As a finance geek, I enjoy trying out new fintech products, including ewallets. It’s fun exploring what kind of perks and cashbacks each of them offer.

Ewallets in Malaysia  – The Current Scenario

There are many companies trying to enter and compete in the ewallets scene in Malaysia. Last I checked, BNM listed 37 non-bank e-money issuers. I’m sure that list will keep growing in the next few years.

In time, I think we will see a few clear winners in this ewallet race, like what happened with Alipay in China. But for now, potential customers like you and me can have fun and enjoy being courted by these companies. Some of them are pretty generous with their welcome or referral bonuses – good for us!

Here are reviews of all the ewallets in Malaysia that I’ve tried out so far, and what I like about them. I have excluded banks and crypto ewallets from this list.

#1 – Lazada Wallet Review

Best for: Regular Lazada users

What I like about it:

• Super fast refund on order cancellations. Your money comes back in a few minutes only, as opposed to hours/days it takes with other types of payment methods.
• Easy to top up with credit card or online banking. Super seamless.
• No need to download an extra app. Integrated in Lazada app itself
• Sometimes they have extra cashback and offers if you buy stuff on Lazada using the Lazada wallet. I received RM20 voucher this way (this particular campaign have since expired)

#2 – BigPay Review

Best for: Travel junkies and AirAsia users

What I like about it:

• Comes with a gorgeous-looking powder-blue Mastercard-branded debit card. You have to top up RM20 into your account first before they send the card to you, but the card itself it free (RM20 will appear in your account)
• The app’s UI is really good. Very clear instructions. Security features are great
• According to a FB commentor, the debit card’s overseas exchange rates are damn good and similar to XE.com rates! That’s a HUGE plus!
• No processing fee if you use this card to buy AirAsia flights (RM4-RM16 in savings!). Note: If you want the card for this feature, make sure to apply 3-5 working days before so there’s enough time for card delivery
• Can collect BigPoints, which you can use to redeem for AirAsia flights
• Can transfer money to friends for free
• Many fees are waived for now (later on, they will charge RM2.50 monthly fee if you don’t use the card at least once in a month. Not a huge issue tbh, Mastercard is accepted everywhere so it’s easy to use)
• Apparently the app is designed to be Mint-like. Purchases will be categorised for you. Haven’t tried this feature yet.
• GENEROUS sign up and referral bonus! Get extra RM10 credit if you use my referral code PCRINGGITS. To download the app, find BigPay in PlayStore (Android) or Appstore (iOS)

EDIT:

Received a hack from a kind commentor and want to share it with you!

You can combine the BigPay card with the Public Bank Quantum credit card to earn 5% cashback. How:
– top up the amount in BigPay debit card with the credit card
– use like normal, anywhere Mastercard is accepted!
– PROTIP: reload on Monday to get ADDITIONAL 5% cashback. One time only, and need to sms Public Bank. Go check Public bank for details of this particular promo

ALSO! This is a great card to buy stuff from overseas (that’s not priced in RM). You’re charged XE.com rates, which is amazing! Cards from normal banks NEVER give that kind of rates

#3 – Fave Pay Review (not technically an e-wallet, but oh well)

Best for: Fave users (for non-users, it’s like Groupon but no minimum number of buyers to unlock deals)

What I like about it:

• Built-in the Fave platform and app, no need to download separately.
• Always have ongoing cashback promotions and offers. Many promo codes.
• The app can search places near you that give you extra promotions and cashback. The cashback deals are generous; between 5-30%. Sometimes when I’m out and about I’d open the app and pleasantly surprised by the offerings near me, lots of smaller shops I wouldn’t have tried otherwise.
• Accepts AMEX!
• Referral bonus. Get RM5 off your first purchase if you sign up via this link (I get RM5, too!)

