New GrabPay Power Up Challenge: Up to 20K bonus points

Grab has launched its latest set of GrabPay Power Up Challenges, which award bonus GrabRewards points to users who complete a certain set of tasks.

The latest challenges run from 15 October to 14 November 2021, or until all rewards are redeemed (which usually happens first). You must opt-in to participate, either via the banner on the homepage of the Grab app or under Account ➔ Challenges

New GrabPay Power Up Challenge

GrabPay Power Up challenges involve topping-up the GrabPay wallet and making a certain number (and volume) of transactions. 

Each user will be targeted for a different promotion; these are the permutations I’m aware of so far (thanks to Sethisfy for compiling them):

The bonus GrabRewards points are awarded on top of the base points you normally earn, as summarised below:

Given a value of 0.2 cents per GrabRewards point, your incremental rebate for completing this challenge ranges from 2-5%.

Ironically, the more you spend, the lower your rebate. I received the 20,000 points offer, which requires me to spend S$2,000 for S$40 worth of points (2% rebate). Someone with the 2,500 points offer spends just S$100 for S$5 worth of points (5% rebate).

One nice thing about the GrabRewards interface is that it shows, in real time, exactly how many rewards are left so you don’t go spending to attain something that’s already not available.

What spending counts towards the challenge?

Qualifying transactions are defined as online and in-person payments to GrabPay-enabled merchants using the Grab wallet or GrabPay card, excluding Grab rides, GrabFood, GrabMart, and GrabExpress. 

The following MCCs are excluded:

If you’re thinking of using your GrabPay card for transactions outside of Singapore, do note that such transactions won’t count towards the challenge. 

In an ideal world, you’ll minimize the opportunity cost of using GrabPay by clocking your minimum spend with transactions that don’t earn points with credit cards. 

However, many GrabRewards exclusions now overlap with those of banks. For example, charitable donations, education, and insurance transactions do not count towards the Power Up challenge, leaving a very narrow range of possibilities. The two I can think of are:

• MCC 9399 Government Services, so you could pay off your road tax or some other bill on a government portal (not AXS) that accepts the GrabPay Mastercard
• MCC 4900 Utilities, but keep in mind there are still some credit cards (e.g SCB and UOB) which reward this category

What card should I use for GrabPay top-ups?

For the purposes of this challenge, GrabPay top-ups must be done through a linked UOB bank account, other bank accounts via PayNow VPA, or credit/debit cards. P2P transfers do not count.

While the vast majority of credit cards no longer offer rewards for GrabPay top-ups, there are three exceptions I’m aware of:

Card	Earn Rate
AMEX SIA Business Card Apply	1.8 mpd
AMEX True Cashback Card Apply	1.5% cashback
UOB Absolute Cashback Card Apply	1.7% cashback

Using any other credit card to top-up your GrabPay balance is pointless (literally). 

Conclusion

While I may very well top up S$2,100 to my GrabPay wallet (I’ve got insurance premiums incoming), I just don’t see myself making S$2,000 of eligible transactions (insurance premiums don’t count). So this month’s GrabPay Power Up is basically a non-event for me.

If you were targeted for a smaller challenge, however, it could be a nice little bonus if you don’t need to go out of your way to meet it. There’s no harm registering just in case.