Maybank XL Rewards Card: Pros and cons

Say what you will about the new Maybank XL Cards, but they sure know how to get people talking— whether its the controversial “no applicants 40 and over” policy, or the somewhat polarising card design.

Those issues aside, however, these are among the strongest rewards cards we’ve seen in a long time. And goodness knows we need that, with the recent nerfs to the DBS Woman’s World Card and UOB Lady’s Solitaire.

	Maybank XL Rewards Card	Maybank XL Cashback Card
Annual Fee	S$87.20 (Waived for 2 years)
Bonus Earn Rate	4 mpd	5% cashback
Bonus Cap	S$1,000 per calendar month	S$1,600 per calendar month
Min. Spend	S$500 per calendar month
Bonus Categories	Dine Shop Travel Play All FCY spend
T&Cs	Link	Link
	Apply	Apply

My overall opinion is that the XL Rewards Card would make a great addition to any miles collector’s wallet, but if you’re still on the fence, here’s a rundown of the things I like and dislike about it.

Maybank XL Rewards Card: The good

Wide bonus coverage

The Maybank XL Rewards Card earns 10X TREATS Points per S$1 (4 mpd) on:

• All online and offline FCY spending
• Online and offline SGD spending in the following categories

This is an excellent range of bonus categories, wide enough to be your daily driver for:

• Air tickets
• Agoda, Booking.com, Traveloka, Trip.com and other OTAs
• Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and other e-commerce platforms
• Disney+, Netflix, Spotify and other streaming services
• Food delivery
• HeyMax vouchers
• Hotels (including Airbnb)
• KKday, Klook, Pelago
• Restaurants, bars, cafes and fast food

The only major expense categories that aren’t covered are groceries, petrol and transport, but you could indirectly earn 4 mpd on these by buying vouchers from HeyMax (MCC 5311).

Sign up here
Airalo Amazon Best Denki Courts Deliveroo Foodpanda Giant Grab IKEA Klook Lazada Muji	Natureland NTUC FairPrice Oddle Eats Pelago Pupsik Ryde Shein Shell Sheng Siong Sephora TADA TANGS ZALORA
All voucher purchases code as MCC 5311 (Department Stores)

In a way, this reminds me of what the HSBC Revolution used to be once upon a time— a whitelist card with such wide range of bonus categories, it was practically a blacklist card.

Earn 4 mpd for education, hospitals, utilities in FCY

Maybank cards are noteworthy for having far fewer exclusion categories than most other cards on the market.

In particular, it’s still possible to earn rewards for education, hospitals and utility bills. These transactions, if charged in FCY, will even earn 4 mpd with the XL Rewards Card.

Spend tracking basically uses transaction date

Technically speaking, Maybank tracks minimum spend and bonus caps by posting date, not transaction date.

In practice, however, all transactions charged in a given month and posted by the 10th of the following month are considered to be part of the month in which they were charged.

In other words, you can comfortably spend up till the last calendar day of the month, and not have to worry about transactions “leaking” into the following month (I mean it’s not impossible, but 10 days should be more than enough time for even the slowest of merchants to post).

Works with Amaze

While Amaze transactions are eligible to earn rewards with Maybank cards, I don’t mention them in my guides because Maybank doesn’t have any Mastercards worth pairing with Amaze.

Until now.

There are four scenarios to consider, based on currency (SGD or FCY) and whether the transaction falls under a whitelisted category (Dining, Shopping, Travel, Play).

SGD spending, non-whitelisted category

Don’t use Amaze, or the XL Rewards Card for that matter. You’d earn only 0.4 mpd either way, but Amaze would make it even worse with its 1% admin fee for SGD transactions.

SGD spending, whitelisted category

Don’t use Amaze. Using a naked XL Rewards Card would be sufficient to earn 4 mpd, and again we don’t want to incur the 1% admin fee for SGD transactions if we don’t have to.

FCY spending, whitelisted category

Use Amaze + XL Rewards to reduce the FCY fee to ~2%, while still earning 4 mpd.

FCY spending, non-whitelisted category

Use a naked XL Rewards Card to earn 4 mpd, with a 3.25% FCY fee.

If you brought Amaze into the picture, you’d earn 0.4 mpd with a ~2% FCY fee, because the transaction effectively becomes SGD spending in a non-whitelisted category.

Maybank XL Rewards Card: The bad

Age cap

You’re probably aware of this by now, but you can’t apply for an XL Rewards (or Cashback) Card if you’re aged 40 and older. The system will simply reject your application.

Minimum spend required

Cardholders must spend at least S$500 per calendar month to earn 4 mpd on the XL Rewards Card.

This isn’t a big amount by any means, but it’s still something you need to remember to do- or earn just 0.4 mpd. 

Short points expiry

TREATS Points earned on the XL Rewards Card expire one year from the quarterly period in which they were earned, which means a relatively short validity of 12-15 months. 

Although you can obtain a Rewards Infinite membership and make your TREATS Points evergreen by spending at least S$24,000 in a membership year on the XL Rewards Card, this would require spending beyond the S$1,000 monthly bonus cap.

However, if you have a Maybank Visa Infinite or Maybank World Mastercard, then the complimentary Rewards Infinite membership that comes with it would also extend to the TREATS Points earned on the XL Rewards Card. 

How does the Maybank Rewards Infinite programme work?

No Google Pay support

While Maybank supports Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, it still does not offer Google Pay support in Singapore. If you’re using a non-Samsung Android phone, you’ll need to carry around the physical card. 

I understand that Google Pay support is in the works, but no timeline has been announced.

Limited transfer partners

Maybank TREATS points can be transferred to four different airline loyalty programmes (though it’s really just two, because conversions to Malaysia Airlines Enrich or AirAsia are as good as throwing points away).

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (TREATS Points: Partner)
	25,000: 10,000
	12,500: 5,000
	12,500: 5,000
	4,000: 2,000

While it’s good that Maybank covers the basics with KrisFlyer and Asia Miles, I wish there were more variety on offer. 

Of course, this isn’t a Maybank-exclusive criticism. The same could be said of BOC, DBS, StanChart and UOB for that matter. If you want to access “exotic” loyalty programmes, AMEX, Citi and HSBC should be your go-tos. 

Complete list of Singapore credit card airline and hotel transfer partners

Clunky app ecosystem

Maybank has never been the most tech-forward bank, but its app ecosystem is a special kind of terrible.

Until recently, you needed to have three Maybank apps on your phone: M2U, M2U Lite (which, counterintuitively, had more functionality than M2U), and TREATS SG. M2U Lite is now out of the picture, but even so, you’ll still have to do your banking-related matters on one app and rewards-related matters on another. Mind you, the TREATS SG app doesn’t even have basic quality of life features like biometric authentication.

Conclusion

Maybank XL Cards

Apply

While it’s not perfect by any means, I believe there’s a strong case for adding the Maybank XL Rewards Card to your collection, especially if you already use a Maybank Horizon, Visa Infinite, or World Mastercard.

This assumes you’re already maxing out the monthly bonus caps on blacklist cards like the Citi Rewards and DBS Woman’s World Card, however. If your monthly spending is relatively more modest, these may already be more than sufficient for your needs. 

What do you like and dislike about the Maybank XL Rewards Card?