Grab Power Up Challenge August and September 2021

We are 62% done with 2021, and here is August’s Grab Power Up Challenge:

Update 15/09/2021: September 2021’s challenge has been issued and nothing seems to have changed.

Challenge details

Top-up Amount	Number of Transactions	Spend Amount	Reward	Spots
$100	5	$100	2,500 points	10,000
$300	10	$250	5,000 points	7,000
$600	15	$500	7,500 points	3,000
$800	15	$750	10,000 points	1,500
$1,100	20	$1,000	12,000 points	1,000
$1,600	20	$1,500	15,000 points	1,500
$2,100	25	$2,000	20,000 points	2,500

Tap here on your phone to find out which tier you are on. You have to complete your challenge by the end of 14th of the next month, or before the spots run out, whichever comes first.

Note that the terms and conditions exclude transactions of the following merchant codes:

• MCC 6540 – POI Funding Transactions
• MCC 7299 – Miscellaneous personal services
• MCC 6012 – Financial Services
• MCC 7399 – Business services not elsewhere classified
• MCC 6536 – Money Send
• MCC 6537 – Money Send intercountry
• MCC 6011 – Financial Institutions Manual Cash Disbursements
• MCC 6300 – Insurance Sales, Underwriting and Premiums
• MCC 5960 – Direct Marketing Insurance Services
• MCC 8398 – Charities
• MCC 8220 – Colleges, Junior Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
• MCC 8299 – Schools and Educational Services ( Not Elsewhere Classified)
• MCC 8661 – Religious Organizations
• MCC 8211 – Elementary and Secondary Schools
• MCC 8244 – Business and Secretarial Schools
• MCC 8249 – Vocational Schools and Trade Schools
• MCC 8241 – Correspondence Schools
• MCC 8062 – Hospitals

There are no discernible changes from last month. One notable thing that was missed out last month was that government services – a transaction type that previously was excluded – qualify now, and that means payments to things like road tax should help you achieve the goal.

Earn rates

Spend Amount	Reward	Rebate Amount	Rebate Percent
$100	2,500 points	$5	5%
$250	5,000 points	$10	4%
$500	7,500 points	$15	3%
$750	10,000 points	$20	2.67%
$1,000	12,000 points	$24	2.4%
$1,500	15,000 points	$30	2%
$2,000	20,000 points	$40	2%

Grab Base Earn Rates

	Member	Silver	Gold	Platinum
Points to Qualify	0	>300	>1,200	>4,500
Points earned per dollar	3	3	4.5	6
Approximate rebate*	0.6%	0.6%	0.9%	1.2%

SP GreenUP’s heartbreaking nerf from 1st September 2021 onwards removes a way to boost the value of your Grab points substantially. We are now limited to three redemptions per month which is of course pretty inadequate for big point stashes. Not completely dead, but nearly so.

Cards to top up Grab

Get 1.5% cashback on Grab top-ups with the Amex True Cashback Card.

GrabPay Acclerator

Also unchanged is GrabPay Accelerator which gives additional 4 points per dollar spent on the following categories:

• MCC 7997 – Membership Clubs (Sports, Recreation, Athletic), Country Clubs, and Private Golf Courses,
• MCC 4899 – Cable and other pay television (previously Cable Services)
• MCC 5816 – Digital Goods: Games
• MCC 5815 – Digital Goods: Media, Books, Movies, Music
• MCC 5817 – Digital Goods: Applications (Excludes Games)
• MCC 5818 – Digital Goods: Large Digital Goods Merchant
• MCC 5814 – Fast Food Restaurants
• MCC 5812 – Eating places and Restaurants
• MCC 5411 – Grocery Stores, Supermarkets

Each transaction get only get a maximum of 500 points, and each user is capped at 20 transactions per cycle (15th of every month to the 14th of the following month).

Additional points for topping up with bank account

Update 15/09/2021: These were found in August; let me know if you still see these in September!

I found in my Grab app a promo that gives you points for topping up with your UOB account. Other group members discovered there is another promo for topping up via PayNow VPA (any bank account that supports PayNow, it seems). These promos seem targetted and not everyone would have them. Look around in your Grab app’s homescreen for either of these two icons:

If you have the one on the left, you can get 1,500 points by linking your Grab account to a PayNow-enabled bank and performing a top up of at least $301. The UOB promo is much better: 2,000 points for each $150 top-up you perform up to 3 times which makes for an easy 6,000 points.

Since the top-ups are made via a banking account, there are considered transferable by Grab. Transferable funds in your Grab Wallet can be transferred to another user or withdrawn to a bank account.

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