Filipino entrepreneurs and freelancers have had to be creative with their sources of income during the pandemic, which has seen quite a number of them outsourcing their services to clients abroad. While doing so opens up new revenue streams, getting paid in foreign currencies is a little tricky, especially since not everyone is up for a visit to their bank nor wants to pay the transfer fees.

Gcash, a mobile wallet app that is also available to Smart and Sun subscribers, has recently announced its partnership with Payoneer that allows its users to link their existing Payoneer account to their GCash wallet.

Martha Sazon, CEO of Gcash GCash (Mynt – Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.) says that this new feature aims to empower Filipino entrepreneurs to pursue foreign projects without the fear of being uncompensated. Receiving non-cash payments in foreign currencies often requires a personal visit to the bank and costs transfer fees. Now it’s easier to accept global payments without having to visit a bank or even owning a bank account thanks to their #Globaltolocal payment cash-in services.

“Foreign currencies on your Payoneer account is converted at a competitive conversion rate when it is cashed-in through your Gcash wallet in Peso” explains Miguel Warren, General Manager of Payoneer Hong Kong. Transfers happen in real-time making it the fastest way to accept and convert foreign currencies into Peso.

According to William Yap, Manager of Digital Transfer Solutions for GCash, there is no minimum transfer fee from Payoneer to GCash. There is only a maximum cap of Php 100,000 as stipulated by the law and Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas. There is also no cash-in fee between Payoneer to Gcash.

It is worth noting that Payoneer has their own fees on its platform such as 1% of the total amount for US payments, and fund withdrawal conversions from EUR or GBP to PHP that has 2.00% above market rate. A lower pricing rate is available for high volume customers as stated on Payoneer’s pricing and fees page.

This feature was rolled out earlier this week to select Gcash users and is now available for everyone. Users can find the Payoneer option under the “Global Partners and Remittance” menu in the “Cash In” option on your Gcash app. Here are instructions on how to link your Payoneer account to your GCash wallet.