The 2 E-Wallets I Use
Shifting gears from property investing last 2 weeks (i.e. property investing lessons & review of SpeedHome), I’d like to touch on something we use day-to-day this time round.
That is e-wallet, the future of cash payments. This post will be an extension of my previous post on how I spend (getting the most out of every buck I can). You can read about that here.
E-Wallets in Malaysia
E-Wallets are simply a virtual wallet that is embedded in an app / software. One of the very first concept of e-Wallets that we were exposed to was prepaid cards (e.g. telco prepaid cards, Touch N Go cards, etc). We load the cards up with cash and it holds the “cash” in the cards. It’s akin to how we use our wallets – we keep our cash inside to be used on a later date.
Following the pandemic and MCO, it propelled the growth of tech companies and the acceptance of e-Wallets in Malaysia. There are many types of e-Wallets that currently exist in the ecosystem, all of which needs to be registered with Bank Negara Malaysia and gotten approval before they can roll out to the market.
You may check out the full list in Bank Negara Malaysia here.
Obvious PSA – do not use any e-Wallets that are not on the list.
I would also want to touch on the massive funds that these e-Wallets hold at any one point. Imagine one person deposits RM100 into an e-Wallet. The funds get deposited to the company and sits there until the funds are used to make purchases or withdrawn. Now imagine that only 1,000 people who deposit RM100 monthly. That’s a cash inflow of RM100,000 monthly into the company. It is thus, very important for consumers like us, to be able to trust the company behind the e-Wallet that we use.
The 2 e-Wallets I use as of writing is GrabPay and Touch ‘n Go.
GrabPay
Grab has done a great job in expanding its merchant network to cover a wide area that accepts the e-Wallets. It has leveraged on the growth from it’s GrabFood business to penetrate the market.
Most merchants that accepts e-Wallet payments accepts GrabPay. The exceptions I observed so far are smaller businesses.
This is the main e-Wallet that I use, though I don’t use Grab’s other services often.
Points & Benefits
There are 4 membership tier levels in Grab – Member, Silver, Gold, Platinum – and they each fetch different reward points.
Every 160 points on Grab is equivalent to RM1 worth in its vouchers. This translates to roughly RM100 spend = RM1 back in points (i.e. 1%) at the membership level of silver and lower.
Points validity is for 3 months, but is calculated from the date of our last spend. This means that the validity of the points gets extended as long as we continue using GrabPay within 3 months.
GrabPay also offers additional perks at different membership levels, but I don’t use any of those.
On top of the perks of using the wallet, one of my credit card – Citi Cash Back Credit Card – has a “Grab” category whereby I get 10% cashback for up to RM100. This cash back applies when I top up on GrabPay, so I just top up RM100 monthly.
The reason I use
- Wide merchant coverage
- Ease of usage
- Points reward on spend
- Cash back upon top up on credit card
Touch ‘n Go
As Malaysians, we need no introduction to the name “Touch ‘n Go” or TnG in short. They are at every toll road we go through and, nowadays, in most car parks as well.
The e-Wallet is a joint venture between CIMB and Ant Financial. Yes, THAT Ant Financial from China (cue Alibaba, Alipay). Launched in 2017, I had high hopes for it to grow with its limitless potential in Malaysia, and it did not disappoint. When it launched, it was an infant with no particular useful feature, but has now transformed into something much better.
Points & Benefits
The downside to using TnG e-Wallet is that there is no points system. So spending on TnG will not give anything back. Recently they launched a reward / stamp system, but it’s not as good as what GrabPay offers.
The main “points reward” is through the top up via credit card and hopefully your credit card offers points / cash back through this avenue.
That being said, there are 2 main perks of using TnG e-Wallet.
(i) RFID Toll
One of the biggest use of this e-Wallet is its connection to the RFID toll payment. Think SmartTag, but without the need of a bulky device and/or finding a place to top up the value in the TnG card.
The fitting of RFID takes less than 10 minutes and then you’re good to go.
What I like about the RFID at this juncture is that there is no queue (mostly) and it deducts directly from the e-Wallet. I can top up any time or even opt in for the auto reload service. There is no longer a need to purposefully drive to a place to top up the TnG card.
Did I also mention that the TnG card can be linked? If needed (e.g. when RFID fails), the use of the TnG card will deduct from the e-Wallet balance.
This is the main reason I use TnG e-Wallet.
(ii) Go+
Go+ was just recently launched on the TnG e-Wallet in March 2021.
Using CIMB’s asset management company – Principal – it offers TnG e-Wallet users the option to earn returns on the balance kept in the e-Wallet.
With just a minimum of RM10, any TnG e-Wallet user can use this to earn daily returns on their balance through Principal’s money market fund. It offers a return of 1.43% at launch, which is quite low compared to other money market fund alternatives in the market (e.g. StashAway Simple).
There are 2 great functions that come with Go+:
- It will automatically cash out from Go+ to e-Wallet if the e-Wallet balance is insufficient to make payments. This means that we can put the entire balance into Go+ to let it earn the mini-returns until it is needed.
- There is a cash out to bank account function that will allow users to take money out of the e-Wallet without fees. Good function for multiple reasons.
Will I put more money here just to earn returns? No. There are just better alternatives out there.
Am I delighted that my e-Wallet balance of RM50 will earn RM0.002 daily? Yes! I work my money hard.
*Protip: Load the eWallet using credit card (+credit card points / cash back), then transfer to Go+ (Gain daily interest). I don’t use FPX.
The reason I use
- RFID (MAIN reason)
- Can be used at small businesses without GrabPay
- BONUS: Go+ earnings
Closing Thoughts
There you have it. The 2 e-Wallets I use and the rationale therein.
I have used Boost before this, but mainly to invest into HelloGold. However, ever since HelloGold supports GrabPay, I have moved that function over and neglected Boost.
It is tough (and does not make sense) to maintain multiple e-Wallets. Just like how we only carry 1 wallet (max 2 being another one to carry cards), it will be more efficient and effective to maintain 1 main e-Wallet.
Which ones do you use and are you maximising the benefits from these e-Wallets?
