Twenty Cooperatives Join Red Chas For QR Payments In Cuenca And Beyond
Cuenca Expat Staff
A new digital-payment network is now linking cooperative users with everyday payments in Azuay and other provinces.
On Friday, July 10, 2026, a group of 20 cooperatives from Azuay and other provinces joined Red Chas, a digital payment service.
How It Works
The network is designed around QR payments at affiliated businesses. The developer said more than 100,000 businesses nationwide already have the service.
Payments are described as instant, with no additional transaction cost, and can be made from $1 up to a basic salary of $482.
What You Can Pay
The network says users can pay wherever they see the QR code of an affiliated cooperative.
Municipal payments, tram payments, and taxi payments are listed as enabled through Red Chas.
For expats who keep Ecuadorian cooperative accounts, this is worth watching because the useful question is simple: whether more small payments can move through one QR network without a bank-card step.
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