Maybank XL Rewards Card Review: Strong Miles Card for Travel

The Maybank XL Rewards Card (a.k.a. Maybank XLR) was recently launched in July 2025. With a great earn rate of 4 miles per dollar (4 mpd) on useful spending categories like dining, shopping, flights, hotels, entertainment and overseas, let’s look at all the reasons why this is one of the best miles credit cards in Singapore.

Note: There are two variants of Maybank XL Cards launched recently:

1. Maybank XL Rewards Card: Earn 4 miles per dollar
2. Maybank XL Cashback Card: Get 5% cashback

Both are great cards with similar conditions to receive the advertised earn rates, but this review focuses on the Miles variant, the Maybank XL Rewards Card.

Key information

Here’s a quick rundown of the important details of the Maybank XL Rewards Card.

Pros and cons

Here are the pros and cons of the Maybank XL Rewards Card, as compared to other Singapore credit cards.

Annual fee

Maybank XL Rewards Card has a lower-than-usual annual fee of S$87.20, which is automatically-waived for the first 2 years.

Related: Best Credit Cards with No Annual Fee

Is the annual fee worth it?

Although the Maybank XL Rewards Card is one of the best Miles credit cards in Singapore, the annual fee is not worth it as it doesn’t come with any miles (unlike cards like Citi PremierMiles and HSBC TravelOne). In other words, the annual fee would negate some value that you earned from the card throughout the year.

Cardholders are encouraged to keep track of the card anniversary date, and request for an annual fee waiver every single year.

Free Google Sheet Template: Suitesmile’s Credit Card Management Sheet

How to request for an annual fee waiver?

Maybank credit card annual fee waivers can be done over the phone. Say something along the lines of “I saw the annual fee posted on my card. I am thinking of cancelling it, but can you waive the annual fee?”.

What if the annual fee waiver is rejected?

Tracking your credit card anniversary gives you time to react if/when an annual fee waiver is not granted. It’s best to request for a waiver as early as possible (i.e. when the annual fee is posted in your card’s latest transactions, before you receive the latest statement).

If the initial annual fee waiver request is rejected, cardholders can attempt the following steps:

1. Appeal the rejection via phone
2. Still rejected? Redeem/Transfer out all remaining points immediately
3. Wait for points transfer to complete
4. Call to cancel the card
5. If it was your only Maybank credit card, apply for the card 9 months later to enjoy another Maybank credit card sign-up promo

Earn rates

Maybank XL Rewards cardholders can earn 10 TREATS points per S$1 (equivalent to 4 miles per dollar) on a number of bonus categories.

Here’s the official definition:

Bonus Category	Merchant Category Code (MCC)	Description
Dine (SGD)	5811, 5812, 5814, 5462	Caterers, Restaurant Dining, Fast Food, Bakeries, Food Deliveries
Shop (SGD)	5262, 5310, 5311, 5331, 5399, 5621, 5631, 5651, 5655, 5661, 5691, 5699, 5941	Apparels, Departmental Stores, Sporting Goods, Paid TV/Radio
Travel (SGD)	3000-3299, 3300-3308, 4511, 4722, 7011	Airlines, Lodging, Travel Agencies
Play (SGD)	4899, 5813, 5815, 7832, 7993, 7994	Bars, Cinemas, Ticketing Agencies, Arcades
Foreign Currency (Online or Overseas)	N/A	Transactions in foreign currencies

In layman’s term, this covers a wide variety of eligible merchants, including those in the following categories:

• Online shopping
• In-Person shopping
• Dining
• Flights
• Hotels
• Food delivery
• Miles/Points purchases
• Foreign Currency (online or overseas, any merchant category*)

^{*Broad foreign currency coverage including Utilities, Hospitals and School Fees.}

✍️ The only key spending category not covered by this card is Groceries.

To enjoy this great earn rate, cardholders will have to accumulate at least S$500 of spending per calendar month, up to S$1,000 in the same period. In other words, the Maybank XL Rewards Card is only good when you spend between S$500 to S$1,000 per calendar month on the bonus categories.

Depending on your expenditure, this monthly limit may be too low. Consider other 4 mpd cards for spendings beyond S$1,000/month.

All other transactions earn just 1 TREATS point per dollar (0.4 mpd). This includes transactions that don’t belong in the bonus categories, under or above the spending bracket (S$500-S$1,000) and excluded transactions (more on this later).

Can I check the MCC before paying?

It requires a little trick, but you can! To do this, you’ll need an Amaze card to intentionally get a payment declined.

Here are the steps:

1. Make sure that you have $0 or low balance in your Amaze wallet
2. Link your Amaze card to the Amaze wallet (instead of a credit card)
3. Next, attempt to pay for the online transaction using your Amaze card details
4. The transaction will not go through (due to insufficient balance), but you can now check the MCC of the transaction in the ‘Activity’ tab in your Amaze app

Related: How to Check Merchant Category Code (MCC) Before You Pay

Amaze usage

The Maybank XL Rewards Card is best used with Amaze for foreign currency transactions (in-person or online) to save about 1% in foreign currency fee on SGD bonus categories like flights, hotels, dining, shopping (in-person & online), food deliveries and entertainment.

