With the strong peso (or weak dollar, take your pick), the sosy bloggers I'm following say it's a good time for online shopping. Around November, bloggers were abuzz with the GCASH American Express Virtual Pay. Upon signing up, you will be sent a Digital Handbook with your own American Express card details and a US shipping address. So when you shop online, you have to choose American Express as your mode of payment and you have to key in the US shipping address they provided. Thereafter, you can track the shipment through their partner My-ShoppingBox.
Since there's a free one-month trial, I signed up last November and bought a book on Amazon. After waiting for a couple of weeks, my order did not come through for "insufficient funds". It turns out that the American Express Virtual Pay does not work like a real credit card (buy now, pay later), but as a debit card. Since it is tied with Globe, you need to load up your GCASH, which frankly, I find a real pain in the a** because of the long lines in Globe. So I forgot about the whole thing.
Come January, my email inbox was bursting with sale alerts. I have been lemming for a Cath Kidston bag for a while (as I'm a Simple Girl like duht, hehe) and they were 50% off or something on day bags. So, I resolved to give online shipping another time. This time though, I did not use the American Express card details (I paid with my own real credit card) but I still used the US shipping address.
I placed the order on January 3. On January 9, I received an email from My-ShoppingBox stating that they have received my order. By then, I had to authorize the shipment and load my GCASH with the shipping fee. I thought at first that I can use my own credit card but only the American Express Virtual Pay details worked. I authorized the shipment on January 11 and chose air freight. The shipping fee came up to around P700. Then, I crossed my fingers.
Yesterday, this was delivered to my office.
YAY!
PROS: I love the fact that my package was delivered right to my doorstep. I usually stay away from ordering abroad because of the high shipping fees, the long wait and that sometimes, I have to pick up the package at the post office. This time, the order and delivery took less than a month!
CONS: While I like My-ShoppingBox, I don't like the fact that the payment is tied up with GCASH. If you're a Globe subscriber, you've probably experienced their horrible service (long lines at their centers!) They say that you can load your GCASH with your BPI mobile account but it wasn't working on my phone. I had to look for GCASH centers and the nearest to me was a Villarica Pawnshop. The upside to this though is that I'd get discouraged to be click-happy on those online sales because of the hassle of loading my GCASH (hubby would be relieved).
