What £200 puts in the GCash wallet
At the time of writing, £1 is worth 85.09 pesos on the real exchange rate, the one Google shows. On £200 that is ₱17,017. No app gives you all of it. This is what each one leaves in the wallet when £200 leaves your account, at its normal price for a customer who has sent before.
#AppArrives asBehind the topFee
1Wise₱16,881.91Most arrives£1.59The real rate. The fee is the whole cost, and it is on the screen.
2Remitly₱16,844.00₱ 37.91£0No fee. The cost is in the rate, 45p behind Wise.
3Sendwave₱16,776.24₱ 105.67£1.99A slightly better rate than Remitly, but the £1.99 fee puts it £1.24 behind Wise.
The three are close. The gap from first to third is about £1.25. Pick the one you already use, and put £200 into it before you send to see the peso figure.
New customers get better prices. Remitly's first-send rate covers the first £1,000 and puts ₱17,294 into the wallet on £200, more than the real rate gives. That is an offer to win you, not the normal price. TransferGo shows ₱16,881 on £200 to a Philippine wallet, but that figure also carries a new-customer discount, and the normal price was not shown. WorldRemit also pays into GCash, but its price sits behind a login, so it is not in the table. Check it in the app if you already use it. Western Union came in about £4.28 behind Wise on the Wise price comparison the same day.
A UK bank is a different story. Nationwide charged a £15 fee on the same £200 and kept about £4 more in its rate. That is about £19 gone before the money even reaches the Philippines.
Which UK apps pay straight into GCash
GCash keeps a list of its official transfer partners for each country. For the UK it includes Remitly, Sendwave, WorldRemit, Taptap Send, TransferGo, Western Union and MoneyGram. These pay into the wallet directly.
Wise is not on that list. It still reaches GCash: you add the recipient as an e-wallet, pick GCash, and enter their name and GCash mobile number. Wise pays the money in through the network Philippine banks use for fast transfers. It arrives in seconds all the same. The one limit to know is that Wise sends at most ₱50,000 to a wallet in one transfer, about £588. For a bigger send, split it, or send to a bank account.
For every app, the name you type must match the name on the GCash account exactly. GCash says the sender has to use the exact name the receiver registered with. A missing middle name is enough to stop it.
The wallet limit that quietly stops a send
GCash wallets come in levels. The level sets how much the wallet can receive in a month. The sending app does not know which level your family is on, so it cannot warn you.
A Fully Verified adult wallet can receive up to ₱1,000,000 a month, about £11,750, on GCash's own limits page as of 24 October 2026. GCash changed these limits on 1 October 2026. If you have read that GCash stops at ₱100,000 a month, that was the old limit for a verified adult. It now applies only to GCash Jr., the account for children aged 7 to 17.
The level that causes trouble is Basic. A Basic wallet can receive only ₱5,000 a month, about £59. GCash also says money sent from abroad is claimed in a Fully Verified account. A £200 send is far above what a Basic wallet takes.
Catch
A GCash wallet that was Fully Verified can drop back to Basic. GCash asks every user to update their details from time to time, as the Philippine central bank requires. Miss the deadline and the wallet becomes Basic, which receives only ₱5,000 a month, about £59. Last month's send went in. This month's will not.
The fix is on your family's phone, and what they do depends on what the app says. The waiting times below are from GCash's help pages on 24 October 2026.
- Open GCash, tap Profile, then Profile Limits. Check that it says Fully Verified.
- If it still says Fully Verified and GCash has asked for an update, tap Profile, tap the account name, then Update Account Information, and follow the steps before the deadline. GCash says the update may take up to 3 days, and it sends a text message when it is done.
- If it already says Basic, the update is not enough. The account has to be verified again. Tap Profile, then Verify Now, scan one valid government ID and take a selfie. GCash says the result comes by text message after 7 days. Do the same if the account was never verified. GCash says every account must be verified within 12 months of opening.
- Wait for that text message before you send. Money sent from abroad cannot be claimed into a wallet that still says Basic.
- Check the name on the GCash profile matches, letter for letter, the name you send to.
One more thing GCash counts together: an adult can hold up to five GCash accounts on one profile, and the monthly limit is shared across all of them. A second number does not give a second limit.
If your family uses Maya instead, the limits are lower. An Upgraded Maya account has a monthly limit of ₱100,000, about £1,175, and a Basic one ₱50,000. Money from every sender counts towards it, so a brother in Dubai and an aunt in the US share the same ₱100,000 with you.
What it costs your family to use the money
Receiving the padala into GCash is free. GCash says so on its fee page. The cost comes when your family uses the money, and it depends on how.
- Pay a shop by QR: Scan the shop's code in the app. GCash lists no fee for paying this way.
- Move it to a bank: ₱10 per transfer, about 12p, to BDO, BPI or any bank on InstaPay.
- ATM with a GCash Card: ₱0 to ₱18 per withdrawal, set by the ATM. Up to ₱20,099 at a time.
- Cash out at a counter: 2% of the amount at Cebuana, M Lhuillier, Puregold and other outlets.
That 2% is the number to watch. On ₱16,882, cashing out the whole padala at a counter costs ₱338, about £3.97. That is more than the gap between the best and worst app in the table above. If your family needs cash, a GCash Card at an ATM costs ₱18 at most per withdrawal. If they are paying for things anyway, paying by QR or moving the money to a bank for ₱10 keeps nearly all of it.
More on cash-out costs across wallets is in the mobile money cash-out piece.
What to open
- You already use Wise. Stay with Wise. Of the apps priced here it gave the most at a normal price, the fee is on the screen, and it reaches GCash in seconds. Split sends above ₱50,000.
- You have never used Remitly. Use Remitly for your first send. The new-customer rate covers your first £1,000 and puts about £4.84 more into the wallet on £200.
- You use Sendwave or Remitly already. Stay where you are. On £200 you are within about £1.25 of Wise.
- The money has to go to a bank, or to cash pickup. The Philippines guide covers BDO, BPI and Palawan.
- You were going to send from your UK bank. Do not. On £200, Nationwide kept about £19 in its fee and rate.
Before your next send, forward the message on this page to whoever holds the GCash. A wallet on Basic is the one thing no app can fix from the UK side.
Rates and fees quoted here are as of 24 October 2026. The peso moves every day, so the app's own screen is the final word on the day you send.
Corrections
None so far. If we get something wrong, the fix is dated here.