Ride-hailing app Grab and Citi have teamed up to issue a credit card in the region, starting in the Philippines. The co-branded card promises exclusive offers and rewarding features.
“Citi has been a long-term partner since 2016 and there is great synergy between both Citi and Grab. The Citi Grab credit card is a natural next step as we create more value for our users. With the Citi Grab credit card, cardholders will be introduced to a whole new level of access, value, and convenience. This will bring us one step further in realising our vision of becoming the leading everyday super app in SEA,” said Huey Tyng Ooi, managing director of GrabPay Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
“We are delighted that the Philippines will be the first market to launch the Citi Grab co-brand credit card. We are excited to work with Grab to offer the best value proposition to Grab’s all-digital consumer base,” said Manoj Varma, consumer bank head of Citi Philippines.
Citi and Grab’s first co-branded credit card will provide “significant and exclusive benefits.”
Catering to mobile-first and always-on consumers who continuously seek better offers, the Grab-Citi credit card promises cardholders:
- 10x points earning on all Grab spend – from getting a ride to getting deliveries.
- Platinum Tier upgrade for the first six months, giving cardholders priority booking benefits and dedicated customer support.
- 3x points on dining, entertainment and online subscriptions, while all other spend will earn 1 point for every P30 spend.
- 12 free Grab rides upon sign up equivalent to P2,500 worth of GrabPay Credits upon spending the first P10,000 within 60 days of using the card. Cardholders can also get free Grab vouchers worth P2,000 when they use the card to top up their GrabPay Wallet with at least P1,000 pesos. Membership fees for principal and supplementary cards are also waived for the first year.
- Greater convenience by going cashless, when using Citi points to pay for Grab services.
The partnership expands an ongoing collaboration between Citi’s consumer banking business and Grab that dates back to 2016. Citi has participated in Grab’s financing round through Citi Ventures, the bank’s venture capitalist arm.
In 2016, Citi and Grab announced their first partnership across six markets in Southeast Asia. In what as a regional-first, the partnership enabled Citi cardholders to use their earned points and miles to pay for rides on the Grab platform.
Since then, the partners have systematically widened the scope of their cooperation to include all of Grab’s services. This includes incentives for topping up the GrabPay wallet, to gifts and cash back benefits for spending on Grab services.
The new Citi Grab co-brand credit card allows both companies to benefit from each other’s respective strengths. Grab will be able to offer its users credit card benefits and rewards and extend its offering to Citi’s affluent cardholder base in the region. Citi will be able to scale its business through Grab’s unique mobile-first user base.
“We believe that the way moving forward is to harness the benefits of the digital economy, and as such, Grab will always put prime importance to innovations in the spaces that it operates — be it transport, food delivery, parcel services, or payments. Partnering with the best companies in the region like Citi allows Grab, as an everyday super app, to offer more reliable, convenient, and rewarding services to its users,” Grab Philippines president Brian Cu said.
