I am far from home. But there are adulting things I've gotten used to doing over the years that I cannot seem to - or would ever want to- shake off.
When I arrived in the US, I searched for online services that delivered straight to the recipient without much of a hassle. Of course they needed to be able to take a secured credit/debit card for payment too. Soon enough, I realized there were really only a handful of services my overcritical self would come to trust. Most of these will work as well if you're just on a short trip perhaps or outside of Manila. Sharing some of them today for all the newbies out in open waters!
To send money
BPIExpress Mobile Banking App
You can choose to enroll all your family's accounts, but there will be occasional people/ causes (like the Marawi Siege relief program) you might want to send money to who/which aren't on your list of enrolled transfers. There's a service called Transfer to Anyone (with a BPI account) that you can enable before you leave Manila. You'll have three ways to activate it, the easiest being to go to the nearest ATM with your BPI card. After that, download the app, see your balance, input the account number you want to send it to, and transfer in an instant. It's especially useful because there aren't any fees unlike Xoom or usual money transfer services.
To send medicine
Mercury Drugstore Gamot Padala
I have a diabetic mom, and there are days when I just want to make sure she has all of her meds. Mercury Drug is pretty much the go-to pharmacy and the first to have such a verifiable online ordering system. (Plus, it's owned by a Thomasian) Mercury has three options for sending medications- by online order, phone call or local branch visit. For those out of the country, online is the only way.
On your first order, you'll need to sign up online and complete the 6-step process. You will be asked to input the medications, contact details of the recipient and your credit card. Mercury Customer Service will email you a LOA (Letter of Agreement) to charge your card, along with a quotation for your entire order. You will need to print out the LOA, sign it and then scan it back to them. After that, they will serve your first order and assign you a customer code for future orders. The great thing is you can order prescription medications too, so long as the recipient picking up the order will have the script with them. You can also select the nearest branch to your recipient for easy pick-up.
To send food
Shakeys Pizza, KFC Chicken, Red Ribbon Cakes
If you have a pizza-loving, chicken-crazy family like I do, I'm not really surprised. Shakey's Pizza offers really good Family Pizza deals especially with a SuperCard which allows you to have two pizzas for the price of one. They charge straight to your card, you can time the delivery and I can assure you that they will do their very best to get your pizza delivered. I tried the delivery service to Dasmarinas in Cavite, and they got there. They got lost, yes. But they got there.
KFC Philippines allows online ordering of their famous bucket meals (you can customize the bucket and fixins), timed delivery and payment by credit card or Masterpass. What I loved about KFC was their special delivery instructions option - which allows you to send a message or specify a delivery recipient.
The Red Ribbon Online Store is open 9AM to 8PM PH Time (8PM-7AM ET) which means you might want to order the night before your occasion. It's got all the best-sellers like the Mousse and Triple Chocolate, but you'll need to take a chance with seasonal items like the Mango or Ube Cake.
Never tried these but they seem as viable:
To send gift cards
GiftAway PH
There's always MetroDeal and DealGrocer. But sometimes, establishment Gift Cards (GCs) from GiftAway PH are the way to go. You can send GCs for LandMark groceries, upscale restos and even laundry services!
To send them to the laboratory
Hi-Precision Diagnostics
An Annual Check-up is one of the best gifts you can give. Hi-Precision Diagnostics offers GCs in denominations of 500, 1000, 3000, 5000 or a custom amount. You can pay for it by card and your recipient gets a text/ email notification of your healthy gift.
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I'll update when I come across some more.
