Some of the Best GCash Alternatives

Tech | November 17, 2023

GCash is one of the largest mobile wallet and digital payment services in the Philippines. With over 60 million registered users, it is undeniably the leading digital payment service provider in the country.

As GCash aims to serve the growing demands of its consumers, its application rapidly turned into a fintech super app where users are no longer limited to just few services.

As a super app, users can now do a lot of things using GCash, from a simple bills payment and money transfer, GCash users can now pay purchases in the grocery stores through QR code scanning. Aside from that, its users can now buy a mutual fund or trade local and global stocks within the app itself. It is also offering insurance services, crypto trading platform, games, shopping, opening savings account through its partner banks, find jobs and a lot more.

Over a short period of time, GCash has successfully integrated its services to the daily lives of ordinary Filipinos. As millions of people are becoming dependent with GCash in doing their financial transactions, an outtage in its services is now causing inconvenience and disruption to the daily lives of the Filipino people.

Perhaps, one main reason of this is that, more and more people in the country are relying only to GCash despite having so many alternative apps that offers the same services.

So, if you are a heavy GCash user and is looking for the best alternative to GCash then this article is for you. Before proceeding, please note that this article is not sponsored by any of these apps and everything written here is just based on personal knowledge and experience. Now that we are all set, here are some of the best alternatives to the GCash app.

Now that we are all set, here are some of the best alternatives to the GCash app.

Maya

Maya is marketed as an all-in-one digital bank app. Like GCash it is also a fintech super app that offers different kind of services to its users like bills payment, crypto trading, money transfers, insurance and a lot more.

Through the Maya app, you can directly open a savings account with their Maya Bank. GCash has the same service but they are offering it through a third party digital bank like CIMB and BPI.

The best thing about Maya, as of this writing, is that, it does not charge any fee yet for any cash-in transactions from your linked bank account. This is one advantage for Maya users as GCash is already charging a Php5 cash-in fees for transaction above Php1,000 from your linked bank account.

Maya also offers crypto trading platform like GCash. Aside from that, it also offers maya credit which you can use like a credit card. It also offers personal loan up to Php250,000. Maya, also has thousands of partner merchants that accepts QR code scanning type of payment transaction.

So try opening Maya account, so that the next time GCash is out you can have a backup digital wallet for your daily needs. You can also make Maya as your main digital wallet over GCash, whatever you prefer between these two.

GoTyme Bank

This one is my new favorite in terms of app design and animations. I just know about this last week and I did find it as a good alternative to GCash. GoTyme is a joint venture of the Gokongwei Group and Tyme Group in the Fintech industry. It is also a digital bank app like Maya where you can directly open a savings account with 5% interest rate.

The best thing about GoTyme is that you can easily get a very nice looking visa ATM debit card for free upon signing up into the GoTyme app. All you need to do is go to any Robinsons store or mall and find their digital kiosk. Then login your account into the machine and then get your card. Just like that!

In less than 5 minutes you can get your GoTyme card from their kiosk for free. Everytime you use this card in Robinsons stores and other Go Reward partners, it will give you 3x of Go Reward points.

However, unlike Maya and GCash, I do not consider GoTyme as a super app yet as you can only do few things using the app. Additionally, its bills payment service is just limited to a number of merchants as of this writing. Like GCash, you can only do 2 free cash-ins per month from your linked bank account. Over-the-counter cash-ins are also available but is limited to certain amount but they are all free.

Pouch.ph

Pouch is also a digital wallet that utilizes bitcoin's lightning network primarily for remittances and payment transaction in the Philippines. It is registered with the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas as an Operator of Payment Systems thus it cannot be considered as a digital bank like Maya and GoTyme. It is best known for integrating Bitcoin into its payment services.

Pouch is also very useful for our OFWs in sending remittances to the Philippines from wherever they are in the world. You might be asking right now, how can I do this? Well, if you are not familiar with bitcoin here is an overview of the process. Pouch allows sending and receiving of bitcoin through the lightning network and it also allows the conversion of these bitcoins within the Pouch app to the local currency (Peso).

Once the money is received in your Pouch account, you can then transfer the money to your bank account and then withdraw it from the ATM machines. A lot of banks in the Philippines are already available in the Pouch app. Keeping the money in the Pouch app is also a good option, as you can also do bills payment within the Pouch app.

Aside from that, Pouch also has QR code scanning for payment to merchants that already accepts bitcoin payment through the lightning network. All of this will happen at a faster, cheaper, secure and convenient way thanks to bitcoin's lightning network.

With this process you will no longer need to go to Western Union or other third party remittance centers. All you need to do is educate your OFW family about using bitcoin which is already gaining popularity and massive adaptations in other countries.

Aside from that Pouch also offers bills payment within the app. It also allows QR code scanning for payment transaction through the lightning network. Bitcoin might not be widely used in the Philippines but in other countries more and more people are already using it.

In no time, more and more merchants in the country will soon be accepting bitcoin payment and Pouch could be one of the first apps that you can use for these transactions because they are already offering this service.

Coins.ph

Coins.ph is best known for its great crypto trading platform. However, this app is not only limited to crypto trading as it also offers bills payment services with the number of merchants almost the same as with GCash.

Coins.ph also offers buy load services. Other than these features there is no other services offered. This app seems to focus mainly on crypto trading as it also have a Coins Pro feature that offers more services for crypto trading. In conclusion, this app is good alternative to GCash in terms of crypto trading and bills payment.

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