> Quick view: Pay with the Setel QR on a single grocery bill of RM100 or more at Mydin, AEON BiG or Lotus's self-checkout, and RM6.90 drops into your Setel Wallet. Runs 15 August to 30 September 2026. One redemption per account, 5,910 nationwide, first-come first-served — and DuitNow QR does not count.

What the campaign actually is

Most people know Setel as the app that lets you pay for petrol without leaving the car — it is PETRONAS's own payment and Mesra Rewards app. The Groceries Galore Merdeka Special is Setel using Merdeka month to push that same QR payment into the grocery aisle, where it competes with the e-wallets people already have open at checkout.

The mechanic is refreshingly plain. One qualifying transaction of RM100 or more, paid using Setel's QR at a participating grocer, returns RM6.90 cashback directly into your Setel Wallet. The RM6.90 is a Merdeka-69 pun rather than a percentage, which means the effective rate falls the more you spend: 6.9% on a RM100 basket, 3.45% on RM200, 1.7% on RM400.

The three ways to pay that qualify

The terms are specific about what "paid with Setel" means. Any one of these counts:

  • The cashier scans your Setel QR code generated in the Setel app.
  • You scan the outlet's static Setel QR code displayed in-store.
  • At a self-checkout kiosk, you select 'E-Wallet' as the payment method and either present your Setel QR to be scanned or scan the kiosk's Setel QR.

And one very common method that does not count: DuitNow QR. This is the trap most likely to cost readers the cashback, because the Setel app can pay via DuitNow QR, and at a supermarket counter the DuitNow sticker is usually the one facing you. Scanning that code inside the Setel app still moves your money, but it travels on the DuitNow rail, not Setel's, and the campaign explicitly excludes it.

Where it works — and the Lotus's asterisk

Three grocers are in, nationwide:

| Merchant | Where it qualifies | |---|---| | Mydin | In-store | | AEON BiG | In-store | | Lotus's | In-store self-checkout counters ONLY |

Note AEON BiG, not AEON. They are separate store formats under the same parent, and the campaign artwork carries the AEON BiG logo specifically.

The Lotus's restriction is the one to plan around. Queue at a normal manned lane, pay perfectly with Setel, and you still get nothing — the terms limit Lotus's to self-checkout counters, and one of the worked scenarios Setel publishes exists purely to make that point. If your nearest Lotus's has a small self-checkout bank that closes early, or you shop a trolley too big for the kiosk's bagging area, Mydin or AEON BiG is the safer venue for this particular run.

Worked examples

Fits neatly: a RM118 monthly stock-up at AEON BiG, cashier scans your Setel code. You clear the RM100 threshold in one receipt and RM6.90 is credited automatically — a 5.8% return on that bill.

Misses by splitting: RM60 at AEON BiG and RM50 at Mydin on the same day, both on Setel QR. Total RM110, cashback nothing. The threshold is per single transaction, not per day and not cumulative across stores.

Misses on the counter: RM150 at Lotus's at a regular cashier lane. No cashback, because Lotus's qualifies at self-checkout only.

Misses on the rail: RM120 at Mydin paid by scanning a DuitNow QR code through the Setel app. No cashback.

Second attempt, no second payout: an eligible RM100 run at Mydin on 20 August pays out; another RM100 at AEON BiG on 25 August does not. One redemption per user ID for the whole campaign.

The fine print that decides who actually gets paid

  • One redemption per user, full stop. Not per month, not per merchant — one per Setel account across the entire 15 August–30 September window.
  • A hard national cap of 5,910 redemptions, total budget RM40,781, awarded first-come first-served. That is a small pool for a nationwide campaign, and Setel's own scenarios describe it being exhausted before the end date. Treat late September as unreliable.
  • Eligibility is described as "selected existing Setel users" aged 16 and above who are Malaysian citizens. New sign-ups and non-selected accounts are not promised the cashback, so check whether the campaign banner appears in your own app before you build a shop around it.
  • Cashback has no expiry once credited, and can be spent on any Setel-supported product or service — fuel, parking, bills, Mesra items — so it is genuinely usable money, not a coupon with a two-week fuse.
  • Family Wallet users: the cashback goes to whoever executed the transaction, not to the wallet owner.
  • Setel reserves the right to shorten, suspend or amend the campaign with prior notice.

Who should bother, and who should skip

Worth doing if you already have Setel installed for petrol and a RM100+ grocery run is on your list anyway. The effort is one extra tap at checkout, the payout is real cash in the wallet, and RM6.90 is roughly a litre and a half of RON95 — a fair return for changing which QR you scan once.

Skip it if chasing it would change where or how you shop. Driving to a further Mydin, or padding a RM70 basket to RM100 to qualify, costs more than RM6.90. And with one redemption per account and 5,910 nationwide, this is not a stackable routine — it is a single, one-time top-up.

How this sits against the rest of Merdeka month

Grocery promotions this month are mostly of the price-cut variety — Lotus's LesGo Lokal, AEON BiG's fortnightly cycles, Mydin's purchase-with-purchase gifts. This one is different in kind: it does not discount anything on the shelf, it pays you for switching payment rail. That means it stacks cleanly on top of whatever in-store promotion you were already buying into, because nothing in Setel's terms excludes discounted goods. The RM100 threshold is measured on what you actually pay at the till.

Further reading

All mechanics, dates, merchant restrictions and caps above were read on 18 August 2026 from Setel's official campaign page and the campaign's own Terms & Conditions document published at setel.com. Confirm the offer is live in your app before relying on it — the reward pool is capped and first-come, first-served.

*Image: Setel*