Maybank adds new rewards exclusions from July 2025

Maybank credit cards have always been noteworthy for their lack of exclusion categories, allowing cardholders to earn points for charitable donations, education, insurance premiums and utilities, to name a few.

There were hints that the bank was mulling a crackdown back in April 2023, when it published a new rewards exclusion list that nerfed rewards for several of these categories. However, those changes were swiftly reverted, to the relief of everyone.

Sadly, Maybank has now confirmed that it will be further tightening its rewards exclusion list from July 2025. If it’s any consolation, the nerfs are relatively minor, and education, hospitals and utility bills all survive the chop.

Maybank adding new rewards exclusion categories

From 1 July 2025, Maybank will no longer award TREATS Points or cashback for transactions charged under the following MCCs.

If you’re currently using your Maybank credit cards for any of these categories, you might want to frontload your transactions, and switch to something else after 1 July 2025.

It’s particularly disappointing to see Maybank finally nerf MCC 8398, as this spells the end of up to 3.2 mpd on overseas donations with the Maybank Visa Infinite and Maybank World Mastercard!

What cards can you use for donations?

With Maybank adding donations to its exclusions list, there will only be three credit cards left in Singapore that offer miles for charitable giving.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Chocolate Visa Card Apply	2 mpd	Capped at S$1K per calendar month. Donations to foreign charities will be blocked
AMEX Centurion Card Apply	0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge Apply	0.78 mpd

American Express previously added charitable donations to its rewards exclusion list in October 2023, but a special exception was carved out for the two cards above (plus the AMEX True Cashback Card, for those who want a cashback alternative).

To learn more about possible alternatives, refer to the article below. I’ll be updating it in July when the new restrictions come into effect.

2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Charitable Donations

Conclusion

Maybank will be adding parking lots, charitable donations, political and religious organisations to its TREATS Rewards exclusions list from 1 July 2025. To be fair, these categories are already excluded by most banks, and it was good of Maybank to continue offering points for as long as they did.

If you still want to earn miles on donations, your only remaining options are the Chocolate Visa, or the AMEX Platinum and Centurion Cards. Alternatively, you could use Citi PayAll instead, but this comes with a 2.6% admin fee, making the cost per mile outside of promotions unattractive.