GCash unveils new features, including global availability, stock market trading, additional security
It's already three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and Filipinos have since relied on settling expenses via digital banking and e-wallets more than ever.
Though there's a semblance of pre-pandemic life already with more businesses and in-person events, many users still prefer cashless transactions to "kaliwaan" for obvious reasons. That's why this year, finance app GCash is expanding its services to cater to Filipinos' needs especially in an evolving digital financial landscape.
During its #GCashFutureCast event last March 30, GCash unveiled 10 new features that will be implemented over the course of 2023, including the news on GCash expanding globally. Filipinos living in Japan, Australia, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada may now also use GCash using international SIM cards, allowing overseas Filipinos to send money to their loved ones here for free—saving up remittance fees.
They may also use GCash to make cross-border QR payments at Chinese payment platform Alipay+, which caters to merchants in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Germany, Italy, France, and the UK. Not only it eliminates the hassle of paying with cash, but it also saves Filipinos time in withdrawing money at ATMs with high service fees. It also offers real-time Forex charging with no service fees.
Here are the other updates that GCash has announced.
GCash Visa card
A physical GCash Visa card will soon be available later this year, giving users access to over 100 million ships across 200 countries and territories.
They'll have real-time Forex charging at low exchange rates, free of service charges.
GInsure Online Shopping Protect
Users who love online shopping are set to get an insurance in GInsure Online Shopping Protect.
For P34, it offers users 60 days of coverage up to P20,000 for their purchases across 1,500 platforms. It's helpful in scenarios when orders are not delivered, are accidentally damaged, are not as described, or are stolen.
GStocks PH
Stock brokerage house AB Capital Securities Inc. just got accessible through GStocks PH.
Through GStocks PH, users can now trade stocks of over 280 local companies. It comes with a user-friendly and simplified trading interface designed with the Philippine Stock Exchange.
GCrypto
Users may discover the world of cryptocurrency and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) through GCrypto.
They'll get access to curated NFT collections and the buying and selling of crypto as backed by the Philippine Digital Asset Exchange or PDAX, the country's leading homegrown cryptocurrency exchange supervised by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
GGives
The feature is made especially to Filipinos with no credit cards and other pertinent documents.
Through GGives, they can "buy now, pay later" without the need for downpayment. Select merchants are also offering zero interest rates.
Borrow Load
During emergency, users may borrow their favorite load promos at zero cash out. They can now afford to access data-heavy apps with load promos valid for up to seven days.
GChat
With the rise of scam and spam, GCash has taken additional steps to ensure safety in the app. One of them is GChat, a built-in messenger feature allowing easy transactions with contacts, sharing of receipts instantly, and tracing of transaction histories.
The feature makes it easier to search for conversations with friends, merchants or customers, while the Gigi and Advisories features allow users to get help anytime in real-time.
DoubleSafe
Through DoubleSafe, fraudsters would have less chances of taking over accounts.
Aside from the two-factor authentication and mobile personal identification number, users will be prompted to do a selfie scan or facial recognition.
DoubleSafe will be activated for every first login to a new mobile phone.