Save money on your travel and flights using BigPay

7 April 2019

Everyone is trying to get into our payment methods, even non-bank companies. Apple with their newly released Apple Credit card and even Air Asia with BigPay. Although BigPay came first, Apple had more power in spreading their idea because they are more famous. Anyway, the point is, non-bank companies are getting into the banking business which increases competition and overall this is better for us consumers. Apple credit card has a 2% cashback on everything you purchase through apple pay and a 3% cashback if you buy apple products, however I don't have an iPhone and Apple Pay is not widely adopted in Malaysia so we'll leave that for another day.

The founder of Air Asia, Tony Fernandes met his BigPay CEO, Chris at a bar in London and Tony said he knew a talent if he spotted one. Watch Tony Fernandes's full interview with Money20/20.

Big pay - pros and cons. Should I get it?

Pros

No annual fee
No cancellation fee
You can track your spending on the BigPay app (similar to apple pay)
No minimum income required, making it available for students who want to own a card
Save on processing fees when you buy AirAsia flight tickets
Save on currency exchange rate (tested by myself)
Earn Air Asia Big points when you transact
Top up using credit/ debit card is available (earn double bonus)
Widely accepted, accepted by all merchants that accept mastercard
No hidden fees, all the fees can be seen here and not hidden in fine prints like banks.
Free RM10 when you use my referral code N75ADRRVNH (I get RM10 too)

Cons

It is a prepaid card, not a credit card
No interest earned from prepaid balance
No cashback when spending
There is a monthly inactivity fee of 2.50 (not implemented yet)
No option to transfer prepaid balance to bank account from the app (overcome using Boost or Hello Gold)

Why should I get it?

It's free. The RM10 joining fee is refunded.

Free RM10 if you use my promo code N75ADRRVNH. There is no cancellation fee so you can just sign up for the free money. However if you do any of the following, I recommend you keep it because it can save you quite alot of money.

You should get it if you: Fly with Air Asia regularly

If you live in Sabah/ Sarawak and are studying in peninsular Malaysia or vice versa, or if you fly between KL and other states of Malaysia for work or study, you probably already fly with Air Asia. You can save on processing fees which can amount up to RM24 per booking if you use your BigPay card to book your Air Asia flight ticket.

Besides, each RM50 topup and each RM20 spent using your BigPay card earns you Air Asia Big points which you can use to redeem free Air Asia flight tickets.

You should get it if you: Travel overseas

If you have travelled overseas before, you will understand the hassle of going to the money changer, hunting for the best exchange rate between each money changer and struggling to estimate how much money you need to convert to the foreign currency. Exchange too little and you will have to work around a tight budget and lose enjoyment during the trip, exchange too much and you will lose money on the money changer's exchange rate a second time when you want to convert it back to ringgit.

Activating your bank provided credit/ debit card prior to travel will save this hassle but there are hidden costs that the bank charges you when you withdraw from ATM overseas or use your card overseas. The last time I went to the UK, I was charged a 2.5% extra for every transaction when I was using my AmBank credit card when I already scrutinised through the terms and conditions of the card in the fine print to make sure there are no extra charges.

The BigPay card will come in handy in this case. For now, they only use the currency exchange rate fixed by MasterCard and don't charge anything extra. In the future, they may implement a 1% charge which is still lower than banks.

Besides, whatever you spend on the card during your travel is logged automatically in BigPay app which saves the hassle of recording it manually on a separate app.

You should get it if you: Transact online in foreign currency

I have tried this out myself. Paying using the BigPay card is cheaper than using my Maybank debit card.

In my experiment, I deposited 250USD into my eToro trading acount once using my Maybank debit card followed by another 250USD using the BigPay card. On my Maybank card, I was charged RM1046.22 while on my BigPay card, I was charged RM1021.50. A difference of RM24.72.

If you check VISA's website for the exchange rate on that day, we can see that Maybank charged 2.255% for the transaction.

Why not to get it?

Although Air Asia is a reputable airline company in Malaysia, there is a perceived risk of how secure they can keep your money. I'm not sure about weather the prepaid credit is protected by PIDM or not so you will have to do abit more research on this yourself.

BigPay is a somewhat new platform for payment so you might face some problems in transactions with certain platforms. I read that GrabPay was an issue which is now fixed. As of writing this blog, my Boost e-wallet top up is not getting through. Having said that, it is easy to reach out to customer support using a chat function in the app and they got back to me within minutes even on a Sunday morning. Kudos to BigPay on that. With such a good management team, I hope BigPay can overcome these growing pains and become a more mature, reliable payment platform.

How should you use it?

Since it is a prepaid card and not a credit card, and there is no interest earned from the prepaid balance, I would suggest for you to only top up when you want to use it.

If you have a credit card, it is a good idea to top up using the credit card as you can still earn the bonus from the credit card be it cashback or points if the credit card awards them for online transactions.

This is not an issue yet as the monthly inactivity fee of RM2.50 has not been implemented yet, however if you think that you will not use the card at least every month, I would suggest for you to cancel the card and withdraw your balance after getting the RM10 referral bonus. Don't worry, there is no cancellation fee.

How do I get started? (Malaysia)

Visit BigPay's website to read more about it
Once you decided to use it, go to the google playstore or apple store to download the app
Follow the instructions on the app (Fill in details, take picture of IC, record video of youself as per instruction). Use promo code N75ADRRVNH for RM10 bonus. You need to top up RM20 which will be in your balance later.
Wait for it to be delivered to your house (It takes 5-7 working days)
Activate the card via the app when it arrives at your doorstep