Grab is rolling out a peer-to-peer transfer feature to enable users to transfer GrabPay credits to other users, according to a report by Todayonline.
Ultimately, the company hopes to encourage more people to utilise the payment platform – not just for taking Grab rides, but also shopping and other monetary transactions.
Employers can also allocate credits to their employees, and parents to their children, for Grab rides. Each user may have up to S$999 in GrabPay credits.
This transfer can be conducted through a mobile number tagged to a user’s Grab account, said Grab’s Singapore country head Lim Kell Jay. “It is particularly useful for commuters who don’t have a credit card … and it will allow them to also enjoy cashless payments,” he added.
However, experts felt that GrabPay has a long way to go because “without widespread merchant acceptance, this is good for settling accounts with friends who want transport services, but not so good otherwise”, transport economist Walter Theseira of the Singapore University of Social Sciences told Todayonline.
It is thus important for Grab to be able to get a substantial number of merchants to hope onboard the initiative fast. Assistant Professor Terence Fan, a transport specialist with the Singapore Management University, commented the public may not be comfortable using a payments platform if few merchants are on it. “It’s important for Grab to try to expand this quickly,” he said.