I have signed up for bigpay a few years ago. I was probably lured by its RM10 new referral code and thought there was no harm signing up for it anyway. Since I was also quite a frequent flyer (Before MCO and covid) with airasia, signing up with them allows me to get free processing fee, all at the cost of almost nothing.
Uses
- Bigpay claims that you can withdraw money from atm overseas. Usually, I won’t leave it to the last minute to exchange currency but I was rushing to fly to Bali from Malaysia in March 2020 (Right before MCO!) for a friend’s hen’s party and time wasn’t on my side. Without Indonesian rupiah, I plucked up the courage (half wondering if the bigpay card would be gobbled up by a foreign atm) and tried withdrawing some money from a random atm in Bali international airport. VOILA, it was successful and I must have saved myself from those airport money changer whose rates are known to be much more expensive (price of convenience).
- Sending money overseas. To name a few, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand etc. Bigpay has been offering a lot of promotions and I have decided to diversify my meagre savings into Singaporean market after taking into account the depreciating malaysian ringgit. It used to me 2:1 when I was 13 years old and my heart was already bleeding at that time while seeing momsy having to change MYR into SGD for some living expenses as a secondary school girl. Scholarship money at that time was 200 SGD per month and it was (even though unimaginable now when i come to think about it) more than sufficient for me with $2 hainanese chicken rice and the occasional swensen’s ice cream treat while food & lodging were entirely provided in a very majestic hostel. Btw, long story short, SGD:MYR is 1:3.21 as of now. So yeah, even if you don’t do anything with your SGD and leave it in the bank to rot, you can essentially get 1.5x appreciation if you have converted your monies to malaysian ringgit. Compared to a few other online platforms, I find Bigpay giving the best rates so far. Perhaps, they are trying to expand their markets by bleeding but as consumers, I honestly have no complaints with free transfer and good rates.
- Paying in foreign currencies. Courses, conferences and exams in medicine are expensive and every cents count when we live almost as B40. Besides begging my parents for money, I use Bigpay for registration fees paid in foreign currencies. They aren’t kidding when they proudly claim that they ‘almost’ offer the most competitive rates. It’s a shame that Malaysian credit cards charge insanely high amount of money on foreign transactions. The difference almost always come to a few hundred ringgits. The only downside is Bigpay is a debit card and one will need to top up his/her card prior to proceeding with the transaction. But, my advice is, do not spend money that you can’t pay back within a month. A credit card might give you 1-months leeway but if you can’t pay in full, interest rates >15% will come haunting you like loan sharks!
- Like other e-wallets aka Grab/TnG, Bigpay also allows you to send money to your loved ones or cough up the money which your friends have paid earlier over lunch/dinner.
Despite all these super useful hacks and offers that Bigpay is known for, there are still rooms for improvements when we compare it against other e-wallets.
- Bigpay need a wider market and an ecosystem. It’s nowhere comparable to Grab with food/mart/rides and a well established rewards system. Bigpay pales in comparison as it’s less widely adopted.
- One can only top up a maximum of 1000 RM for free via credit card per month. Anything more than 1k (with a maximum of 10k RM per month) will be charged at 1% if we were to opt for credit card top up. I believe that other wallets do not have such limitations.
All in all, I am very happy with BigPay especially with sending money overseas (mainly for investing in Syfe REITS). And hopefully, my 5% passive dividend income will be sufficient to insure me against old age and inflation.
Doctor on FIRE 