Review: Maybank XL Rewards Card

Here’s The MileLion’s review of the Maybank XL Rewards Card, a visceral reminder that life does indeed go downhill after 40. Everything hurts, your back goes out more than you do, and you’re officially off the guest list for Maybank’s latest rewards card.

And with 4 mpd on all foreign currency (FCY) spend — even education and hospitals — as well as dining, shopping, travel and entertainment, this is a party you might actually want to attend.

Maybank XL Rewards Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
With 4 mpd on all FCY spend and a wide range of bonus categories, the Maybank XL Rewards Card is an easy one to recommend— provided you’re not a day over 40.
👍 The good	👎 The bad
4 mpd on all FCY spend, dining, shopping, travel and entertainment Still earns points for education and hospitals Amaze-compatible 2-year annual fee waiver (and should be fairly easy to waive after that)	Not available to anyone 40 and older Limited transfer partners TREATS Points expire after 12-15 months S$500 minimum spend required for bonus miles No Google Pay support and clunky app ecosystem
💳 Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: Maybank XL Rewards Card

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the Maybank XL Rewards Card.

Apply
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	12-15 months
Annual Fee	S$87.20 (F2YF)	Min. Transfer	25,000 points (10,000 miles)*
Miles with Annual Fee	N/A	Transfer Partners	4
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	S$27.25
Local Earn	0.4 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	4 mpd	Lounge Access?	No
Special Earn	4 mpd on dining, shopping, travel, entertainment	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions
*For KrisFlyer; 5,000 miles for Cathay and Malaysia Airlines, 2,000 points for Air Asia

Do note that the XL Card comes in two flavours. In addition to the XL Rewards Card covered in this review, there is also the XL Cashback Card.

Both the Rewards and Cashback card have the same annual fee, bonus categories and minimum spend requirement, but instead of 4 mpd, the XL Cashback Card earns up to 5% cashback, capped at S$80 per month.

There is nothing stopping you from applying for both the Rewards and Cashback variants if you wish.

How much must I earn to qualify for a Maybank XL Rewards Card?

The Maybank XL Rewards Card has a minimum income requirement of S$30,000 p.a.

But the real hurdle isn’t income. It’s age.

Maybank will only accept XL Card applications from customers aged 21-39 years old; anyone 40 or older will be automatically rejected. Eligibility is based on age at the time of application, and you can submit an application so long as you’re 39 years and 364 days old or younger.

We can argue till the cows come home whether this counts as segmentation or discrimination (po-tay-to, po-tah-to?), but at the end of the day, Maybank isn’t breaking any laws. MAS guidelines stipulate a minimum age and income for credit card applications, not a maximum.

Singapore has no equivalent of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (which in the US prohibits age-based discrimination when granting credit facilities), and if Maybank wants to issue this card only to left-handed Jedi knights who say “Ni”, then that’s their prerogative. 

OK Boomer: Can the Maybank XL Card really exclude applicants aged 40 and older?

For the avoidance of doubt, you can retain this card even after you turn 40 — it’s not like Maybank sends a collection agency to your house to confiscate it — and it will still be renewed every time the expiry date comes around. However, if you choose to cancel it, you will never be able to apply for an XL Card again!

How much is the Maybank XL Rewards Card’s annual fee? 

The Maybank XL Rewards Card has an annual fee of S$87.20, which is waived for the first two years.

Subsequent years’ fees can be waived with a minimum spend of S$6,000 in a membership year. It remains to be seen how strictly Maybank enforces this rule, but given that this represents just 50% of the annual bonus cap, it shouldn’t be that difficult for most cardholders to hit.

All supplementary cards are free for life.

What welcome offers are available?

Apply

Customers who apply for a Maybank XL Rewards Card from  1 July to 30 September 2026 will enjoy an upsized bonus cap of S$1,500 per month for the first four months of approval, instead of the usual S$1,000.

For example, if my card is approved on 5 July 2026, my monthly bonus cap will be S$1,500 for July, August, September and October 2026, before reverting to S$1,000 from November 2026 onwards.

