How To: GoPay and QRIS
This was a huge discovery and I am so excited to share it with you all. When I looked for a guide on GoPay, unfortunately I could not find much, especially for people who do not use Indonesian bank accounts, so I decided to do a sort of guide for foreigners to use GoPay in Indo
Gojek is the normal ride-hailing application which people use in Indonesia (and Singapore too). However, do you know that you can use the other functions too? Many people use GoSend for parcels and of course, GoFood. The one that blew my mind was GoPay.
In a recent trip to Surabaya, I realised that many shops were accepting QRIS for payment. One scans a QR code and makes payment which links to your bank account in Indonesia. This was something I saw before which made me think it was only available to those holding Indonesian bank accounts. However, on the Gojek application, there is this feature where you can ‘top-up’ your account and I realised there was a button linking the user to an application called GoPay. Being curious, I downloaded the application.
Screenshot taken from Gojek’s page
How to sign up for GoPay?
Download the GoPay application from the App Store.
You will need your Gojek account - if you had linked it to your Singapore phone number, keep using that.
Sign in with your phone number, and they will send you a prompt that asks you to confirm if you want to get a verification number via SMS or WhatsApp.
Note: If you are in Indonesia, you will need to keep your Singapore sim card in the phone to receive the verification pin. Oddly enough, though I selected WhatsApp and tried around 5-6 times, the application did not send me a verification pin through WhatsApp, I only received it when I swapped out my Indonesia sim card back to the Singapore sim card.
Once you are done with the verification, you will be logged into the application.
You can now use GoPay, congrats!
How to top-up GoPay?
On the top of your screen you will see a button which you can use to top up your GoPay account. Think of it as a wallet, like DBS PayLah. You can either ask a friend who has an Indonesian bank account to help you top up - they can transfer to you via your phone number, or a Gojek driver whom you can pass cash to and they will be able to top up by scanning your QR code.
Other benefits of GoPay I found out later;
Many discounts when ordering food on Gojek.
Time saved!!! I am terrible at math and standing at counters and counting rupiah notes to pay really took up time. GoPay has saved me so many times.
You can use the GoPay app / Gojek app to top up your sim card under GoPulsa. Then you can choose the package you want to top up your sim card with and it is very seamless and quick, instead of needing to go to Indomaret/Alfamart to do top ups.
How to use QRIS?
Topping up your GoPay account will allow you to use QRIS. Your QR code is accessible by pressing on the ‘QRIS’ button. See picture below.
This will open the QRIS tab. You will be able to scan QR codes of others - friends, restaurants, anywhere you need to make a payment to. You can also open YOUR OWN QR code to receive payments from others.
Why QRIS?
QRIS is something used very widely all over Indonesia. Sometimes shops also have discounts for patrons who use QRIS to pay. Something I learnt in Jakarta is that some restaurants needed us to make downpayment when booking for a larger group and this often was settled through QRIS. Therefore having a GoPay account really helped.
Finally, here is something important to note
There is a limit of 2 million IDR that you can hold in GoPay, from my experience, as someone without an Indonesian bank account. You are also not allowed to send to another person’s phone number as you are considered not a verified user. To be a verified user, one must have an Indonesian identity card/driving license, what they call a KTP.
