Can You Go Cashless for a Week? The GrabPay way

I was at a cousin’s wedding the other day, being seated by a bunch of relatives mostly a generation older, and while you can guess what the topic of conversations generally falls on – whose son just took UPSR, who’s on medication for diabetes etc, one surprise, to me, was this line:

“My daughter very smart doesn’t need to bring cash, all use phone to pay only”

And that of course, was the indication of cashless payments now reaching the lexicon of critical mass in Malaysia.

When it comes to cashless payments, or e-wallet apps, none is as ubiquitous as GrabPay.

Most of us already use Grab for other services such as e-hailing rides and food delivery, it makes sense to leverage on the platform and use GrabPay for everyday activities, which is one way to earn more of those Grab Reward points too.

dining at Mei by Fat Spoon

The skeptic in me (and undoubtedly some of you) will ask if GrabPay is up to the task to be a true provider of cashless transactions in everyday life. And whether or not a person is able to live completely cashless solely on their e-wallet.

To answer this question, GrabPay has added more opportunities and brands to its breadth of merchants to enable everyday users to go cashless via the app, from mostly F&B outlets to now including hypermarkets, health and beauty retailers, cinema outlets and even convenience stores. GrabPay is also the first e-Wallet to adopt Malaysia’s national QR Standard, DuitNow QR making cashless payments more seamless than ever.

Grab ride using GrabPay

Hence, the GrabPay Cashless Challenge – going one week cashless, with the aid of GrabPay as payment and carry on life as you would any normal day.

So, let’s break down what’s to cover for a whole 7 days of activities:

• 14 – 21 meals (you don’t exactly need 3 meals a day everyday.. I certainly don’t)
• groceries
• rides
• other supplies or gifts
• entertainment (maybe)

Kenny Rogers via GrabFood using GrabPay

For my typical 7 days, I usually go to restaurants perhaps 7-10 different times, food delivery another 3-5 times, cook few times, and enjoy free biscuits & coffee at office pantry the rest of the meals.

Some of the restaurants I checked out during this period using GrabPay includes Mei by Fat Spoon (their ox tongue was awesome), Gamtong in Kota Kinabalu (tofu pot!), and Universal Bakery (sourdough).

99 speedmart accepts GrabPay too

GrabFood was my next source of meal – Kenny Rogers (chicken), Mich’sology (poke bowl), Shepherdoo Restaurant (pizza), Thaqwa (roti telur for breakfast!), and DubuYo (soondubu jigae) where what I fed myself with. I also recently learned that GrabFood is now in additional cities around the nation, making it easier to go cashless as they only accept cashless payments.

I got my groceries at 99 Speedmart  too, grabbing some toothpaste, kitchen soap, and of course, the all important instant noodles for those late night emergency meals. Other grocers like  Tesco & MyDin accepts GrabPay too by the way.

Watson, cashless? no problem

I also took a trip to Watson for some supplies and holiday gifts – I mean, gifting moisturizer with SPF protection works pretty much 100% of the time, the sun is a gift and also a threat, people!

Watson even had a 20% discount for certain GrabPay purchases, a win in my eyes.

It can be hard to keep up with all the different promotions every e-wallet seems to be giving out these days but if you’re looking for a list of GrabPay’s exclusive deals, they can easily be found HERE.

can you sense I use GrabFood quite a bit?

Other merchants that have joined  the GrabPay ecosystem includes Zalora, MBO Cinema, Mr DIY, Dominos, and more. I have a feeling my relatives, despite their age, will be jumping on this platform soon enough. After all, they are already using messaging apps, playing games, and watching online news with overly loud volumes on a daily basis.

All in all with the expansion of GrabPay touchpoints that includes different merchant categories outside of just F&B outlets and with their ecosystem of services, GrabPay is definitely one step closer to being the everyday ewallet.