future,” said Thomas. “We encourage Filipinos, who are among the top mobile users in the world, to kickstart their habit of saving with GSave. Let’s save together.”