UOB and Grab have announced that Grab will begin offering a suite of UOB Cards solutions and privileges directly on Grab’s mobile app. This follows their earlier partnership announcement during the Singapore Fintech Festival last year
For a start, consumers can now apply for UOB One Card directly from the Grab app or by scanning QR codes found in Grab cars in Singapore. UOB cardmembers will also enjoy a suite of privileges when they use Grab services.
These privileges include cashback of up to 10 per cent on all Grab rides when they pay with the UOB One Card, a credit card sign-up offer of Grab vouchers worth $100, $10 off Grab rides and $5 off one Grab ride upon their Auto Top-Up activation on GrabPay.
In addition, all UOB Reserve Card customers will automatically qualify for the GrabRewards’ Platinum tier and will enjoy the full suite of Grab privileges such as priority booking and an accelerated GrabRewards earn rate. The previous announcement also indicated that there will be a possibility of a co-branded credit card between the two parties some time soon.
Ms Jacquelyn Tan, Head of Personal Financial Services Singapore, UOB, said the new joint initiative is in keeping with the Bank’s approach to build partnership ecosystems and to make banking more accessible by extending its touchpoints to areas that intersect with consumers’ lifestyles.
“Our alliance with Grab enables us to create greater value for our customers who commute a lot. In the past year alone, UOB cardmembers took an average of close to a million Grab rides a month. This makes the Grab app an ideal platform on which customers can enjoy special privileges and make selected banking transactions, whether it is applying for a new UOB credit card or paying for their rides using their reward points,”
Ms Tan said.
Down the road, UOB and Grab will be integrating the Bank’s extensive rewards and dining privileges programmes into the Grab app. For example, UOB cardmembers will be able to convert their UNI$, which is the Bank’s credit card rewards points, to GrabReward points and vice versa.
UOB will also integrate Grab’s booking function into UOB Mighty, the Bank’s all-in-one mobile banking app. Grab’s ride-hailing feature will be paired with UOB Mighty’s restaurant reservation portal which has more than 500 dining deals, enabling UOB customers to book for their next meal and their next ride seamlessly.
Building a super-merchant ecosystem
Under the alliance, Grab will also be able to tap UOB’s extensive network of more than 500 merchants in Singapore to connect with new business partners. This could help drive Grab’s merchant network for the other services including food delivery, e-payment and parcel delivery.
Ms. Ooi Huei Tyng, Managing Director of GrabPay Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, said,
“We are excited to bring the benefits of our regional partnership with UOB to our users in Singapore. With Grab’s and UOB’s strengths, we are confident that we can make paying for daily transactions with Grab easier and ultimately move more consumers from cash to cashless.”
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