I’ve had credit cards for decades now. This is how I usually pay for groceries, monthly bills, auto repairs and maintenance, equipment purchases, movie theater tickets and dining out in restaurants. There’s nothing new about that. It was when I started using GCash late December last year that my personal “cash-on-hand” system got revolutionized.

Before that, I used to have to drive to the bank, and wait in a long, slow-moving queue to cash my check. That would be my petty cash for the week. It gets excruciating at times. The traffic going to and from the bank. The wait, along with a bunch of other miscellaneous hassles that might come along the way (like no parking slot available). And the frustration, when I get home and find out I should have cashed in more, after realizing I’ve forgotten to take into account a thing or two in my estimate. That, of course, would mean another trip to the bank. I don’t use an ATM (a measure I’ve implemented into my system to put some discipline into old spending habits). And for years, this is how I got cash into my wallet.

It’s so different now. It’s way, way easier, as I can just pay for virtually anything using GCash. And it’s not just me. In fact, I’m one of the latter-batch users of the cash app. People around me have been using it for a while, and I just wasn’t paying attention.

More and more village convenience stores, barber shops, street food vendors, plumbers and massage therapists are using Gcash. Even sari-sari stores in remote barrios in the provinces accept e-payments. An astonishing number of hardware stores, computer repair shops, dentists, restaurants and hole-in-the-wall eateries that have traditionally operated on cash basis now accept Gcash  as a mode of payment.