Beep cards into more tieups, coverage areas

MANILA, Philippines — AF Payments Inc., which is behind the tap-and-go beep card payment system, is aggressively expanding to provide better services to the riding public.

Peter Maher, AF Payments president and chief executive officer, said beep would have a stronger presence in the transport sector next year with the continued expansion outside Metro Manila.

A joint venture between Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., the firm also plans to enter into more partnerships with buses and modern public utility vehicles.

Maher said AF Payments also intends to make loading more convenient as it releases a new version of the beep app with more functionalities.

“Transportation has been and will continue to be our core strength.  The government’s focus on developing the industry for the benefit of commuters nationwide encourages us to work harder to support Filipino commuters and transport operators,” Maher said.

“2018 has been a productive year for beep as it allowed us to form strategic alliances and establish more innovative ways to extend our service to a wider public. We look forward to expanding our network through 2019,” he added.

Over five million beep cards are currently in the market according to the company, and these cards are used to pay for fare at elevated trains and select transportation, toll fees, as well as for purchases at select retail outlets.

The beep system was recently introduced in Mindanao via Husky Tours, which operates a fleet of buses between General Santos and Cotabato.

For retail, beep is now accepted at Auntie Anne’s, Wendy’s, Binalot, Worship Generation and retail kiosks in train stations like Siomai House and Mr. Donut.

In a bid to develop cashless communities, AF Payments also collaborated with Property Company of Friends to offer beep-enabled resident identification cards for access to transportation to and from and within its masterplanned communities in Cavite and entry to their key facilities.

St. Jude Catholic School also became the first beep-integrated educational institution with beep-enabled ID cards that allow their students to purchase cash-free from merchants inside the campus and avail of student discounts when they ride public buses and PUVs with beep acceptance.

To support this growing network and make reloading more convenient, beep card has partnered with Coins.ph and EON by Unionbank to offer mobile app and over-the-air reloading, and China Bank for the first ever ATM reloading service.

AF Payments also launched this year the beep app, which allows cardholders to track their transactions and check load balance.