YESPinoy and Innoload

Another e-payment system available to Filipinos is YESPinoy. With YESPinoy, you can send remittance or money via the Internet from your credit card (VISA, MasterCard, JCB) or debit card (Smart Money, UnionBank EON Card). The recipient can receive money through his Smart Money account or UnionBank EON Card, which can be withdrawn in an ATM.

So, what now?

YESPinoy offers convenience to remitters abroad. Normally, a remitter abroad must go to a Smart Remittance Partner to send money. With YESPinoy, sending remittance to a Smart Money user can be done anywhere, via the YESPinoy website. The remitter abroad is hassle-free from going to a Smart Remittance Partner.

Innoload offers this same convenience to its customers, except it employs different payment systems. Sending remittance to a Smart Money or Globe G-Cash user can be done via the Internet. With Innoload, you can send money from PayPal, Moneybookers, Smart Money, and Globe G-Cash. The beneficiary in the Philippines can receive the money via Smart Money or G-Cash. As a result, the remitter abroad is hassle-free from going to a Smart Remittance Partner or Globe G-Cash Outlet.

I’ve only made a comparison of the remittance service of YESPinoy and Innoload. Though these two companies offer a similar benefit to remitters, its direction and focus are very different. Let me explain.

YESPinoy focuses on serving the global Filipino community by offering remittance service and other services such as Find a Friend, Find a School, and Send SMS (via the Internet). YESPinoy is itself a community that tries to be funny and approachable (they have caricatures of their management team).

On the other hand, Innoload is focused on linking various payment systems that will enable people from the Philippines to shop online, or basically do online transactions. For people abroad, they will be able to send money to the Philippines from a PayPal or Moneybookers account. Innoload is the only site that enables a Smart Money or G-Cash subscriber to transfer money to a PayPal or Moneybookers account. Good news to Filipinos who want to shop in eBay.

YESPinoy can improve its service by adding more options to send money from. Why just from credit cards? Why not add banks? I’m also surprised that YESPinoy doesn’t have a forum. It would feel more like a community if there was a forum.

More topics to come. Next entries would be about Google Talk & Chikka, NETS, Smart Money, and more.

PayEasy Works

This morning, I tried funding my PayEasy account through my G-Cash, and it worked. I put in P45 to my PayEasy account. Yay

With this amount, I can buy a song from Fliptunes. Fliptunes is an online store of original Pinoy music. One songs costs P40. I've successfully bought a song (Voice of Angels by SPiNTECH), and as I pressed the 'Download' button, Mozilla suddenly incurred an error, which quit the program. I went back to that page but was unable to download the license because it said that I had to buy the license. But I just bought the license!

Fortunately, my friend Apol works at MozCom. She said Fliptunes works best using Internet Explorer and told me to email her boss regarding the problem. She replied instantly, within 30 minutes I think. They reset my order, so I was able to download the license. So I finally got to listen to the song. Thanks to Apol and Ms. Tin Loya of MozCom. Appreciate the help :)

I never knew there was so much Pinoy music. Check out Fliptunes and pay via PayEasy, it's convenient. Just don't use Mozilla Firefox, hehe

Online Payment Systems

I've been researching on online payment systems (it's my job to learn about these). So far, I've read up on PayPal, Moneybookers and PayEasy. I can't try PayPal and Moneybookers because they don't serve the Philippines, but I can try PayEasy.

PayPal allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money online. PayPal users can shop online without revealing their credit card number or other financial information, which makes it secure. PayPal also caters to merchants who need a payment system to receive money. Recently, PayPal has extended its services to the mobile phone. Mobile subscribers in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom can buy items through their mobile phone by texting. The PayPal Plus Credit Card, which is MasterCard designed, offers exclusive benefits to PayPal members.

Moneybookers works similar to PayPal and offers the same basic services to shoppers and merchants. The difference between the two payment systems is its market. PayPal is widely used in the United States, while Moneybookers is more popular in Europe. Maybe because Moneybookers accepts more European currencies than PayPal? I wonder...

Moneybookers does not offer mobile services like PayPal's, and does not have its own credit card. I wonder if there are a lot of users to PayPal's mobile service because I have this notion that most Americans don't know how to compose a text message. I guess texting has become more popular in the United States than I thought.

PayEasy, developed by MozCom, is an online payment gateway for Internet users and Internet store owners. The PayEasy system revolves around the concept of a Wallet. One must fund his/her PayEasy account to make purchases from online merchants who accept PayEasy. There are several payment systems to fund your PayEasy account: Globe G-Cash, international credit cards, PayPal, debit cards (Bancnet and MegaLink), UCPB my1time, and many more (offline funding can be done).

This afternoon, I went to the Payeasy site and tried funding P50 to my PayEasy account through my G-Cash. I received a text message requesting to reply with my MPIN to confirm my transaction. I did this, but nothing happened next. I was expecting another text message, one from Mozcom and/or G-Cash, but received none. I tried funding again, this time, I tried funding P40 to my account. It didn't work again.