You’d earn 4 mpd with about 2% FX loss with this strategy (instead of 3.25%).

Usual benefit without Amaze
• Earn 4 mpd on SGD bonus categories like flights, hotels, dining, shopping (in-person & online), food deliveries, entertainment
• Earn 4 mpd on any foreign currency spending (overseas & online)

Benefits with Amaze
• Earn 4 mpd on selected SGD categories like flights, hotels, dining, shopping (in-person & online), food deliveries, entertainment
• Save about 1% in foreign currency fee

Related: Best Credit Cards to Pair with Amaze

Calendar or statement month?

Bonus earn rates on specialized miles credit cards typically have monthly caps, which come in two forms:

1. Calendar month (ends on the last day of the calendar month)
2. Statement month (ends the day before your statement date)

The Maybank XL Rewards Card’s bonus earn rate is capped at S$1,000 worth of spending per calendar month. This translates to a maximum of 10k points (4k miles) that can be earned in a month, or 48,000 miles in a calendar year.

Transaction date or posting date?

Credit card providers determine monthly qualifying spend based on either:

1. Transaction date (date of the transaction, in Singapore time)
2. Posting date (date when the transaction is posted in your credit card account, usually 1 to 3 days after the transaction)

The Maybank XL Rewards Card considers the posting date. However, as shared in point 3.5 of the terms and conditions, transactions made in a calendar month that are posted by the 10th day of the folowing month will count towards the minimum spending and cap of the transaction month.

For example, a transaction made on 31st May and posted on 3rd June will count towards the minimum spending and cap for the month of May.

Maybank rewards exclusions

Maybank shares a list of transactions that are excluded from earning rewards points. Using the Maybank XL Rewards Card for the following transactions will not earn any points:

tl;dr: Maybank’s exclusion list is more generous than other banks as transactions like Utilities, Hospitals and School Fees are not mentioned; giving you the opportunity to earn 4 mpd on these categories, but only when paying in a foreign currency (the card’s bonus category without MCC restrictions).

When are points credited?

Cardholders will receive both their base (1X) and bonus (9X) TREATS Points at the same time. These points are credited in a single lump sum on the 11th of the calendar month following the transaction month.

This is an important detail to note, as it means you’ll need to wait until the next month to see your rewards. For instance, points from all your eligible spending in September will only be credited on 11 October. Factoring in this delay can be crucial when planning your points redemptions.

Points expiry

Points earned on the Maybank XL Rewards Card expire 1 year after the calendar quarter when they were earned.

Here are some examples:

Points earned	Points expire (1 yr from transaction quarter)
20 Sep 2025 (Q3)	30 Sep 2025 (Q3)
5 Oct 2025 (Q4)	31 Dec 2025 (Q4)
15 Nov 2025 (Q4)	31 Dec 2025 (Q4)
27 Dec 2025 (Q4)	31 Dec 2025 (Q4)
3 Jan 2026 (Q1)	31 Mar 2027 (Q1)

How to check expiring points?

Maybank XL Rewards cardholders can check expiring TREATS points in their monthly credit card statement, which can be found in the Maybank2u mobile app.

Rewards Infinite programme

As mentioned above, one of the significant drawbacks of the Maybank XL Rewards Card is the short 12 to 15-month expiry period for TREATS Points earned. However, the workaround to make your points evergreen is by qualifying for the Rewards Infinite programme.

There are two ways to qualify for the Rewards Infinite programme:

1. Complimentary Membership: Hold a Maybank World Mastercard or Maybank Visa Infinite Card
2. Qualify by Spending: Spend a minimum of S$24,000 in a membership year on points-earning Maybank credit cards, including the Maybank XL Rewards Card

Points pooling

Points earned on the Maybank XL Rewards Card are pooled together with those that are earned on other points-earning Maybank cards, like the Maybank World Mastercard and Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Card.

Related: Best Maybank Credit Cards in Singapore

Points pooling gives you 2 key advantages:

• If/When an annual fee waiver is not granted, you can cancel the card and keep the points, as long as you’re still holding on to at least 1 other points-earning Maybank card
• If/When transferring points to a frequent flyer program, you’ll only need to pay the transfer fee of S$27.25 once.

Transfer partners

TREATS points earned on the Maybank XL Rewards Card can be converted to miles on 3 useful FFPs, KrisFlyer, Asia Miles and Enrich.

P.S. TREATS points can also be transferred to AirAsia, but it’s almost impossible to extract good value with the 4,000:2,000 conversion ratio. Besides, do you really want to spend time and effort maximizing the benefits of this card just to redeem for budget airline flights?

