Instarem Amaze Card & Citi Rewards

: 2024 Review

Best for miles + overseas purchases + no foreign transaction fees
Price: 
Free
Countries:
Singapore

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Instarem Amaze Card & Citi Rewards

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Review

Instarem Amaze is a debit card that allows you to make overseas payments without foreign exchange (FX) fees. It also offers its own rewards programme called InstaPoints, which can be redeemed for cashback or travel.

The Citi Rewards Card is a cashback card that earns 4 miles per dollar (4 mpd) on the first S$1,000 per statement month spent on offline retail shopping and online transactions excluding travel.

When you link the Citi Rewards Card to your Amaze card, all transactions made with the Amaze card will be converted into online transactions, so you can earn the full 4 mpd on all your spending, even on offline transactions.

How it works

The Amaze Card allows you to fund transactions either via:

  • Amaze Wallet
  • Debit or Credit Card

Here's how these funding methods compare:

  • FX rate: Amaze Wallet is better
  • Lock in FX rate: Amaze Wallet can, debit/credit card cannot
  • Earn credit card rewards: Only debit/credit card option allows you to earn points

Amaze Wallet

The Amaze Wallet allows you to lock-in rates for future spending, similar to Revolut or Youtrip.

It supports 10 currencies: Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Swiss Francs (CHF), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Japanese Yen (JPY), New Zealand Dollar (NZD), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Thai Baht (THB), United States Dollars (USD)

You cannot withdraw the balance directly to a bank account. You can top-up an e-wallet using the Amaze Card but this transaction now gets charged a 2% fee (since 5 July 2023).

Credit Card

You can link up to 5 Singapore-issued Mastercard debit or credit cards.

When you transact using your Amaze Card linked to your Mastercard debit or credit card, then Amaze will convert your foreign currency transaction amount into SGD using its exchange rate, then charge the SGD amount to the linked card.

Good cards for linking to Amaze:

Credit Card Reward rate Cap
Citi Rewards Card (top choice)

Apply Now
4 mpd (all categories except travel)
S$1k per statement month
UOB Lady's Solitaire

Apply Now
6 mpd (select categories) S$3k per statement month
UOB Lady's Card

Apply Now
6 mpd (select categories) S$1k per statement month
UOB Krisflyer Card

Apply Now
3 mpd (select categories) No cap but minimum S$800 annual spend of SIA, Scoot, and KrisShop transactions
Citi Premier Miles

Apply Now
2 mpd (foreign spend), 1.2 mpd (local spend)

Reward rate (4x)

  • By linking Citi Rewards Card, you get 4 miles for every S$1 spent on shopping and online purchases (excluding travel), applicable for up to S$1,000 expenditure per billing cycle
  • Optimize bonus rewards in designated categories for both local and international acquisitions by transforming offline transactions into online ones
  • Receive 1 InstaPoint for each 1 SGD spent on foreign transactions via the wallet and0.5 InstaPoint for each 1 SGD spent on foreign exchange using the linked card
  • Redeem 2,000 InstaPoints for either a cashback of SGD 20 or employ them as discounts for overseas money transfers (cashback gets credited immediately in Amaze Wallet)

Other benefits (Mastercard benefit)

  • Free access to 1,200+ LoungeKey airport lounges if your flight is delayed
  • Up to USD 3,000 insurance for trip inconveniences
  • Up to USD 100,000 travel medical insurance
  • Cashback with 300+ dining, entertainment, hotel, and shopping offers
  • 15 days of free 3GB global data roaming with Flexiroam

Exchange rate

According to Milelion, as of mid-2022, the Amaze Card showing a foreign currency transaction rate of ~1.8%.

However, this is still much lower than your typical 3.25% credit card foreign currency transaction rate without Amaze. You're saving at least 1.45% on each transaction, not including the InstaPoint rebate.

Fees

  • Annual fee: $0
  • No foreign transaction fee (although there has been claims its FX rate = 1.5% above markup)
  • However, there’s a fee of 2% of the transaction amount (minimum fee of SGD 0.50) applied to some types of domestic (SGD) transactions like Grabpay/e-wallet top ups

Sources: Lemon8, Shrug My Shoulders

Dexter Zhuang
Dexter Zhuang

Dexter is the founder of Money Abroad, an online education platform that helps people shift from "live to work" to "work to live." He writes about money, portfolio careers, and life design. Starting his career in San Francisco, he has lived and worked across Southeast Asia and Latin America for the past 6 years. He has 10+ years of experience building products and teams at public companies (Dropbox) and scaling startups (Xendit). His work has been featured in global outlets like Business Insider, CBS, US News & World Report, and Tech in Asia. He graduated from Dartmouth College.

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