It ain’t cheap to get sick, especially if a person has an ailment that will take some time to cure. The reality is, there are a lot of people who are not ready for these situations, financially speaking. Land Bank, Rite Med (remember their commercial “Wag Mahiyang Magtanong?”) and FINTQ, the financial technology arm of PLDT recently launched TxtMED that aims to offer affordable and quality medicines via text messaging.
The technology behind TxtMED is actually based on an existing digital platform. The LANDBANK Mobile Loan Saver was already in service for the past 4 years. It has served 19 million users by processing payroll loans initiated by SMS, which FINTQ had helped developed.
This medicine loan service allows employees from the government and private sectors with Payroll accounts with LANDBANK to order and purchase medicines through their respective mobile phones even if they have no cash to pay for it.
The process is quite simple. Qualified employees mentioned above will have to send the keyword LOAN along with their employee number and agency code to 5363 (for Smart/Sun/TNT subscribers) or to 29290657 (for other networks.) They will receive a unique loan application number which will serve as a reference number to apply for a TxtMED loan.
The LANDBANK Mobile LoanSaver link will be sent to the employee’s phone. The employee will have to click on the link, select the RiteMed option and register on their online store where they can order affordable quality medicines. Once the loan application was approved by LANDBANK Mobile Loan Saver, all the ordered medicines will be delivered for FREE to the employee’s office within one (1) week of receiving the confirmation email.
I am happy to hear that this service is now existing. I hope other Pharmaceutical companies, Banks and FINTQ can work together so that other employees from the private sector can also avail of such services. I also hope that they could work something out to offer loans for hospitals.
Kudos to LAND BANK, RiteMed and FINTQ!
