Grab (Malaysia) [merged]
 

Grab in Malaysia have stopped accepting Visa for Grab top up and I believe Grab Wallet. You can still use the Grab app and elect to pay cash at the time of booking. I have yet to determine whether Visa can be used for individual fares on a ride by ride basis, but if flying there, best to have some local cash to hand.

Edit to clarify a poorly articulated subject line by me - Mastercard and Amex are STILL accepted for top up.

I ran into this last week. The first card I added was a Visa, which was set to my default, and that card was charged for my first ride. Prior to that ride, I noticed that I was unable to load the wallet, so I added an AMEX and loaded the wallet with that. However, I did not change the default payment to my wallet until after the first ride was booked and secured with Visa. All of the subsequent rides were paid out of my wallet, but VISA does work for individual rides.

Agreed, just managed to use Visa for individual rides, odd you can't top up with Visa but can pay using visa on a ride by ride basis.

I'll admit to being technologically challenged, but i muddle through with Visa as default and (touch wood) never had a problem. I'm back in a couple of weeks and hope to sail through Grab rides in my fog of naive complacency.

I have no idea what a Grab wallet is, or what advantages it carries. Am I missing trick ?

Grab Wallet is where you "top up" cash into your Grab account and then draw down from this "pot" as you complete each ride. (You can also use it to pay for things). This is what has stopped for visa.

If your account is set to charge visa and debits your visa card after each ride, carry on, you wont notice a difference.

Grab (Malaysia)
 

Have downloaded the app and created an account
However when I try to add a payment card, it won't accept my UK post code (i guess it is expecting an MY post code)
When I look at the other payment options it also offers only MY solutions..

So how will I pay for any taxi rides whilst in country (post pay in cash)?
- will I be able to book taxis without a linked payment card?

See:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asia...d-pr-amex.html

There is a pay cash option on the app. Enter the details of the ride you want, you will get a list of different vehicles with different pricing.

Scroll down, at the bottom of the screen just above the "Book Now" button, on the left is a "G" symbol, click on this and it will give you the option to pay cash. You may even to pay by visa on a journey by journey basis when you can't load a balance in advance.

Thanks for the link, though my issue was different … and I now understand why… When asked to enter card details, you are offered to enter them using NFC (tap your card on your phone) HOWEVER, when doing so, the details page asks for your postcode (and does not recognize a foreign, at least UK, postcode)BUT, when I enter the card details manually, you are not required to add a postcode! Therefore, I have now been able to add both my Amex and Mastercard via the app

Perfect, glad to be of some assistance despite some lateral thinking on your part being needed!

The thing with the Grab is that for some reason won't let you add non Asian credit card unless you are in the region. I had the same thing happened few years ago. Downloaded the app in US but wasn't able to add the card. Once I landed in Bangkok I had no problem adding the same card to the account.
Last year I had to change credit card on file (expired) but again I wasn't able to do it while in US. Once I was in Thailand I had no problem adding the card.

One issue now in Malaysia, is that you cannot top up your Grab wallet cash balance with a visa from outside of Malaysia, (or at least that was the position late last year). Oddly though, you can have each ride funded individually by a visa from outside of Malaysia, (or at least from Singapore).

Three things that come to mind:

1) Credit card merchant fees. Grab wallet is as good as cash. I am not sure if Grab charges a fee to topup your e-wallet using a credit card but the CC merchant fees are higher for cards issued outside Malaysia (maybe around 2-3%) where as a local bank is around (1-1.6%).

2) Money laundering. Since grab wallet is as good as cash, it can be misused to pay with a foreign credit card to get cash in Malaysia (would involve a lot of effort to wash say just $10k USD tho lol)

3) CC fraud. Consumers can report it as a fraud but the Grab wallet user already has "cash" deposited into his account and could have used it to pay off other things. The user could have gotten a stolen credit card number and used it to topup Grab wallet.

Though my understanding is you can still top up with Mastercard / Amex

That I do not have an explanation. My apologies. I thought I read that grab wallet topup is not allowed for non-Malaysian cards. I know Grab rides charges a "foreign credit card fee" now if you are charging your card to a different country.

I had no idea you could even use a Grab Wallet as a foreigner and thought that you had to stick with individual payments for rides and food orders via CC or cash.