What’s the best card to use with Amaze?

With UOB adding Amaze to its rewards exclusions list, which cards should you now pair?

While Instarem’s Amaze Card is far from dead, I wouldn’t be surprised if the dancing pallbearers are getting warmed up. 

Over the past year, we’ve seen numerous nerfs- some from Amaze itself, like capping cardholders to 500 InstaPoints per month or adding a 1% fee for SGD transactions over S$1,000, others from the banks, like UOB’s recent move to exclude Amaze transactions from rewards. 

Long story short, while Amaze is still a useful tool for miles chasers who want to earn 4 mpd at a lower FCY fee than bank cards, or turn offline transactions into online ones, the ground beneath it is rapidly disappearing. 

Who knows whether this article will even be needed this time next year, but until then, here’s the best cards you can pair with Amaze- and those you shouldn’t. 

Apply here
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๐Ÿ’ณ tl;dr: Amaze Card
  • Link up to five Mastercard credit/debit cards
  • Overseas transactions are converted into SGD (no FCY transaction fees, but subject to FX spread) and charged to the underlying credit/debit card
  • Transaction MCC remains the same, offline transactions charged to Amaze become online transactions for the underlying credit/debit card
  • Earn 0.5 InstaPoints per S$1 spent on FCY transactions of at least S$10 (except exclusion categories), capped at 500 InstaPoints per month
  • Redeem InstaPoints for cashback in blocks of 2,000 InstaPoints= S$20
  • Does not earn points with DBS or UOB cards
๐Ÿ’ณ What’s the Best Card for…
โ“ Overall Guide
โœˆ๏ธ Air Tickets
๐ŸŒŽ Amaze  ๐Ÿš— Car Rental
๐Ÿ’— Charity ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ Dining
๐Ÿซ Education
๐Ÿฅก Food Delivery ๐Ÿจ Hotels โ˜‚๏ธ Insurance
๐Ÿ“ฑ Kris+ โš•๏ธ Medical ๐Ÿ–๏ธ Overseas
โ›ฝ Petrol ๐Ÿš Public Transport ๐Ÿ›’ Supermarkets
๐Ÿšฐ Utilities ๐Ÿ’’ Weddings  

What card should I pair with Amaze?

First, a brief reminder of the ground rules:

  • Amaze transactions code as online
  • Amaze transactions will be billed in SGD
  • Amaze transactions retain the original MCC of the underlying transaction
  • Amaze transaction descriptions are changed to AMAZE*merchant name
  • Amaze can be paired with up to five Mastercard credit or debit cards
  • DBS, POSB and UOB cards no longer award points for Amaze transactions
  • Citi excludes certain Amaze transactions, but so long as you avoid transit-related transactions (i.e. bus/MRT/EZ-Link) you have nothing to be concerned about

Given this, there’s only two cards I would recommend for pairing. 

๐Ÿ’ณ Recommended 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. 1. All online transactions except travel (airlines, hotels, rental cars, tour agency, cruises etc.)  and in-app mobile wallet (T&Cs)
2.  Clothes, bags, shoes and shopping (T&Cs)

#1: Citi Rewards Card

Citi Rewards Card
Apply
Earn Rate 4 mpd
Eligible Transactions All online transactions except Travel and in-app mobile wallet
Capped at S$1,000 per statement month

Since Amaze converts all transactions into online spending, any transactions charged to Amaze x Citi Rewards will earn 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per statement month.

The only exclusion (apart from general exclusion categories like insurance and charitable donations) are travel-related transactions, which Citi defines as the following:

โŒ Travel-Related Blacklist
MCC Description
MCC 3000 to 3350 MCC 4511 Airlines
MCC 3351 to 3500 MCC 7512 Car Rental Agencies
MCC 3501 to 3999 MCC 7011 Lodging- Hotels Motels, Resorts
MCC 4111 MCC 4112* MCC 4789* Passenger Transport and Railways
MCC 4411 Cruise Lines
MCC 4722 MCC 4723* Travel Agencies and Tour Operators
MCC 5962 Direct Marketing- Travel Related Arrangement Services
MCC 7012 Timeshares

In other words, don’t use your Amaze x Citi Rewards to:

  • Buy flight tickets
  • Pay for a hotel stay
  • Pay a tour agency or activities provider 
  • Buy train tickets
  • Book a rental car
  • Book a cruise

Fortunately, there’s still many other categories where you could slot this in, like dining, groceries, shopping and transport (e.g. taxis and ride-hailing).

