What Is Smart Money, And Can You Buy From Google Play With It?
Smart Money is a payment solution that Smart Communications, Inc. developed close on the heels of Globe Telecom's G-Cash success. The concept is similar: send money or pay someone from a Smart Center or accredited partner, and the recipient will receive the credits via his Smart Gold, Smart Buddy or TalkN'Text number.
Today, however, Smart Money differentiated itself from G-Cash by partnering with BDO, providing MasterCard-based transactions, and then leaning heavily on its card-based services and making online transactions easier.
I've found a few great reviews about the use of their Smart Money accounts for online transactions, especially verifying their PayPal accounts, accepting payments as merchants, making Apple App Store purchases, and most importantly, successfully buying premium Android apps:
In general, though, finding reviews of Smart Money online is a little tough, as not a lot of people have made use of it. However, I managed to fish a couple of ReviewStream articles about Smart Money:
The Lady Programmer has also been able to use her Smart Money card to transfer funds from PayPal to EON to SmartMoney. She did this in order to do away with needing to endure the long lines in Unionbank Baguio.
The primary use of Smart Money, as I've found out, has been to verify one's PayPal account. Here are other resources on the different methods of verifying PayPal accounts, and also withdrawing one's PayPal funds through different means:
- How to Verify Your Paypal Account Without Using a Credit Card
- Verify Your PayPal Account Using SmartMoney
- List of methods to withdraw PayPal in the Philippines
- Alternative Ways to Withdraw Paypal Funds in the Philippines
There were also a few discussions on users' experience of Smart Money, then another discussion on international remittance methods and there was a very informative post on Txtbuff.com. I needed to fish out the discussion via the Google Webcache entry instead of viewing it directly, though. You may view or download the PDF of the discussion HERE.
The bottom line is that users' experience with Smart Money have been varied. I'm not sure whether it's the fact that these are mass Mastercard numbers, debit accounts at that, that cause some accounts to be denied. Another theory of mine might be that since this facility is in partnership with Banco de Oro, there may still be kinks in the system.
No offense to Banco de Oro, but there was a recent report about a BDO branch teller who stole from an OFW's account. Not only that, I have a "six-degrees-of-separation" (actually two degrees of separation) story of a BDO savings account being sapped of its funds. Not only that, the BDO Cash Card has been notorious for going offline on a constant basis (can you say, DAILY), especially during afternoons, as well as for having bugs in it like not really having a PIN, and other such banking-related horror stories.
Though I have not personally experienced losing money through my BDO Cash Card, these cautionary tales make a user wonder if the bugs in Smart Money, which had partnered with Banco de Oro, are due to the bank that they partnered with, and not MasterCard or its own system, per se.
But that's one for another story. The point is that, these are the reviews, these are the cautionary tales, and while I (and now you) have been thoroughly warned, I personally like experimenting and won't mind trying out a few transactions using my Smart Money Debit Card. I believe that the system may have matured by now (note that the successful Android Market purchase was made in 2011 yet), and thanks to the Lock/Unlock feature of Smart Money, no one needs to worry about losing funds. And do check the stories in the PDF we've made available for download. One gal who lost her cash actually got it back. Kudos to Smart Communications Inc. for that!
It is worth noting that there was only one very minor "horror story" I've personally experienced so far: the day I claimed my Smart Money MasterCard, the guard at the Smart Communications Inc., center where I claimed it asked me if I was going to make a "cash-in" or "cash-out" transaction. When I said that I was just going to claim my new card, he mused in relief and noted that their facility was offline. Not much different from BDO Cash Card, so I shrugged that off.
If you have been thoroughly scared about the inconsistencies in people's experience with the facility by now, I really do apologize. I aimed to make a very balanced, very honest overview of the payment facility, since I have not yet thoroughly tested mine.
No worries, I aim to reload my card as soon as I can, since I am itching to buy Pumpkins vs. Monsters power-ups because I'm stuck on Levels 15 of both Castle Tomorrow and Halloween stages. I'm thinking of blowing around Php 300 on Purple Lightnings, Ice Grenades and Grave Pumpkins to get ahead. A little insane, but it's taking SERIOUSLY LONG to earn just one ruby to play the Slots with and earn a few of these power-ups. The ultimate I've-Finally-Beaten-Pumpkins-vs.-Monsters review is long overdue, and for the sake of experimentation in two different Android-related transactions, I'm willing to part with a day or two of my living allowance. :p
Also, I've been itching to buy Easy Money, the app, so that I can make that review, soon. Though I hardly need it, as Google Docs suffices for me.
The thing is, I've presented to you the facts, the stories, the reviews. Now, it's up to you to decide how to move forward from here. Will you bite the bullet and start using Smart Money? Or will you hold off and see more people using it?
It's really yours to decide. :)
Before I go, here are links to another Android App payment method: Your Smart LOAD.
Smart Communications Inc. is piling it thick for its users and potential users, as it made an announcement of this payment method just last month. Check out the blog and press release:
For now, the surefire way to pay for your Google Play purchases would be through Google Checkout, using tried and tested debit and credit cards.
Thanks to reader Waterborne for asking the question on what Smart Money is. :)
Nice! Now I know what Smart Money is. Also, I found it very useful that you can buy android apps using Smart airtime Load. I was hoping for other options to use besides Credit Card (that's why I was asking what is Smart Money), since I'm not very confident of using Credit Card in the internet (I also have never used it :D).
ReplyDeleteI hope that Smart airtime load will prove to be a hassle-free android transaction! Can't wait to finally buy apps in the market :))
Thanks and more power!