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GrabPay top-ups are no longer rewarded

Monday 9 March 2020 13:07 CET | News

Banks in Singapore have started to cancel credit cards rewards for users when they top up GrabPay, Grab’s mobile wallet.

Since October 2019, OCBC Mastercard credit cards no longer allow rebates for top-ups to the mobile wallet, GrabPay. DBS, UOB, OCBC, and Bank of China are amongst banks that have recently adopted the same movement.  

It is mentioned that not all GrabPay top-up transactions were actively excluded by the banks, some being due to a change in merchant category code (MCC). Given the fact that rebates and rewards are typically awarded based on MCCs, when it was changed by Amex and Mastercard in December 2019, a few cards instantly stopped awarding points or cashback for that transaction.

Other mobile wallets, such as Singtel Dash and YouTrip have gotten the same treatment from banks. The cause may be the fact that rebates and rewards are usually funded by the bank, and sometimes co-funded by merchants whom they partner. Hence, it does not work in the banks’ favour to give bonus points for GrabPay top-ups if users are using their GrabPay Cards instead of credit cards for daily spending to maximise rewards.
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Keywords: GrabPay, banks, top-up, mobile wallet, rewards, rebates, cards, Singapore, merchants, MasterCard, Grab
Categories: Payments & Commerce
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Countries: Singapore
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