Raquel — Sara Nicole Yang

I first produced this story for an All Hands in August 2017. We had just re-launched our product in the Philippines a few months prior, and this was the first major customer story that we shared with the company. We also refreshed it to share in January 2019, and have continued checking in on Raquel since. :) There are many parts of this story that I love — but I won’t spoil for you. Read on!

P.S. For a full frame version of the story, click here.

We met Raquel at our office, around 1 PM. She had just come from a client meeting around the area — she works as a field sales agent for a hardwood flooring company, and can choose where to schedule her meetings each day. She specifically requested the Makati area, so she could squeeze in the time to meet with us.

In addition to her tan work polo, she wore one of those fashionable silver watches, some fuschia lipstick, and — I noticed she kept her nails well-done. And she seemed pretty young, maybe around 26.

She’s been using Tala since last December — starting at a 500 peso loan, she’s now at 4,000. She typically sends her loan to her Coins.ph wallet. Coins has a Security Bank Cardless ATM option, where they send the customer a text message with a 16-digit reference number and the exact withdrawal amount. Raquel can go to any Security Bank ATM to redeem the money.

Money flows into her life two or three times a month. She receives her salary every cut-off on the 15th and last day of the month. And if she’s met her sales quota of 1.5 million pesos for the previous month, she gets a commission of 2% on the 10th. That’s at least 30k — about $585 USD. Total, this means Raquel earns $300 - $900 per month.

This puts her pretty solidly in the lower-middle / middle class income bracket. 70% of Tala customers fall within this same bulge of $10 - 50 USD income per day.

As an example: at the time of her interview, she had just received her salary on Monday, equal to a little less than $160 USD.

Anyway, this cut-off, she actually deposited the full 4,000 pesos into the cooperative. It’s her birthday later this August, so she was planning to use her full salary for the celebration.

Then, she paid her Tala loan. 4025 pesos for her loan of 3,500, and then she was increased up to 4,000. Her full payment of 4,600 is coming due on September 1st.

She also has to pay a fee in order to send Tala the payment via 7-Eleven — 2% of the total amount rounds up to an 81 peso fee.

After she pays & re-loans with Tala...

The money goes to daily expenses: 50 - 100 pesos for transportation, and 150 pesos for food.

Then, with whatever’s leftover … “I bought some things for me.” :)

Taking a step back: in the Philippines, over half of our loans are listed as being taken for “personal” use. Roughly 9% are listed for paying bills, and 32% for business.

Based on free-text responses, 14% of customers taking a “personal” loan say it’s for a special occasion. 5% of these customers mention that it’s for travel. And that’s not including the big chunk of personal loans listed for “other.”

For Raquel, Tala comes in handy for special occasions, pocket money, the occasional travel. She’s used it for her elder sister’s 30th birthday, for a baptism with relatives, and as extra budget when traveling up to Bulacan.

“And it really helps. Grabe!”

In her words:

“I want to feel independent. Not asking money from my parents. I still live with them, but I’m trying little by little to stand upon my own feet. I was a spoiled brat before!”

She’s been working for four years — as a marketing assistant for 2 years, and then promoted.

“My boss said, ‘Raquel, you should try sales. You’re good!’ I started with sales in-house — “

“And now I’ve been doing field sales for a year.”

It was once she started working that she came to value being financially independent.

There was one time:

“I tried asking my parents, and they said – ‘why should you borrow money from us?’”

“Uhh… ‘joke lang!’”

Translation: just kidding, just a joke! She didn’t try asking them for money after that. Nowadays, she and her elder sister borrow from each other when they run out of budget. But Raquel has a couple plans for supplementing her income in the near future:

#1 – She’s been talking to the owner of a studio-type apartment in the metro area, which she can rent for a year with one full payment of 20,000 pesos upfront. She’s planning to use her next commission to pay, and to rent out the room at a monthly rate of 2,000 pesos. If all goes well, this will generate an annual profit of 4,000 pesos.

#2 – She’s also planning to get into the business of bills payment. For the majority of people living in the Philippines, paying your bills means taking a trip to a Cebuana, or Bayad Center, or other small brick & mortar counter to send your payment to the company for that month.

15,000 pesos is enough capital to launch a small franchised kiosk, right next to the medical center, where people can pay their bills for a small fee.

We asked what inspired her to start pursuing all these varieties of entrepreneurship. She explained that she’s supporting her younger brother to finish college. And ... she’s recently become engaged, and they’re planning to start a family by next year. It won’t be a grand wedding – “as long as there’s a priest” – but all of this requires saving up.

In the meantime, Tala is Raquel’s top choice for borrowing. She’s tried Doctor Cash and Home Credit, “and #1, I choose Tala. I don’t want to borrow from anyone else.”

Still, she doesn’t want to rely on Tala forever.

“Right now, I’m just using it because I have to. But as much as I can, I don’t want to borrow anything — even from Tala.”

What stood out to me about this quote — it was a kind of comment from Raquel on her financial life, and the end state that she hopes to accomplish. For her, that’s independence, and control over her own financial destiny.

Parting Notes

As we opened up with this customer story, we asked our team to listen for what surprised them. And to hang on to that, and ask themselves why. Behind surprise, we can find our unconscious assumptions. What I appreciate about Raquel’s story — is how it helped us continue discovering & learning more in our blind spots.

Especially when we presented this in August 2017 — it highlighted some differences & similarities between our first market (Kenya) and our newest one (Philippines). Our primary use case wasn’t just borrowing for working capital; we were tapping a large new segment of salaried, emerging middle class people with numerous aspirations, using credit for a variety of reasons — not only to start a business, but to bridge the budget, or to celebrate special occasions. It was about access for people to choose how to manage their financial life, even in times of ups & downs & uncertainty.

Yet, a universal similarity continues to emerge: as valuable as it is to have access to credit, what consumers strive for is a state where that access to credit — is no longer as important.

It’s a state of financial freedom.

And that, is a continuous reminder for us — as an organization — to evolve what we offer, and help customers get there.