Careem Pay Rewards: My Daily Driver

The Accidental Discovery

I'll be honest: I downloaded the Careem app purely for taxi rides. It was late 2022, and I'd just moved to a new apartment in Al Nahda that wasn't well-served by the Metro. Getting to work required either a 25-minute bus connection or a 12-minute Careem ride.

For the first few months, I barely noticed the "Pay" feature in the app. Then one day, I saw a banner offering 10% cashback at Lulu Hypermarket. My weekly grocery run was already planned for that evening, so I thought: why not try it?

That 47 AED cashback on a 470 AED grocery bill was the beginning of what became a minor obsession with optimizing my Careem Pay usage.

How Careem Pay Actually Works

For those unfamiliar, Careem Pay is essentially a digital wallet. You load money from your bank account or credit card, then use it to pay at thousands of merchants across the UAE. The app generates a QR code that merchants scan, or you can tap to pay at compatible terminals.

The reward structure is straightforward: you earn cashback on transactions, with rates varying by merchant category and current promotions. Unlike points-based systems that require complicated redemption, cashback lands directly in your wallet as spendable money.

My Monthly Numbers

I've been tracking my Careem Pay cashback since March 2023. Here's a typical month from my records:

May 2025 spending breakdown:

• Groceries (4 trips to Lulu): 1,840 AED spent, 147 AED cashback (8% promotional rate)
• Dining out (8 transactions): 720 AED spent, 43 AED cashback
• Fuel: 380 AED spent, 7.60 AED cashback
• Careem rides: 340 AED spent, 34 AED in ride credits
• Miscellaneous retail: 450 AED spent, 9 AED cashback

Total May spending through Careem Pay: 3,730 AED
Total rewards: 240.60 AED (6.4% effective return)

Compare that to my Emirates NBD card, which would have earned maybe 3,700 points worth approximately 37 AED. The difference is substantial.

The Tricks That Actually Work

1. Timing Your Grocery Runs

Careem runs rotating promotions, often tied to specific days of the week. I've noticed that grocery cashback rates tend to peak on Wednesdays and Thursdays - possibly because weekends are naturally busy anyway. By shifting my shopping from Saturday to Thursday evening, I've consistently caught 8-10% rates instead of the base 5%.

2. The Top-Up Strategy

Here's something non-obvious: if you top up your Careem wallet using a cashback credit card, you essentially double-dip. My Emirates NBD World Elite gives 1 point per AED on "wallet top-ups" (classified as financial services). So when I load 1,000 AED to Careem, I get 1,000 Smiles points PLUS whatever cashback Careem gives me when I spend it.

Just make sure your card codes wallet top-ups as qualifying transactions - some banks have started excluding these.

3. Restaurant Partner Hunting

The app has a "Partner Restaurants" section that I check before deciding where to eat. The difference between 3% at a random restaurant versus 15% at a featured partner is meaningful when you're dropping 300 AED on dinner.

My family has discovered some genuinely good places this way - there's a Pakistani restaurant in Karama that we never would have found otherwise, and they've been on the 12% cashback list for months now.

Where Careem Pay Falls Short

It's not all perfect. Here are the genuine frustrations:

Acceptance Gaps

Plenty of merchants still don't accept Careem Pay. The high-end malls (Dubai Mall, MOE) have pretty good coverage, but smaller shops and some restaurant chains haven't adopted it. I've been caught a few times with insufficient "real" cash because I'd loaded everything into Careem.

The Cashback Cap

Most promotional rates have monthly caps that aren't always clearly displayed. I once thought I was getting 10% on groceries all month, only to realize the cap was 100 AED. After that, it dropped to the base rate. Now I always check the fine print, but Careem could make this more transparent.

Withdrawal Limitations

Money in Careem Pay doesn't just sit there earning interest - and withdrawing it back to your bank takes 1-2 business days with occasional fees. I've learned to only load what I'll actually spend in the next couple of weeks.

"Careem Pay works best when you treat it as spending money, not savings. Load it, spend it, enjoy the cashback. Don't let large balances sit idle."

Comparison with Apple Pay and Samsung Pay

A question I get asked: why not just use Apple Pay with a cashback credit card?

The answer is category-specific rewards. Apple Pay will give you whatever your card's base rate is - usually 1-2% for most UAE cards. Careem Pay's grocery rates of 5-10% simply aren't matchable with traditional credit cards unless you have a very specific grocery-focused card (which I haven't found in the UAE market).

For non-grocery spending where Careem doesn't have elevated rates, I do use Apple Pay with my best cashback card. It's about using the right tool for each purchase.

The Ride Credit Ecosystem

One underappreciated aspect: Careem Pay earnings can be used directly for Careem rides. This creates a nice loop where grocery cashback funds my transportation.

In practice, I've found that my monthly Careem Pay cashback covers about 60-70% of my ride costs. The remaining 30-40% comes from ride-specific credits earned on the rides themselves.

Who Should Use Careem Pay?

Based on my experience, Careem Pay makes the most sense for:

• Heavy grocery shoppers (families will see the biggest absolute returns)
• People who eat out frequently and are willing to choose restaurants based on cashback
• Regular Careem ride users (the ecosystem benefits compound)
• Anyone frustrated with complicated points programs who just wants straightforward cash back

It makes less sense for:

• People who rarely shop at major supermarkets (the small corner baqala usually doesn't accept it)
• Anyone uncomfortable with digital-only payments
• Heavy online shoppers (Careem Pay doesn't work for e-commerce - for that, see my Noon VIP article)