VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
🧐 Can you use an Indonesian e-wallet such as GoPay, OVO, Dana, or ShopeePay in Malaysia? In this video, I put the linked QR payment systems (QRIS from Indonesia and DuitNow from Malaysia) to the ultimate real-world test on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
I tried to pay for everything from street food to ice cream to durian using only my Indonesian GoPay e-wallet. The results were surprising—sometimes it worked perfectly, other times it failed completely. I discovered the crucial secret to knowing where it will work before you try to pay.
📌 What You’ll Learn in This Video:
✅ The Golden Rule: The ONE thing the QR code MUST say for GoPay to work.
✅ Merchant-Scan vs. You-Scan: Why it WON’T work at 7-Eleven, KK Mart, or any store that scans your phone.
✅ Real-World Tests: See me try GoPay at mamak stalls, restaurants, hotels, and even with a busker!
✅ Success & Failure Stories: From apam balik failures to successful cendol and roti canai payments.
✅ Practical Tips for travelers and digital payment users between Indonesia and Malaysia.
🔍 Key Finding: Yes, you CAN use GoPay in Malaysia, but only if the merchant’s QR code specifically shows the “DuitNow QR” logo. “Malaysia National QR” or bank-specific codes (like Maybank) will likely not work for cross-border payments.
📍 Locations Featured in Kuala Lumpur:
Chow Kit, Jalan Raja Bot, various street food stalls, Mixue, KK Mart, 7-Eleven, Vietnamese coffee shops, PuTu Bamboo World, roti canai shops, cendol stalls, Rose Indonesian Restaurant, and more!
🔍TOPICS:
Intro & The Big Question
First Test: Fried Banana Stall (FAIL)
Second Test: Apam Balik (FAIL)
Third Test: Mixue Ice Cream (SUCCESS!)
Why it failed at KK Mart & 7-Eleven
How to test WITHOUT spending money
Hotel & Coffee Shop Tests
The MOST Knowledgeable Merchant Explains It All
Pattern Discovered: The DuitNow QR Rule
Testing at a Cendol Stall & Indonesian Restaurant
Busker & Durian Seller Tests
Final Test: Ramly Burger
Conclusion & Key Takeaways
📱 E-Wallets & Systems Mentioned:
Indonesia: GoPay (Gojek), QRIS, OVO, Dana, ShopeePay
Malaysia: DuitNow QR, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Maybank QR
If you’re an Indonesian traveler in Malaysia (or a Malaysian curious about QRIS), this is the essential guide you need! Save this video for your trip.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Planet Doug, and I’m in the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. And in this video, I’m going to be answering a very important question for me and many other travelers. Can I use an Indonesian e-wallet in Malaysia? So, how well does QRIS, the Indonesian QR payment system, how well does it work when you take your e-wallet on your phone from Indonesia to Malaysia? What has happened here is that Malaysia and Indonesia have linked their QR code systems. So, the QR code payment network in Indonesia is called QRIS, Q-R-I-S. And the QR code payment network in Malaysia is called DuitNow. Now, I’m back in Malaysia and I still have my Indonesian e-wallet. I’m using GoPay, which is part of the Gojek super app, and I have about 200,000 rupiah still in my e-wallet. So, what I’m going to do this afternoon on this beautiful day in Kuala Lumpur is go to some of my favorite neighborhood places that I know accept Touch ‘n Go. I go there all the time and I use Touch ‘n Go to scan their QR code and pay them. But today, can I do the same thing using GoPay? And I assume if GoPay works perfectly, then you could do the same with all the other Indonesian e-wallets, Dana, OVO, ShopeePay, e-wallets like that.
So, this is my favorite fried snack stall right across the road from my hotel. And this QR code right here, this is the DuitNow QR code. And I have the GoPay e-wallet open. So I’m going to try to scan that code and see if it works. I am uh pisang goreng lima ringgit. So here we go. This is so exciting. So you hit the QRIS button down at the bottom and it opens a scanner and now we try for the very first time. Oh, look at that. Ah, excellent. So, it does say Malaysian ringgit. Amount in Malaysian ringgit says zero right now. And I just enter five, review payment. Has the name of the merchant there.
