Atome, Which is pronounced as "A-To-Me" and stands for "Available To Me"(I was pronouncing it wrong for like a week lol), One of Asia's leading Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) apps have arrived in the Philippines and is slowly trying to establish itself in the minds of every Filipino consumer that loves to shop.
BNPL apps have become extremely popular in other more developed countries such as Australia with Afterpay but haven't quite made their way to the Philippine market. Sure there are tons of different kinds of BNPL apps here and there like Cashalo or GCash's GGives but applying is a bit complicated and everything just isn't as seamless as the Atome app.
Atome website
How to use Atome for traveling
A lot of us who travel depend on our paychecks and sometimes unexpected expenses just happen or we get budol into online shopping out of nowhere, it happens I know. Atome can help by splitting your bill into 3 separate payments at 0% interest.
I've personally used Atome for a few in-store purchases and some online purchases as well. For traveling, I booked my hotel stays through Agoda and used Atome as the payment method and at that time there was a 12% discount for using Atome!
The app is great and the best part is you earn points! For every ₱400 spent you earn 1 Atome+ point equivalent to ₱1.
The downside right now is there aren't as many shops yet to use Atome with as they are still fairly new. I've only used Agoda, Watson, Innisfree, and Guess with Atome so far but each week I do see them add new stores so eventually we might be able to utilize them more.
The Atome credit card
A couple of months into using Atome I got a notification on the app asking me if I'd like to apply for the Atome card so I did. Just input a few details and that was it. 2 weeks later and I got the physical card and I activated it along with the virtual card. They both carry a combined ₱20,000 credit limit, which is pretty cool considering they don't have anything on you except your I.D.
Unfortunately, I've tried to use it to check it out and it did not earn me points even after I have paid my balance. Payments are also auto-deducted to your nominated debit/credit card after 45 days of purchase and of course, an admin/late fee of 5% applies for late payments.
Overall it's a great tool you can maximize when you just need a little help to get over that hump to that next paycheck and balance your finances out. I'll probably only use the Atome app but not the Atome credit card as there's no incentive for me to do so.
Follow me on Instagram @gerald.quintos to see what I'm up to!
Check out The Points Society playlist on Youtube.
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