E-wallets such as GCash and PayMaya have made it easier to accomplish financial transactions at the comforts of your home. People don’t need to go out and risk going out since both platforms allow users to send money for their loved ones, pay bills, transfer funds on bank accounts, and top-up cash on the e-wallets. Unfortunately, these digital payment solutions require additional fees before fulfilling transactions. To help you gauge which one is ideal for your needs, we’ve compared the service fees of GCash and PayMaya for cash-ins, bank transfers, and sending money.
Author’s note: We’ve based the fees from the official websites of PayMaya and GCash.
| Transactions | GCash | PayMaya | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Send Money to same platform | Free | Free | ||||||
| Send Money to Smart Padala | — | 1.5% service charge | ||||||
| Send Money to remittance center | 2% service charge (via Villarica Pawnshop) | 1.5% service charge (via Palawan Pawnshop), currently unavailable until further notice | ||||||
| Bank transfer and other e-wallets | Free until further notice | Free until further notice | ||||||
| Cash-in via Online Banking | Free (BPI and UnionBank) | Free (BDO ATM, mobile and online) | ||||||
| Cash-in via Instapay | Free until further notice | Free until further notice | ||||||
| Cash-in via PESOnet | Free until further notice | Free until further notice | ||||||
| Cash-in via PayPal | Free | — | ||||||
| Cash-in via partner payment and remittance centers | 2% service charge (Cebuana Lhuiller, Villarica, Tambunting, Palawan Pawnshop, Globe Store, Bayad CenterECPay, Bayad Center, ECPay, select branches of Western Union, Expresspay, Digipay, PERA HUB, TrueMoney, Posible, GrowSari, 7-Eleven, LBC Express, TouchPay, eTap / Pay & Go, Shell Select, Puregold, Savemore, SM Hypermarket, SM Supermarket, SM, Robinsons Department Stores)Free (with a limit of PHP 8,000 per month), 2% (after reaching the limit) |
Free (convenience stores, kiosks, Smart Stores, SM and Robinson’s department stores) Smart Padala Centers (1.50%) | ||||||
| Cash-in via Mastercard and Visa bank cards | 2.58% service charge (starting July 6, 2020, no minimum amount required) | PHP 30.00 (no minimum amount required) |
Sending Money
When transferring money to another account on the same platform, both do not charge fees to users. Since PayMaya is a sister company of Smart, it supports remittance through Smart Padala with an additional 1.5% service charge that must be shouldered by the sender. Its exclusive partner for remittance is Palawan Pawnshop which also adds a 1.5% service charge per transaction. Do note that the service is currently unavailable until further notice.
Globe’s GCash, on the other hand, has a slightly higher additional fee at 2% with Villarica Pawnshop as its partner. Unlike its competitor, it didn’t suspend the Send Money feature for its partner remittance center.
Bank Transfers
For transferring funds to other bank accounts and e-wallets via Electronic Fund Transfer services such as InstaPay and PESOnet, both have waived their fees as the country continues to fight with the coronavirus pandemic.
Cash-In
GCash has an in-app feature which makes topping up of credits free and easier for those who have online banking accounts on UnionBank and BPI. It also offers free cash-in via PayPal for international accounts and via partner payment and remittance centers. Users get to have up to PHP8000 to top-up per month. Once they reach the monthly limit, they would need to pay 2% on top of the amount they would want to reload on their GCash account. According to the GCash website, some of their partner establishments may charge an additional fee of 2% upon reloading. Among them are the following: Cebuana Lhuiller, Villarica, Tambunting, Palawan Pawnshop, Globe Store, Bayad CenterECPay, Bayad Center, ECPay, select branches of Western Union, Expresspay, Digipay, PERA HUB, TrueMoney, Posible, GrowSari, 7-Eleven, LBC Express, TouchPay, eTap / Pay & Go, Shell Select, Puregold, Savemore, SM Hypermarket, SM Supermarket, SM, Robinsons Department Stores
Globe’s e-wallet will also start to collect a 2.58% convenience fee per transaction for cash-ins done through MasterCard and Visa debit and credit cards.
Meanwhile, PayMaya offers free top-up via BDO ATMs as well as online and mobile banking. It also offers customers over-the-counter cash-ins through convenience stores, kiosks, Smart Stores, SM and Robinson’s department stores free of charge. Those who choose to reload on Smart Padala Centers are required to pay an additional 1.50% from the total cash-in amount. For adding money via bank cards, PayMaya charges a flat rate of PHP 30 regardless of the add money amount.
Reloading of money from online banks via Electronic Fund Transfer services such as InstaPay and PESOnet are currently exempted from additional charges until further notice.
Which one to choose?
We’ll break it down easy for you. If you need to send money through a remittance center with more branches occasionally, transfer funds from a PayPal account, and heavily rely on debit and credit cards, then GCash is for you. Apart from keeping the Send Money feature to Villarica Pawnshop, it offers a lower service fee for Mastercard and Visa bank cards at only 2.58% regardless of the amount to be reloaded on the GCash account. But if you need to load money more than PHP8000 a month, send money via Smart Padala centers, and save yourself from paying additional fees for reloading your account through various partner payment and remittance centers.