Oh, technical issue. Please retry to continue with your payment. Retry. And it says no, the payment won’t go through. So, first time is a failure. Just to make sure, let’s try Touch ‘n Go to make sure that my phone isn’t the problem. So, let’s open Touch ‘n Go.
And now here you can see it has ringgit up at the top, scan button at the bottom. And now we’ll scan the code.
Name of the merchant, top and bottom. You enter the amount in ringgit and hit next. Authenticate and it’s transferring money. So that worked. That worked. So Touch ‘n Go worked beautifully. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, first attempt didn’t work. And this is clearly Malaysia National QR. And yeah, it wouldn’t work. All right, let’s try somewhere else. I’m enjoying my fried bananas very much, by the way. These are so good. These are like fresh, fresh out of the oil. Perfectly cooked.
They’re not greasy at all. Really good bananas. Nicely battered. Perfect. Yeah, I couldn’t pay with my Indonesian e-wallet, but luckily I had Touch ‘n Go as a backup. So, I’m still paying for everything with only my smartphone. No cash required in the modern world. So, good.
This is where I am by the way. This is Chow Kit and I’m right on Jalan Raja Bot. My hotel is just over there. And I just I didn’t realize it until just now, but it’s Sunday today. So, it’s a bit of an unusual day in terms of what shops are open or closed. So, some of my regular places may or may not be open. But right down this alleyway, there’s an apam balik place, sort of like a sweet martabak, like a pancake. So, I’m going to go see if I can get another apam balik and pay for it with GoPay. Let’s go try it out.
It’s a very busy alleyway. There’s a local produce market right around the corner. And here’s the place where I get my apam balik. And I’m just going to get the the chocolate and kacang. Chocolate and peanut. So there’s the one that I ordered there. Number two. Chocolate and chocolate and peanut for eight ringgit.
Okay. Okay. So that one’s only for Maybank. He’s telling me this one is for Touch ‘n Go. This would be the DuitNow code. So, let’s try it with GoPay. Fingers crossed. Let’s exit all the way out. The scanning is very sensitive. I want to make sure I’m scanning the right one. Okay, here we go. So fast. So, eight ringgit. It looks good. Review payment. Technical issue won’t work. So now let’s go back to Touch ‘n Go.
Scan.
Okay. So this is working well. And here they add the decimal point. So I know I have to do 8.00. Confirm. Authenticate. And this is a speaker system.
Yeah. So it said lapan ringgit. So it announces the amount. There you go. All right. So GoPay failure number two. It won’t scan the Maybank code obviously and it won’t scan the DuitNow code either. So far yeah not working out. So I have my apam balik. Very, very delicious. But yeah, GoPay didn’t work there either. But there is another hello. There’s another shop up here. I’ve also used Touch ‘n Go there in the past. The Chinese ice cream place. I’m blanking on the name right now. Why? Oh, Mixue. So, there’s a Mixue shop right up ahead here. And I’m going to get an ice cream cone and they also accept e-wallet payments through DuitNow. And since it’s a big international chain, that would be a good place to test. It’s not a personal family business. It’s a big corporation. So, let’s try to buy ice cream and pay with GoPay and see what happens. There is my friendly neighborhood Mixiue. Ice cream and tea since 1997.
Might be a little bit busy today being a Sunday, but let’s go check it out. And one more GoPay test. Got my smartphone ready with both GoPay and Touch ‘n Go as my backup.
So, right there in front of me, you can see the DuitNow codes. One on the left and one on the right there.
And I’m hoping to get just a simple ice cream cone for two ringgit. Yeah, it’s pretty busy today. Lots of people inside.
So you can see here it says we prefer Touch ‘n Go e-wallet but other e-wallets and bank apps accept it. So any e-wallet any bank app can scan this DuitNow QR code but I guess they have a partnership with Touch ‘n Go. So they’re promoting Touch ‘n Go but you can use any e-wallet here or a banking app.
A Mixue ice cream. Just what? Satu. You want vanilla? Yeah. You want vanilla? No. Two ringgit. Try. So the same thing. It comes up as Mixue Chow Kit. I enter two ringgit, review payment.
