And if you're looking for an alternate way to pay you might consider an E-Cash wallet.
You've seen the bright colorful Belize Bank documentaries all about the history of money, they take you through barter systems, the first forms of currency, and all the way to the credit card.
But there is an introduction of sorts to the bank's newest payment method, a virtual wallet that promises to bring the unbanked into the digital age.
And as I found out this morning from deputy managing director Filippo Alario, it's not just for Belize Bank customers. It's the bank's latest stride toward financial inclusion for anyone with a cell-phone.
Filippo Alario, Deputy Managing Director of the Belize Bank
"The E-Cash product is essentially a virtual wallet, the same wallet where you store your cash but virtually on your phone, you will be able to send money immediately, you will be able to receive money. You will be able to top up your wallet, you will be able to cash out your wallet with agents and merchants throughout the country. So it is not necessary, you do not actually have to be a Belize Bank client to be a user of the wallet, you can be a user of the wallet and be a client of any other bank. You top up your wallet from your bank account whether that is Belize bank or another bank. So that is the difference between having an account in Belize bank and being a wallet user."
"It provides so much more convenience, speed of use, it is significantly more cost-effective and the main purpose of this wallet is really to assist in the country's strategy of financial inclusion, as you know 35% of Belize's population is unbanked, that is a very high number vis-a-vie the region. So, this wallet will be able to assist the population that is unbanked to come onboard and start some sort of low-level financial service."
Alario also told us that in these pandemic times money is one of the dirtiest things we touch. The bank hopes that this virtual wallet will assist in limiting the spread of germs and ultimately the spread of the coronavirus.
