Nerfed: Amaze slashes cashback rates and caps, triples minimum spend

Amaze gets nerfed from 1 April with lower cashback and higher minimum spends. It's still the best option for overseas spending, but for how long?

The Amaze gravy train has been chugging along for a while now, but there’s signs that Instarem may be winding down the party soon.

From 1 April 2022, Amaze will be nerfing its cashback, and hard:

  • The earn rate for local transactions gets cut to 0.5%
  • The quarterly cashback cap gets cut to S$50
  • The minimum quarterly spend to earn cashback increases to S$1,500
  • The minimum transaction to earn cashback increases to S$10

Fortunately, the two main value propositions of Amaze — offline to online conversions and zero FCY fees — remain untouched. That said, the double dipping aspect will be a lot less lucrative going forward. 

Amaze changes from 1 April 2022

Updated T&Cs

Here’s a summary of how the Amaze will change from 1 April 2022. 

 Till 31 MarchFrom 1 April
Local Spend1%0.5%
FCY Spend1%1%
Min. Spend Per TrxnS$5S$10
Min. Spend Per QuarterS$500S$1,500
Quarterly Cashback CapS$100S$50

Yup, it’s pretty bad.

Foreign currency transactions will continue to earn 1% cashback as before, but the cashback rate on local currency transactions gets halved to 0.5%. 

Moreover, the hurdle conditions go up significantly. A minimum transaction size of S$5 is currently required to earn cashback; this doubles to S$10. A minimum overall spend of S$500 per quarter is currently required to earn cashback, this triples to S$1,500. 

And to top it off, the reward gets cut. The maximum cashback that can be earned per quarter will be halved from S$100 to S$50. 

Should you continue using Amaze?

In short, yes, because the two main use cases for Amaze remain untouched:

  1. Converting offline transactions into online ones, earning 4 mpd when paired with the DBS Woman’s World Card or Citi Rewards Card
  2. Converting overseas transactions into SGD at a fair rate with no FCY transaction fees

The combination of (1) and (2) means that Amaze remains hands down the best option to use whenever you’re overseas. 4 mpd with no FCY fees and 1% cashback is a formidable return, even if the cashback now has higher minimum spend requirements and a lower cap. 

So long as the banks are willing to offer rewards on Amaze transactions, any cashback earned from Amaze itself is simply the icing on top. And yes, there’s less icing now, but icing is still icing, if you know what I mean. 

Recap: Amaze benefits

Here’s a summary of how Amaze works and its key benefits, effective 1 April 2022. 

💳 tl;dr: Amaze card
Sign Up Here
  • Link up to five Mastercard credit/debit cards
  • Transactions on Amaze card are charged to the underlying credit/debit card in SGD, with no FCY or DCC fees
  • Transaction MCC remains the same
  • Earn 0.5-1% cashback on all transactions of at least S$10 (min. S$1,500 spend per quarter, capped at S$50 cashback per quarter), except exclusion categories
  • Offline transactions charged to Amaze become online transactions for the underlying credit/debit card

Conclusion

From 1 April 2022, Amaze will nerf its cashback programme by cutting the earn rate on local currency transactions, while tightening the minimum spend and cashback caps.

It definitely stings, but so long as banks keep funding the rewards, the Amaze remains hands down the best option to use for overseas spending (and some might argue local too, since the 0.5% cashback is pure profit). 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: enjoy Amaze while it lasts. It’s not yet time to abandon ship, but man, that iceberg keep growing bigger…

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Adam

I was using both Amaze and Revolut last week in Europe. The revolut rate is slightly (tiny tiny) better than the amaze. Both are great for travel purposes. During weekends, I will be using ICBC travel card though, as if the amaze card also mark up rate during weekends (not mentioned in T&C?)

Hollyday

Check your Amaze transaction emails vs your app closely, especially if you have big ticket transactions since mid March. The SGD amount in the email sent is lower than the SGD you’re eventually charged (shown in the app). Something must have changed (systems upgrade? provider change?) to have triggered this since mid March.

Jx123

Adam, is the revolut rate better then amaze rate based on the FX rate alone?

