American Express to Increase FX Fees to 2.95% and GrabPay Wallet Top-ups Will No Longer Earn Miles from 01 March 2020

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American Express will soon join the other banks in Singapore in raising the foreign currency transaction fee from 2.5% to 2.95% - this is the fee that is incurred when foreign currency transactions are charged to the card for both overseas as well as online transactions. This is the first fee increase for American Express since 2013 and it is scheduled to be implemented on 01 March 2020. In addition to that, American Express has also updated the list of non-eligible transactions - KrisFlyer Miles and Membership Rewards (MR) Points will no longer be awarded for payments for the purpose of GrabPay top-ups with effect from 1 March 2020 on personal cards.

Photo Credit: American Express

If you hold the American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card and have been putting S$200 to your GrabPay Wallet each month to enjoy the accelerated earn rate of 3.2 KrisFlyer Miles per dollar, this will end on 01 March 2020. While the terms and conditions have not changed to my knowledge, it appears that only legitimate transactions made on Grab will earn bonus miles. If you hold any other cards (including The Platinum Card), Grab top-ups will also not earn you any MR points - these following transactions will also be excluded from earning KrisFlyer Miles and MR Points from 01 March 2020: 

  • Bill payments and all transactions via SingPost SAM kiosks and mobile app

  • Payments to insurance companies (except payments made for insurance products purchased through American Express authorized channels)

  • Payments to Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (SPC) service stations

In spite of the upcoming fee change from 01 March 2020, American Express still offers one of the lowest FX fees in the market (all of the local banks in Singapore have higher fees which ranges from 3.0% to 3.25%). Planning to get an American Express card? Using any of the following MGM referral links will earn you either bonus MR Points of KrisFlyer miles depending on the card that you will be applying for:

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