Uber starts accepting cash payments in Johor Bahru

Uber, the popular ride-sharing service on demand is testing out cash payments in Johor Bahru. Before this, Uber was running as a cashless service with your rides charged automatically thru credit or debit card. Is this a good move?

The beauty of Uber is the ease of getting on and off a ride. There’s no need to worry about small change so you can get from point A to B hassle free.

Prior to this, Uber has started accepting cash at selected markets where card payments have limited reach. According to them, there are many potential customers that couldn’t experience Uber as they lack any form of electronic payment. To make clean and safe rides more accessible, they are experimenting cash as an option. This is similar to Grab, which initially accepts only cash and eventually they have started accept card payments.

Johor Bahru is picked as the first city to roll out cash payments for Uber rides in Malaysia. If this is successful, they could introduce this to other cities in the country. Personally, I feel that automated card payments are the way to go. Not only it provides a seamless experience, but it is also more time efficient as the drivers would not need to make longer stops to look for change.

Furthermore, you won’t want to get into the same taxi experience where the driver runs out of change for your freshly ATM-withdrawn RM100 note. For drivers, this could also pose a risk for carrying more cash at hand and possibly being caught by SPAD or taxi drivers. In terms of electronic payment accessibility, most ATM cards issued by local banks are already debit cards carrying either Mastercard or VISA.

The new payment feature is rolling out in stages and customers in JB should be getting the cash option gradually in the coming weeks. To pay by cash, make sure CASH is selected before you request for a ride. When the trip ends, just pay for the amount that’s displayed in the app. Is accepting cash a good move or would you prefer Uber to stay as a cashless system? In case you missed it, find out if Uber can replace car ownership in our 7 day Uber challenge.

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