You are probably a millennial if you still remember Smart Money in the 2000s as GCash’s main rival when sending money through SMS was in its early days. Smart Money was decommissioned in 2016–and to our surprise, Smart Money is slated to return after 8 years.
We learned that there’s a Smart Money app on the Google Play Store, and we can confirm that the app exists and is under Smart. Upon downloading the app and creating an account, we were greeted with an interface that is similar to Maya and practically every e-wallet app in the Philippines.
However, as of writing this article, we cannot use Smart Money yet as the waitlist hasn’t started yet. Based on what we saw on the app, the “new” Smart Money will have a Php 100,000 limit and can be used to pay for things like load, toll, utilities, and internet.
With Smart Money making its return, what will happen to Maya then? According to Inquirer’s Biz Buzz, Maya’s business model has changed ever since it officially became a licensed digital bank, and Smart’s parent company PLDT only has a minority stake in Maya, which is owned by Voyager Innovations.
It remains to be seen if the return of Smart Money will be Smart’s new challenger to GCash, so expect to hear more developments about this in the coming days.
