[MY/SG] Grab CNY 2019 Promo – Send RM1/S$1+ and receive 88-18888 GrabReward Points/$0.08-288 Reward via GrabPay until 19 Feb 2019

Last Updated: 8 Feb 2019:

Added additional detail around the Malaysian version of the promo based on my experience playing with it. The most important point is that this cannot be repeated daily and has a cap of 3 rewards per account for the duration of the promotion. The Singapore version of this promotion, is therefore, much more attractive from a repeatability perspective, despite still being a somewhat mediocre promotion in terms of return.

Deal Rating:

[Singapore] 4/10 – really easy, can be done in the comfort of your own home with just data/WiFi, but for the most part, pretty meagre return.
[Malaysia] 1/10 – unless you happen to be the lucky one that gets 18888 GrabRewards points.

Free money/points – exactly what I love! Happy Chinese New Year!

It’s my first time participating in this deal but it apparently is not new.

To see my previous post/review about GrabPay, please see this post.

This applies for both Malaysian and Singaporean versions of Grab, and I would imagine potentially other countries within which GrabPay has a presence. I’ll be focusing more on the Singaporean version of the promotion as that is the one I have had more experience with so far, because you can actually only participate in the country within which your Grab number is registered.

Yesterday was day one, and I’ll share my experience and tips.

As per my rating for this deal (4/10), this is not an amazing deal. Despite getting potentially up to $288 as a reward, be realistic for a moment – how many of them do you think are out there and what are the chances you’ll get that? This deal is borderline gambling, but not quite because there’s technically no “loss”.

Update: On 6 Feb, I got a $18 reward for sending a $10 ang bao. But this was my first reward which was not $0.08 out of about 25 ang baos!

Here are my tips on how to maximise this deal.

When you open your Grab app, you should currently see the option of “Angbao” just below your “Balance” as displayed in the home screen of your Grab app.
- If this does not appear, I would recommend you update your app. If this still does not appear, then I am not sure what’s going on and you may need to contact Grab.
Don’t want to top up your GrabPay wallet? Get a friend (who already has $1+) to send you an angbao first, and then use that money to send it back
You must send a minimum of S$1+ to trigger a reward
Make sure you send it to the correct phone number. If you send it to the wrong number, you might end up just sending it to a random person. Good luck getting your money back then!
You can only get a maximum of 8 angbaos per day, and you only get one for each friend you send it to.
- This means sending more than one to the same friend does not trigger multiple rewards – only your first angbao sent triggers a reward.
I do not know whether sending a larger angbao results in a higher chance of getting a larger reward
From 5 angbaos I sent (50, 10, 10, 1, 1), I earned a reward of $0.08 for each of them.
Have extra phone numbers? Use them to create Grab accounts to use as “bouncing” accounts, i.e. an account you send money to, and then have that same amount sent back – this will trigger a reward on both your accounts
- Do Grab allow multiple accounts? In all honesty, probably not. I have not checked, but most platforms/apps do not allow multiple accounts. As to whether they strictly enforce this rule, I do not know. The argument could always be made that multiple accounts makes their userbase look bigger, but this is completely up to their discretion.
As mentioned above, if your Grab account is registered with a +65 number, you can only send to other GrabPay accounts with a +65 number
As at 5 Feb 2019, 12:10am, I have just tried sending my first angbao of the day and it did not trigger a reward. I am not sure why – is it because the timezone is set wrong? Seems unlikely, but just sharing my experience! Tried it at 12:30am on a different day and I got a reward as expected.
If you are physically not in Singapore, your Grab app may prevent you from sending angbao to other Singaporean users. This is basically because your Grab app is getting confused. It’s picking up your foreign location, and picking up the GrabPay balance/system from wherever you are.
- The workaround is to use a Fake GPS app (Android only, or jailbroken iOS) to make your phone think you’re in Singapore. This will then pick up all the settings/features of Grab as if you were in Singapore
- I personally use this app. You may also need to turn on “mock locations” in your Android’s Developer Settings. Google it if you’re not sure what that is! Picking any random location in Singapore should suffice.
Assuming you maximise the potential of this deal, and assume you get the minimum reward per day, you will earn.. $0.08 * 8 = $0.64. This a laughable figure. But it’s pretty easy, it’s guaranteed, it’s relatively risk-free (provided you send to trusted recipients), and you can do it on your phone anywhere.
- If it makes you think of the deal any differently, the deal (at the time of you reading this) is likely to be available for Feb 5-19, or 15 days. 15 * $0.64 = $9.60. I guess $9.60, with the chance of actually earning more than that (depending on the reward) is actually not bad.
The rewards are issued to you as a “Grab Reward” and does not get immediately credited to your GrabPay Account. Go to your Rewards section of your Grab app to “top up” the reward to your GrabPay account. It doesn’t have to be done immediately, but I don’t see why you would wait. In any case, you have until Feb 28 to redeem it.

Tips for the Malaysian version of this promotion

Update 8 Feb 2019 – I have realised that I have either misread the wording, or the T&Cs have now been changed such that the reward can only be triggered three times per account for the duration of the entire promotion. This significantly reduces the attractiveness of the Malaysian version of this promotion. It’s still worth doing, because it’s easy, but it’s certainly nowhere near as repeatable or as much of a “points generating” promotion as I first thought. It is still an extremely easy way to get 264 GrabRewards points, so I’d still recommend partaking.

As above, you can only send money in the currency of your registered Grab account based on your phone number. To be able to send RM, you need to be using a Grab account registered with a +60 phone number.

The Malaysian version of this promotion awards GrabRewards points instead of GrabPay credits. Upon sending the angbao, the GrabRewards points get added to your GrabRewards balance immediately.

The Malaysian version is capped at 3 rewards for the duration of the promotion, based on 3 unique recipients upon sending an angbao of RM1+.

I would argue that 88 GrabReward points is actually worth more than S$0.08, but 18888 GrabReward points is worth less than S$288. ~~As a minimum, I would therefore say the Malaysian version of the promo is actually better.~~ I no longer think so, because I thought the Malaysian promotion could also be done everyday. It cannot be repeated – you get a maximum of 3 lots of GrabRewards points for the duration of the entire promotion.

Using the same 15 day period (Feb 5-19), you’re guaranteed at least 3960 GrabReward points with the Malaysian version of the promo. Taking these points to use back in Singapore would be worth ~S$10 on Grab vouchers (based on $5 Grab voucher costing ~2k points, depending on status) – potentially more depending on what you ultimately spend it on!

Summary

Assuming you can find 8 recipients, a guaranteed $9.60 for a bit of effort. I honestly don’t think it’s worth the time if all you end up getting is $9.60, but for the chance of getting a $288 ang bao (or something in between, surely?), I think I’ll partake…!

The Malaysian version has a cap of 3 rewards ~~per day (one per unique recipient of a RM1+ ang bao)~~ for the duration of the promotion which makes it much less repeatable – but it is still easy to take advantage of and is a guaranteed 264 GrabRewards points for very little work.

Any comments, questions, suggestions? I’m all ears!

[MY/SG] Grab CNY 2019 Promo – Send RM1/S$1+ and receive 88-18888 GrabReward Points/$0.08-288 Reward via GrabPay until 19 Feb 2019