We Singaporean always complain about MRT breakdown but to be honest, our public transportation system is very effective if you compare with our neighboring countries like Malaysia or even Thailand! You will feel appreciate of our public transportation once you have a feel on it!
Though there is no so good news, where the SBS Transit and SMRT have just applied for fare increase where if approved, we’re looking at a 7% hike by year-end. Sad by the news, then worry not cause we are here to help you to find the way for you to save on your public transportation.
1. Ride the MRT Early (before 7:45AM)
Early bird eats the worm. If you wanna ride on cheaper trains then you need to take the MRT during the morning pre-peak hours. For those who ride during these hours, you will earn you $0.50 off your MRT fares. If your ride costs under $0.50, it’s free!
Not much of saving but if you add up, you will save a bunch. Say if you take for 30 days and you will be saving for $15, which is a few good meals in Singapore!
2. Try out the car-pooling apps like GrabHitch
You know taxis in Singapore is not cheap but how bout trying on car-pooling services (GrabHitch) instead? In case you didn’t know, it’s usually 40% to 50% cheaper than a regular Grab (or even GrabShare) ride. Compared with taxis/Grab, it’s so much cheaper but you will need to be prepared to spend a few hundred bucks per month.
3. Use the suitable credit card for public transport with SimplyGo or EZ-Reload
With the introduction of SimplyGo back in April 2019, now you can completely bypass the EZ-Link card, and use your credit card to pay for public transport. To utilize on this, you can use the best suited credit card to pay your public transport (most cashback or points)
There are 2 more popular credit cards for public transport with incredible rebates
A. Maybank Family & Friends Credit Card — 8% cash rebate on public transport
If compared with all the credit card, The Maybank Family & Friends card has the highest cash rebate of 8% for public transport rides. But of course, good things sure have it’s terms one. The terms for this rebate is that you need to spend $800 per month to earn it
If you think you can’t spend $800 then you can hit a minimum spend of $500 and you’ll still get a 5% rebate, which is also relatively good too. If you have spending that’s less than $500 then don’t bother as you only get 0.3%.
B. DBS Live Fresh Card — 5% cash back on all contactless payment
Our second recommendation card to use is DBS Live card where you can use with SimplyGo. The benefit of this is that it gives you 5% cash back on all contactless and mobile payments, including public transport expenses, but of course, you need to meet the $600 monthly minimum spend. Take note that the cashback is capped at $60 per month though ($20 on eligible online spend, S$20 on eligible Visa contactless spend and S$20 on all other spend).
4. Use the EZ-Link Rewards app
In case you didn’t know, you can actually earn EZ-Link Rewards though the rewards is not that attractive. In order for you to earn, basically what you need to do is to link your EZ-Link card to the EZ-Link Rewards app and earn 1 point for every $0.10 spent.
Wondering what are the rewards that you will be getting. You will get free Curry O from Old Chang Kee, Aglio Olio from Pastamania or Classic Kraftwich from, well, Kraftwich.
So there you have it. The 4 ways that you sure fire can help you to save when you take public transport. If you have more secrets on saving, we want to know!