Explained: Citi Rewards Card blacklist for “travel-related” transactions

Another use case for Amaze x Citi Rewards is to circumvent Citi’s restriction on in-app mobile wallet payments.

As a reminder, if you add the Citi Rewards Card to Apple or Google Pay, and use Apple or Google Pay to make an in-app transaction with an app like Deliveroo or Kris+, you will only earn 0.4 mpd instead of 4 mpd.

You can solve this problem by:

  1. Pairing the Citi Rewards Card with Amaze
  2. Adding Amaze to Google Pay
  3. Paying in-app with Google Pay using Amaze

There’s really no need to do this with Deliveroo, since the app accepts naked cards, but Kris+ forces you to pay with Apple or Google Pay.

#2: OCBC Rewards

OCBC Rewards
Apply
Earn Rate 4 mpd
Eligible Transactions Clothes, bags, shoes and other shopping
Capped at S$1,110 per c. month
If you have the legacy OCBC Titanium Rewards Blue and Pink cards, remember that each of them has their own 4 mpd cap.

The OCBC Rewards Card earns 4 mpd on the first S$1,110 per calendar month spent on shopping, which is defined as the following MCCs. 

๐Ÿ›๏ธ Shopping Transactions
MCC Examples
(non-exhaustive)
MCC 5309
Duty-Free Shops
Lotte Duty Free, King Power Duty Free, The Shilla Duty Free
MCC 5311 
Departmental Stores
Takashimaya, TANGS, Isetan, OG, Metro, BHG, Marks & Spencer
MCC 5611 
Men’s and Boys’ Clothing and Accessories Stores
Benjamin Barker, Timberland, Edit Suits, Berluti
MCC 5621 
Women’s Ready to Wear Stores
Zara, H&M, Mothercare
MCC 5631
Womenโ€™s Accessory and Speciality Stores
Tory Burch, Love Bonito, Pandora
MCC 5641
Childrenโ€™s and Infantsโ€™ Wear Stores
Kiddy Palace, Mummys Market, Pupsik, Motherswork
MCC 5651
Family Clothing Stores
Uniqlo, ASOS, Club 21, Burberry, Yoox
MCC 5655
Sports and Riding Apparel
Nike, Lululemon, Adidas
MCC 5661
Shoe Stores
Skechers, Charles & Keith, Bata, Foot Locker, Pazzion
MCC 5691
Menโ€™s and Womenโ€™s Clothing Stores
Ezbuy, Zalora, Fartech
MCC 5699
Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessory Shops
Qoo10, Cotton On, Reebonz
MCC 5941
Sporting Goods Stores 
Decathlon, Fila, New Balance
MCC 5948
Luggage or Leather Goods Stores
Louis Vuitton, Coach, Rimowa

Unfortunately, this is nowhere as broad as the Citi Rewards Card’s scope, so the main situation where you’d want to pair Amaze would be for overseas shopping at factory outlets, department stores and duty-free. 

OCBC also has a specific list of merchants like Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon and Taobao where bonuses can be earned, but pairing Amaze would not work in this case because bonuses are awarded based on transaction descriptions, as opposed to MCCs. Amaze modifies the transaction description, so bonuses will not be awarded.

What about general spending cards?

In addition to the Citi Rewards or OCBC Rewards Card, you could pair general spending Mastercards with Amaze.

There is a trade-off involved, however. Amaze will have a lower FCY fee than the bank (2% vs 3.25%), but since amounts are converted into SGD, you’ll be earning at the local general spending rate instead.

The workings are summarised in the table below. 

