‘Pay with Cashalo’ rolled out; Cebu Pac tapped as partner

Financial technology company Cashalo launched on Tuesday a new digital borrowing platform to tap the vast number of Filipinos unable to access formal sources of credit.

Cashalo, an app that was launched last year and had at least 1.5 million users, introduced Pay with Cashalo, which combined the ease of making purchases via credit cards but without the tough requirements that had kept their domestic market penetration rate low.

Cashalo is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Oriente, whose strategic partners include Filipino conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group.

On Tuesday, Cashalo named JG Summit’s Cebu Pacific as the launch partner for Pay with Cashalo— a tieup expected by both firms to widen their respective markets.

Linda Lan, Oriente vice president, said some 11 percent of over 100 million Filipinos had access to credit.

“All this has to do with building financial identity, encouraging and educating Filipinos to building their credit profile, protecting credit, improving credit,” she said on Monday.

The partnership with Cebu Pacific, dubbed “fly now, pay later,” will cover only domestic flights and ticket prices of P7,000 and below. Through the app, Lan said users could pay in three or six month installments. The monthly interest rate is 8.75 percent, apart from a one-time 5 percent processing fee.

Officials on Tuesday said Pay with Cashalo would open up a new market of borrowers without established credit history. Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and customer experience, said on Tuesday that more Filipinos might decide to fly using Pay with Cashalo.

“Despite the remarkable growth of aviation in the Philippines, only four out of every 10 Filipinos have actually traveled by air,” she said.

“So we want to enable everyone to fly by broadening the base of travellers with affordable and accessible flights,” she added.