Mama Goals

GCash has never been included in the modes of payment that I use for my small online book shop. That is because our family has always been a Smart/PLDT subscriber for all of our network and communications needs. It's not that we are very loyal to Manny Pangilinan's telco, but every time we try to use Globe, we always experience problems.

Anyways, there was one customer who explained her dilemma about sending payment. She said she could not get out of the house to go to a remittance center and she is also not enrolled in any online banking service. She asked if I could accept GCash payment.

I told her I would give her an answer within the day. I did not waste time and quickly did my research about GCash. I was thinking, it is actually beneficial, both to the customers and me if I can accommodate more payment options.

The first thing that I tried to find out was if I could use a Smart mobile number to register to GCash. My husband (Papa Bong) has a Globe number, which he needs to answer calls of clients who are Globe users, but it is a prepaid plan. His previous Globe prepaid numbers had expired because we forgot to reload, so I was worried that might happen again.

After some searching, I learned that it was only last June 12 2018, Independence Day, when GCash became available for all networks.

Okay, so I downloaded the GCash app from the App Store. I thought, if I will be able to register my Smart number, then that means it works. Registration was successful! Since Papa Bong is the one who has valid IDs and is usually the one who goes out, he agreed to register the account under his name.

Next, to be able to receive money and cash-out, we had to verify the account (also known as KYC or Know Your Customer, a process required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to validate the identity of a customer availing a financial service such as GCash).

Navigating through the GCash app, I found an option to verify the account. Here, Papa Bong needed to provide some personal info, scan a valid ID and take a selfie. After doing all that, a message showed saying that it might take 48 hours for the account to get verified. But it had only been a few minutes when we got this text message:

Well, so far, so good! At this point, it looked like there was going to be no problem with the Smart number after all.

I messaged the customer back saying yes, I could accept her GCash payment. She sent the money and voila, it was immediately reflected on our GCash balance.

Since it was our first time to use GCash, we might as well test its cash-out feature and withdraw the money paid by the customer. So, the following morning, Papa Bong set out to go to a Cebuana branch near our place, which is one of the GCash Partner Outlets that can perform cash-out transactions. He said he was not able to cash-out because they were offline. He, then went to Villarica and they were also offline.

In the afternoon, Theo and I went with Papa Bong to drop by the nearest Globe store which, according to my research, is supposed to be able to do the cash-out. This store, located inside a mall, is not even near our place. It's at least 16 kilometers away! Sadly, the staff there said cash-out is not available at their outlet. We asked if they have the GCash Mastercard instead, but they also don't have it. We walked around the mall and went to the concierge which had a GCash logo, meaning they must have been accepting GCash transactions. Again, the person there said it is not available.

We realized that it was not that easy to cash-out and the difficulty of finding GCash outlets is what makes it more frustrating. I knew that even if we would not be able to cash-out, we could still use the money in the GCash account in other ways like paying online, buying load and paying for purchases made at GCash QR Partners using its “Scan To Pay” feature. So I told Papa Bong, regardless of whether we cash-out or not, the books should be shipped on schedule. However, he does not think the same way as I do.

On shipping day, Papa Bong brought the books that needed to be shipped. I gave him extra cash for the shipping fee of the customer who paid via GCash, just in case he still couldn't cash-out. He went to Villarica first to check if they were already online and they were. However, they said they could not process the cash-out because their program, or perhaps their USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) menu, only accepts a Globe mobile number.

Plan B

Papa Bong went home with the books still not shipped. I was really disappointed, but instead of pursuing an argument, I checked the web if GCash allows multiple accounts under one name. It turned out it is fine. So I went back to work and registered Papa Bong's prepaid Globe number. We went through the same process of verification and everything went well just like the first account, My plan was to send the money from the Smart GCash account to the Globe GCash account. There was no problem doing that as well and money was transferred in no time.

Papa Bong went back to Villarica, this time with the Globe GCash number. Theo and I waited in the car, because Papa Bong assured me he could handle it now. Minutes later, he came back saying he still was not able to cash-out. So I went there myself. The problem, it seemed, was Papa Bong did not know that the 4 digit number that Villarica was asking him about, was actually the MPin. 

Finally, cash-out was successful!!! Papa Bong just needed to fill up a form, then a text message was sent to the Globe number and he had to reply with his mPin. Once Villarica got a confirmation message, they could already release the money.

I told the kind people there that it has been announced last June that GCash is now available for all networks, so how come they could not process our GCash Smart account? They assumed maybe their program is not yet updated.

For now, it is still safer to use Globe because there are some features that are not yet available with Smart, and probably, with the other networks as well.

P.S. GCash for all networks is still on beta!

Just when I was almost finished with this post, I found out that GCash for all networks is still on beta. The following are the services that are available to Smart, Sun, TNT, Abs-Cbn mobile and Cherry prepaid subscribers:

• Cash-in
• Buy load for yourself or for other for all networks
• Shop at GCash partner stores
• Pay bills
• Register for an American Express Virtual card that you can use to shop online
• Send money to anyone for free
• Refer friends to use GCash and get freebies
• Book movies

Aha! Cash-out is not included! If only I saw this before going through all that trouble! It was hard to find, though. So, I'm sharing them here. Hopefully, I'll save you from the same not-so-good experience. You can also check it out here.