E-wallets are nothing new to Malaysians considering we have a boatload of them on the app store. In May, Boost was made a payment option at over 800 Shell station nationwide.
Last November, Setel entered the app store as Malaysia’s 1st petrol e-payment solution. Wholly-owned by Petronas, it can already be used at 274 of its stations.
It aims to offer users convenient petrol transactions since you’re able to link your credit, debit and Mesra cards to the app.
Setting Up Setel
Recently, I’ve been noticing Setel pamphlets around the Petronas pumps. There are 2 stations close to my home and 2 stations near work which are about 5 minutes away, so Petronas stations are my go-to.
Because of that, I thought to give Setel a try despite having a Grab driver tell me that he didn’t like it.
Downloading and setting up the app was quite straightforward. The last step was for me to deposit some funds into the app.
I opted for the RM40 option and just topped it up with my debit card. Its details can be saved in the app for future transactions.
If you sign up with a referral code and perform your first Setel-assisted fuel up with a minimum of RM30, you get RM5 deposited into your account for your next fuel up.
Unfortunately, you can only redeem this reward once.
Fueling Good
Ready to try out Setel, I drove to my nearby Petronas with my tank at just 2 bars. I usually fuel up when I have 2 bars left to prevent wasting time at stations in case of emergencies.
I saw that pump 7 was empty so I took the spot and selected pump 7 on the app. It then synced with the pump, which took about 20 seconds before the screen prompted me to start fuelling up.
Once I was done with refuelling, my receipt showed up in the app and I was able to click on it for expanded details.
It Does What It Says
If you’re already used to the usual process of fueling up, you might wonder what advantages Setel offers to you at the moment in terms of payment convenience.
Setel claims that by using the app you needn’t queue up in hot weather or leave your furkids or kids in the car to pay at the counter.
I would say a proper advantage of using Setel would be that you no longer have to fumble with your cards and PIN at the self-service pumps since you can link them to the app.
Those who are subjected to an RM200 pre-authorisation hold by their banks whenever they pay by debit or credit card at Petronas’ self-service pumps may also find Setel an alternative to avoiding that, besides queuing up.
Another benefit of Setel would be the decrease in paper wastage since users will receive their detailed receipts in the app and can easily track their petrol expenditure.
This is great since we all know a friend or family member who has mountains of crumpled up petrol receipts in their car.
My Verdict
Since I use my credit card to pay for my petrol, I can get some returns in money through cash-back from my transactions.
While Setel does offer 10% fuel cashback, it’s only applicable to new users who pump RM90 worth of petrol in 3 fuel transactions within 30 days of registering.
If Setel started offering cash-back or monetary incentives regularly, then I might be convinced to fully switch my payment methods at Petronas.
My colleague personally enjoys using Setel because he can share his account with his wife, therefore enabling them to use the same linked credit and Mesra card at Petronas when they’re apart.
As an e-payment app simply for fuelling up at Petronas stations, I would definitely say that it serves its purpose in providing payment convenience pretty well.