And now Oh, so it’s now showing me the amount in rupiah. That’s interesting. Now I pay, authenticate and it works. There you go.
Thank you. So there you go. There is proof that it does work but not at so far anyway not at small local businesses. So I guess they the smaller places that I visited they haven’t activated the international side. So I paid two ringgit to Mixue Chow Kit and as I noted earlier it actually showed the amount in Indonesian rupiah as well. So that worked very well. Close that.
And now we can go down to transactions. There’s transaction history. And it shows that I paid two ringgit. Now comes a very interesting test because as I talked about earlier, when you use one of these e-wallets, whatever country you’re in, there are two different ways. Sometimes, as I’ve been doing this morning, you scan their QR code, right? You turn on your e-wallet, open the scanner, you see their sign with the QR code, and then you scan it. But the other way to do it is you show a QR code on your phone and they scan your code. So, I know from experience that KK Mart and 7-Eleven and 99 Speed Mart, those places here in Malaysia, they scan your code. So, I happen to be right outside of KK Mart. I’m going to go in and buy something and try to pay with GoPay and see if it works.
So to do it this way, what you do is you click on show code and then they will scan this code on my phone. So QR code. This one. Okay. Just try just try see.
So he looks doubtful that it’s going to work, but we’ll give it a try. See what would be this is GoPay Gojek? No more. Okay. It’s not there. Okay. So he has to pick one. So apparently yeah it won’t work. So Touch ‘n Go. And that was a pretty definitive failure because the store he was actually the supervisor. He had a uniform that said supervisor. So he was very conscientious, very helpful, and he took a picture of the screen he was looking at. And I didn’t realize this, but he had to pick what kind of e-wallet it was. He had a whole list of icons to choose from. And GoPay was not listed. Touch ‘n Go was listed, but not GoPay. I thought it was automatic, like they just scan the code and you see whether it works or not, but he has to pre-select. Anyway, it did not work. But to confirm that it isn’t a problem with my phone, Touch ‘n Go does work. But at KK Mart, you can’t use the GoPay Indonesian e-wallet. They don’t accept it. One more major test. I’m here at 7-Eleven and I use Touch ‘n Go at 7-Eleven all the time and this is another place where they scan your code. So, I’m going to try to do it with GoPay. I don’t have high hopes, but I have to test it to see how it works. Does it work? Two of my favorite things. Vanilla Coke and Mentos. Hello.
QR code. Try doesn’t work. Try this one. See if it works. No. No. No. Can you try? Just experiment. No. No. Nothing. Okay.
Touch ‘n Go. So, that was a pretty clear failure. The clerk even looked at the GoPay QR code and he just knew right away, nah, that one isn’t going to work. And then I switched to Touch ‘n Go and Touch ‘n Go worked. So I think it’s pretty definitive that any store where they scan your code, it won’t work. GoPay, any Indonesian e-wallet is not going to work in Malaysia when they scan your code. Continuing with my testing, I figured out that in order to find out whether GoPay works or not, I don’t actually have to buy anything. I thought I always had to complete the transaction to test it. But I don’t have enough money in my GoPay e-wallet anymore. It’s down to almost zero. So, I can’t actually buy that many things. So, what I’m going to do right now is just find as many QR codes, DuitNow QR codes as I can find, test it with GoPay, and I just put in one ringgit, and then I try to submit it. And if I get an error message at the very beginning, I know it doesn’t work. And this is my hotel right now, the Hotel Raja Bot, and they accept payments via e-wallet. So, they have a DuitNow QR code right at the desk. Works fine with Touch ‘n Go. I just tested it with GoPay. No. I can’t use GoPay to pay for my hotel room. This is my neighborhood Vietnam coffee place. And this will be interesting to test because they have three QR codes. I don’t normally see that anymore. Normally you see just the DuitNow, the one code to conquer them all, but they have Maybank, CIMB. That is the DuitNow code. And then they have a specific Touch ‘n Go QR code. So I’m going to use QRIS here, use my GoPay e-wallet and try to see whether I can scan the mall. So this is the one that should work. This is the DuitNow national QR code for Malaysia. So this is the one you usually want to look for. So here is the GoPay e-wallet. You can see I’ve got 90,000 rupiah. Let’s turn on the scanner. And now let’s scan the DuitNow code. So it gets me this far. But now I’ll just enter one ringgit as a test, review payment.