I emailed Mozcom's support/ help desk regarding this problem, and they responded to me quite fast. My message was forwarded to another guy from Mozcom asking if Mozcom has received a notification from Globe. After around an hour, I got a reply. Here it is:

Hi,

There was a problem with our G-Cash application. The transaction was not committed. Please try again. Thanks.

So the G-Cash system of PayEasy doesn't work or didn't work at that particular time only? I'll try again tom. I was hoping to purchase songs from fliptunes.

What I don't like about PayEasy is that non-PayEasy members cannot pay to a PayEasy user, unless the merchant avails of the PayEasy Direct (which is not available for all merchants).

I'll look into more payment systems tomorrow.

Reloading G-Pass via G-Cash

I tried loading my G-Pass using G-Cash, and this time it worked. Hmm...

I got to load P20 to my G-Pass. Cool

My First G-Cash Experience

For my first experiment on mobile applications, I decided to try Globe's G-Cash service. I've never used G-Cash ever, and after learning that Philippines was the first (or one of the first?) in integrating an electronic wallet system into mobile phones, I decided it's worth to try G-Cash.

My first attempt at G-Cash
I went to the Globe Hub in Podium last August 6, Sunday. I wanted to cash-in P100 to my G-Cash account. So I filled up this form and waited for 5 minutes only to tell me that their system was down at the moment, meaning they can't cash-in my P100. Argh! I was kinda disappointed at this. If the G-Cash system is occasionally down, I don't think I would want to do large transactions, like paying for bills. Meralco bill at home ranges from P9,000 - P11,000 a month, why would I want to bring cash of that amount in the mall to cash-in G-Cash? I might get robbed in the process. Or the G-Cash system might be down...

My first G-Cash Cash-In
Then yesterday, August 21, I finally got to cash-in G-Cash at the Globe Business Center in Robinson's Galleria. I successfully cashed-in P200.
These are the steps involved for cashing-in G-Cash at a Globe Business Center:

1. Get an application form from the guard at the entrance. He'll give you a number on a stub as well.
2. Fill up form
3. Wait for your number to come out
4. Go to the counter assigned to you
5. Submit form
6. Receive text from G-Cash, informing of the transaction

So much involved when cashing-in G-Cash! I find it inconvenient to go through this every time. It's no fun filling up forms and waiting. I didn't have to wait for long though, (maybe because it was a holiday and time was already 7.30pm). I wish they find a way to eliminate the process of filling up forms.

While I was at the counter submitting my form, I asked the lady (customer care) if I can buy cell phone load using G-Cash. She said that G-Cash doesn't do that kind of service yet, that Globe is still working on it. Huh? Wasn't this service offered last year pa? I asked this question to test how well they know G-Cash. I didn't argue with her further because I was thinking maybe the mobile reloading service via G-Cash was currently down or something. Instead, I just asked for a brochure or leaflet on G-Cash. She told me I had to get it from the guard at the entrance. Why don't they place brochures at the counter?

Buying cell phone load via G-Cash
Contrary to the lady at customer care, the G-Cash brochure says I can buy mobile load using G-Cash by simply texting. I tried it this morning and it works! I bought P25 load from G-Cash, and what's more is that I get 5% of G-Cash load from my purchase, so I got back P1.25! Yay! The downside to this service is that when load balance is zero, you can't buy via G-Cash. There must be enough load to text to 2882. So I suggest that sending text to 2882 should be free when buying mobile load. Otherwise, I would still have to go to the nearest sari-sari or convenience store to buy load so I can use G-Cash to buy load. Whopeee. G-Cash defeats the purpose of conveniently buying load anywhere when they impose this restriction.

Attempting to Load G-Pass via G-Cash
For my next purchase via G-Cash, I decided to try loading my G-Pass via G-Cash. G-Pass, recently launched by Globe, is a reloadable stored value chip used as an alternative to pay for MRT trips. It's convenient to use when riding the MRT because all you have to do is tap the chip into a reader at the turnstile and pass through. No more falling in line to buy MRT tickets/ cards.

They say I can load G-Pass via my G-Cash, but it just didn't work. I've registered my G-Pass and was able to check my G-Pass balance, but I wasn't able to reload it. This was the text message I received:

"Sorry, you entered the wrong Card Name or G-Pass Serial No. Please try the transaction again with the correct Card Name or G-Pass Serial No."

I tried reloading G-Pass again twice, using my card name and serial number, but received the same text message.

So reloading the G-Pass via G-Cash doesn't work for now.

I'll try to use G-Cash for its other services too, like buying in Mercury Drug and National Bookstore. Or paying for Shakey's deliveries. So until my next entry :) Still trying to get a feel of G-Cash :)

Welcome to my blog

Hi everyone! I'm on a mission to blog about mobile applications in general. I'm currently researching and exploring mobile applications from the Philippines (because I live here), but I'll also keep an eye on mobile applications abroad. I'll be testing and trying on Globe and Smart's mobile applications, and I'll be sharing my feedback through this blog. I'm not an expert on this topic, I'm actually just beginning to learn about mobile applications.

So join me in my journey of exploring anything mobile!

In know you are probably wondering why it's MOObile, I just think it sounds cute.