Komsan Chiyadis
GrabFood delivery-partner, Thailand
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With GrabPay for Travel, we’re making it easier for Grab users to pay overseas
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April 8, 2026
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Regional
Traveling internationally today comes with high expectations of convenience. Stopping for a bite at a hawker stall? You want payment to be quick, secure, and cashless—just like at home.
Think about how you’d normally pay for things while traveling. At larger merchants, you can use your international debit or credit card. But it’s the smaller vendors like hawkers and streetside cafes and shops that make a travel experience truly unique, especially in Southeast Asia. And for cashless payments, they often only offer QR code, as they don’t have card payment terminals.
As a digitally savvy traveller, you can download a local wallet app at your destination, and top it up with a certain amount to spend while abroad. However, you’ll either have to top up the right amount each time you transact, or risk leaving an unused balance at the end of your trip.
We’re building GrabPay for Travel precisely to address this scenario.
The GrabPay for Travel roll out
With the new GrabPay for Travel payment feature, we’re making it easier for you to scan and pay across multiple Southeast Asian countries, even at small merchants, simply with your existing credit card and your GrabWallet.
It will be rolled out in the Philippines and Malaysia by the third quarter of the year, and in Singapore and Thailand by the end of the year, while ensuring regulatory compliance and security as our top priorities.
How GrabPay for Travel works
Upon landing in a new country, you’ll receive a push notification, informing you about GrabPay for Travel as an easy option for QR Code payments at your destination.
Clicking this will guide you through a simple verification process. You add your home credit or debit card once to Grab and do a quick one-time verification.
Then, when you buy something at a shop or restaurant that offers payment via a local national QR code standard, just pull out your phone and scan the code with the Grab app, like you would do at home. There’s no manual wallet top-up needed, and you pay the exact amount. A convenience fee for the international transfer is shown upfront before you confirm, so there are no surprises.
Our ever-improving payment infrastructure is working for you in the background to make travel easier and smoother, and to bring our countries closer together.
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Komsan Chiyadis
GrabFood delivery-partner, Thailand
COVID-19 has dealt an unprecedented blow to the tourism industry, affecting the livelihoods of millions of workers. One of them was Komsan, an assistant chef in a luxury hotel based in the Srinakarin area.
As the number of tourists at the hotel plunged, he decided to sign up as a GrabFood delivery-partner to earn an alternative income. Soon after, the hotel ceased operations.
Komsan has viewed this change through an optimistic lens, calling it the perfect opportunity for him to embark on a fresh journey after his previous job. Aside from GrabFood deliveries, he now also picks up GrabExpress jobs. It can get tiring, having to shuttle between different locations, but Komsan finds it exciting. And mostly, he’s glad to get his income back on track.