And this one worked. Okay, perfect. So, I know from experience that if I get this far and I just have to hit the pay button, the payment will go through. So, this classic DuitNow QR code absolutely works. So, that is great news ’cause this is a small local shop. And just for the sake of completeness, let’s also try the Maybank code.
So, I got this far with the Maybank code. I put in one ringgit, review. Okay, there you see because it’s connected with Maybank only, GoPay won’t work.
And now let’s test the Touch ‘n Go specific QR code and see what happens. And it says you’re not scanning a payment code. So, okay, that isn’t even a payment code. That is just a code to take you to the Touch ‘n Go website. So, that’s a internet link, not a payment code. Okay.
Anyway, so it does work with this DuitNow. So, that’s very good news. Right across the road from my Vietnam coffee, there is a Putu Bambu World outlet. And I see from across the road they have some kind of a QR code available.
Let’s see if it’s a DuitNow national QR code. Yeah, it does look good. So it does say DuitNow QR, Putu Bambu World. So let’s test this one with GoPay and see if it works. So here’s GoPay. Turn on the scanner. So far so good. So, we have a place to enter the payment amount. Let’s put in one ringgit as a test. Review payment. Awesome. Another success. So, it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’m starting to have more success. DuitNow QR code and scanning it with GoPay worked perfectly. This restaurant, the Hill Kashmir restaurant. It’s right across the road from the Crossroads Hotel. I stayed there in the past, so I had a few meals here at Cashmere. And they accept e-wallet payments, and they have a QR code at the front table. Let’s see if we can scan that code and if it works. So, they moved the QR code onto the wall here. And again, it’s actually it says Touch ‘n Go e-wallet and Malaysia National QR. So, let’s see whether GoPay will work with that one or not. So, there’s the scanner for GoPay. Let’s see if it works. So far so good. We’ve got the sign with the merchant. Put in one ringgit and no. So, I’m starting to see a pattern here where even though it says national QR, it doesn’t actually say DuitNow on this sign. So, I’m guessing that this is specific to Touch ‘n Go. That international e-wallet payments won’t be accepted even though it says Malaysia National. Maybe you have to look for DuitNow specifically. We’ll see if that holds true. Here’s another very local spot. I came here the other morning with my friend Daryl for a roti canai. And I know they accept e-wallet payments. So, I’m going to go in and test a GoPay.
Yeah. This one is for the international QR. Oh, it does use international. Yeah. Alipay Grab. Okay. Well, yeah. I’m going to test it. I use the for the local brand. Only the local will only see. Okay. This one I make for the business. So, maybe you can try first. Yeah. So, this is the Yeah. So, there’s their DuitNow QR. So, they do have the DuitNow logo. Yeah. I haven’t seen this before. It actually listed here. International payments now accepted. Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China. So, usually the China specially for Alipay, Alipay and I have Indonesia GoPay I think. So, I’m going to test it and see first. So, I have GoPay open and let’s scan the code. So far so good. There you get the name Hamdan Roti Canai. And if I put in just as a test, one ringgit, review payment. Yep, no problem. It converts it 4,000 Indonesian rupiah. Okay, perfect.
That was a fascinating example for me. He is the most knowledgeable store owner that I’ve come across when it comes to e-wallets and he was he understood everything perfectly and taught me a lot of interesting things where he does have the DuitNow national QR code and as he explained it to me the people from DuitNow came to his shop individually and said would you like to have the international connection with your QR code e-wallets scanning and he said yes. So you can see on that sign it says explicitly we accept cross-border payments from China, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and he said that all the other businesses in there they all said no that all their customers pay cash so they weren’t interested. But now that e-wallets are picking up and becoming more and more popular, what he does is he helps out his neighbor businesses where if they get a customer who the only way they can pay is via e-wallet, which is very common now, becoming more and more common, he lets them scan his code for his shop, pay him that way, and that roti canai shop owner, he gives cash to the other business owner, which is really, really quite fascinating when you think about it. Yeah. So, yeah, that worked out beautifully. GoPay. No problems at all. Just walking through a small street, I noticed this roadside food stall. And from across the road, I recognize QR codes. I’m like a hawk. I can spot them from a mile away now. So, I’m going to go test these QR codes. See if they work. I think so. The one on the right looks like it has the same sign as the roti canai place with all the international logos. Let’s go give it a try. So, he has two of them here. One on this side says Malaysia National QR. DuitNow QR. Same over here. And then it has a bunch of logos on the side including ShopeePay but again I don’t know if that means this is like international or not. Feels like you almost have to test it yourself to find out. So here is GoPay. Let’s open the scanner.
