Buy bitcoin with Over-the-counter cash at retail partners

What is Over-the-counter cash at retail partners?

This is a category rather than one branded scheme: you pick cash payment online, receive a reference number or barcode, then hand the cash across a counter at a partner outlet. In the Philippines those outlets are convenience stores, pawnshops, remittance agents and bills payment windows, the same counters people already use for utility bills and padala. The collection networks behind them are payment aggregators and money service businesses registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which also registers operators of payment systems under the National Payment Systems Act. It suits someone funding an account from cash wages with no card and no online banking.

Speed

Posting depends on the outlet and the aggregator: some partners credit within minutes of the till receipt, others send a batch file that clears the next banking day.

Cost

There is no single published rate: the outlet or the collection network sets the charge, sometimes a flat amount per payment and sometimes a percentage of it, so check what it is before you hand over the cash.

Limits

Each outlet caps what it will take in one over-the-counter payment, so a large deposit has to be split across several payments or branches.

Speed and cost describe the rail itself. What an exchange adds on top varies by platform and is shown per exchange below.

Using Over-the-counter cash at retail partners in Philippines

Over-the-counter cash at retail partners appears in one country guide on this site, the Philippines, where deposits settle in Philippine peso (PHP). Buyers there fund exchange accounts with GCash, Maya, InstaPay, PESONet and others as well, and the country guide ranks the exchanges that take each one.

Buy bitcoin with Over-the-counter cash at retail partners in Philippines