Amaze Card to Reduce Cashback from 1% to 0.5% from August 2023 - 50% Reduction in InstaPoints Earn Rate

The Amaze Card will be reducing the InstaPoints earn rate from card-linked foreign currency transactions from August 2023. At the time of writing, cardholders earn 1 InstaPoint per SGD 1 spent in foreign currency for card-linked transactions (I typically use the Citi Rewards Card to double-dip on this and earn 4 miles per dollar on eligible expenses).

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Starting from August 2023, all card-linked transactions will earn 0.5 instaPoint per SGD 1 (regardless of whether it is in a local- or foreign currency). This works out to an approximate 0.5% cashback that you can take advantage of on top of your usual credit card rewards. Do remember that while Amaze Card allows you to save on FX fees levied by the banks, there is a spread between the conversion rates offered by Amaze and Mastercard rates. You may already know this but 2,000 InstaPoints can be converted into a S$20 cash rebate, but do note that Amaze has implemented a 2% fee on all GrabPay and e-wallet top-ups from 05 July 2023. The Amaze Card introduced some negative changes back in April 2022 to limit the amount of cashback cardholders can earn each quarter, and with the upcoming reduction of InstaPoints earning rate, card usage is starting to look a little less attractive.

While I will likely still use the Amaze Card for overseas spending to double-dip on 4 miles per dollar (and now 6 miles per dollar on my new UOB Lady's Card), it is clear where the card is heading and you should definitely make hay while the sun shines because good things do not last forever. Do remember that InstaPoints will only be awarded on foreign-currency transactions that are at least S$10 and the number of InstaPoints is capped at 500 per transaction (so make sure you break them up where possible if you have a large expense coming up).