Grab (Vietnam)
 

We used Grab on a trip to Vietnam a few months before the Covid shutdown. I took a look at the app today and realized I needed to enter a current credit card. Guess what. It doesn't like any of my multiple entries.

• Doesn't take AMEX
• Visa: tried multiple Chase cards. No joy.
• Visa: tried an Alaska Airlines card (Bank of America). No success
• Mastercard: tried a Flying Blue card. No success

What do I do? What US credit card will it accept?

Switch to Uber? Back in 2018 it worked. The only downside was the driver calling me in Vietnamese immediately after I booked the ride 😂.

I've had the same issue....several years ago I set it up with my Marriott Amex and I have never been able to change it to another card. Luckily I set my now wife's up with my Amex Plat, so that works as well, but again, can't change it. The problem seems to be that US cards do not participate in OTP when you are setting them up for online payments. Lots of online Asian (and probably European, but my experience has been Asia) companies require the OTP verification which is sending you a text to verify your identity. Since US cards don't participate, you can never set them up. I don't know what is going to happen if I ever get new card numbers. Not sure if Grab customer service can help and add cards on their side by sending them a copy of the card along with your picture ID. I would definitely be curious to hear if anybody has found a way around this.

No Uber in Asia. Grab moved in and kicked them out (albeit Uber got a stake in Grab).

This seems to be recurring theme I see being reported for more and more US based cards. It fundamentally stems from the US aquiring bank handling the backend payment infrastructure being scattered across hundreds of smaller banking institutions, the result being that implementation of new payment tech is hard and slow. Former example was how the US only moved to chip + signature whereas many other jurisdictions went with chip + pin.

Anyways, the blocker is likely to be the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and strong customer authentication (SCA} standard that is the blocker here - being able to authenticate a new retailer or a transaction with a push notification / SMS or other 2nd factor.

I am not based in the US or have direct experience of US cards but I have seen reports that some Citi cards support PSD2 and SCA and maybe some BOA cards, but not all. Modern challenger banks are more likely to have the modern backend systems to support these things out of the box. You probably need to reach out to your card issuer and ask them about PSD2 and SCA support, and moan at them when they shrug their shoulders.

For retailers that demand PSD2 and SCA the process to sign up or make a payment will just appear to fail if you card doesn't support these standards as the call into your card issuer to confirm you are the cardholder doesn't go anywhere. Retailers are frequently loathed to permit transactions that are not PSD2 / SCA authorised as in many jurisdictions they have to take all the risk on those transactions not being paid, whereas PSD2 / SCA authorised are almost risk free from the retailer's point of view.

I was in SGN a few weeks ago and my Barclay Aviator MC (US) worked great.

Appreciate making your first post to help me.

Did you try to add your credit card in the US before adding it in Vietnam? I'm wondering if there is any point in carrying a credit card with me that I've been unsuccessful in loading in the US.

Card was added in Vietnam. Here's the information from Grab:

"To add a credit/debit card to Grab app, please ensure that you’re currently in any of the 8 countries Grab operates in: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia. You will be unable to add your card to Grab app otherwise."

You can only add a credit card when you are physically in a country in which Grab operates. Should work when you arrived.

.... and adding the card is (normally) a fast process.

You have potentially two problems here - both or one of them completely block the transaction going thru.

The first problem is with Grab geofencing - not allowing you to open/use the card outside of their market areas. This is relatively easy to fix - go to your phone app settings, find Grab and deny location access - set it to Never. When you open the app next time it will complain that it can't access the location, click Cancel and instead select a location, you can set SGN for example. The app should work fine after that. Obviously, you need to change location access to Allow once you are in Vietnam.

The second problem, as already mentioned is with 3D Security - 3DS, basically 2FA, and the second factor for cards issued in Asia is 6/8 digit SMS code sent to the phone as an authentication. US issued card use a localized version of 3DS without SMS, which is done online. If you have ever seen the 'Verified by VISA' or 'Secured by Mastercard' pop-up/flash page when you made an online transaction with your US-issued card - this is it.
How to fix the above - you need to call your card issuer and ask them to put your call to 'VISA security/Verified by VISA' department - is not the card issuing bank blocking the transaction, it is done by VISA. Once you are on phone with VISA department (expect to go thru quite a serious KYC - they will ask questions from your credit history/accounts, I was asked for example what is the county's name where billing ZIP code of the card is) tell them that you are trying to make online purchase with an Asian vendor which asks for OTP and ask them to whitelist Grab in their system. They can do it while you are on phone and then once confirmed that they whilelisted Grab, you can open the app and add your card there and see how it works.

Background: I have been using Grab for >6 years and continue using it while still in the US to make some bill payments in Singapore. I have and used Chase Sapphire and Chase United Business cards with Grab without much problem by using both fixes described above:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ba6474d2ef.png

[MENTION=155883]invisible[/MENTION], thank you for that thoughtful, detailed explanation of how to add a credit card from the US. It worked! First, I denied it location access. Then I set a hotel location in Ho Chi Minh. Then I tried adding a Chase card. And it was added. I was really glad I didn't have to go thru calling the credit card company and follow your further instructions. Now I am comfortable that I will be able to use GRAB in Vietnam. You are a star.

