E-wallets are becoming increasingly prevalent in Malaysia, and it’s difficult to shop without coming across at least one option being advertised when you pay for your purchases at the cashier.
Like all financial products, these digital wallets each come with their own quirks. Here’s how to get the most out of them.
Offer to pay for your friends’ purchases first
Be a good friend and offer to pay for your friends’ purchases first. After all, it’s such a hassle for them to reach for their wallets and it’ll hold up the line. Your friends will pay you back the full amount at a later date.
Of course, you’ll benefit from any cashback deals available through your preferred e-wallet. This is a trick that’s often used by credit card holders to maximise their returns, and can be applied to e-wallets as well.
The only thing to remember is to keep your e-wallet topped up with credit and of course, only offer this to people whom you trust to pay you back.
Use your credit card
Some e-wallets give you the option of buying credit from convenience stores and sundry shops. Ideally, these should be avoided in favour of using your credit card (or at least buy them using your credit card).
For the most part, using your credit card will allow you to claim cashback on the transaction. Meaning that you will be able to double up on your rewards. Once when you top up the e-wallet, and once when you spend the credit.
Open multiple accounts
This is slightly unethical, but not necessarily illegal.
Most e-wallets offer small amounts of free credit for new accounts. Many allow this to be done without needing to verify your identity.
This means you can use different email accounts or phone numbers to open several accounts and gain the benefits.
After that, it’s a matter of transferring the balance to a single account and enjoying your increased balance.
Bear in mind that e-wallets do keep track of transactions made over the platform and doing this may raise some red flags surrounding your behaviour. Overdoing this could also result in the free credit campaign being suspended. This was the case when Razer Pay was launched in Malaysia.
Use different e-wallets
Each e-wallet offers a different set of benefits and features; all of which makes it very easy to divide and compartmentalise your expenses.
For instance, Boost allows you to pay your utility bills, while Touch n Go Wallet is useful for your daily toll (and public transport) expenses. The AEON Wallet is also useful if you do your weekly shopping at AEON.
Essentially, you’re installing multiple e-wallets and using them as separate micro-savings accounts.
A side benefit of this is that you will also be able to access multiple deals, cashback offers, and special discounts. Just remember to add a little extra credit to your budget in each e-wallet if you’re going down this path. You really don’t want to end up being unable to pay your bills because you spent it all on Chatime.
The introduction of e-wallets happened relatively recently in Malaysia, and these have opened an entirely new avenue for arranging your finances. However, there is a push for more use with electronic payments across the world. China is currently leading the way with this, and has mostly abandoned the use of physical money.
We have the unique opportunity to be the next country to move towards digital payments. So don’t be left behind and make the most of the next great leap in money.
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