MANILA, Philippines — GoTyme Bank is putting plane tickets behind its latest push into international remittances, giving customers who send or receive money from overseas a chance to turn an ordinary ₱5,000 transaction into a family homecoming.
But behind the holiday campaign is a much larger business opportunity.
The digital bank has launched its “It’s Tyme to Be Together” promotion with Cebu Pacific and international remittance provider TapTap Send as GoTyme tries to win a bigger share of the billions of dollars that overseas Filipinos send home every year.
The campaign started September 16 and, under GoTyme’s broader raffle mechanics, runs until November 30, 2026.
Customers who opt in receive one raffle entry for every qualifying inward or outward international remittance worth at least ₱5,000, or its foreign-currency equivalent. Each transaction must independently meet the minimum amount, but customers may accumulate unlimited qualifying entries during the promotion.
And the prizes are designed around something many overseas Filipino families value more than another financial reward: getting everyone under the same roof again.
Five winners—but there are actually two raffles
The official mechanics provide more detail than the initial campaign announcement.
GoTyme is running a dedicated GoTyme Bank x TapTap Send promotion from September 16 to October 14. Two winners will be selected from qualifying TapTap Send remittances.
Those winners receive two round-trip economy tickets to the Philippines, ground transportation from the destination airport, cash credited to an eligible TapTap Send account and a sponsored family celebration, subject to the full conditions of the promotion.
A second, broader GoTyme promotion runs through November 30 and will select three additional winners.
Qualifying transfers under that raffle can include eligible SWIFT and Visa-network transactions as well as transfers involving providers including WorldRemit, Payoneer, Instarem, Remitly, Ria, TapTap Send and Wise.
That brings the potential number of winners across the two linked promotions to five.
GoTyme’s campaign materials prominently feature Cebu Pacific. However, the detailed prize mechanics state that the round-trip economy tickets will be provided on an airline chosen by GoTyme Bank, an important distinction for customers reading the promotion as a guarantee that the winning flights will necessarily be operated by Cebu Pacific.
GoTyme is going after something much bigger than a raffle
The promotion comes just as Philippine remittances continue to demonstrate their enormous economic weight.
Cash remittances coursed through Philippine banks climbed to $3.24 billion in July 2026, up 1.9% from $3.18 billion a year earlier and the highest monthly level in seven months, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
From January through July, cash remittances reached $20.389 billion, compared with $19.932 billion during the same period in 2025.
The United States accounted for 39.7% of reported cash-remittance inflows during the first seven months of the year, followed by Singapore at 7.1%, Saudi Arabia at 6.3%, Japan at 5% and the United Kingdom at 4.7%. The BSP cautions that origin data can be distorted by where correspondent banks are located, so those shares should not necessarily be read as the exact places where the income was earned.
For digital banks and fintech companies, those numbers explain the increasingly intense race to make international money transfers faster, easier and more integrated into everyday banking.
GoTyme does not just want customers to receive money.
It increasingly wants to be the account where that money stays, gets saved and is eventually spent.
From receiving OFW money to sending money around the world
GoTyme had already been building its international-transfer infrastructure before launching the homecoming promotion.
In June, the bank introduced Send Money Abroad, powered by Wise Platform.
GoTyme says customers can now send money directly from their Philippine-peso accounts to recipients in more than 200 countries and territories, without opening a separate US-dollar account or visiting a bank branch.
Its current help pages list eight supported destination currencies: the US dollar, Australian dollar, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Korean won, British pound, Singapore dollar and euro.
Before confirming a transfer, customers can see the applicable fee, exchange rate, expected recipient amount and estimated transfer time.
That matters because the true cost of an international remittance is not simply the transfer fee. The foreign-exchange rate used in converting the money can also substantially affect how much eventually reaches the recipient.
GoTyme and Wise are therefore emphasizing upfront visibility into both fees and exchange rates as part of their pitch.
Wise said in June that GoTyme had recorded an increase of more than 85% in unique users of its international-payments feature since the companies began working together, suggesting growing demand among the bank’s customers for cross-border transactions.
Receiving money is becoming just as important
GoTyme is also trying to simplify the other side of the remittance transaction.
Overseas senders can transfer funds into GoTyme accounts through international banks using SWIFT, through supported remittance partners or through participating Visa-linked services.
The bank lists partners including Wise, Western Union, WorldRemit, Ria, Remitly, MoneyGram, PayPal and other providers, depending on the transfer method.
For SWIFT transfers, GoTyme says money is normally credited within one business day but can take as long as five business days depending on the sending bank and currency. Funds received in a GoTyme account are ultimately credited in Philippine pesos after applicable fees.
Once the money arrives, the recipient does not need to visit a remittance center to collect cash.
The funds are already inside the customer’s bank account and can be saved, transferred, used to pay bills or spent through the GoTyme ecosystem.
That is the strategic difference.
Traditional remittance companies historically competed over the act of sending and receiving money. Digital banks increasingly compete over what happens to that money after it arrives.
The real prize is becoming the family’s financial hub
For GoTyme, therefore, the Christmas raffle is more than a seasonal marketing campaign.
A free trip home can attract attention. But every qualifying remittance also introduces another customer to GoTyme’s international payments infrastructure.
If customers begin routing recurring family support, salary transfers and overseas payments through the same account they use for savings, bills and purchases, the relationship becomes far more valuable than a single remittance transaction.
And that helps explain why the battle for the Filipino remittance customer is becoming increasingly crowded.
Banks, digital banks and specialist fintech companies are competing not merely over who can move money across borders, but over who can become the account through which Filipino families manage that money afterward.
GoTyme’s new campaign puts a sentimental prize at the front of that strategy: a flight home.
But behind those tickets is a much bigger contest—for a share of the more than $20 billion in cash remittances that had already entered the Philippines in just the first seven months of 2026.
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