How to Earn Cashback or Miles On Hawker Food – 25% Cashback on My Lunch? Yes Please

Check if your favourite hawker stall has this decal up:

You should notice more and more coffeeshops and hawker places having this and I think this is truly one of the best things NETS has done.

While some places with the SG QR code only accept PayNow transactions (like OCBC PayAnyone, DBS PayLah etc) that generally don’t give rewards, NETS’s solution for hawkers accepts a wide variety of nicer, reward-earning payment methods.

I did a bit of poking around and they are charging the hawkers nothing for this service until the end of this year. Fingers crossed hawkers don’t start taking them down once they have to pay a fee. I personally feel that a small fee is justified since they can focus on serving the food rather than also handling money which is both an annoyance and hygiene issue.

Which payment methods?

The perennial payment method that has been handing out rewards like Santa on Christmas would have to be paying via our favourite ride-hailing-turned-everything-app Grab. You earn cashback/miles on your top-up, and then earn Grab points when you pay (even if it is going to be nerfed in about a month’s time, it’s better than nothing).

You could also use Amex Pay which earns you rewards on cards like their True Cashback card or KrisFlyer cards.

I understand that Mastercard and VISA also have their QR payment protocols, but I’m unaware of any way to use them in Singapore currently. Also, LiquidPay is a contender for earning card rewards, but the last I used it was quite long ago so I’m not really familiar if it still earns cashback/miles. Do kindly leave a comment if you know anything!

Dash promotion

Typically, Singtel Dash doesn’t exactly give rewards (though topping up with Singtel bill does; more on that later) , but there is a current promotion where you get $0.50 cashback for every transaction you make at eligible hawker centres, as long as it is $3 and up. I’m personally quite stoked by this since the coffeeshop near my work place accepts QR payments from a wide range of vendors including Dash. 50 cents off my $3 wantan mee is almost 17% cashback!!

Each user is limited to 3 transactions every week, and they have a really long list of places eligible for this promo, so remember to use Dash to pay for your hawker meals if you see them on the list. It’s also limited to the first 80,000 transactions, but based on my gut feel I don’t think Dash’s adoption rate is that high for them to reach this number before 31st March which is when this promotion ends.

If you don’t already have a Dash account, consider using my code DASH-L72MK when signing up to support my site.

Squeezing even more rewards

Rewards are like sugarcane juice: you can often try squeezing harder if you want more, and there are indeed ways to stack even more rewards on this Dash promotion if you are a Singtel user and have signed up for the Maybank Family and Friends card ($20 exclusive vouchers for Sethisfy readers) that I told you to.

Using your Singtel Dash app, top up your Dash account with your Singtel bill (up to $200 each month), then use your Maybank FnF card to pay for your Singtel bill, getting 8% cashback in the process. 17% + 8 = 25% on my $3 noodles woohoo!

Replace the Maybank FnF with GrabPay card to earn 10% cashback (or 4 mpd) and GrabPoints? Yes you can! Just do the same and pay your Singtel bills with your GrabPay Mastercard. In fact, you can also use mile cards for your Singtel bill.

This is how you play the game of credit card rewards people: stack, stack, stack, and always look for more opportunities to clock credit card spend, even especially if it’s something like your daily meals.