For Filipinos – Cash is Still the Safest Method
photo credit: woodsy (SXC)
As a Filipino living life here in the Philippines, I noticed that the majority still uses cash for payment. These majority think that cash is the safest, most secure means of payment. In my family alone, my parents prefer using cash as their payment means, rather than using their ATM or debit cards for store purchases. However, there are already so many major establishments that accept credit and debit cards and even cellphone wallet funds as payment means in addition to cash.
I cannot help but ponder on the irony that is happening in our country: there are many graduates of IT, Engineering and other computer-related courses who knows the most upbeat technology in the world. The funny thing is that, a vast majority of Filipinos are still resistant to change. In groceries, I still observe that many are still lining up in groceries and pays in cash; ATM machines contain long queues of people who need to take out cash; older people even prefer getting pension checks, rather than using issued e-cards which expedites the process; even in other freelancing sites, I receive numerous questions on how payments are received and whether these are “secure”, reliable and credible.
Probably, the main fear that results from these electronic payments is that there is no paper trail that can be traced on how transactions are being done. I always hear plenty of horror stories around it – for example, in using ATM cards, sometimes account is debited but there was no cash withdrawn. However, there are still electronic databases (with ample backups) that will truly record every transaction made with the bank – this will rectify any error that was made.
Come to think of it, these same set of Filipinos receive remittances confidently mostly through banks and other express remittance methods – these all the same work with the same electronic transferring means that fuels our own debit and credit cards.
Filipinos should be open-minded with these alternative methods. Carrying cash around is not also very secure – in fact, carrying plenty of it is a lot of risk to street thieves. Carrying an ample amount (not too much) on a single card can be a better way to purchase things and avoid the long ATM queues and offline problems.
