Best Credit Cards to Pair with the Instarem Amaze Card

Few things in life are as shiok to my inner Singaporean auntie as doubling my rewards. That can be as simple as the cai fan uncle giving me extra ingredients when I only asked for 1 serving, or my sister hopping into my Grab ride so that I feel my $20 fare benefits not just 1, but 2 people. Essentially, it’s not about spending more—it’s about making your spending count for more.

That’s exactly what you get when you pair the Instarem Amaze Card with a credit card. The Amaze Card not only axes your foreign currency fees, but also earns you 0.5 InstaPoints for every S$1 spent in foreign currency (hello, cashback!). At the same time, you earn your usual credit card rewards on the card you linked to your Amaze Card. One expense, double the rewards. 

That said, there is a catch—not all credit cards can be paired with the Amaze Card. Some cards don’t include Amaze transactions in their bonus spend categories, while some banks have nerfed Amaze rewards entirely (DBS/POSB and UOB, looking at you). 

Need help with the rewards doubling game? Here’s a guide to the best credit cards to link with the Instarem Amaze Card.

Best Credit Cards to Pair with the Instarem Amaze Card

1. What is the Instarem Amaze Card?
2. The best credit cards to pair with the Amaze Card
3. Best Amaze Card pairing: Citi Rewards Card
4. Good Amaze Card pairing: OCBC Rewards Credit Card
5. Other Amaze Card pairings
6. Is it worth using the Amaze Card + credit card combo?
7. What is Instarem Amaze’s foreign currency markup?
8. Why does Instarem Amaze charge a foreign currency markup?
9. Conclusion

1. But first, what is the Instarem Amaze Card?

The Instarem Amaze Card is a digital multi-currency card—think YouTrip, Revolut, and the like, if you’re more familiar with those. These cards help us to bypass the foreign transaction fees that can be a budget killer on vacations. Instead of tapping your credit card and incurring a 3.25% foreign currency fee for that souvenir, you tap your Amaze Card and pay only the price listed. (Find out more about how the Instarem Amaze Card works in our review!)

Among the multi-currency cards, the Instarem Amaze Card stands out because it rewards us with cashback in the form of InstaPoints. The Amaze’s competitors have no such rewards.

The Amaze Card also doesn’t require top-ups (although you can choose to top up your Amaze wallet via PayNow if you want). Instead of having to store money with Amaze, you can link up to 5 Mastercard-issued credit or debit cards to your card. This is where the crux of today’s article lies—which cards should you link if you also want to earn credit card rewards on them?

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2. The best credit cards to pair with the Amaze Card

When selecting a credit card to link with your Amaze card, you should have 3 main considerations in mind. The credit card you link:

• Must be a Mastercard—you can’t link Visa cards with Amaze.
• Should reward you for online spending—the Amaze card converts all transactions to online transactions. However, note that it retains the original merchant category code (MCC). For example, if you buy something at a physical department store with your Amaze card, it’ll be reflected as a purchase at an online department store.
• Should not be from DBS/POSB and UOB—these banks have pulled the plug on rewarding Amaze transactions.

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3. Best Amaze Card pairing: Citi Rewards Card

• Bonus earn rate: 10X Points (4 miles) for every S$1 online spend (excluding travel-related and mobile wallet transactions)
• Minimum spend: None
• Monthly cap: $1,000 (base rate of 1X Point per S$1 spend applies thereafter)
• Rewards expiry: 5 years

Since all Amaze transactions are considered online ones, the best strategy is to pick a credit card that rewards you for online spending. Enter the Citi Rewards Card, which earns you 10X Points for every S$1 spend on online and shopping purchases.

There is a catch—travel-related transactions are disqualified from earning you 10X Points. Here’s a list of the blacklisted travel-related MCCs:

Source: Citi Rewards Card – 10X Rewards Promotion Terms and Conditions

Aside from travel and mobile wallet spends, your general food and shopping expenditure will qualify you for 10X Points on the Citi Rewards Card when linked with the Amaze Card. Amaze will reflect these spends as online transactions and convert the amounts to SGD (so you earn points based on this converted SGD rate).

Not that this is going to affect you while you’re on holiday, but do also note that Amaze transactions related to AXS payments and public transport are not eligible for rewards on any Citi credit cards. These are the blacklisted merchant descriptions to look out for on your statement:

• AMAZE* AXS
• AMAZE* BUS/MRT
• AMAZE* EZ-link
• AMAZE* TRANSIT

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Can I use the Citi SMRT Card with the Amaze Card?

Like the Citi Rewards Card, the Citi SMRT Card has online spend as a bonus category, which you’d think would make it a perfect candidate to pair with the Amaze Card. Alas, this underdog is a Visa-issued card, and only Mastercard-issued ones can be paired with Amaze.

That said, I think it’s an underrated card for your everyday spending on groceries, transport and online purchases. If you’re looking for a cashback card to use in Singapore, check it out.