Scan the code. So we got that far. There’s the name of the business. Do a test payment. Cross our fingers. Yep. And that one worked as well. So, this one worked absolutely fine. And I think the key is as I said, I’m picking up on the pattern that if it actually specifies DuitNow QR, then it will work with an international e-wallet like GoPay.
So, with my hawklike QR code vision, I spotted another one right across the road there. They’re actually extremely common in Kuala Lumpur and I find in Malaysia in general, even if they don’t have a QR code on display, they can usually produce one for you. So, it’s very, very widespread.
So, this is another one has DuitNow QR. So, let’s try that with GoPay. Here’s GoPay. Let’s open the QRIS scanner. Give it a try. So far, so good. There’s the name of the shop. Tried to pay them one ringgit. Yep, works perfectly. And again, you get the exchange rate. It tells you the exchange rate here. And then it tells you the amount in rupiah down at the bottom and the amount in ringgit at the top. But that’s straight. Okay. Here’s another place I wanted to test largely because it’s so classically Malaysian. A cendol place. A mamak place it’s called right here in my neighborhood. And I know they have e-wallet capability. Let’s see if it extends to GoPay. So, here they have the QR code from Maybank, but it does say DuitNow. DuitNow QR. Malaysia National QR. So, let’s open up GoPay. Turn on the scanner and cross our fingers. Yep. So far so good. Enter one ringgit as a test. Let’s see what happens. There you go. So, that one works too. Perfect. There you go. If you’re in Kuala Lumpur and you have a hankering for some cendol, GoPay has got you covered here. And of course, Touch ‘n Go. Any banking app that you’re using from Malaysia, they can all be used here. But in this video, I’m more concerned about GoPay from Indonesia. And here for a cendol works fine. Another very apropos test. This is the Restoran Rose. I’ve eaten here a couple of times. It’s a great place. Indonesian restaurant here in Malaysia. So, let’s go in and scan their code and see whether an Indonesian restaurant is set up to accept an Indonesian e-wallet. Okay, so here they have the DuitNow QR code. I haven’t seen it with this color scheme before. I’m usually looking for the red, but everything looks good there. So, let’s see whether it works with GoPay. There’s GoPay. Open the scanner. And let’s scan again. So far so good. Test payment of one ringgit.
There you go. Absolutely fine. So, everything works well here as well.
And since I’m here, I think I’m going to get my breakfast and my lunch. Do they have eggplant? This is one of my favorites right here. This is one of my favorites. So, we’re off to a good start. Oh, and we got eggplant up there. So, we’re good to go. And since this is also serving as my breakfast, let’s get some egg as well. There we are. There we have my meal. I’ll probably pay for it with Touch ‘n Go because I don’t have much money in my GoPay account. But yeah, if I had tons of money in GoPay, I could pay for it easily with my Indonesian e-wallet, an Indonesian dish, Indonesian lunch in Malaysia. So, here’s an interesting example. A busker and he has a QR code for donations and I’m curious whether it works with GoPay or not. So, let’s turn on the scanner. There’s the code
for that one. Okay, it scanned it
and let’s see if it will actually work. No. So, that one. Yeah. So, that one doesn’t have DuitNow. It just has Malaysia National QR. So, that does seem to be the pattern. It has to have yeah, has to say DuitNow QR code, I think. But just to double check, let’s scan with a Touch ‘n Go. Ah, finally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, there we have it. there and we can enter an amount.
