Grab has begun rolling out it’s latest payment option: Grab PayLater. As the name suggests, users will be able to choose to settle their Grab payments as a single lump sum at the end of the month.
Users who elect to use the PayLater function will not have funds deducted from their e-wallet or have their credit card charged when using Grab rides, GrabFood, or GrabExpress. Instead, the total charges will be added to a bill that becomes due at the end of the month.
Basically, it acts like a credit card.
Adding to the credit card analogy is the limits placed on how much the bill is allowed to accumulate. Instead, Grab provides each user with a pre-approved limit “based on their user profile”. How this is calculated is unknown, and there is no way to increase the limit at the current time.
However, unlike credit cards, Grab PayLater does not charge interest fees and does not have any additional charges if the user pays on time. In fact, the only penalty for missing a payment seems to be a RM10 administrative charge (aside from having the PayLater option suspended).
This payment option is not new to Grab; the company having already introduced it in Singapore. Similarly, e-wallet companies in Indonesia have been experimenting with a monthly bill feature.
Not everyone is able to access PayLater at this moment, as it appears to only be available to certain users. Presumably this is the start of a slow roll and we can expect Grab to bring the feature to more people over time.
