Instarem has announced some major changes to the Amaze Card, which take effect from 1 June 2024. Most of them should be of minimal impact to MileLion readers, but there’s one big nerf that completely nukes the InstaPoints (IPs) system and reduces it to near irrelevancy.Â
From next month, the maximum IPs you can earn will be capped at just 500 IPs per month, which works out to a mere S$5. Yes, five dollars.
Goodness me.
Details: Amaze changes from June 2024
Here’s a summary of the changes that Instarem will be making to the Amaze Card, effective 1 June 2024.
| Â | Till 31 May 2024 | From 1 Jun 2024 |
| IP Redemptions |
|
|
| IP Earn Rate |
|
|
| Cap on IP Earning | 500 IP per transaction | 500 IP per month |
| Wallet top-up fees |
|
|
Let’s look at each of these in turn.
IP redemption options
| InstaPoints | Cashback |
| 1,000 New |
S$5 |
| 2,000 | S$20 |
| 10,000 | S$100 |
| 50,000 | S$500 |
| A 400 InstaPoints = S$5 option exists, but that’s not cashback. Instead, it’s a discount voucher for your next Instarem FX transfer | |
Currently, Amaze Cardholders can redeem 2,000 IPs for S$20 cashback (larger denominations exist, but these are just for convenience because the rate is the same).Â
From 1 June 2024, Amaze will add an additional option of 1,000 IPs for S$5 cashback. And no, that’s not bad maths on my part. If you choose the 1,000 IPs option, you’ll take a 50% haircut on value.
Instarem is trying to spin this change as “benefitting Amaze users with a chance for earlier redemptions”, but that’s just a load of bs if you ask me. There is absolutely no reason for you to cash out IPs at this rate, unless you have an orphan balance that will expire before you can hit the 2,000 IPs mark.
There’s something to be said about delayed gratification.
IP earn rate
| Transaction Currency | Amaze Wallet | Debit & Credit Card |
| SGD | N/A | |
| FCY | 0.5 IPs per S$1 |
0.5 IPs per S$1 |
Currently, Amaze Cardholders earn 1 IP per S$1 on Amaze transactions charged to a linked wallet, and 0.5 IPs per S$1 otherwise.
From 1 June 2024, the rate will be fixed at 0.5 IPs per S$1 regardless of funding method. This is rather surprising to me, since I thought the whole idea behind a differential earn rate was to nudge people towards using the no-rewards-earning Amaze wallet.
Well, at the very least I guess we can be grateful that they didn’t cut the debit & credit card earn rate to make the Amaze wallet appear more attractive by comparison!
Cap on IP earning
This is the change that truly nukes the value of IPs.
Currently, Amaze Cardholders can earn a maximum of 500 IPs per transaction, so you’ll max out the cap with a spend of:
- Amaze Wallet: S$500
- Debit & Credit Card: S$1,000
From 1 June 2024, Amaze Cardholders will be capped at a maximum of 500 IPs per month.Yes, per month. That is a staggeringly low figure, so much so I did a double take when I saw the press release. In essence, you’ll soon be capped at just S$5 cashback each month via Amaze.
The cap works out to S$1,000 of monthly spend, which isn’t chump change by any means, but I can imagine many people would exceed that limit on their overseas trips.
New wallet top-up fees
Currently, Amaze Cardholders pay a 1.5% fee for wallet top-ups using Visa, with no fee for Mastercard.
From 1 June 2024, Amaze Cardholders will pay a 2.1% fee for wallet top-ups using Visa, with a 1% fee for Mastercard.Â
That said, there’s very little reason why you should be topping up your Amaze wallet in the first place (top-ups code as MCC 6540 (POI Funding Transactions), so you won’t earn any credit card rewards for top-ups), and this change should not impact most people.
Should you still use Amaze?
