To send gift cards to employees in the Philippines, send cards issued for the Philippines and priced in pesos (PHP), or a Choice Card that each employee redeems into local brands such as GrabFood or ZALORA. A US retailer card won’t work there, because a gift card is tied to the country that issued it. The same rule, and the same fix, applies across the rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC).
I own a small drawer of travel adapters, and I bought every one of them at an airport after I’d already landed. Each time, the plug from home worked perfectly. It just didn’t fit the wall.
A gift card bought for one country behaves the same way. If part of your team works in the Philippines, here’s how to pick a reward that fits where they live, and how to stretch the same setup across the rest of APAC.
Why won’t a US gift card work for employees in the Philippines?
A US gift card won’t work for employees in the Philippines because gift cards are country-specific. A card issued for the United States can only be redeemed in the United States, even when the same brand operates in the Philippines, so the safe choice is a card issued for the Philippines and priced in PHP.
This isn’t a rare edge case. About 98% of the roughly 4,300 products in the Giftronaut catalog are tied to exactly one country, and a card issued for one country can’t be redeemed in another, even for the same brand. Amazon is the classic example: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca are separate products, and each one works only in its own country.
Say you send 40 people in your Manila office a $50 card from a US retailer. That’s $2,000 of goodwill that turns into 40 polite questions, and possibly 40 cards nobody can spend.
Our guide on how to send gift cards to employees in any country covers this for a global team.
What gift cards do employees in the Philippines actually use?
Employees in the Philippines mostly use Grab gift cards. GrabFood PHP is the single most redeemed product in the Philippines at 32.9% of redemptions, and four Grab products together account for 76.3% (Giftronaut data, September 2026).
The Philippines also matters more than many teams expect. Outside the United States, it accounts for the largest share of corporate gift cards redeemed through Giftronaut, at 10.4%, ahead of Canada (6.0%), Japan (4.2%) and India (2.7%) (Giftronaut data, September 2026).
Grab isn’t the only option, though. The catalog for the Philippines includes these, among others:
| Category | Examples issued for the Philippines |
|---|---|
| Food, groceries and rides | GrabFood, GrabMart, GrabGifts (Transport), GrabGifts e-Gift Voucher |
| Fashion and sport | ZALORA, Adidas PHP |
| Travel | AirAsia Points, TripGift PHP, HotelsGift PHP, AirlineGift PHP |
| Gaming and learning | UniPin Voucher Card, eLearnGift PHP |
| Spend anywhere online | Swype Global (USD) Virtual Mastercard |
Availability changes, so check the live catalog before you promise anyone a specific brand. The full list is in our Help Center article on gift card options in the Philippines.
Choice Card or Branded Card for a team in the Philippines?
Use a Branded Card when you know everyone will use the same brand, and a Choice Card when you don’t. Both work in the Philippines. The difference is who picks the brand and which currency the reward is sent in.
The Philippines ranks second among Giftronaut’s countries for Branded Card volume (Giftronaut data, September 2026), which fits the Grab pattern above. If your whole team orders lunch through the same app, one card for that app is a safe bet. If they don’t, let them choose.
| Branded Card | Choice Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Who picks the brand | You, when you place the order | The employee, at redemption |
| Currency | The product’s own currency, so PHP for a card issued for the Philippines | Sent in USD and converted to PHP when the employee selects the Philippines |
| Best for | A team that all uses one brand | Mixed preferences, or a team spread across countries |
| Can the employee switch brands later? | No, not once the code is revealed | No, not once they confirm their selection |
A Choice Card has one more trick: the employee can split a single reward across more than one brand, say part GrabFood and part ZALORA. And if you want a Choice Card but only want to show local brands, set the Advanced Catalog Filters to the Philippines when you place the order. You can also narrow it by category or pick individual brands, and the filters apply to that order only (how to customize the Choice Card catalog).
How does currency work when you send gift cards to the Philippines?
Currency works differently for the two card types when you send gift cards to the Philippines. A Branded Card issued for the Philippines carries a PHP amount, while a Choice Card sent in USD converts to PHP at the exchange rate on the day the employee redeems. Your Giftronaut account is funded and kept in USD, and every order total shows in USD. Recipients pay no currency conversion fee.
That Choice Card conversion is where teams get caught out. A Choice Card can be sent directly in USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, DKK, AUD or AED, but PHP isn’t on that list. So if you promise a round peso figure and send its USD equivalent on a Choice Card, the amount the employee sees can land a little above or below it. Announce the USD value instead, or use a Branded Card if the exact peso amount matters. Our guide to budgeting international employee gift cards in USD has wording you can borrow for the announcement.
Funding is worth a line in the budget request, too. Credit card deposits carry a 3% processing fee, while ACH and wire deposits carry none. Take 120 employees at $50 each: that’s $6,000, and funding it by credit card adds $180. Funding by ACH adds nothing, but ACH typically takes 2 to 3 business days and wire 1 business day, counted from the day your bank sends the payment, so fund before you schedule. And if you’d rather not leave unclaimed value sitting idle, the Refund Option can return part of it (the rates are in the FAQ below).
How to send gift cards to employees in the Philippines, step by step
Once you’ve chosen the card, this order of operations avoids the usual surprises:
- Build the recipient list. One row per person, with name, work email, country and amount. A spreadsheet upload handles a long list and lets you give different amounts to different people. If rewards go out regularly, the same send can run through Zapier or the Giftronaut API.
- Choose the card and narrow the catalog. Pick a Branded Card issued for the Philippines, or a Choice Card with the catalog filtered to the Philippines.
