SanDiego1K

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?

Khampra

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

Mrgolfer21

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.

Mrgolfer21

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

plunet

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.

so_do

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

SanDiego1K

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.

so_do

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."

Chinatrvl

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

IAN-UK

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

invisible

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:

SanDiego1K

@invisible, 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.

invisible

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.

plunet

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.

oishi

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.