No more $UNI Points for Amaze Transactions
UOB just modified its Terms and Conditions for their credit cards to officially exclude AMAZE transactions from earning any $UNI starting 1 October 2024. This means that all transactions through Instarem Amaze cards will stop earning any miles, not even the base 0.4 miles per dollar (mpd).
To recap, the main reason for using the Instarem Amaze Card is:
1. Ability to convert offline purchases to online purchases
2. Convert foreign currency transactions to local transactions without the high foreign transaction fees.
As a result of these features, the most common UOB pairings with Amaze were the UOB KrisFlyer Card and the UOB Lady’s (Solitaire) Cards.
UOB KrisFlyer Card
For the UOB KrisFlyer Card, users would have been able to earn an unlimited 3 mpd on all their spending, regardless of online or offline, through the Instarem Amaze Card. This is primarily because of Amaze’s ability to convert offline to online purchases.
However, one might argue that this functionality has been diminished recently due to Amaze’s introduction of a local S$1,000 spending limit, which thereafter, users will have to pay an additional 1% fee. Despite that, earning 3 mpd even with a 1% fee on a large purchase can be a pretty enticing value proposition.
UOB Lady’s (Solitaire) Card
As for the UOB Lady’s Card, when spending on a foreign currency, users could have used the Amaze Card to save on foreign transaction fees. Depending on the bank, these fees typically go for 3% to 3.5% of the transaction value.
For us, we’ve personally selected the Travel and Food spending categories for our UOB Lady’s Cards. These are categories that
Amaze charges an implicit exchange rate spread whenever it converts a foreign currency to SGD of around 2%. Therefore, by using the Amaze Card, users would have been saving closer to 1% in additional fees.
Remaining Cards with Amaze
With this change, the number of credit cards that can be effectively used with the Instarem Amaze Card is limited to just 2. A reminder that the Amaze Card can only be paired with Mastercards and that DBS has also previously excluded earning DBS Points from Amaze transactions.
| Cards | Mpd | Spending Limits | Categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citi Rewards Card | 4 | S$1,000 per statement month | Non-travel |
| OCBC Rewards | 4 | S$2,000 | Specific retail transactions |
The Citi Rewards is still one of the best credit cards to use with the Amaze Card. This is due to its broad bonus spending categories and a large variety of Citi points transfer partners. When overseas, we’ll always use the Instarem Amaze Card with the Citi Rewards Card as much as possible.
The OCBC Rewards Card, on the other hand, offers a much narrower set of bonus spending categories. This is mainly limited to retail categories but with a slightly higher monthly spending limit. You might
For foreign transactions, you can technically still pair the Amaze Card with general spending cards like the DBS Altitude Card, Citi Premiermiles or the UOB PRVI Card. However, it might not be worth the points earned given the poor currency exchange rates.
Final Thoughts
The Amaze Card is living on borrowed time and the bank’s good favours. Whenever Citibank or OCBC decides to pull the plug eventually, we might no longer have the need for the Amaze Card in our wallets.
However, there’s no reason to stop using it now. Although we now have a lower monthly bonus spending limit from the Citi Rewards Card, it’s still better than nothing. And if you have a player 2, the doubled spending limits are still pretty reasonable for most use cases.
For the affected UOB Cards, we still have the month of September to make full use of what’s left. Just remember to unlink those UOB Cards from your Amaze Card before 1 October 2024.