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4. Good Amaze Card pairing: OCBC Rewards Credit Card

• Bonus earn rate: 10 OCBC$ (4 miles) for every S$1 spend at department stores, clothing shops, shoe stores, and more
• Minimum spend: None
• Monthly cap: $1,100 (base rate of 1X Point per S$1 spend applies thereafter)
• Rewards expiry: 2 years 

The OCBC Rewards Credit Card isn’t a catchall for online transactions like the Citi Rewards Card is. However, it does reward you with the same 4 miles per dollar earn rate for both online and retail spending on these MCCs:

Notice that the OCBC Rewards Credit Card has an MCC whitelist, while the Citi Rewards Card has an MCC blacklist. While the latter covers most categories and only excludes some, the OCBC Rewards Credit Card is only good for earning bonus rates on your clothing, bag, sports, shoes and other selected shopping.

The OCBC Rewards Credit Card may not be as powerful as the Citi Rewards Card, but at least it too has no minimum spend required to earn the 10 OCBC$. Just be mindful that OCBC$ expire after 2 years. Or, to be more specific, they expire on the last day of the 24th calendar month from the month you earned them.

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5. Other Amaze Card pairings

While the 2 cards above are the best to pair with the Amaze Card you can pair any Mastercard credit or debit card with your Amaze Card. It’s just that you may not earn much by way of credit card rewards with certain pairings. No matter which credit card you link, you will still earn 0.5 InstaPoints for every S$1 spent in foreign currency on your Amaze Card.

Want to also earn rewards on your credit card? The secret is simple: make sure you earn rewards on online transactions. The Amaze Card changes the mode of spending to online, but does not alter the spend category (e.g. dining, shopping, etc).

The Maybank Family and Friends Card lets you earn up to 8% cashback globally on 5 cashback categories of your choice. One of your options is online shopping, which includes online spending at apparel, shoes, accessories, leather goods, luggage or other fashion stores.

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6. Is it worth using the Amaze Card + credit card combo?

Yes, as long as you:

1. Earn Amaze rewards (InstaPoints) and credit card rewards
2. Pay less in foreign currency fees than if you used your credit card

For point 1, you’re good as long as Instarem doesn’t nerf their InstaPoints to extinction and you use a credit card we recommended above.

Point 2 is what needs greater discussion. Notice that I didn’t say you pay $0 in foreign currency fees. While the Amaze card does not charge you a foreign transaction fee like the 3.25% you cough out with a credit card, they do have an implicit foreign currency markup.

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7. What is Instarem Amaze’s foreign currency markup?

The Amaze Card has an approximate 2% foreign currency markup, based on reports online. You also get 0.5% cash rebate from the InstaPoints you’ll earn, up to a cap of $1,000/month spending. That offsets the foreign currency markup and brings it down to roughly 1.5%. Since this is lower than the 3.25% fee you face with credit cards, the Amaze Card is worth your while.

The Amaze foreign currency markup is neither fixed over currencies nor over time—to get the latest rate for your specific currency conversion, you’d need to check your foreign currency purchase history. Compare the SGD amount that Amaze converted those purchases to with the SGD amount that Mastercard would have converted them to based on Mastercard’s currency conversion rates. The Amaze foreign currency markup is the difference between them.

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8. Why does Instarem Amaze charge a foreign currency markup?

When you make a purchase in a foreign currency, Instarem has to convert the amount to SGD. They don’t do this service for you for free (how would they make money otherwise?), but they also don’t want to tell you they’re charging you something.

So what can Instarem do? It’s simple. While they don’t explicitly charge you a fee, they do implicitly mark up their exchange rates from the “real” exchange rates. Thus, the Amaze Card’s foreign currency fee is spread over their exchange rate—this is why you might also see this cost being referred to as a spread fee.

Before you freak out, no, Instarem is not lying to us. They just aren’t telling us the explicit truth. Take a look at their FAQ below—it’s implicit that there is some kind of markup in their “competitive FX rates”, which they never promised have no markup:

Image: Instarem

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9. Conclusion

The Instarem Amaze Card allows you to save on foreign currency fees compared to if you just used your credit card overseas. You also earn 0.5 InstaPoints for every S$1-equivalent in foreign currency, capped at $1,000 spend per month. Redeem 2,000 InstaPoints for $20 cashback, or a cash rebate rate of 0.5%.

But what sets the Amaze Card apart from other digital multi-currency cards is that you can also earn your usual credit card rewards when you link your card to it. The top choice by far is the Citi Rewards Card, which lets you earn 4 miles per dollar on a wide variety of online purchases. The key thing to remember is that Amaze transactions are coded as online transactions.

Until...

• the Amaze Card’s foreign currency markup exceeds the Mastercard rates, or
• Instarem removes their InstaPoints rewards, or
• Citibank nerfs Amaze transactions

...the Amaze Card deserves a spot in your wallet—right beside your paired credit card of choice.

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