Card With Amaze @ 2% FCY fee Naked @ 3.25% FCY fee
Citi ULTIMA
Apply
1.6 mpd
1.25ยข
2 mpd
1.63ยข
Citi Prestige
Apply
1.3 mpd
1.54ยข
2 mpd
1.63ยข
OCBC 90ยฐN MC
Apply
1.3 mpd
1.54ยข
2.1 mpd
1.55ยข
Citi PremierMiles Card
Apply
1.2 mpd
1.67ยข
2.2 mpd
1.47ยข
HSBC TravelOne Card
Apply
1.2 mpd
1.67ยข
2.4 mpd
1.35ยข
Earn Rate
Cost Per Mile

It clearly wouldn’t make sense to pair the Citi PremierMiles Card or HSBC TravelOne Card with Amaze, because your cost per mile with a naked card would be lower.

But even where the rest are concerned, you could derive a lower cost per mile by using a non-Amaze option.

Card @ 3.25% FCY fee Remarks
DBS Woman’s World Card
Apply
4 mpd
0.81ยข
Online only. Cap S$1.5K per c. month
HSBC Revolution
Apply
4 mpd
0.81ยข
Online only. Cap S$1K per c. month
UOB Lady’s Card
Apply
4 mpd
0.81ยข
Cap S$1K per c. month on bonus category
UOB Lady’s Solitaire
Apply
4 mpd
0.81ยข
Cap S$2K per c. month on bonus category
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa
Apply
4 mpd
0.81ยข
Mobile contactless only. Cap S$1.1K per c. month
UOB Visa Signature 
Apply
4 mpd
0.81ยข
Min S$1K max S$2K per s. month
Maybank World MC
Apply
3.2 mpd
1.02ยข
Min. S$4K per c. month
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card
Apply
3 mpd
1.08ยข
Selected MCCs only
Maybank Horizon
Apply
2.8 mpd
1.16ยข
Min. S$800 per c. month
Earn Rate
Cost Per Mile

The only catch is that minimum spends and caps apply to some of the cards above, so if you’re spending very little (or a whole lot), then certain Amaze x general spending cards may make sense.

Conclusion

While DBS and UOB have left the Amaze party, the rest of the banks are still willing to dance. The bad news is that UOB took most of the punchbowl with it, and the only decent Amaze pairing left is really the Citi Rewards Card.

If it’s any consolation, even if Amaze does join Imagine and Fevo in the great beyond of plucky debit cards, there’ll still be many other options for overseas spending, with reasonable cost per mile rates. 

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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xiaoboy

Any idea what is current spread FCY ? Seems to be getting less competitive in recent times

eric tan

The UOB Krisflyer card cannot be linked to Amaze.

Daniel

I managed to link mine

Elizabeth

The terms and conditions of the travel category for uob ladyโ€™s card seems to suggest only that very few airlines listed on top of via uob travel portal. Surprising that list didnโ€™t even include Singapore airlines.
Last saw today April 17.

John Tan

Hi there anybody else facing issues with Amaze paired with OCBC titanium? Over the last 3 weeks my transactions have been blocked. Amaze has confirmed its at OCBC end. OCBC CRM says its the vendor itself.

Man

Hi all๏ผŒ
anyone can help to explain further? I still don’t see the benefit of pairing amaze card to OCBC titanium, it also gain the same 4mpd and also is limited to the same list of MCC and worst still pairing to amaze card those selected merchant with transaction description will not earn 4mpd….so what is the benefits of amaze pairing to OCBC titanium card?? Can help to explain?
Thanks

Alvin

Paired Amazed with Citi rewards. Paid my PUB bill but wasnt given the 10x reward. Do i still have to abide by citibank MCC classification?

lelel

if i linked amaze card with citirewards & use for general spendings by paywave in restaurant/supermarket does it still gives me 4mpd?

Ashleigh

With the current offer from Citi offering 3.25% cash rebate on FCY spending, if I want to purchase an item from a luxury boutique overseas (>S$1K), which is the better option: OCBC TR + Amaze or Citi Rewards alone?

Also, if going with the former, is there a risk of the transaction not being recognized and thence no bonus points?

Last edited 1 year ago by Ashleigh
John Doe

Is there a benefit to link a Citi Premiermiles card to Amaze? I get 2 mpd for foreign currency spend but I’ll get 1.2 mpd with Amaze so the math doesn’t really check out.

