UOB x Amaze nerf: Implications and workarounds

Well, that was a fun weekend.

On Friday, UOB Reserve Cardholders received an SMS alerting them to some upcoming rewards exclusions, including hospitals, utilities and yes, Amaze. Since there was no similar alert for other cardholders, there was some hope that the damage would be limited only to UOB’s top-tier card, but that was, in my opinion, pure, weapons-grade copium.

Sure enough, the T&Cs for UOB’s mass market cards were updated the following day, and long story short, Amaze becomes a UOB-wide exclusion from 1 October 2024. 

There is a lot to be said here, and the dust will take some time to settle. But here’s what I’m thinking right now, in terms of implications and potential workarounds- none of them perfect.

Uncapped 3 mpd with KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card becomes harder to earn

One of the best features of the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card is its uncapped 3 mpd on online shopping, provided you spend at least S$800 with the SIA Group (Singapore Airlines, Scoot, KrisShop) in a membership year. 

The definition of shopping merchants is extensive, including big-ticket MCCs like jewellery and watches (MCC 5944), luxury bags (MCC 5948) and electronics (MCC 5732).

Now, not everything can be bought online, but with Amaze it didn’t matter, because Amaze converts offline spend into online spend while preserving the MCC.

That meant that if you were buying a S$10,000 engagement ring, for example, you could pair Amaze with your KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card to earn 3 mpd on the entire amount- much better than a 4 mpd card with a S$1,000 to S$2,000 cap.

Sadly, this has been nerfed in two big ways. The first came in April 2024, when Amaze added a 1% fee on SGD transactions in excess of S$1,000. 

But that wasn’t fatal, insofar as FCY transactions of any amount were still fee free, and even where SGD transactions were concerned, one could argue that paying an extra 1% would justify the extra 1.8 mpd (when comparing Amaze x KrisFlyer UOB to a naked KrisFlyer UOB).

What is fatal is the exclusion of all Amaze transactions, which will make it much harder to tap the uncapped 3 mpd going forward (I believe that’s the idea!). 

Workarounds

If there’s an item you want to buy but it’s only available in-store, three workarounds I can suggest to turn it into an online transaction include:

• Paying with a BNPL service like Atome (MCC 5999)
• Buying gift cards online at a platform like Wogi (MCC 5947) or HeyMax (MCC 5311) before spending in-store
• Paying with ShopBack Pay, which preserves the underlying MCC but makes the transaction online

No more Amaze option for airlines, cruises and hotels

A UOB Lady’s Cardholder who chose Travel as his/her quarterly bonus category would be able to earn 4 mpd on airlines, cruises and hotels, among other things. That was extremely useful to have, given that these transactions are often in FCY. 

The Amaze nerf kills this off, and what makes it worse is that there aren’t any viable alternatives. The Citi Rewards Card blacklists travel-related transactions, while the OCBC Rewards Card only whitelists shopping-related transactions like department stores.   

Workarounds

Sorry, there’s no real workaround here.

Once October rolls around, the best you’ll be able to do is 4 mpd with a 3.25% FCY fee, using cards like the DBS Woman’s World Card (if online) or UOB Visa Signature (if in FCY). If it’s any consolation, there’s also a limited-time 5 mpd offer on the DBS Altitude with an FCY fee of 3-3.25%, so I’d certainly consider that too.

In the cold light of day, these aren’t terrible options. With Amaze x UOB Lady’s Card, you’re looking at 4 mpd with a 2% FCY fee (Amaze has no explicit FCY fee, but it does have a ~2% spread over Mastercard), or 0.5 cents per mile.

With a 4 mpd card and a 3.25% FCY fee, the cost per mile increases to 0.81 cents, obviously not as good as before but hardly game-ending. And if you can hop onboard the DBS Altitude promotion, the cost per mile can be as low as 0.6 cents (3% FCY fee on the Altitude AMEX with 5 mpd). 

UOB$ merchant workaround no longer possible

Another use case for pairing Amaze with UOB was to circumvent the UOB$ merchant problem. For the uninitiated, UOB$ is UOB’s card-wide cashback rewards scheme, and swiping your cards at UOB$ merchants earns you same-merchant return cashback (usually at a terrible rate) instead of UNI$. 

The simple solution was to pair your UOB card with Amaze, because this took UOB$ out of the picture altogether. That won’t be possible from 1 October 2024 onwards.

To be fair, the utility of this workaround was always marginal at best, for two reasons:

• UOB Lady’s Cards still earn 3.6 mpd at UOB$ merchants (base UNI$ aren’t awarded, but bonus UNI$ are)
• UOB$ merchants are all in Singapore

Therefore, all the Amaze pairing did was allow you to earn an incremental 0.4 mpd, while at the same time eating into your S$1,000 monthly domestic transaction cap (which you really should be saving for the Citi Rewards). 

Workarounds

In the absence of Amaze, the main workarounds I can think of for UOB$ merchants are:

• Buying items online, instead of in the physical store (since UOB$ are only awarded for in-store purchases)
• Paying with Kris+
• Paying with ShopBack Pay

What Amaze options are left?

With UOB out of the picture (and DBS throwing in the towel back in June 2022), there are only two specialised spending cards left to pair with Amaze.

💳 Potential Amaze Pairings
Card	Earn Rate	Cap
Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd1	S$1K per s. month
OCBC Rewards Apply	4 mpd2	S$1.1K per c. month
1. All transactions except travel (airlines, hotels, rental cars, tour agency, cruises etc.) (T&Cs) 2.  Clothes, bags, shoes and shopping (T&Cs)

You could, of course, pair Amaze with general spending Mastercards too like the HSBC TravelOne (1.2 mpd) or Citi Prestige (1.3 mpd), but if you ask me the math doesn’t make sense.

For example, if your options were:

1. Citi Prestige & Amaze for 1.3 mpd and 2% FCY fees 
2. UOB Visa Signature for 4 mpd and 3.25% FCY fees

You wouldn’t pick (1) unless you valued a mile at less than 0.46 cents, and if that were the case, you’d be collecting cashback instead of miles in the first place. 

I’ll probably need to write a separate post on my post-nerf Amaze strategy, but it looks like Citi Rewards will have to hard carry most of it, with OCBC Rewards chipping in occasionally for department stores, fashion boutiques and outlet mall shopping. 

Conclusion

UOB will be nerfing rewards for Amaze transactions from 1 October 2024, and while this wasn’t entirely unexpected, it still stings nonetheless.

For what it’s worth, it’s not completely game over for Amaze- though I do feel I’ve been saying that a lot over the past 12 months, as both Instarem and banks tighten their belts. I don’t think it should surprise anyone if Citi leaves the Amaze party by the end of this year, and with the OCBC Rewards Card’s appeal so narrow, that would more or less be it.

I’d be quite concerned right now, if I were Instarem.