Loida Llamas owns and operates Pawnshop de Madrid – Madrid, Surigao del Sur’s “homegrown” pawnshop. On the side, she makes and sells trinkets and fashion accessories. Loida, a depositor of Cantilan Bank, decided to accept GCASH from her customers in March 2007; she now uses the mobile phone banking services of the bank for practically all of her business transactions. Loida gets the raw materials for her trinkets from Manila-based suppliers. She now pays them through Text-A-Payment instead of making inter-branch bank deposits. Her sub-dealers likewise remit their sales purchases by sending her GCASH. Loida also sends money phone-to-phone to relatives via Text-A-Remittance.
Loida finds the mobile phone banking services offered by Cantilan Bank “very convenient”. Through Text-A-Withdrawal, she can withdraw from her deposit account whenever she needs to cash-in or “load” GCASH unto her electronic wallet. Loida prefers to keep enough GCASH balance so that she can serve customers who want to buy GCASH. For Loida, using GCASH does not only bring convenience, it has also given her an additional source of income. She averages about 20 mobile money transactions in a month, including buying GCASH from others.
Loida’s neighbors and other residents of Madrid are thankful that Loida is always there – they have GCASH within reach even on weekends and holidays, when the bank is closed.