Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Qatar OFWs to benefit from mobile phone money transfer service

Some 200,000 Filipinos working in Qatar can now send money to their families back home with a mobile phone money transfer service.

The Philippine Embassy in Doha reported Vodafone Qatar launched last Nov. 29 its revolutionary new service, which allows money remittances from mobile phones.

"The process took less than five minutes from end to end, showing how quick and easy to use the Vodafone Money Transfer [was]," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in its website Tuesday.

The service was launched at the Qatar Science and Technology Park.

It involves a partnership with Doha Bank and Globe Telecom, where users can send funds directly from their mobile phones to any GCASH-enabled mobile phone in the Philippines.

Users can also send money to a bank account or for collection at any of the 18,000 GCASH Remit outlets in the country.

All Vodafone and GCASH transactions are secured with a personal identification number (PIN).

Both the sender and the recipient are notified of the transaction via short messaging service (SMS).

Vodafone-Qatar Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Tombleson said the service offers cheaper, safe, simple, quick and convenient way of remitting money to the Philippines.

Customers can send money to GCASH phones to the Philippines within minutes at a minimal cost of Qatari riyal (QR) 12 (US$3.30 or P144.29) per transaction compared to the QR15-20 (P180 to P240) charged by the various remittance companies in Qatar.

The launch of Vodafone Money Transfer featured a live remittance demo from Doha to Manila by Philippine Ambassador Crescente Relacion and TV personality Bianca Gonzales in Manila.

Witnessing the launch were Qatar Central Bank Governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani, Doha Bank CEO R. Seetharaman, Vodafone executives and other guests. — LBG, GMANews.TV

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