$1000 spot foreign currency spend at 3.25% FCY = 1032.5 SGD = 2064 miles
$1000 spot foreign currency spend at 1.3% FCY (1.8% – rebate of 0.5%) = 1013 SGD = 1215 miles

mary

Hi, can I pair my Amaze card with my HSBC Revolution card? It is 4 miles per dollar for contactless and online transactions….

ninja

cannot because it is visa

MM 2

Just made a large US Amazon marketplace transaction via Amaze, and later on I saw the category was Education. Anyone knows why of all categories itโ€™ll be under Education? Now Iโ€™m panicking!

skylar

Does anyone know if paying for non-SGD SIA transactions using the UOB Krisflyer card counts for 3mpd as well as the min spend required to unlock the bonus 1.8mpd for the year’s spend?

Last edited 9 months ago by skylar
Max3

if you can’t change your UOB Lady card category into travel, what card will you pair with your amaze card for any travel related oeverseas expenss?

Yan

For online travel transactions in SGD, would it still be ok to use Instarem paired with UOB lady / solitaire versus the UOB lady / solitaire direct? I assume going through Instarem we would earn some Instarem points as a bonus while earning the 6 miles per dollar still?

thanks!

Bella

If I pair the UOB Lady Card (with selected category as Dining) with the Amaze Card, will I still earn Bonus Uni$? Since it’s marked as a ‘local transaction’ and with MCC dining.

Esther Tan

Is it correct never to use Amaze with UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard for overseas spending because the cost per mile without Amaze is lower, if you include the forex charge when using Amaze in the computation?

Amaze forex charges have gone up since this article was first written.

Brian

Why do i need to pair amaze card with UOB lady’s card when I can just use the card directly? Is it for overseas spend?

Dennis C

Does Amaze + general spend card still have a worthwhile cpm?

CCW

I’ve just had a Courtyard Marriott hotel stay code as “Housing” instead of “Travel” when I paid with my Amazed paired with UOB Lady’s Card. Does that mean I’m not going to be eligible for my bonus points??!!!

Dennis C

Waiting for the updated article after the Amaze nerf today.

Landa

My understanding is that MCC of Taobao (mobile app purchase) is 5311 Department stores. Is this correct and in this case, does that mean I could still be able to pair Amaze with OCBC Rewards Card on Taobao app purchase to enjoy both lower FCY conversion fees and 6mpd promotion this quarter right?

jo e

Hi, can amaze actually unlock the online spending for citi smrt card if i purchase appliances overseas?

L T

If you’re thinking of pairing the Citi SMRT card, the Amaze card can’t be used with Visa cards, unfortunately.

Nate

If I am pairing the Amaze with Citi Rewards, does insurance spend counted as part of the $1k spending for 4mpd?

John

No.
all the special category are excluded as per all other cards. insurance, donation, heathcare,edu

Steve

Once Citi go down the route of DBS and UOB (which is surely just a matter of time), this card will be DEAD. There will be no competitive advantage left. Will it also usher in the demise of Instarem? Really can’t see how they will survive.

YMMV

Can still use it to check MCCs. It’s the gold standard for that!

John

101% agree
As we speak, im already applying and receiving some of my other options (if and when Citi nerfs Amaze)
ofcourse if citi does do that, it also means a huge dropoff in user base

Last edited 20 days ago by John
Tony

The issue with me using Amaze card is that the amount of added fee on top of the MC Forex Rate is not iron clad. Floor rate is like 2 percent but I have experienced more than that. This concern makes me use the Trustbank Cashback Card as it does not charge me 3.25% plus 1 percent rebate making it 4.25%. As I travel a lot, I generally do not have issue hitting the 2K per month tier for each quarter so I generally max out on the 250 dollar additional travel rebates. Not a huge plus but really there… Read more »

Last edited 20 days ago by Tony
DeeTee

Why not with MBB FnF and Citi CashBack?

MileTiger

Cos you are in Milelion?

And not CashbackLion?

Anonymous

Hello can you elaborate on this?
bonuses are awarded based on transaction descriptions, as opposed to MCCs. Amaze modifies the transaction description, so bonuses will not be awarded.
Does that mean I canโ€™t pair amaze with OCBC rewards to purchase from shopee?