- Write the message and preview it. Send a test email to yourself first. The gift card in a test email is a sample and can’t be redeemed, so it’s safe to forward around for sign-off.
- Ask IT to allowlist the sender. Corporate security filters commonly hold reward emails. Ask whoever runs email for your Philippine office to allowlist no-reply@giftronaut.com and the giftronaut.com domain before launch day. Rewards can also go out as a reward link you share yourself. Giftronaut sends texts to US and Canadian mobile numbers, so a team in the Philippines uses email or a reward link instead.
- Schedule it for Manila, not for your office. The Philippines runs on UTC+8 all year, with no clock changes (timeanddate.com). A send set for 9 a.m. in New York lands around 9 or 10 p.m. in Manila, depending on US daylight saving time. Pick a Manila morning instead. A scheduled order can still be canceled until it goes out.
- Watch the delivery status. Order History shows each reward’s status. “Bounced” means the address is invalid or blocked: correct it and resend the same reward, which costs nothing extra (resending and correcting emails).
Timing matters most in December. December alone accounted for 37% of all Giftronaut recipients in 2025 (Giftronaut data, 2025), so a holiday reward for your Philippine team goes out in the busiest month of the year. Schedule it early, and tell employees what to expect. Our international employee gift card FAQ is written for recipients and ready to share.
One more check before you set amounts. In the Philippines, some employee gifts count as tax-exempt “de minimis” benefits up to a yearly ceiling, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue raised those ceilings in Revenue Regulations No. 29-2025, issued December 22, 2025 (Grant Thornton Philippines). Ask your Philippine payroll provider how the rewards you’re planning should be treated.
What changes when your team spans the Philippines and the rest of APAC?
When your team spans the Philippines and the rest of APAC, only the local catalog, the currency and what people like to pick change. The process stays the same, as long as you stop assuming one brand fits everyone.
Preferences really do shift at the border. Amazon accounts for 44.1% of recipient choices in Australia and 37.7% in India, while employees in the Philippines lean on Grab, and rewards sent to Japan are concentrated in Branded Cards (Giftronaut data, September 2026).
| Country | Local catalog | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Philippines | Issued for the Philippines, priced in PHP | GrabFood PHP leads at 32.9% of redemptions |
| Australia | 303 products, priced in AUD | Amazon takes 44.1% of recipient choices, and a Choice Card can be sent directly in AUD |
| India | 258 products, priced in INR | Amazon takes 37.7% of recipient choices, and 87 products are online only |
| Japan | Issued for Japan, priced in JPY | Rewards lean heavily toward Branded Cards |
| Bangladesh, Cambodia | No local gift card listed | The Global Visa Reward Card is listed instead |
Catalog counts and shares are Giftronaut data from September 2026. The Bangladesh and Cambodia row comes from our Help Center’s reward options in Asia, based on the catalog checked on October 20, 2026.
That’s the case for a Choice Card on a mixed APAC team. You don’t need to know where each person lives when you order: they select their country and currency at redemption and choose from the rewards available there, across the 225 countries we reach. Reward messages can be translated into 15 languages, including Japanese, Vietnamese, Malay and Simplified Chinese, and anyone can switch the display language on the redemption page.
If some of your people split their time between the US and the Philippines, our guide to a gift card that works in both the US and the Philippines covers that case.
Make the reward easy to spend in Manila
The whole job comes down to one question per person: where will they spend it? Answer that, and the rest is settings: a card issued for their country, a currency you can explain and a send time that lands in their morning.
I still buy the adapter at the airport, for the record. The difference is that nobody’s thank-you depends on it.
Start small. Send your Philippine team’s next reward with the catalog filtered to the Philippines, check the delivery status the next morning, then copy the setup to your next country.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I send a US gift card to an employee in the Philippines?
Not one they can redeem there. Gift cards are country-specific, so a card issued for the United States can’t be redeemed in the Philippines, even when the same brand operates there. Send a card issued for the Philippines, or a Choice Card that lets the employee pick from the Philippines catalog.
What is the most popular gift card for employees in the Philippines?
GrabFood. GrabFood PHP leads redemptions in the Philippines at 32.9%, and four Grab products together account for 76.3% of redemptions there (Giftronaut data, September 2026).
Can I send employee gift cards in Philippine pesos?
Yes, with a Branded Card issued for the Philippines, which is sent in PHP. A Choice Card is sent in USD and converts to PHP at the exchange rate on the day the employee redeems, with no currency conversion fee for the recipient. Your account balance and order totals always stay in USD.
Do employees in the Philippines pay any fees to redeem a gift card?
No, not for standard gift cards and prepaid cards, unless the brand’s own terms say otherwise. Payout Options such as PayPal carry a redemption fee, and the Swype Global (USD) Virtual Mastercard carries a flat $0.50 fee on purchases made outside the United States.
Can one order cover employees in the Philippines, India and Australia?
Yes, with a Choice Card. You don’t need each person’s location when you order: each employee selects their country and currency at redemption. They then choose from the rewards available there, such as PHP brands in the Philippines, INR brands in India and AUD brands in Australia.
What happens if an employee in the Philippines never redeems their gift card?
By default, nothing comes back: rewards have a 180-day redemption window with no refund. Turn on the Refund Option when you place the order and the window shortens to 30, 60 or 90 days. Then 50%, 40% or 30% of the value of fully unredeemed rewards returns to your balance when the window closes.
Are gift cards for employees in the Philippines taxable?
They can be. Some employee gifts in the Philippines are tax-exempt “de minimis” benefits up to a yearly ceiling, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue raised those ceilings in Revenue Regulations 29-2025. Check with your Philippine payroll provider before you set amounts.
