EZ-Link, Touch 'n Go to launch Singdollar-ringgit Combi Card soon

It will soon be more convenient for Singapore travellers to pay for road tolls and parking across the Causeway.

Local travel card issuer EZ-Link and Malaysia's Touch 'n Go announced yesterday that they are planning to introduce a Combi Card in the fourth quarter of this year that will allow users to pay in Singapore dollars and Malaysian ringgit.

This dual-currency card can be used both in Singapore and Malaysia. For a start, users can use it to pay Electronic Road Pricing charges in Singapore, highway tolls in Malaysia and parking in either country.

There are plans to expand the card's use in future, such as making payments for shopping and dining in Singapore and Malaysia. The card will store Singapore dollars and ringgit separately.

This means that if the card's Singapore dollar balance is zero, users cannot use the ringgit stored value to make Singapore dollar payments. Users will have to top up the card with Singapore dollars, and the converse applies as well. How card top-ups can be done and other details will be announced later.

The cross-border Combi Card announcement came after it was cited in the joint statement by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad following their Leaders' Retreat in Putrajaya yesterday. Both leaders welcomed the good progress made by the two companies to launch the Combi Card.

"A first in South East Asia, the Combi Card will securely host both electronic wallets from EZ-Link and Touch 'n Go," said the joint statement by both companies yesterday.

EZ-Link Chief Executive Nicholas Lee described the card as a milestone in EZ-Link's efforts to continuously innovate to transform people's lives with technology.

Touch 'n Go Chief Executive Syahrunizam Tan Sri Samsudin said, "This synergy between Touch 'n Go and EZ-Link to create a dual-currency cross-border Combi Card will undoubtedly make daily transactions fuss-free for Malaysian and Singaporean consumers with faster, simpler and more secure payment options."

Yesterday's announcement followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between EZ-Link and Touch 'n Go on 30 July 2017. To date, EZ-Link has issued about 30 million Cepas EZ-Link cards in Singapore, and Touch 'n Go has more than 23 million active Touch 'n Go cards in circulation in Malaysia.