There is no requirement for you to be a new-to-Maybank customer to enjoy this promotion. All that matters is that you were approved for a Maybank XL Rewards Card during the period of 1 July to 30 September 2026.

Maybank XL Rewards Card offering 50% larger bonus cap for new cardholders

The terms and conditions of this offer can be found here.

How many miles do I earn?

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

• All online and offline FCY spending
• Online and offline SGD spending on dining, shopping, travel and entertainment

This is subject to a minimum spend of S$500 per calendar month, and capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. If you fail to meet the minimum spend, or spend above the cap, you’ll earn just 0.4 mpd, so it’s crucial to track your spending accurately.

Maybank cards are also 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 and hospitals. These transactions, if charged in FCY, will even earn 4 mpd with the XL Rewards Card (in SGD, they’ll earn 0.4 mpd).

Dining

The Dining category covers most of the MCCs you would expect, including restaurants, fast food, bakeries, caterers and food delivery.

That said, do note the omission of the following:

• MCC 5441 (Confectionery): Aroma Truffle, See’s Candies, Candy Empire, Laderach, TWG Tea
• MCC 5499 (Misc. Food Stores): Nespresso, Bengawan Solo via Kris+, Bee Cheng Hiang, Hockhua Tonic

Shopping

Shopping covers both online and offline shopping with Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and other e-commerce websites. But of all the MCCs in the Shopping category, the most important is MCC 5311 (Department Stores). Why? Because that’s the MCC used for HeyMax voucher purchases.

Get 200 Max Miles when you open an account and complete your first transaction
Sign up here
Airalo Amazon Best Denki Courts Foodpanda Giant GetGo Grab IKEA iShopChangi Klook MINISO 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)

By buying HeyMax vouchers with the Maybank XL Rewards Card, you can effectively earn 4 mpd on merchants like Best Denki (5732), Grab rides (4121) or IKEA (5712), which would not have been eligible for bonuses had you charged them directly.

Travel

The Travel category includes airlines, travel agencies and hotels, such as Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Qatar Airways, Klook, Pelago, Hotels.com, Expedia, Trip.com and Airbnb.

Do note that hotels which code under MCC 3501-3999 are excluded. While this range typically covers major hotel chains like Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Marriott, it’s not always so straightforward. A hotel’s brand affiliate does not guarantee it will fall within this MCC range — for example, the Westin Kuala Lumpur codes as MCC 7011.

Exercise caution, and check MCCs before paying. 

Entertainment

The Entertainment category includes bars (so in case you missed it under Dining, don’t worry — it’s here), movie theatres, and streaming entertainment subscriptions such as Disney Plus, Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube Premium.

What’s the FCY fee?

Maybank has an FCY transaction fee of 3.25%, so using the Maybank XL Rewards Card for FCY spend represents buying miles at 0.81 cents each, assuming it’s an eligible bonus category

Does it work with Amaze?

The Maybank XL Card can be paired with Amaze. There are four scenarios to consider, based on currency (SGD or FCY) and whether the transaction falls under a whitelisted category (Dining, Shopping, Travel, Entertainment).

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.

Transaction date or posting 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 (it’s not impossible, but it’s rare that a merchant takes longer than 10 days to post transactions).

Which cards track spending by transaction date vs posting date?

When are TREATS Points credited?

Points crediting with the Maybank XL Card works slightly differently from other Maybank cards. 

Both the 1X base and 9X bonus TREATS Points are credited on the 11th of the following calendar month, in one lump sum. In other words, you shouldn’t expect to receive any points from the XL Card in the month of spending.

How are TREATS Points calculated?

Here’s how to calculate the points earned on your Maybank XL Rewards Card.

For the full list of formulas that banks use to calculate credit card points, do refer to these articles:

• General Spending Cards
• Specialised Spending Cards

What transactions aren’t eligible for TREATS Points?

A full list of transactions that do not earn points can be found in the T&Cs at point 2.2. I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Betting and gambling transactions
• Brokerage and securities transactions
• Charitable donations
• Government services
• Insurance premiums
• Prepaid account top-ups, e.g. GrabPay and YouTrip
• Utilities

As mentioned earlier, education and hospitals are not on the exclusion list, and you will earn 0.4/4 mpd for these transactions in SGD/FCY.

