Buffed and Nerfed: More GrabRewards Points for GrabPay Wallet and Card; Less for Credit Card Payments
From 22nd March, Grab is making some changes to GrabRewards. Good news first: GrabPay Wallet and Card transactions would earn up to 6 points per dollar, up from 4 points. Bad news? Credit card payments for rides and food deliveries are down to 2 points per dollar, down from 4 points.
Differences between paying from GrabPay Wallet and credit card
Grab rides, GrabFood/Mart etc
When you take a Grab ride or order food delivery, you are given the choice to pay from your GrabPay Wallet, or charge it directly to your credit card of choice.
Most cards do not give rewards when you top up your GrabPay wallet, with a few exceptions such as Amex True Cashback card. FRANK’s 6%? Nope. DBS Woman’s World Card’s 4 miles per dollar? Excluded for Grab top-ups.
Charging rides and GrabFood orders directly to your card, however, lets you enjoy the high earn rates these and other credit cards offer.
GrabPay QR/GrabPay Card
When you pay for things, say using GrabPay QR at hawker stalls or using your GrabPay Card at a restaurant, you can only make use of the money in your GrabPay Wallet, so there is no choice here to begin with.
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Analysis
Each GrabReward point is worth 0.2 cents normally (more, if you optimise it), and this would mean that GrabPay transactions would generate an equivalent of 1.2% rebate in Grab points, while Grab rides/deliveries would give 0.4% rebate. The current rate is 0.8% for both.
Personally, I feel this is great news because the amount of spend I make on GrabPay transactions far exceeds my expenditure on Grab rides/food deliveries.
This change will also not change my spending behaviour on Grab rides/orders, and I will continue paying for rides/orders with a high-earn card. After the change, I would get 4 more points (or 0.8% rebate) by going with GrabPay for your rides/GrabFood, but one would obviously still go for paying with high-earn credit cards that give 5 to 8% cashback, or 4 mpd.
If you have big purchases you intend to pay via GrabPay QR or Card, you should obviously wait for 22nd March if you can.
Reminder: Points booster on 31st January
If you’re reading this today (30th January), make sure to make a transaction of at least $50 online via GrabPay from midnight tonight to get 2,000 bonus points, limited to the first 8,000. Subscribe to my Telegram and join the group chat to stay updated on promotions like this.
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