Every time there’s an Amaze nerf, the inevitable question that arises is whether it’s still worth sticking with it.Â
And my answer is always the same. I’ll continue using Amaze so long as:
- Amaze transactions earn credit card rewards
- Amaze’s implicit FCY fee < bank FCY fee (3.25%)
Amaze’s implicit FCY fee is around 2% (remember, we should compare it to Mastercard rates, not spot rates), which is still lower than the 3.25% that banks charge. What the nuking of the IP system means is that we can no longer say “and besides, when you take the IPs into account the Amaze fee drops to around 1.5%”.
But at the end of the day, 2% is still less than 3.25%, so it’s status quo for me. IPs were always the icing on the cake, and never a real incentive for me to use Amaze in the first place.Â
I suppose that’s Instarem’s thought process too.
Conclusion
From 1 June 2024, Instarem will be making several changes to the Amaze Card, chief of which is the nuking of InstaPoints by capping the maximum IPs per month to just 500.Â
What we’re seeing now is more or less your typical fintech life cycle: attract users with generous rewards and offers initially, then later cut back and focus on profitability. While this won’t be enough to convince most Amaze users to jump ship, it does make IPs more or less irrelevant when evaluating the benefits of Amaze.
For FCY, transactions, I have already switched to the likes of Trust card for midmarket rates. No longer interested in using Amaze for FCY txns and paying 1.5/2% fee.
Amaze is already on a downward spiral towards irrelevancy, good luck on Nium’s IPO, let their arrogance be humbled by the market.
Agreed. Trust is really something special.
Me too. I switched more to Trust Card after I noticed their exchange rates were creeping up. I find it slightly above 2%.
Another consideration besides FX fee is that some cards have better earn rates for FCY spend. Might make instarem not worth the hassle to use it with certain cards.
Can you name a few of these cards please? Thanks.
Final nail in the coffin. Im out.
yea just closed account. too much hassle.
Based on my experience on a few transactionsin recent times, using MC (and not visa) directly on fcy has yielded a better exchange than via Amaze. Just my own data points.
Is that true? Based on my experience, when the charge is pending, the rates are spot rates. After the charge is posted, it includes the FCY fees.
correct. this is the case for UOB cards. you have to look at the posted amount, not the pending amount.
Even with the typical 3.25% FCY fee?
Impossible as no user has ever reported Amaze fees hitting 3.0% above spot rate.
I asked my friends what cards do they use for foreign spending and based on 24 May’s afternoon rates, 1000SGD converts to:
Amaze = 684.1 Euros
Youtrip=684.1 Euros
Wise = 682.2 Euros
Revolut=682.1 Euros
If Citi rewards (4MPD) is used with Amaze (assuming a 2% spread) we can get 667.6 Euros and 4000 miles for 1000 SGD spend (including fees). That boils down to 0.6 cents per mile and I am here for it 🙂
Was the $1,000 limit to local transactions per month without fees always there?
no this was a recent change and highlighted on the Amaze website
Stating that this change nukes InstaPoints is a bit of an exaggeration. Being able to get 4mpd on foreign spend at a lower exchange rate while earning an additional 0.5% cashback for spending up to SGD 1k per month is still a good deal to me.
Given how Instarem has been hiking all kinds of fee on their services, it will be interesting to know what will be their cut on the spot rate after the change.
just to share some data points recently:
19th May, JPY, Amaze: 1SGD:112.835JPY vs MC 115.719, that is about 2.6% cut by Amaze.
Since it is still lower than bank fee I am more than happy to buy 4 miles at $0.026 rather than using cards like Trust with no real rewards, but that side of the world is about saving, so just different mindset and no right/wrong.
Yep
While disappointing, the 1% was not sustainable. If I take THB as an example, it has
been possible to convert SGD to THB in the wallet at such a good rate that after
the 1% cash back, you are getting better than wholesale mid. As I write this I
can convert SGD to THB at 27.13. After adjusting for 1%, it works out at 27.40.
The current wholesale rate for SGD/THB is 27.15 ! So at 27.40, someone is
subsidising us !
And let’s not forget are getting a rate of 27.40, better than
wholesale, PLUS 4mpd on top of that !