Worried About High Credit Card Fees Abroad? Here Are 4 Other Options Malaysians Can Use
Gotta get your money's worth, amirite?
By Hafiz Zainuddin — 22 Dec 2022, 04:18 PM
When going abroad, one of the things you have to know is how you'll be paying for stuff
Whether you're going to the UK or Switzerland, every country has a currency of it's own, but it's safe to assume that you would need a little bit of help setting up your payment option before you fly off to your vacay.
If you have a credit card that allows foreign transactions, you'll have no problem paying for things. The only issue is credit cards have transaction fees, so you'll end up paying quite a hefty sum.
Luckily, now we have e-wallets and apps that make paying for things even easier. What's more, most countries now accept contactless payments if you don't wanna bring too much cash.
Here are four payment options you can consider when traveling:
1. MAE
We'll start off with something a little closer to home for Malaysians. MAE is an e-wallet issued by Maybank, and you can apply for a physical card of the MAE e-wallet through the MAE app, and it only costs RM8 a year.
What's great about the MAE card is that you can conveniently use it at any Point-of-Sales terminal that accepts Visa anywhere around the world with competitive exchange rates. This also applies to online shopping charges in a different currency.
You can apply for the card through the MAE app that you can download from the App Store and Google Play.
2. Wise
Wise is an international money transfer platform. The service makes it easy for you to send over money abroad to family, friends, or even make international payments. Additionally, Wise uses real exchange transfer rate instead of tourist exchange rates, which is usually more expensive.
The best part? There are no hidden fees on Wise, so you'll only be paying for the exchange rate fees when you make your international transfer or payment.
You can open an account here.
3. BigPay
BigPay is yet another free e-wallet app that comes with a physical card that you can use anywhere that accepts Mastercard and Visa. Not only that, it also tracks all your spending under one page so you don't have to dig through your bank statements.
Like Wise, BigPay is free to use. However, when you sign up you're going to need to put RM20 into your account. But it isn't a fee, you can use the money once your account is set up! There's also no annual or inactive fee.
You can apply for a BigPay account by downloading their app on the App Store or Google Play.
4. Touch 'n Go eWallet
We're sure every Malaysian knows what Touch 'n Go eWallet is, but did you know that you can use the app for international payments too?
Powered by Alipay+, Touch 'n Go is available in 10 countries and regions which are Mainland China, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy. However, you can only make transactions with merchants that provide the Alipay+ logo.
As for the currency exchange rate, they are provided from Alipay+ directly and are subject to change everyday.
You can apply for the Touch 'n Go eWallet by downloading their app on the App Store and Google Play.
