How much do I need to spend to be Grab's Platinum member, and tips to maximise it!

Using Grab as your mode of transport

Not so long ago we did a little comparison between all the ride-sharing apps to find out which makes the most economical sense (yes! we mean cheap!) to commute.

Turns out, either Grab or Uber makes the most sense to commute when traffic condition is bad.

How much are you spending on your Grab rides?

I decide to man up a little after ignoring the elephant in the room on my Seedly app for the longest time.

Headed over to https://hub.grab.com/rides, punched in my mobile number and downloaded my Grab spending for the year.

I spent $347.50 in less than three months. I did a little more math to project my spending and end up with $1,786 per year on just Grab alone.

That could have covered for my annual getaway to Korea and have coffee with Girls’ Generation.

Instead, I spent it all in Singapore in exchange for leaving the house late for my meetings.

In all honesty, I am considered quite an average ride-sharing app user. Makes me wonder how much the highest spender on Grab pays per month.

Moving forward, all this is going to change and we can expect spending on ride-sharing to increase.

Because Grab just sort of won the “war” here in Southeast Asia

If you have yet to hear about it, Grab is close to finalising the deal which will see them take over Uber’s business in Southeast Asia. This can mean a few things for consumers in Singapore:

• Goodbye to comparing Grab and Uber to see who is cheaper.
• Goodbye to attractive promo codes (Remember the days where we have $0 rides due to promo codes? Where are they now?)
• Possibly less competition in Singapore resulting in less drive to make their service better.

“Revenge” time: Taking full advantage of Grab Rewards

While cutting down on my spendings on Grab seems like a tough habit to kick and it is definitely going to take a bit of time, and since Grab looks like they are going to dominate Southeast Asia if nothing is done about it, maybe it is time to learn to maximise the use of their rewards system.

Turns out, for every dollar spent, one gets a number of points from it:

As seen:

• Each dollar spent on Grab rides using cash, one receives 8 times the points.
• For each dollar spent on rides using GrabPay, he receives 16 times the points.
• This number is reduced to 5 times for in-store purchases using GrabPay.
• Take note that rides exclude GrabHitch and GrabShuttle.

How much do I need to spend to be Grab’s Platinum member

There are different tiers when it comes to Grab Rewards, namely, member, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each comes with different benefits.

Before we get there, here’s how much you would have possibly paid to attain the targetted points.

Do take note that in order to maintain your tier, the points shown is to be earned every half a year (6 months).

Seedly Personal Finance Community member shares her hack!

We opened up the question on Seedly Personal Finance Community, and one of our community member Y Y Yin Yu selflessly shared with us how she goes about maximizing her rewards.

• Top up GrabPay account with Cashback Card. Preferably Citibank Cashback to enjoy 8%
• After which spend the Grab credit on rides to make use of the 16 times reward system. (One can choose to spend on merchants too for 5 times the points, but rides works best!)
• Once you move up the rank to a certain level, the amount needed to redeem Grab ride will be lower.
• In addition to the 8% Cashback from the topping up, top up S$313 every 2 months to maximize the CB offered by Citibank. (Bear in mind that there is a minimum spend of $888 per billing cycle)

Ps. You can send Grab credit to other user. Imagine if you just transfer money from bank to bank, PayNow, Paylah, we don’t earn a single thing. However, by using Grab credit, one gets to earn 8% Cashback!

Awesome insights from YY Yin Yu!

Further Reading: Tiers and their rewards

Do take note that Points do expire, so remember to use them!

credit of above information: Grab