Authenticate and it goes through. Okay, cool. Thank you. You’re welcome.
Two for one test. Tested an Indonesian restaurant. GoPay works for that. Indonesian busker working here in Malaysia. He did have the QR code, but that only worked with Touch ‘n Go. With that one, again, as I said, it didn’t actually specify DuitNow QR. That seems to be the key to this whole using GoPay in Malaysia thing. Another quintessentially Malaysian product, durian. I think this is durian season right now. Durian high season, maybe. But they also have a QR code on display here. But as I’ve said a number of times here in Malaysia, these QR code payment systems are very, very widespread. So even a tiny shop at the side of the road like this selling durian will have it. But let’s see whether it works with GoPay. There’s the DuitNow QR code. And as you can see, this one has DuitNow listed. That logo looks almost like an upside down teardrop. So, let’s open up GoPay. Scan it.
Turn around just to have the durian in the video. See if one ringgit will go through. And there it goes. So, that works absolutely fine. You can use GoPay from Indonesia to buy Malaysian durian. I didn’t plan it this way, but we just went by durian and now we’re seeing another classic Malaysian dish, the very famous Ramly burger. So, this is my friendly neighborhood Ramly stall. They make a really good burger here. The biasa chicken burger or beef burger. It’s five ringgit. Biasa meaning, you know, just ordinary. But yeah, it’s a nice big filling burger for five ringgit. And they accept e-wallet payments up there. And it doesn’t look like their QR code has the DuitNow logo. So if the pattern is correct that I’m seeing this will not work with GoPay. This one being Maybank also will not work. But in the interest of being thorough, let us test it. There’s GoPay. Hit the QRIS button to open the scanner. And now let’s scan this Touch ‘n Go code right here. Scans it no problem. So, it can read the code and it has the name of the merchant. But let’s do a test payment. Whoop! One ringgit test.
No. Okay. I think we can take that as confirmation that you have to see DuitNow and the DuitNow QR code logo in order for you to use GoPay. And let’s just test a Maybank as well, just in the interest of being thorough. And again, it can scan the Maybank code, no problem. But I’ll bet I can’t process a payment. No, can’t do that either. So, if you want a classic Ramly burger from this place, Touch ‘n Go or cash or the Maybank e-wallet app, something like that. But GoPay will not get you a Ramly burger here. But I’ll bet you could use it at other Ramly Burger outlets. Just make sure that their QR code has DuitNow listed and that will increase your chances. But I think you should always have cash as a backup. Here we are right back at the same spot where the video started. That seemed appropriate. And yeah, that actually went much better than I expected. It started off a bit shaky where GoPay wasn’t working at a lot of places and in particular. It won’t work if the merchant has to scan your QR code. So 7-Eleven, 99 Speedmart, KK Mart, any even Starbucks, I believe, though I didn’t test Starbucks, but they also scan your code. So, I think anywhere where they scan your QR code, GoPay won’t work, but in a lot of other places, it will work. So, as I said, it actually worked out much better than I expected. The other big takeaway is that to use GoPay with confidence, you need to look for the QR code that specifically says DuitNow QR and it has the DuitNow logo. If it has that on the sign, chances are GoPay will work. They will have the international connection to process cross-border payment. What is my conclusion after this big experiment? Well, my conclusion is that GoPay works much better than I expected. And I’m assuming you could also use other Indonesian e-wallets such as Dana and OVO, e-wallets like that. But of course, if you know you’re going to be in Malaysia for a long period of time, I think you’re better off just getting the Touch ‘n Go e-wallet, the Malaysian e-wallet, ’cause you know that can be used everywhere. So, you’re covered. But let’s say you were traveling through Indonesia and you got the GoPay e-wallet and you happened to leave the country and you forgot you still had 500,000 rupiah in your GoPay e-wallet. Well, all is not lost. If your travels take you to Singapore, to Malaysia, to Thailand, chances are you can still use your GoPay e-wallet and you can spend that money here in Kuala Lumpur, in Singapore, probably in Thailand, in all these other countries where their QR code systems are linked. So basically, can you use GoPay in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia? The answer is yes. Absolutely you can. And it works surprisingly well.