In the hope of becoming the world’s first smart
nation, Singapore is giving great impetus to digital payments. We
compared the features and user experience of several payment apps in Singapore.
We picked out 5 top apps of different kinds. DBS Paylah and Singtel Dash tops
in prepaid wallet (to purchase, user needs to top up money to the e-wallet
first). NetsPay and OCBC Pay Anyone are the best “pay from connected bank
account” kind of apps. Youtrip is a rising star of overseas payment and
currency exchange. In this article, we
will introduce the 5 recommended payment apps.
NetsPay
NetsPay screen
NetsPay focused on
micropayments. Users can add DBS
Bank/POSB, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank or UOB cards to
NetsPay. NetsPay users can scan QR code to pay, pay on Nets terminals and make
in-app payments. User can add up to 10 bank cards to NetsPay account; credit
cards are not supported.
In September 2018, NetsPay co-operated
with UnionPay. This enables NetsPay users to make cross-border payments at over
7.5 million UnionPay QR code merchants. The acceptance points are distributed in
Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. Users can
also use the near-field communication (NFC) enabled smartphones to make
payments. Ther are 12 million UnionPay QuickPass contactless acceptance points.
DBS Paylah!
DBS Paylah!
screen
Users can make online payments as well as offline payments, send
money to friends and request money from friends. Users can sign up with
DBS/POSB bank ID directly. The mobile wallet has a daily transaction limit of S$999. DBS Paylah! partners with some big merchants
in Singapore, such as Qoo10.sg, Courts and MSIG TravellerShield.
Like NetsPay, DBS Paylah! also cooperates with UnionPay
for overseas development. DBS Paylah! users can pay at 10 million UnionPay QR
code merchants in 24 countries. The countries include Australia, China,
Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the United States.
Singtel Dash
Singtel
Dash screen
Standard Chartered Bank and Singtel launched Singtel
Dash. Singtel is one of the largest telecommunications carriers in Singapore.
Users can scan pay, top up mobile, transfer money to their friends, pay Singtel
bills and make online payments through Singtel Dash.
Singtel launched Via in
October 2018. Via combines Singtel Dash with AIS Global Pay and Rabbit Line Pay.
Singtel users can therefore make payment in Thailand now. The exchange rate is
flexible and competitive.
OCBC Pay Anyone
OCBC Pay
Anyone screen
OCBC Pay Anyone is not a wallet, but a mobile payment app. Users
will need to link an OCBC online banking account, an OCBC savings or current
account to OCBC Pay Anyone. Users can scan the NETS QR or PayNow QR to pay merchants
and transfer funds to friends. OCBC Pay Anyone also allows the user to send
money directly to any bank account in Singapore. They just need to enter the
recipient’s mobile number. The daily transfer limit on OCBC Pay Anyone is S$1,000.
Youtrip
Youtrip
screen
Youtrip was launched in August
2018. Youtrip cooperated with Mastercard
and EZ-Link. Users can make in-app currency exchange 24/7 for 10 major
currencies (SGD, USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, HKD, NZD, SEK, AUD). Overseas
travallers can use Youtrip to make payments at merchants who accept Mastercard.
Cash withdrawal feature is also available in Youtrip.
Overall comparison of the 5 apps
Comparison table for
the top 5 payment apps
Note:
1. QR code
payment means the user can scan merchant QR code to pay or show payment QR code
to merchants to pay.
2. Request
payment means to ask for a certain amount of money from a friend.
3. In-app
payment means to pay online in the app.
4. Cross-border
payment means to make overseas payment using the local currencies.
The app will help exchange the currency accordingly.
5. Transfer
means to send funds to a friend. DBS Paylah! allows user to transfer money to
non-DBS/POSB users.
6. Auto
debit: funds will be deducted from your linked bank account automatically when your
wallet balance is insufficient.
7. Ang Bao
means “red packet”, i.e. to send money as a gift to a friend in specific
festivals.
8. Top up
means to transfer money to e-wallet from bank accounts
9. Promotion
means sales campaign. For example, to offer an S$5 coupon, etc.
10. Split bill
means to share the bill to a friend to split.
11. Withdrawal
means to cash out funds from e-wallet to bank account.
Major data for the
top 5 payment apps
Sources:
Strait Times (1, 2, 3), CNA, DBS (1, 2), OCBC (1, 2), Singtel, Tech
Crunch, Business
Insider
Onboarding table for the top 5 payment apps
Here is the registration flow for the apps:
Choose the most suitable payment app
None of the apps allows guest login. The onboarding flow for all
the 5 apps are rather complicated, but NetsPay flow is the simplest.
The 5 payment apps have their own advantages and disadvantages. Most
of the apps provide promotions to users as well as fund transfer among friends.
DBS Paylah! even allows users to send payment to non-DBS/POSB customers.
If you need to make cross-border remittance, Singtel Dash would be
the best choice. Singtel Dash supports overseas remittance to Philippines,
Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and China. It also allows users to top up and
check their EZ-link balance. Besides, users can pay for their daily commute on
trains and buses using Singtel Dash. This is convenient for daily life. Users
can also top up Singtel prepaid account in-app.
DBS Paylah! and Singtel Dash users need to top up their prepaid
wallets before purchasing. It can help control budget, but some users might
find the top up step troublesome. There is an auto-debit feature for DBS
Paylah! users. The money will transfer from linked bank account to DBS Paylah!
wallet automatically if there is insufficient balance in the wallet. With this
feature, there will never be a run-out-of-cash moment.
If you are travelling overseas to Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok, etc.,
Youtrip will be a good choice. Youtrip provides transactions in more than 150
currencies for 0 transaction fees. There is an in-app money exchanger service
for 10 currencies. You can make overseas payments at fair FX rate at any Master
card accepted points.
There are daily transaction limit and wallet balance limit for
each wallet (see above “Major data for the top 5 payment apps” table ). So the
mobile payment is currently suitable for micropayments only. Singapore users
would hope for a unified QR code with all the payment methods integrated. This
will facilitate the cash-less payment a lot.
The mobile payment
market in Singapore is becoming crowded. There are already 42 active mobile
payment players in this island country. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the Singapore Quick
Response Code (SGQR) in September 2018. SGQR is a unified QR code with 27
payment schemes integrated, which makes the QR code payment for both merchants
and users easier. With more and more mobile payment players joining the
battlefield, we can expect further consolidations in the future.