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UOB One card will stop awarding rewards for Grab Wallet topup from 16 March

WhatCard Blog - Credit Cards
#1

The endless nerfing of GrabPay continues with everyone’s favourite cashback card going down the drain - UOB is changing the T&Cs for the UOB One card to now explicitly exclude Grab mobile wallet topup from 16 March 2020

We just heard about it today, but seems like the news came out 1-2 days ago in the form of an SMS notification:

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In addition, if you can also check out the latest UOB One card T&Cs you will also find a new clause indicating that Grab mobile wallet top-up transactions would also be explicitly excluded from the additional 5% cash rebate.

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Screenshot from UOB One card T&Cs as of 15 Feb

With this latest change it appears that the UOB One card is going the way of many other credit cards, in that you can still get rewards if you use the card to pay DIRECTLY for your Grab rides/GrabFood, but you get no rewards if you topup GrabPay and then use GrabPay to pay for stuff.

The one good thing we can think of is that this change taking place from mid-March is probably timed so that UOB One card users can get their full rebates for the first quarter of 2020, and then make adjustments for the strategy for the next quarter. Our best suggestion: squeeze out whatever rewards you can get this quarter, and then going forward use the UOB One card only to pay directly for Grab services (you still get 10% cashback) as well as all your regular spending, and stay away from GrabPay since its rewards are still less than the cashback you would get from UOB One.

With the UOB One card offering an amazing 10% cashback on all Grab topups for the longest time and GrabPay being so easily used these days with the physical GPMC card, we kind of knew that this day was coming, but it is still a very very sad day for everyone…

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As more and more of the remaining cards get nerfed for GrabPay (Amex had already previously announced a similar nerf effective 1 March), it appears that the days of double-dipping with GrabPay are quickly coming to an end.

The only thing we can pray for now is for Go-Jek/other rich startup to make some kind of similar move into the payments space in Singapore and throw open the floodgates for rewards once again :rofl:

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#2

Even if Grab wallet top up is specifically excluded for the additional 5% rebate, any idea whether it is excluded under the base qualifying transactions though?

Assuming the MCC for grab wallet top up is 7399, i don’t see this 7399 being listed in the exclusion list per the UOB T&C.

#3

With this nerf, what are the alternative solutions to pay for monthly insurance premiums?

#4

Maybe standard charted unlimited Cashback card?

#5

Does anyone know if SC unlimited is still eligible for cashback? I just started UOB one card as my first quarter and seems like one quarter is all i would get!

#6

If my billing cycle ends on 12th Mar. Can I top up into grab from 13-15 Mar and enjoy the additional cash back still before it’s gone on 16?

#7

I guess? But would also caution you for this because you are only getting 5% rebate from uob and unless it’s your ending quarter in Which go wild.

#8

Currently looking into Maybank Platinum Visa Card. Looked through the T&C didnt see anything on insurance payments. 3.33% for min. $300. Any existing cardholders able to shed some light?

Also wondering if grab top up will be eligible for cashback using this card.

How much is a Krisflyer Mile worth?
#9

I just read the tnc of standard charted unlimited cash back. It doesn’t support insurance :c

#10

After speaking to the customer service officer over the phone, this is what I found out.

Grab mobile top up (one that you will use for grabpay for everything in your life)
You used to get
5% from UOB one credit card bonus rebate cap at $100/month.
AND
$50, $100, $300/quarter when you hit specific spending milestone.

With the new update,
You will NOT receive any credit card rebate for using the grab top up function. It DOES NOT count towards your rebate milestone for $50, $100, $300/quarter.

For grab transaction, (Grab car and Grab food)
You used to get
5% from UOB one credit card bonus rebate cap at $100/month.
AND
$50, $100, $300/quarter when you hit specific spending milestone

With the new update, you will still receive.
5% from UOB one credit card bonus rebate cap at $100/month.
AND
$50, $100, $300/quarter when you hit specific spending milestone

As such in a statement, stop using UOB one credit card for Grab top up once the change comes into effect (mid March).
Change your Grab car and Grab food payment method to credit card to get the rebate.

FYI Grab top up is considered a quasi cash payment with is one of the exclusion category.

#11

What about dash wallet? Do not seem to be seeing much chat about dash. Using uob to top up dash previously counts to the rebate too. Any other credit cards like HSBc advance card recommended now? Cheers.

#12

For this, I think we might need to go around a likely exploit.

Because topping up dash might be considered quasi cash, we might need to top up via our phone bill instead. And use uob one to pay for the phone bill. I am not sure if this works but considering that the major spending of insurance is gone, i don’t think this might be a viable strategy to gain the system.

It is worth knowing that dash does have a virtual visa and that might be a gate way to other spending to qualify for the benefit.

For now we could technically double dip the benefit by spending dash on eligible merchant with discount.

#13

I helped to ask.
You can! But your bill posted date (date that is officially charged to your credit card) must be before 16th March.

Do you can top up on 12th March and hope that it will be posted before 16th March

#14

Anyone knows if it is possible to get cashback by using uob one to pay cardup/ipaymy to fund saxo/poems trading account?

#15

Hm… I can’t seem to find any exclusion criteria for this under the uob one terms and condition. Can someone else help to confirm this?

It is worth noting that the standard chartered unlimited cashback card does have an exclusion clause stating about recurrent payment charged to the card.

#16

What would be the best card to topup Grab Wallet now since UOB one card has added it in the exclusion list? So SAD

#17

HSBC Advance Card

#18

Thanks! Amex Cashback and SC unlimited also can right?

#19

I think this change hasn’t been updated into whatcard.sg yet

#20

Does the spending on UOB ONE card via iPayMy still count towards the monthly expenses?