Here are 2 alternatives to the Numberless Card

We will soon announce the end of Asia’s first numberless physical card – the GrabPay Card. It will officially discontinued on June 1, 2024.

A numberless card works like a regular credit or debit card, but your card details are not embossed on the surface. This is more secure because even if someone gets their hands on your card, they cannot access your information.

If you have been using the GrabPay card because you value the security of a physical, numberless card, I have found two alternatives for you.

PS: You can continue to earn GrabRewards points on all eligible online and in-store transactions domestically and internationally using your GrabPay card until May 31.

What is the advantage of a numberless physical card?

If you lose your card (which has happened to me four times), you really have nothing to worry about as there are no card details to be stolen or used. In the case of the GrabPay card, all your card details are safely stored in the Grab app.

Considering how many times my wife and I have lost our credit card, this is actually a pretty good perk. When we lose our cards, we usually don’t realize it until two days later and then have to go through the lengthy process of closing it, reapplying, and updating our new card details across all platforms.

We also need to check our transaction history to make sure no one made purchases while our cards were missing. With a numberless physical card, we wouldn’t have any of these problems.

If you are looking for a numberless physical card to use after the GrabPay card is discontinued, here are two alternatives.

Alternative 1: Trusted credit card

The Trust Card is a Visa credit card offered by Trust Bank (a digital bank).

Just like the GrabPay card, the physical card is numberless and all your details are stored securely in your Trust app. As an additional layer of security, the money in your Trust account is protected by Standard Chartered Bank with S$100,000 SDIC protection.

Side note: Get up to 3.00% pa interest on your savings with Trust+

I’ll get to the card-specific benefits in a moment, but I want to tell you about one amazing benefit of using Trust Bank – the high interest rate. Trust Bank offers an account called Trust+ that gives you 2.5% per annum interest on your savings while remaining completely liquid. All you need to do is make at least 5 card spends a month and be a member of the NTUC union. Simple.

If you leave S$100,000 in your Trust+ account, the interest rate increases to 3.0% per annum – almost the same as today’s fixed deposit and Treasury bill rates, and you don’t have to tie up your money. Here’s our Complete audit of the escrow account.

The story continues

Now I come to the advantages of the Trust Card itself.

ALSO READ: Could Trust+ be better than term deposits or Treasury bills?

Up to 21% savings on food and groceries at FairPrice Group

If you shop at FairPrice frequently (who doesn’t?), you probably know that as you spend, you can earn Link Points that can be used to offset the cost of your purchases.

When you pay for your groceries at FairPrice with your Trust Card, you will be rewarded with up to 21% savings via Linkpoints. For reference: 100 Linkpoints = 1 S$.

Here’s a breakdown of how you can save 21%:

For further details please visit the Trust Bank website at How to earn link points.

In addition, with the Trust Card you benefit from savings at numerous partner retailers.

• Save up to 20% on fuel at Caltex

• S$2 off at KFC (first 5,000 redemptions)

• S$2 discount at Starbucks (8,000 redemptions per month)

• S$5 off Foodpanda delivery (2,000 redemptions per month)

• Up to 50% off Vui Premium

• And a much more

If you sign up today, you can get a FairPrice e-voucher worth S$10.

Alternative 2: Hugo debit card

The Hugo card is offered by Hugosave. It’s another Visa card, but a debit card. Like the GrabPay Card and Trust Card, it’s a numberless physical card and your details are all stored in the Hugo app.

I was initially ambivalent about the Hugo Card as I had never heard of Hugosave and I don’t like investing my savings with companies I don’t know. But don’t worry, all your funds in your Hugo account are managed by DBS Bank – and it really doesn’t get any safer than that.

The Hugosave website does a very poor job of explaining what exactly they do. You could spend an hour looking through each page and still have no idea what they offer. But after doing a lot of research, I realized that it is actually an interesting and unique idea.

Invest small change automatically

And here’s the kicker: When you pay with your Hugosave debit card, your transactions are rounded up to the nearest dollar and any leftover change is automatically invested in a precious metal of your choice (gold, silver or platinum).

This is what it could look like:

You order a Teh-O Peng at the Hawker Centre: S$1.70 (rounded up to S$0.30)

So you pay S$2 instead of S$1.70 and the S$0.30 is automatically invested in gold.

That doesn’t sound like much, but if you make 5 transactions a day, 365 days a year, you could end up investing S$547.50.

5 transactions with 5 roundings of S$0.30 = S$1.50 per day

S$1.50 x 365 days = S$547.50 investment in one year

This way you can save without getting into trouble. Over time, your small investments can add up to a significant amount.

This “investment hack” isn’t really for me though, because if I wanted to invest in gold I would just buy it through my broker. But I think the Hugosave debit card is a great way for newbies to get used to consistent investing.

ALSO READ: Gold prices reach record high – How to invest in gold in Singapore (2024)

Should I switch to a numberless card?

If you’re like me and often lose your card or have concerns about security, there’s really no reason not to! Especially with the Trust Card offering such an attractive deal for anyone who shops at FairPrice (and that would be all of us).

Do you know someone who is looking for a card without a number? Share this article with them!

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Original article: RIP GrabPay Card (2019 – 2024): Here are 2 alternatives to the Numberless Card.

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