AXS Pay Any Bills: Does it actually earn credit card rewards?

If you use AXS to make bill payments, you may have noticed the Pay+Earn and Pay Any Bills banners on the m-Station app. 

These are basically a clone of CardUp/Citi PayAll, allowing cardholders to pay bills with their credit cards and earn rewards, in exchange for a fee.

That’s the theory, at least. 

Having received a few complaints from readers that these services don’t actually do what they say on the tin, I decided to dig deeper into the matter.

What’s the official position on rewards?

At the risk of stating the obvious, the whole purpose of Pay+Earn or Pay Any Bills is to earn rewards. I mean, if you can’t, then what’s the admin fee for? 

So it felt a bit silly to be asking “hey, I know your website says that AXS Pay+Earn/Pay Any Bills transactions earn rewards, but do they really earn rewards?”

But I suppose that’s my job.

AXS

AXS is pretty emphatic that transactions made through its Pay+Earn and Pay Any Bills service will earn credit card rewards. 

From its Pay Any Bills landing page:

This message is also reinforced in its various marketing collaterals:

Just to be thorough, I reached out to AXS to ask whether I’d earn credit card rewards for these payments.

I did this twice. The first CSO who followed up said that all credit cards except Citibank, CIMB, and UOB One would earn rewards with Pay Any Bills.

The second CSO told me that “it depends on the bank’s T&Cs”. However, she also provided a valuable data point:

• AXS Pay+Earn codes as MCC 7399 Business Services Not Elsewhere Classified
• AXS Pay Any Bills codes as MCC 6513 Real Estate Agents and Managers- Rentals

These MCCs apply regardless of what sort of payment is made.

MCC 7399 is generally kosher, but MCC 6513 should send up a big red flag, since it’s a common rewards exclusion.

Bank	MCC 7399	MCC 6513
	✓	✕
	✓	✕
	✓	✓
	✓	✕
	✓	✓
	✓	✕
	✓	✕
	✓	✕

But could it be that AXS has negotiated some kind of behind-the-scenes deal with banks to ensure that Pay Any Bill transactions do indeed earn points, MCC notwithstanding? After all, they wouldn’t be promoting the rewards aspect so heavily if the vast majority of card issuers excluded rewards, right?

Hold that thought. 

SGeBiz

I also reached out to SGeBIZ, who process payments for the Pay Any Bills service.

Their response basically punted the question over to the bank- rather unhelpful, since you’d think it’d be in their interest to provide something more concrete. 

Field testing

Since MCC 7399 is generally not excluded while MCC 6513 is, I decided it was less important to test AXS Pay+Earn and more important to test AXS Pay Any Bills.

So I made a S$300 rent payment transaction via AXS Pay Any Bills with each of the following cards, paying a total of S$305.10 under the current promotional 1.7% admin fee.

• DBS Altitude Visa
• HSBC TravelOne Card
• OCBC 90°N Card
• StanChart Journey Card (formerly known as the StanChart X Card)

In addition to this, I received a few data points from readers who had used Pay Any Bills with the UOB PRVI Miles Card and UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card.

Interestingly enough, Pay Any Bill transactions code as AXS Pay+Earn, which may cause some confusion when going through your statement.

However, the MCC was exactly what the CSO said it would be: MCC 6513.

As for points, the record was hit and miss- with some surprising results. 

DBS

DBS explicitly carves out an exception for Pay+Earn transactions in its T&Cs, and does not exclude MCC 6513.

I therefore expected to earn rewards with my DBS Altitude Visa, and indeed I did, at an effective rate of 1.2 mpd.

HSBC

The HSBC TravelOne Card’s T&Cs explicitly exclude MCC 6513, with no exception carved out for AXS Pay+Earn/Pay Any Bills.

So I was surprised that my Pay Any Bills transaction did earn points on the HSBC TravelOne Card, at an effective rate of 1.2 mpd.

OCBC

While the OCBC 90°N Card’s T&Cs exclude MCC 6513, they carve out an exception for AXS Pay+Earn transactions, awarding a reduced rate of 1 mpd instead of the usual 1.2 mpd.

However, I received no points at all for my Pay Any Bills transaction. 

Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered’s T&Cs explicitly exclude MCC 6513, and do not have any exceptions carved out for AXS Pay+Earn/Pay Any Bills.

My Pay Any Bills transaction did not earn any points.

UOB

UOB’s T&Cs explicitly exclude MCC 6513, and do not have any exceptions carved out for AXS Pay+Earn/Pay Any Bills.

I didn’t personally test this, but I’ve received data points from a few readers that their UOB card transactions did not earn any points with AXS Pay Any Bills. 

If it’s any consolation, one reader told me they complained to AXS, and while they didn’t get a refund of the admin fee, they got…wait for it…a KFC voucher for free chicken wings. 

So…no go?

So here’s a summary of the findings once more: 

Out of the six cards tested, AXS Pay Any Bills did not earn rewards for three, and wasn’t compatible with a fourth. 

So my question is this: why does the marketing for AXS Pay Any Bills make it seem like credit card rewards should be expected, when it’s really the exception rather than the norm?

Throughout the AXS website and app, Pay Any Bills is marketed as a way of earning credit card rewards, without any sort of disclaimers or exceptions. Why not take a leaf out of CardUp’s book, and publish a list of cards which do and don’t earn rewards?

After all, they’re already fighting a losing battle where fees are concerned (current promotion for rental aside). Wouldn’t it make sense for them to do the testing, and provide cardholders with reassurance as to which cards do and don’t work?

Conclusion

AXS Pay Any Bills is hit and miss when it comes to rewards. While I did earn points with DBS and HSBC credit cards, there was no joy with OCBC, StanChart and UOB. Citi cards aren’t accepted, and I don’t see much of a point in testing BOC or Maybank, given their limited footprint.

Once you factor in the expensive admin fee (outside of the 1.7% rental promotion), there’s just very little reason to use this service. 

Any other data points for Pay + Earn/Pay Any Bills?