Related: Credit Card Transfer Partners in Singapore (all banks)

Frequent Flyer Program	Conversion Ratio & Block
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	25,000 TREATS points ↓ 10,000 miles
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	12,500 TREATS points ↓ 5,000 miles
Malaysia Airlines Enrich	12,500 TREATS points ↓ 5,000 miles

How to transfer Maybank points?

You can convert your Maybank TREATS Points to airline miles through the Maybank TREATS SG App or the Maybank2u website. The process is straightforward, but keep in mind the transfer fee of S$27.25 per conversion.

How long do Maybank points transfers take?

TREATS points transfers to airline miles typically take 2 to 5 working days.

Additional note: Where the expiry term permits, cardholders are encouraged to keep their miles/points in the credit cards, instead of transferring to FFPs speculatively. This gives you the flexibility to only transfer the points to an FFP when making a booking, after checking award availability.

Best ways to redeem Maybank points

The best way to redeem Maybank TREATS points is to convert them to air miles and redeem them for flights. As shared above, Maybank only has 3 useful transfer partners (vs Citibank’s 9), each of them offering best value on different routes:

• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer: Between Singapore and New Zealand, Australia, Beijing, Shanghai, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, USA
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: Between Singapore and Hong Kong, Mainland China, Europe
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich: Between Malaysian cities

✍️ Read more about the cheapest ways to fly to Japan, South Korea, Europe, US/Canada using Singapore credit card miles.

Here are some of the best ways to redeem Maybank TREATS points:

Route (to/from SIN)	FFP	Airline	Miles Required (Class)
Singapore ↕ Kota Kinabalu	KrisFlyer	Scoot	2k (Economy)
Johor Bahru ↕ Kuala Lumpur	Enrich	Malaysia Airlines	2.1k (Economy)
Singapore ↕ Hong Kong	Asia Miles	Cathay Pacific	9k (Economy)
Singapore ↕ Beijing, Shanghai	KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	45k (Business)
Singapore ↕ Mumbai, Maldives	KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	45k (Business)
Singapore ↕ Auckland, Melbourne	KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	72k (Business)
Singapore ↕ Paris, London, Milan	Asia Miles	Cathay Pacific	89k (Business)

Maybank FOMO Fridays

Maybank XL Rewards cardholders can enjoy special offers on their Maybank app once every two Fridays.

Key FOMO Fridays promo terms

• Promo runs for 2 weeks, from the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month, at 10am
• Each cardholder can only claim 1 offer per promo period
• Claim offers in the Maybank TREATS SG mobile app
• Limited quantities available (while stocks last)
• Instant purchase offers are immediately charged to the card, after tapping the ‘SAVE TO MY COUPONS’ button

🎁 Check out the latest FOMO Friday deal

Here are some past and present FOMO Fridays deals:

How to save FOMO Fridays offers

Maybank shared the following steps to save FOMO Fridays offers:

1. Download the Maybank TREATS SG app and log in
2. Tap on ‘Privileges’ and ‘FOMO Fridays’
3. Tap on ‘SAVE TO MY COUPONS’ to claim an offer

Sign-up promotion

New cardholders of Maybank can usually get miles, cash, vouchers and/or gadgets worth up to S$700 when applying for a Maybank credit card.

Previous Maybank credit cardholders who cancelled their last card with the bank (as a principal cardholder) more than 9 months ago will also qualify as a new cardholder.

🎁 Check latest sign-up promotion for Maybank XL Rewards Card

Should you get the Maybank XL Rewards Card?

As there aren’t many good Miles credit cards for flight, hotel and overseas spending, the Maybank XL Rewards Card fills the gap nicely. As a bonus, cardholders can also enjoy the great 4 mpd earn rate on other non-travel categories like online shopping, dining, groceries and food delivery.

However, the 1-year points expiry term can be problematic, if you don’t use this card regularly to accumulate enough points to transfer out. Definitely consider qualifying for the Maybank Infinite Rewards Programme to keep the points from expiring.

The S$500 minimum monthly spending requires some pre-planning, because there’s no point of using this card when spending less than that in a calendar month.

✅ You should get the card if you:

• Are between 21 and 39 years old
• Want to accumulate miles fast for future travels (4 miles per dollar)
• Travel regularly
• Understand the best ways to redeem your miles/points
• Want to earn miles on overseas hospital bills, school fees and utilities

❌ You should NOT get the card if you:

• Are under 21 or above 40 years old
• Don’t like to travel much
• Hardly spend over S$500 a month
• Only want cashback
• Don’t want the trouble of requesting for an annual fee waiver every year (consider credit cards with no annual fee)

✍️ Apply for the Maybank XL Rewards Card

Maybank XL Rewards Card terms and conditions

Here are the terms and conditions to earn TREATS points on the Maybank XL Rewards Card:

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Maybank TREATS points terms and conditions

Here are the terms and conditions for Maybank TREATS Points Rewards Programme:

terms_and_conditions