You are welcome. I found this accidentally while still in Singapore. BTW other are other options for rideshare in Vietnam (at least that was the case when I was there last time in 2019, no idea about now). One is Giejek, other is FastGo. You might want to have them installed for the unusual case when there is no Grab available.

Agree, hat tip to invisible on sharing how to get around a US card that can't do PSD2 authentication. I didn't know that the card brands had a service in the US to make the issue go away for specific transactions. Obviously causes a lot of friction, and not ideal, hopefully the US payment services industry can catch up quickly.

Uber withdrew from South East Asia a while ago. I think the two options you have now is Grab and Gojek (there might be others, as I've found out in Singapore). If you're lucky they'll give you the cash option.

Hell will freeze faster...

This is great and thank you for the info. I know I've tried to add cards while in country as I read the same thing, but never could. However, I just followed your instructions on disabling location services and it worked! Just added my Chase Visa. Very excited for this and appreciate the post.

Yes, kudos/hat tip to Invisible. Just followed that process and the Venture X was added. I read on another thread about doing it while in the country, however, adds stress and "hope" one of the cards you brought with...works.

Thanks for enabling my upcoming trip to be that less worrisome.

Side note: I think a reason some CC companies don't allow text verification is b/c of spoofing/cloning someone's phone to receive said message, etc. It's in part why you're starting to see 2FA being pushed to consumers. That said, Americans don't like anything which makes it more difficult to spend $$, so rather than be secure, they'd rather be blissfully unaware While not 2FA, the newest Pixel is rolling out VPN, so that could be a future way to get around turning off location services for the app.

We're in Vietnam now and have successfully used Grab both to order food and to use a car. We had a challenge in Da Nang where we couldn't bring Grab up. We had a strong cellular connection but not wifi. Fortunately we were able to grab taxis at a cost that was several times the cost of Grab. But paying $8 instead of $2 (for example) is not a bad thing when it's raining and we'd like to move on.

Is GRAB able to pick up at the Saigon Airport International Terminal? Is there a designated pickup point?

5 years ago it could. I remember that the app asks to pick up the exit door number.

P.S. One thing about grab in Vietnam and Indonesia - the driver might be a completely different person than the one shown in the app. It happened to me a couple of times. It does not necessarily mean scamming or something bad - one time to was the driver's wife, the second time - his friend or relative. If you are not comfortable, just skip/cancel.
Also, take the expected time of arrival with a big grain of salt, especially for airport pickup. In our case, 10 min ended up being 35.

We are using GRAB in Cambodia. It's cash only. It shows us the amount, we accept, and then we pay in cash when dropped off.

In Vietnam, I had once have the same driver as matching in the photo but in a different car! Since we wanted to go a lot further than his usual passengers, he decided to swap to a bigger car. I had my doubts at first but he knew exactly the destination as what I put in the app and there was no other issues.

We tried to get a car at the International Terminal. We got the notice that a car accepted but we could never find it. We ended up taking a taxi which was very affordable. We were charged 10,000 VND or $.42 for not meeting the Grab car. We liked using Grab a lot but it could be tricky getting it to the address where we were. More than not, the driver only accepted cash.

Thanks for the cash reminder. I am arriving SGN at 6 am in the morning. I was worried about the Grab and taxi situation so early, so I arranged for a hotel pickup at the airport. But I will definitely use Grab when in town.

If you are coming in from another country when using Grab, it might not let you book with a credit card immediately. I flew in from BKK to Hanoi (where I used Grab) and it did not let my payment via credit card go through when I ordered a Grab to get to the Old Quarter. It did let me go through with a cash fare. The next day, Grab worked just fine when I ordered a ride, so this might be something to keep in mind.

As for the airport, I didn't have Grab set up in Bangkok, but I used Grab with no hiccups at HAN, SGN and DPS.

This happened to me in Bali. It's rare based on all the rides (both in cars and motorcycles) I had but it does happen. If it doesn't feel right, it's best to cancel.

Are we able to use Grab in Singapore?

Yes (the app works in the countries Grab operate in), and there are other providers too but I think this is straying from the thread.

Sure. Grab is (was - no idea what the situation looks like now) a good option to go to the city from Changi, however, MRT is good as well. Taxis now charge $8 surcharge when leaving from the airport. The same applies to the city center where $5 surcharge applies.

Just watch for surge pricing

Hotel to airport
 

So I am leaving HCMC today and probably will want to come back. My last few days I stayed at the IC Saigon. I had been using Grab in the last few days and it was working great, just like Uber. But IC staff assured me that the taxi Vinasun will accept credit card too. So I decided to try it out. First it was flat rate at 200,000. When we arrived at the airport he tried to use contactless on my Chase Reserve card several times but it won’t go through. Then I gave him my Hyatt card, still won’t go through with contactless. He then tried swiping the magnetic tape, I am not sure if there is still one, won’t go through either. I am kind of a little panic now. But then he inserted the card and it went through.

The moral of the story is stay with Grab. It is working great. The other thing is go to the airport early. There is no web check in, so it is kind of a long wait. Thank goodness I was able to get a relatively cheap business class ticket.

So Gojek accepted my CC, and I have used it successfully multiple times. In addition to Grab there is also Be (they wear yellow shirts like bumblebees).
I entered my CC into Grab's payment options successfully, then it said unsupported (it was a citi card).