Have you tried the latest feature of the Starbucks app? If you haven’t, you might want to try doing mobile order to table. It is a Fast Payment System (FPS) that saves a lot of time.
How good is it that your order is handed to you upon arrival? And you don’t have to go through the hassle of bringing out the card from your wallet and putting it back upon payment? You just literally get your cup, sit and enjoy your cuppa’ Joe!
In my opinion, the COVID pandemic had certainly made everybody well-versed when it comes to utilizing their mobile phone in unexpected ways. By now, a lot of people realize being a techie has its own advantages.
This past week, I had to wait for an hour and a half for my daughter’s coding class to finish. It was no biggie because this me-time was easy to spend in Starbucks with a book while drinking a cup of grandé Americano. Whether it was researching an article about a topic I want to write or getting updated with the current news, I appreciated the quiet time spent at my leisure.
HOW FPS SERVED ME
As the last day approached, I forgot to bring my Starbucks rewards card. Stingy as I am, I don’t want to go over the budget. I set myself for leisure items and food like this.
To maintain such an aim, I budget everything. Only just because of two things. Discipline and Priorities. But of course, you’ve got to have something for yourself as far as pampering is concerned. You see, I love coffee. Preloading my Starbucks card is my way to avoid impulsive buying. Putting out cash which is beyond the budget I’ve set on my card is the best example of the very circumstance I am avoiding.
Here came the dilemma. It was a toss between shoving off the idea of getting that coffee and just walking around. But that leads to a more serious one. There’s a high probability that doing that would make me spend more. It’s a temptation that could go on a bigger scale. In an attempt to resolve it, I thought of taking out the coffee by ordering through the Starbucks mobile app’s fast payment system but where does that lead me? Walking around still.
Lo and behold when I scrolled down upon the order page of the app, there’s the Mobile Order and!!! Wait for it.. here comes the catch — “to table”. Woah! So, I can use the card that I linked there in the mobile app to pay for it and just dine in! Uh-mazing! I didn’t need the card to do everything. Literally, I just walked in, and then the barista asked me, “Ms Katrina?”. I nodded and they handed me my customized order (I indulged and changed my order from the usual Americano to a cappuccino – 2 shots, with skimmed milk and light foam, drizzled with cinnamon) saying, “Enjoy your cappuccino ma’am!”. Treaded to my table and voila! Easy breezy.
So, I said, it’s a perfect #fabfindFriday post!
HAVE YOU PAID THROUGH FPS (FAST PAYMENT SYSTEM)?
Going cashless or doing transactions through FPS is also beneficial in the way that it keeps you prevented concerning the transmission of diseases. It doesn’t require you to hold money so less contact with a source.
QR codes are everywhere from registering entrance to a facility, to ordering and to lining up. It can serve as a health passport – the fastest way even through the airport. Except for how it needs time to get set up, it’s not much work. Afterwards, it’s mostly scanning that you’ll do.
When I went to the Philippines, I usually buy a local number too depending on the number of days that I’ll be staying. Because of a lot of trips I had to make, going back and forth between our province and Manila, my data got finished up before the time that I planned it to be. So, being on the go or lining up at the Bureau of Internal Revenue in the Philippines (that’s stressful all on its own) gave me a hard time getting it loaded, right?
The thing is, I was mostly alone and I didn’t know the latest number to dial to get it loaded. But, as I tinkered on the service app they have, similar to AlipayHK enabling bank accounts to get linked, I was able to load it up just by using my mobile phone. The Philippines had been embracing this mode of payment too and how convenient. I resorted to an FPS as the ultimate solution at that time.
LET IT SERVE YOU
This probably is the very takeaway from this post. For those that are planning to go home to the Philippines, the best way to exchange your Hong Kong money is by sending it to yourself. Use the AlipayHK direct to your Philippine bank or through Cebuanna Lhuillier. All that I needed was my ATM card to withdraw money set through AlipayHK’s FPS feature or to go collect it in Cebuana as I send it to myself. This comes with a minimal admin fee.
For GCash subscribers, you can just transfer it straight there without any charges. It was an amazing discovery because forex traders impose a huge cut in exchanging your money. And again, these transactions minimize the transmission of any kind of disease through money. If you have any more ideas, share away through the comments below. I hope this post helps those who are having problems with where to exchange their money to its maximum worth upon reaching the Philippines.
