QUOTE(shawnme @ Jun 12 2023, 11:54 PM)
What a bummer for the middle of the night. Will have to rack my brain again for alternatives.
I expected these to happen, but still sucks when it does. Haha.
Well this was the initial hype of e-wallets I guess.
I mean it's good that the e-wallets enable more people to be cashless without the need to be using/applying for credit card.
There are less and less added perks of using e-wallet as opposed to just credit/debit card that is tokenized / up and coming virtual tokens or cash or currencies (middle man still there).
So blatantly put, as long as there are credit cards that rewards e-wallet top up, using e-wallet will purely just be rewarding credit card users in places that do e-wallets.
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i.e. Grab Card by MBB
RM3 = 1 reward point for physical store
RM1 = 1 reward point for reloading Grab e-wallet
Physical store accepts both CC, GrabPay, Duitnow.
Use CC
RM300 = 100 point
Use CC reload + GrabPay Unlimited
RM300 = 450 point (300 from CC, 150 from grab unlimited)
Use CC reload + Duitnow
RM300 = 300 points
Every reload, MBB/Mastercard/whichever acquirer charge Grab MDR of say 1% for easy calculation.
For every RM100 reloaded, user gets RM100,spends RM100 at shop.
Grab's MDR to merchant is say 1.5% (which is normal), so grab gets RM1.5.
RM1 goes to acquirer for the reload;
RM0.xx goes to reward points redemption eventually;
Grab has its own costs,
Technically, Grab only earns 0.x% could be lower.
We can see why not just grab but every other e-wallet operators tighten the pipe.
Until e-wallets themselves can receive direct bank in of cash / savings account like banks does, where they can circulate the cash within their own ecosystem without costs (even between banks to grab I believe also will have certain fees), e-wallet will continue to deteriorate.