Can you withdraw from a credit card for free via Touch ‘n Go eWallet? | Ask Us Anything #21

Welcome back to another episode of Ask Us Anything, where we gather your questions from the internet and answer them.

In today’s episode, we are going to find out if you can pay for fuel using BigPay, what happens if you top up your Touch ‘n Go eWallet with a credit card and then cash out, and how does satellite internet work?

Can you purchase fuel using BigPay eWallet?

One of the perks of using BigPay eWallet is that it comes with either a MasterCard or Visa-enabled prepaid card and supports contactless payment. Therefore, you can use it at any payment terminal that accepts Visa or MasterCard, worldwide.

As such, the answer to whether you can purchase fuel using BigPay eWallet is YES, via the prepaid card. Do note that, just like other credit and debit cards, there will be an RM200 pre-authorisation charge if you use the card at the pump terminal. The difference will be credited back to your account within three to four working days.

If you pay with the card over the counter, there will not be any additional charges.

Can you withdraw from a credit card for free via Touch ‘n Go Wallet?

Ahhhhh trying to cash out from your credit card is it?

For those who didn’t know, credit card holders can actually cash out using their approved credit limit. However, depending on the bank, they typically charge high fees of a minimum of RM15 or 5% of the total withdrawal amount. Moreover, you will be charged the highest annual interest rate that your bank can impose.

So going back to the question, YES, you can “transfer” the credit from your credit card to your bank account for free through Touch ‘n Go eWallet. This is done by topping up your Touch ‘n Go eWallet with your credit card and then transferring the fund to your local bank account via DuitNow.

But take note that there’s a monthly quota limit depending on the level of your Touch ‘n Go eWallet and verification status.

If you’re on the “Pro” level or have a maximum wallet size of RM5000, you are allowed to transfer up to RM2,000 a month with funds from your credit card. If you’re on the highest premium status with a wallet size of RM20,000, your max monthly transfer quota is RM5,000.

However, if you are using Touch ‘n Go Go+ investment product, take note that it is against their Terms & Conditions to invest via credit card funds from your eWallet and then cash out to a bank account. If you do this with Go+, you might risk having your Go+ account being limited, suspended, or terminated.

How does satellite internet work?

Satellite internet is an alternative option to get internet access and has been available since the mid-2000s. One of the benefits of satellite internet is availability. You see, fibre internet requires cables to connect your house to the internet infrastructure.

If you live in a rural area, depending on the distance from your location to the internet infrastructure, and the geography of your location, it may not be feasible to run the cables that far. Moreover, there are also people needing internet in the middle of the sea or up in the sky during a flight.

Satellite internet doesn’t rely on physical cables as it is wireless. As long as you’re within the satellite coverage footprint, all you need is a receiver antenna at your home which will connect to a modem. You can then connect a wireless router to get Wi-Fi.

However, one of the disadvantages of satellite internet is its latency with an average of 600 milliseconds. Fibre meanwhile has an average latency of just 10 milliseconds. Therefore, applications like online gaming and WhatsApp voice and video calls will be affected by this delay. But for web browsing and streaming videos, you will not notice much difference here.

In Malaysia, Connect Me by MEASAT provides satellite internet services with speeds up to 25Mbps starting at RM198/month for 60GB of quota.

MEASAT also has ConnectMe Now for unserved rural communities where they don’t require upfront payment or contract. They offer internet connectivity by setting up a Satellite site with a Wi-Fi hotspot for free and users can purchase prepaid vouchers which start from RM10 per GB or RM40 for 5GB.

Yes, this is relatively expensive when compared to fibre as it involves expensive satellites and there’s limited capacity.

In 2022, Malaysia launched MEASAT-3d which aims to enable faster satellite broadband service with speeds of up to 100Mbps and aims to connect 2 million unserved Malaysian communities residing in rural areas that lack access to 4G or fibre connectivity.