Cashless payment system adoption in PH rising

Cash is still king in the Philippines but middle-class Filipinos are increasingly warming up to cashless payments, whether it’s for physical shopping or e-commerce purchases—including video streaming, music, ride-hailing and for booking travel requirements.

This is according to the latest Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study, the fifth edition of the Consumer Payment Attitudes Study conducted on 3,000 individuals across eight markets in Southeast Asia.

In the Philippines, there were 500 respondents, with monthly income levels ranging from P12,000 to P80,000 or covering the mass consumer segment that has access to certain banking services.

Locally, the study showed that two in every three Filipinos expected to increase their use of card payments over the next 12 months, saying these were more convenient and hassle-free. The ratio rose by 28 percent from last year’s survey.

Also, two of three respondents in the Philippines had tried going cashless and close to 60 percent had gone cashless for at least a few days.

“It is heartening to know that more Filipinos are seeing the benefits of using digital payments based on the findings from the study. Visa’s data also shows a similar trend, where we continue to see good double-digit growth in terms of spend and transactions made by Filipino cardholders,” said Dan Wolbert, Visa’s country manager for the Philippines and Guam.

The study showed that 78 percent of respondents now preferred shopping in places that offer cashless payments. This was an improvement from only 58 percent last year.

Contactless payments awareness and usage in the Philippines have also increased compared to 2017. The study showed that more than 80 percent of respondents were aware of contactless card payments, an increase of 11 percent compared to 2017. In addition, 84 percent of respondents also indicated that they were interested to use contactless payments.

“We have seen strong growth in contactless payments in the Philippines, especially with partnerships with key merchants such as SM and Robinsons who have implemented contactless payments across their stores in the Philippines,” Wolbert added.

Transportation in the Philippines is a category where Filipinos are keen to use e-payments. Based on the study, almost nine out of 10 Filipinos are generally supportive of e-payments for transportation, including for jeepneys, buses, trains, taxis and private car hires. In fact, more than half of the respondents think it is more convenient to pay using credit or debit cards for their transportation fares.

Beyond that, the research also shows how Filipinos were open to future technology to pay for their goods and services. Such technology leverages on card-on-file payments or digital payments. Six in 10 respondents expressed interest in using AI chatbots to order and make payments for their purchases. Some 90 percent are also interested to use self-service checkout kiosks instead of going to cashier counters, and 72 percent preferred to use their payment cards, contactless payments or biometric payments.