PDI News 062105: Firm spotlights $1 charge for OFW remittance

This story was taken from www.inq7.net

Firm spotlights $1 charge for OFW remittance
First posted 08:08pm (Mla time) June 21, 2005
By Alexander F. Villafania
INQ7.net

A startup remittance firm is hoping to attract more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to remit to the Philippines with a new low-cost remittance debit card service that charges fixed fees of one US dollar for overseas remittances and one Philippine peso for local transactions.

RechargePlus, located in Makati City, has built an online remittance gateway with a mobile phone SMS (short messaging service) transaction system.

SMS is frequently used by OFWs to communicate with relatives in the Philippines, as do Filipinos working in the country but with relatives in other provinces.

The RechargePlus service would be similar to that offered by Smart Communications (Smart Padala) and Globe Telecom (G-Cash), both of which charge about 10 pesos per 1,000 pesos remitted.

Leveraging on a partnership with global credit card firm Visa, RechargePlus works as debit card system: OFWs can send remittances directly to their beneficiaries’ cards and the amount can pay for purchases and services.

RechargePlus Chief Operating Officer Brett Radford said that since Visa has partners among local banks, RechargePlus cards could also be used as automated teller machine (ATM) cards.

They’re hoping to tap nearly a million OFWs, as well as locally employed Filipinos, says Bradford. “Our goal is to make OFWs and other employed Filipinos remit more frequently. Doing so would increase the flow of cash and improve the economy.”

Radford adds that they’re manufacturing the cards now and expect to start providing the service within the month.

According to the National Statistics Office, OFWs remitted 8.5 billion US dollars in 2004.