In Visa recent study of “Connecting with the Millennials” revealed that seventy per cent of the Filipino Millennials choose cash over cards as their preferred payment method which could be the reason made the ownership of debit and credit card is lower than their neighbour countries at an average of 1.51 and 0.96 cards per person, respectively.

The same study also reported that eighty per cent of the Filipino respondents between 18 and 28 years old believe that they could use their electronic cards to pay for their bills online while sixty-nine per cent of them said could make online payments using their mobile devices. This finding show younger Filipinos are expected to choose credit and debit cards as their preferred payment method instead of cash.

The findings also reported there is a greater lack of awareness of the benefits of e-payment as Filipino Millennials perceive that with an electronic payment card, they may be mischarged, or not be able to use their cards at shops.

With regard to online shopping, statistics show that Filipinos use online shopping the least among Asians. Almost seven of ten Filipino Millennials have tried online shopping once. But only a small percentage shop online at least once a month, paling in comparison to South Korea, where 99 per cent go online to shop. For online purchases, the most common payment methods used are credit cards (26%), cash on delivery (13%), or debit cards (10%).

There were 500 young urban Filipinos from higher income groups were interviewed in the Visa study.

by Terry Brown