Filipinos going cashless spikes up

Seventy-five percent of Filipino respondents tapped by international payments services provider Visa Inc. for a study in 2018 expressed plans to use cashless payments outlets and move away from traditional transaction methods, higher from just 47 percent in the same study in 2017.

In its study conducted July last year, titled Consumer Payment Attitude 2018, Visa said 74 percent more Filipinos found cashless transaction methods such as via cards and mobile devices safer than using cash. Comparatively, only 42 percent of the 500 Filipino respondents in Visa’s 2017 study expressed confidence in doing so.

The respondents, spread across all age groups, were participants who were earning P12,000 to P80,000 per month. The study was made through an online questionnaire sent to respondents in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and is part of Visa’s Southeast Asian study conducted on 3,000 consumers across eight markets in the region.

According to Visa, the number of respondents in the Philippines aware of cashless payments also grew 11 percent, to 82 percent from just 71 percent in 2017.

Moreover, of the respondents already using cashless payments, 67 percent said they have been using it more frequently than two years ago, vis-a-vis the 60 percent in 2017.

Transportation emerged as one of the categories where Filipinos were keen to use e-payments, Visa said, with near nine out of 10 Filipinos were supportive of e-payments for transportation vehicles such as jeepneys, buses, trains, taxis and private car hires.

“When we look at a lot of markets–a lot of our neighbors, there’s Visa cards being used on rail, buses, and taxis. These are all great examples of areas where we want to continue to expand in,” Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam Dan Wolbert said during a briefing on the study in Makati on Thursday.

Considering the rise of e-wallets to accommodate such change in consumer attitude, Wolbert said: “It’s about trying to determine what the right product is for these consumers to help open up each of these segments. Where we focus on is, we want to ensure we’re going to support the use of Visa credentials in these environments.”