Cell phone top-ups increasingly used in remittances

The purchase of mobile phone airtime, also known as top-ups, has become a recognized form of remittances in kind in Latin America, although only El Salvador's central bank tracks it.

Even Mexico, the largest recipient of US remittances in Latin America, does not specifically track top-ups, as BNamericas confirmed with the central bank (Banxico).

"As far as we know El Salvador is the only country that regularly supplies that information," René Maldonado, head of the remittances project at Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos (CEMLA), told BNamericas.

To date, CEMLA has not integrated top-ups into remittances surveys, but expects to do so when it studies remittances to Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica and Colombia in December. The surveys will determine the average amount spent per recharge or the average spent on top-ups annually.

READ OUR SPECIAL REPORT The big business of remittances in Latin America

EL SALVADOR

Last year, 4.3mn of 23.4mn incoming remittance operations in El Salvador went to recharging mobile phones. Top-ups came to US$29.6mn in 2017.

In all of 2016, 5.1mn of 23.2mn operations went to top-ups.

Per a request from BNamericas, El Salvador's central bank provided data on top-ups between January 2015 and August 2018. The data indicates a steady decline in top-ups in recent years, even as remittances to El Salvador have shown a steady climb.

HONDURAS

Like CEMLA, Honduras' central bank conducts an annual remittances analysis, and its discussion of top-ups has gained detail in the past years.

In August, the Honduran central bank reported in its latest annual remittances survey that 23.4% of participants paid for top-ups at an average annual amount of US$780.

The previous annual report, released August 2017, noted that only 15.6% of remittances in kind were top-ups, with the average recharge at US$19.3.

The August 2016 report indicated that 22.7% of respondents said they had paid for a mobile top-up, but no further data was indicated.

GUATEMALA

In a survey conducted in October 2017, one out of 15 Guatemalan migrants abroad said they paid for services back home, such as schooling, electricity bill, or top-ups.

NICARAGUA

Nicaragua's central bank told BNamericas they do not track top-ups, and no surveys were found. Likewise with Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.