How to receive money from Sendwave to GCash: Complete guide

Sendwave¹ is a specialist in international transfers, serving customers in North America and parts of Europe, who want to send money to select countries around the world - including the Philippines. You can send money with Sendwave for cash collection, to a bank or to a popular e wallet like GCash².

This guide to receiving a Sendwave to GCash transfer covers how to receive money from Sendwave, including setting up your GCash account optimally. Let’s dive right in.

Sendwave to GCash transfers

Sendwave is an international transfer provider, operated by Zepz, which serves people sending money from the US, Canada, the UK and countries within the EU. Sendwave allows payment to the Philippines, including cash pick ups, bank deposits and transfers to GCash³.

This guide on how to receive money from Sendwave to GCash covers what you'll need to do as the recipient of an incoming payment, including Sendwave tracking and delivery times. Plus, we'll also touch on some of the important fees that the sender may need to cover, and the Sendwave exchange rate which will be used to convert the foreign currency to PHP for deposit.

Eligibility to receive money from Sendwave to GCash

Before you receive a payment from Sendwave to GCash it’s worth checking if your GCash account is properly verified. While you might be able to receive a small incoming transfer to GCash without completing a verification step, you’ll be capped at 5,000 PHP in incoming payments in a month. To increase this to 100,000 PHP all you need to do is to get verified and then you can take a couple of further steps to increase your wallet incoming payment limit to 500,000 PHP or even 1 million PHP a month⁴.

You can get verified on GCash by uploading a government ID document - usually one of the following⁵;

• National ID (Card Type)
• National ID (Paper Type) / Digital National ID
• Passport
• HDMF (Pag-Ibig Loyalty Plus)
• Driver's License
• Philippine Postal ID
• PRC ID
• UMID
• SSS ID

You’ll also need to take a selfie and upload it. It may take 3 days to change your account limit and status, so do take this step before the person sending you money has initiated the payment at their end. If they send you money and your account can not accept the payment, the money is likely to be returned to the sender, but any fees will not be refunded.

It’s also worth checking if the sender has registered with Sendwave. This can be done online by adding some personal information and linking a debit card or other payment method. The sender can then automatically send the equivalent of 999 USD per day and 2,999 USD per month. Or they can add a government photo ID to their Sendwave account to increase the limits to 2,999 USD per day and 12,000 USD per month.

What details are needed to receive a transfer from Sendwave to GCash?

To receive a payment from Sendwave to GCash you’ll need to give the sender your full name and GCash phone number - the one you used when you signed up with GCash. Here’s a full summary of the information needed⁶:

• Recipient name
• Recipient phone number
• Recipient address
• Reason for sending

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How to receive money from Sendwave to GCash: Step-by-step guide

It’s very simple from the perspective of the person receiving money - once the sender has initiated the Sendwave to GCash payment, you can simply wait for it to arrive.

Make sure you give the sender your correct name as shown on GCash and the phone that you used to sign up with, and then wait for a text message to arrive. This will inform you that your payment is in GCash and ready to be used.

What else do I need to know when receiving money from Sendwave to GCash

Before we close out, let's look at a few more things to know if you’re expecting a Sendwave to GCash payment in the Philippines.

How long does a Sendwave to GCash transfer take?

Sendwave states that in most cases, payments to the Philippines settle within 2 hours. That should mean you get a text message notifying you that your money has arrived to GCash in just a couple of hours. If there’s any delay, the sender can track the payment to see where it has got to.

Sendwave to GCash transfer fee

There’s not usually any fee to receive an incoming payment with GCash. However, this doesn’t mean that a Sendwave to GCash transfer is free. Instead, the sender may need to pay a fee when they set up the transfer, which may include a transfer charge and also a cost which is rolled up into the exchange rate used to convert their home currency to PHP. More on that next.

Sendwave exchange rate to GCash for foreign currency transfers

Sendwave’s niche is in processing international money transfers, which need to be converted from the source currency to be deposited and received by the recipient in the end. So, in the example of a payment from the US to the Philippines, the sender will pay Sendwave in USD, and Sendwave will then convert the payment to PHP to deposit to the recipient's GCash account.

When currency conversion is involved in a payment, the exchange rate that’s used is important. You’ll usually find that the exchange rate you’re quoted isn’t the same as the one you can find with a Google search. That’s because Google and currency conversion tools will give you the mid-market exchange rate, while providers will often add a fee, known as a markup to the rate they use to convert customer payments.

Sendwave confirms that the currency exchange rate they use for customers is not the same rate that they get when they convert currencies themselves - which is likely to mean a markup is added. This is a fee which is tricky to see, but which can mean you’re paying more than you think for your transfer. Not all providers use a markup - we’ll look at one which takes a different approach, next.

Receive money from abroad with low, transparent fees and the mid-market exchange rate with Wise

Receiving money in foreign currencies like USD, AUD or CAD? Check out Wise, a great product which uses the mid-market rate with low, transparent fees⁷.

The person sending you money could open a Wise account online or via the app from many different countries and regions globally, and make international money transfers which have low fees and which use the rate you see on Google for currency conversion. There’s no markup added to the exchange rate that’s used to convert your currency, which can also keep the overall costs down in over 40+ currencies across 160+ countries.

For payments to the Philippines, Wise offers transfers to banks and mobile wallets like GCash, which are simple to set up - very easy to receive - and which might mean you get more in the end thanks to good exchange rates and a low fee. You'll also get local account details in 8+ currencies so you can get paid directly to your Wise account. You can then convert to PHP, or any of the 40+ currencies available.

If you’re still considering which provider will work out best for your transfer to GCash in the Philippines, check out Wise for quick, easy and cheap payment routes to banks and wallets in the Philippines and beyond.

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1. Sendwave
2. GCash
3. Sendwave - send to the Philippines
4. GCash Help - wallet limits
5. GCash verification documents
6. Sendwave terms and conditions
7. Pricing/fees: Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information