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.

Read more: Philippine Daily Inquirer