PayMaya powers Malolos citizen ID

MANILA, Philippines — PayMaya Philippines Inc., the digital financial services arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations, has entered into a partnership with the city of Malolos in Bulacan for the provision of an all-in-one citizen ID card.

The ID cards will enable Malolos constituents to access citizen services, pay for fees and transactions, as well as receive cash allowances and other monetary benefits from the local government.

As a start, the citizen ID cards will be available to government employees and resident beneficiaries of Malolos City, including student scholars, senior citizens, single parents and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

The city also intends to use the platform to enable the transportation and tourism sectors as it builds the whole payment ecosystem not just with cards and disbursement tools but also with payment acceptance systems.

“Our goal is to make our constituents enjoy the benefits of digital. With this all-in-one citizen card initiative powered by PayMaya, we are enabling our citizens have a better quality of life and access to the digital economy. At the same time, we are also accelerating the transformation of Malolos City as a truly digital city,” said Malolos City Mayor Christian Natividad.

“Digital opens up many opportunities especially for the unconnected, unbanked and underserved. Congratulations to Malolos City for this forward-looking initiative as it is transforming their local government, people and communities into fully equipped digital and global citizens,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of PLDT, Smart Communications, Voyager Innovations and PayMaya Philippines.

Aside from Malolos City, PayMaya is being used by other local governments including Balanga City, Muntinlupa City, Catbalogan City and Tacloban City. It is also being used as all-in-one ID cards by schools and as disbursement cards by enterprises.

Aside from functioning as an ID and payments card, the PayMaya-enabled citizen ID card can also be used for ATM withdrawals. It can also be accepted for payments anywhere in the world - both for online and physical stores - where Visa is honored.  

PayMaya-enabled cards are linked to the PayMaya wallet and anyone with a Philippine mobile number can create an account. They can do this either by downloading the mobile app at Google Play or App Store or by looking for @PayMayaOfficial in Facebook Messenger and chatting with the PayMaya bot. Once registered and activated, users can link up to three PayMaya cards to their wallet.

Since it is a prepaid account, PayMaya users can only spend what is in their e-wallet, making financial management easier. With PayMaya’s in-app real-time transaction history and SMS notification, tracking of expenses in detail, including amount spent, time, date, merchant, and account balance is possible.

Account holders can also use their PayMaya app to purchase prepaid telco load with a discount from Smart, TNT and Globe, and to pay their bills from the country’s top utilities and merchants such as Meralco, Maynilad, PLDT, Smart, Cignal, Sky Cable and Globe, among others.

PayMaya can be reloaded in over 15,000 top-up partner stations nationwide which include SM Business Centers, Robinsons Department Store Business Centers, 711 stores, Petron stations along NLEX, Ministop with Touchpay Kiosks, UnionBank ATMs, Shopwise, Wellcome, 2Go outlets, Smart Padala centers, Palawan Pawnshop, and online banking via BDO and UnionBank.