What do I need to know about TREATS 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 validity of 12-15 months. 

If you spend at least S$24,000 in a membership year on the XL Rewards Card, you can qualify for a Rewards Infinite membership, which makes your TREATS Points non-expiring. However, this requires spending beyond the S$1,000 monthly bonus cap, and is not advisable. 

A simpler alternative is to hold a Maybank Visa Infinite or Maybank World Mastercard, since their complimentary Rewards Infinite membership also applies to TREATS Points earned on the XL Rewards Card.

How does the Maybank Rewards Infinite programme work?

Pooling

TREATS Points pool with other Maybank cards. If you have 20,000 TREATS Points on the Maybank XL Rewards Card, and 5,000 TREATS Points on the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature, you can redeem 25,000 TREATS Points at one go.

This also means that if you cancel your Maybank XL Rewards Card, you won’t lose your accumulated TREATS Points unless it happens to be your very last TREATS-earning card.

Transfer partners & fees

TREATS Points can be transferred to four airline partners at the following ratios.

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

Malaysia Airlines Enrich and AirAsia Rewards are close to worthless in my opinion, so that leaves Asia Miles and KrisFlyer as the only realistic options.

All conversions have an admin fee of S$27.25.

Transfer time

Conversions to KrisFlyer miles are generally competed within 1-2 working days.

Maybank’s clunky apps

Maybank isn’t going to win any awards for app design, that’s for sure. It’s frustrating enough that it has separate apps for internet banking (M2U) and rewards (TREATS SG), and the latter doesn’t even support biometric login. 

But its UX also leads to a lot of confusion, especially with miles conversions. Suppose you want to convert TREATS Points to KrisFlyer miles. The natural place to start looking would be the TREATS SG app, under the Travel tab— but you won’t see anything here. 

So did Maybank drop KrisFlyer, or what?

As it turns out, you’ll need to enrol your KrisFlyer account before the KrisFlyer miles redemption option even appears. This can be done by going to Profile > My Account > Enrolment > KrisFlyer.

After completing the enrolment, you’ll need to log out and log in again, after which KrisFlyer miles will appear under the Travel section.

What could be simpler?

Other card perks

Complimentary travel insurance

Maybank is offering the first 15,000 Maybank XL Rewards and Cashback Cardholders a complimentary Etiqa Trip XpLorer Protect policy, which offers coverage of up to S$5,000 for accidental injuries and illness during leisure trips.

This policy lasts for 12 months, and will not auto-renew. If you’re eligible to receive this policy, you’ll receive an email notification when your XL Card is approved.

Needless to say, this should not be taking the place of a comprehensive travel insurance policy, as there’s no coverage for accidental death or permanent disablement, travel inconvenience (e.g. delayed flights, lost luggage), personal liability or loss of personal belongings.

That said, it does cover so-called “adventurous activities” such as abseiling, bungee jumping, sky diving, hot air ballooning, rock climbing and skiing, which may not be covered by other policies. So you should see this as supplementary coverage for an otherwise comprehensive policy, not a replacement.

Terms & Conditions

• Maybank XL Rewards Card T&Cs
• TREATS Rewards Programme

Summary Review: Maybank XL Rewards Card

Maybank XL Rewards Card

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🦁 MileLion Verdict

☑  Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It

With 4 mpd on a wide range of everyday spending categories, including all FCY spend, the Maybank XL Rewards Card is an easy card to recommend. That’s especially the case if you’re already holding a Maybank Horizon Visa Signature, or better yet, a Visa Infinite or World Mastercard, since these unlock non-expiring points through Rewards Infinite. 

While I do wish its bonus cap were slightly higher, S$1,000 per month is in line with similar cards like the Citi Rewards, DBS Woman’s World Card and UOB Lady’s Card, so I can’t really complain.

The main drawback is its controversial age cap, and if you’re approaching the big 4-0, I’d highly recommend applying for an XL Rewards Card now, even if you have no immediate use for it. There’s no annual fee for the first two years anyway, and once you pass 40, the door closes permanently.

So that’s my review of the Maybank XL Rewards Card. What do you think?