Grab users in Indonesia better carry cash as the ride-hailing firm stops ewallet top ups

Photo credit: Grab.

The Indonesian branch of ride-hailing firm Grab is the latest big startup in the country to be forced to deactivate a feature which lets users transfer credit onto in-app ewallets. Grab informed its users about this today on its blog.  GrabPay wallet users can still spend the amount they have already stored.  Some other cashless payment options like credit card are still available. But if you don’t own a credit card or any of the other options, you’re back to paying with cash for each ride.

“Due to GrabPay’s success and in order to extend our services to all Indonesians, we are having intensive discussions with Bank Indonesia (Indonesia’s central bank) to obtain the required licenses,” Ongki Kurniawan, managing director of GrabPay Indonesia told Tech in Asia.

Grab is not the only startup waiting for license approval from the central bank. Ecommerce sites like Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and Shopee have already stopped top-ups to their respective wallets after BI began cracking down on those firms operating ewallets without the right license. At Tokopedia, this has led to the delay of a collaboration with Uber, which sought to introduce TokoCash as a cashless payment option on Uber’s app.

Grab introduced top-ups to its GrabPay wallet at the end of last year. The feature is meant to make it easier for users to pay for rides. Instead of handling cash and waiting for the driver to give change, the correct amount is simply transferred from one app to the other.

Grab competitor Go-Jek’s wallet is not affected by the freeze. Go-Jek already owns an emoney license after acquiring payments company MVCommerce last year.