#4 – Boost App Review

Best for: Making payments (and getting random cashbacks)

What I like about it:

• Boost used to sell discounted coupons, but now it’s mostly for making payments. After each payment, ‘shake’ your phone to get a random cashback bonus. The highest I’ve gotten was RM3
• Can easily find merchants that accept Boost – sort by distance
• The values – they partner with lots of small shops (even pasar malam vendors), and they also make it easy for you to make donations
• Integrated with Fave
• Referral bonus. Enter my invite code sur8oko and get RM5 cashback after first payment or RM10 purchase. Find Boost App in Playstore (Android) or Appstore (iOS)

#5 – Touch N Go

Best for: Public transportation

What I like about it:

• FINALLY you can register your Touch N Go cards in the app! You still can’t top up your card from there, but still, a step in the right direction. This makes it easier for you to report lost cards (and get refund on the balance)
• Familiar name. Lots of merchants that accept.
• I can see they want to shift to be more like a lifestyle app rather than transportation-focused
• Find Touch N Go app in Playstore (Android) or Appstore (iOS)
• Super cute landing page. I mean, look. So adorable

#5 – GrabPay

Best for: Grab rides

What I like about it:

• To be fair, I already use GrabPay for Grab rides, but not the version they’re planning in (near?) future, the version where you can use it to make in-store payments and maybe even offer insurance and micro-lending.  GrabPay partnered with Maybank kot. I have high hopes. For now, I can see they are expanding to food delivery, item delivery and mobile prepaid top-up
• Accepts AMEX! I regularly top up money in GrabPay using my Maybank-issued Amex credit card and get 5% cashback + points
• Lots of rewards in the Grab Rewards programme. My favourite is still redeeming points for Grab rides – I get 1-2 free rides a month this way
• In the unlikely event you DON’T have Grab yet, use my referral code GRABSURAYAROR

Special ewallet mention

#1 – WeChat Pay

WeChat is insanely popular among Chinese users (and young Malay kids for some reason). Hong Leong Bank partnered with WeChat Pay so I’ll be following the news for this development.

EDIT: I downloaded WeChat during the Money Packet promo, where they gave out between RM3.88-RM88.88 randomly. Didn’t manage to get anything. Their server crashed, probably because many Malaysians tried to get the money too lol

EDIT EDIT: Tried to re-install WeChat Pay again, because they had that RM1 for Starbucks drink promo. Did not manage to successfully login. Got frustrated, gave up.

#2 – Razer Pay

Downloaded it just to try it out (and claimed a RM10 bonus or something), but since uninstalled. Not sure what I can do with it.

Ewallets in Malaysia I Haven’t Tried

If you’ve tried any of these ewallets (Source: FintechNews Malaysia), I’d love to hear your reviews. Are they good? Worth trying out?

• VCash
• KiplePay
• HotWallet
• MCash
• PrimeKeeper
• SamsungPay
• VeCash
• Ka$h
• Setel (from Petronas)

Any other ewallets in Malaysia that should be in this list?

Conclusion

I have three thought processes here about this topic:

Ewallets for cashless society

I know there are lots of talk about ewallets being integral towards a cashless society.

Cashless is good, sure. However I’m still a big fan of using cash for payments though. Something about physically handing cash makes me sayang it more, so I am more mindful when I spend.

My personal rule is to use cash unless there are financial incentives to using digital payment methods. If it doesn’t give me discounts, cashback or loyalty points, I will keep on using cash. I don’t care about QR codes, tap and pay systems or whatever other fancy things – they’re secondary to its money-saving ability.

Ewallets as credit card replacement/competition

What I regularly do before I want to buy something is check:

• Do I actually need this product/service?
• (If the answer is yes,)
• Are there credit card discounts available?
• Can I buy it from Shopback for the cashback? (Related: Shopback Tips: How I Made Over RM2000)

Now with these ewallets, I feel like I have my work cut out for me – I would check them too in case there are discounts there.

This is not even including future ewallets that’s going to enter the market. When the rest comes, hooo boy…

My money is scattered everywhere

Trying to remember how much I have in which accounts… is quite the challenge. Not only I have various bank accounts, credit card accounts and investment accounts to keep track of, but now I have to add these ewallet accounts to the mix, too!

What’s your take on this whole ewallets thing? What do YOU use?