Did you include the 1%(or now 0.5%) cashback in that calculation?

kopi lim

Indeed Aaron, we continue to use it precisely because it converts offline spend to online.

It is surely a tad churlish to complain about 1% cashback (which is already measly and negligible considering how much most mile chasers chalk up on their CCs) dropping to 0.5% and whatnot when this is already such a big help.

bent

will definitely continue to use it regardless of cashback or not as purely converting all offline transactions to online and earning 4mpd is the biggest benefit. Dining at a restaurant? just hand the card over to the waiter isntead of walking to the terminal to paywave with UOB PPV. Offline monthly gym memberships? Charge it to the card for 4MPD. Best.

Endemic Pandemic

Walking to the terminal to paywave with UOB PPV only earns .4mpd. You need to use PPV via the wallet on your phone to get 4mpd. And of course PPV doesn’t work with Amaze as it is Visa and not MC.

Masked rider

Lol as if nobody already knew that.

LC T

Agreed, ever since got this card in end Sept, this card is totally changed my payment pattern, especially for those amount $5 and above.

bent

Plus I only keep one card in my wallet now, linked to DBS first, and then CRM if I exceed the $2k monthly limit. Heck the other cards. Of coz the downside if this is a merchant specific promo like Citibank 15% discount for dining at the restaurant, i will not enjoy it with Amaze. But usually i will just apple pay using the correct bank card and the restaurant will still honor the discount.

drakka66

Hi all in the community. I saw this updated term and conditions in UOB latest T&C: ” With effect from 1 March 2022, UNI$ will no longer be awarded for transactions with transaction

descriptions “TRANSIT*” and “AMAZE*”

Does anybody have any data point on UOB cards (PRVI, PPV)… that you still get UNI$ when you pay by Amaze, linked to a UOB card?

LCM

I have transactions in the last few days on PRVI and I got the 1.4 miles.

Kai

FFS. Wordings as follows:- With effect from 1 March 2022, UNI$ will no longer be awarded for transactions with transaction descriptions “TRANSIT*” and “AMAZE* TRANSIT*”.

NOT the same as what you’ve written. Geez.

Skeptical

My experience with FCY on Amaze is that it marks up about 0.8%. I honestly don’t think it’s free conversion.

Skeptical

I have GBP, EUR and CHF. I just went back to check a few of my transactions’ rates against xe.com (as specific to the minute as I can get), I find a mark up range of 0.5% to 0.8% actually, and don’t see a difference between weekdays and weekends. This is a period over last 2 weeks.

cheesecake

Amaze rate is identical to Mastercard rate. It is different (read: can be 0.01-0.03 higher) than xe.com

Also the Mastercard rate changes twice, at most thrice during the day if there’s significant volatility. It generally stays the same throughout the weekend, or at most one change.

I’ve been diligently monitoring almost every transaction since using Amaze. It took about 4 months to figure out the “trend”.

Jack

xe.com rate is different with Mastercard rate.
Actually Amex, Mastercard, Visa rates is also not the same at the same time.

PPV

I can confirm this. I just charged USD and the rate was 1.372 vs the spot at 1.36 flat.

Eugene

Sorry I’m late to the Amaze game but does OCBC Titanium 4MPD works? I just got the card recently and spammed all my transactions on OCBC.

Kevin

i believe ocbc titanium 4 mpd is only for specific mcc comparedit to DBS womens and citi rewards which gives 4 mpd when paired with Amaze.
of cos benefits of ocbc titanium is the cap is $12K/year useful when purchasing high value items

Eugene

I thought Amaze converted transactions to Online and OCBC should award 4MPD to online transactions? I guess I’ll need to channel my spending to Citi as I don’t like the 1 year expiry from DBS.

SCH

But OCBC Titanium Reward Card online transaction bonus is limited to specific merchant such as Amazon, Lazada, etc. Would converting transactions to overseas shopping mall transaction to online still earn bonus?

lolol

lame.

so in retaliation, you got wat you wanted.

they said a big F U and gave u want to want.

u think u can psycho them ah? siao.

Kieran

Does anyone know whether the overseas transactions using the Amaze card will register as overseas spending or local spending on the linked credit card?

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