Maybank Platinum Visa Card Overview:
The Maybank Platinum Visa Card may be of interest to you if you’re searching for a cashback credit card that offers rewards for both local and international purchases, especially for insurance payments (that allow Visa payments). With this card, you can earn up to 3.33% cashback on all of your transactions, with a quarterly minimum spending of S$300.
Eligibility & Fees:
- Minimum Age: 21 years old
- Minimum Annual Income: S$30,000 (locals/PRs); S$60,000 (foreigners)
- Quarterly Service Fee: S$21.80 (inclusive of GST), waived for first 3 years
Key Benefits:
- Get up to 3.33% cash rebate on all local and foreign currency
- Minimum monthly spend of S$300/S$1,000/S$2,000 per month in a calendar quarter depending on the tier
- no less than 70% of spending must be spent on general categories
- maximum 30% spending can be spent on selected categories
Tier | Minimum Monthly Spend Amount | Minimum Spend on General Categories (70%) | Maximum Spend on *Selected Categories (30%) |
1 | S$300 | S$210 | S$90 |
2 | S$1,000 | S$700 | S$300 |
3 | S$2,000 | S$1,400 | S$600 |
*Spending on ‘Selected Categories’ are not mandatory | |||
- Quarterly service fee of S$20 (First 3 Years Free). Subsequently, quarterly service fee is waived when you charge to your Card once every 3 months. (please always call the bank for annual fee waiver. Watch this video for more information.)
- Save up to 22.71% on fuel when you link your Diamond Sky Fuel Card to your Maybank Platinum Visa Card.
How to Best Optimise it:
Best Used When you Can Hit the Tiers Consistently for 3 Months in a Quarter
The way to optimise this is to spend up to either S$300, S$1,000 or S$2000 every month for three consecutive months according to Maybank’s quarter.
- Cashback Tier:
Tier | Monthly Spend in a Quarter | Cashback |
Tier 1 | S$300 | S$30 |
Tier 2 | S$1,000 | S$100 |
Tier 3 | S$2,000 | S$200 |
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- Quarterly cashback is based on a fixed 3-month spending period (e.g. Jan–Mar, Apr–Jun, Jul–Sep, Oct–Dec
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If you spend S$330 in Month 1, S$1,010 in Month 2, and S$2,030 in Month 3, you will only get cashback based on S$300/month = Tier 1 (S$30 cashback). This card rewards consistency, so it’s best to plan and track your spending to stay in one tier across the quarter.
- Minimum Spend Mechanics:
Tier | Minimum Monthly Spend Amount | Minimum Spend on General Categories (70%) | Maximum Spend on *Selected Categories (30%) |
1 | S$300 | S$210 | S$90 |
2 | S$1,000 | S$700 | S$300 |
3 | S$2,000 | S$1,400 | S$600 |
*Spending on ‘Selected Categories’ are not mandatory | |||
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- Before July 2025, you will only have to spend S$300, S$1,000, or S$2,000 each month per calendar quarter to get the cashback. Now, it requires stricter spend tracking.
- For example, if you spend S$200 in selected categories, only S$90 will be considered for the S$300 minimum spend. To qualify, you need to spend at least S$210 in general categories.
- What Counts as ‘Selected Categories’:
Selected Categories | MCC |
Insurance | 6300 |
Medical | 4119, 5047, 5122, 5912, 5975-5976, 8011, 8021, 8031, 8041-8043, 8049, 8050, 8062, 8071 and 8099 |
Education | 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299 |
Rental | 6513 |
Professional Services (e.g. CardUp, iPayMy) | 7399 |
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Note: Only 30% of your spending counts toward CardUp/iPayMy (MCC 7399) — you need to spend the other 70% on other eligible categories just to qualify for the cashback tiers. That makes the effective cashback much lower and harder to achieve.
Can be used on Insurance Payments, To A Limited Extent
- Insurance payment can be accumulated as eligible spend for up to 30% of the monthly spend amount for each tier.
Tier | Minimum Monthly Spend | Maximum Monthly Spend on Insurance Transactions | Minimum Monthly Spend on all other Eligible Transactions | Quarterly Cashback Amount |
1 | S$300 | S$90 | S$210 | S$30 |
2 | S$1,000 | S$300 | S$700 | S$100 |
3 | S$2,000 | S$600 | S$1,400 | S$200 |
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Eg. If your monthly spend is S$1,000, only up to 30%—that’s S$300—can be from selected categories like insurance. The remaining S$700 must be from general spending to qualify for cashback.
- For clarity: Insurance payments are not required—but if you include them, they must not exceed the 30% cap for your tier.
Enjoy the Complimentary Travel Insurance
- Get coverage of up to S$500,000 when you pay for your travel fares in full using your Maybank Platinum Visa Card.
What to Avoid:
Exclusion List:
- NETS and eNETS transactions;
- Payments made to government or government-related institutions, agencies or companies or for government or government-related and services (court cases, fines, bail and bonds, tax payment, postal services, parking lots and garages, intragovernment purchases and any other government services not classified here);
- Betting or gambling transactions;
- Brokerage/securities transactions;
- Transactions made via AXS or SAM;
- Transactions of a corporate/commercial nature;
- Transactions classified under the following Merchant Category Codes (“MCC”):
- MCC 6012 – Financial Institutions (Merchandise, Services, and Debt Repayment)
- MCC 6051 – Non-Financial Institutions – Foreign Currency, Non-Fiat Currency (e.g. Cryptocurrency), Money Orders (Not Money Transfer), Account Funding (not Stored Value Load), Travelers Cheques, and Debt Repayment
- MCC 6540 – Non-Financial Institutions (Stored Value Card Purchase/Load) (including but not limited to Grab mobile wallet top-ups)
- FlexiCash, FlexiPay, 0% Interest Instalment Plans, funds transfers, cash advances, finance charges, late payment charges, annual fees, reversals, interest charges, any other miscellaneous charges charged to the Cardmember;
- Payment of funds to prepaid accounts or top-ups of any nature such as those listed below. The following examples are not exhaustive and Maybank reserves the right to amend the list from time to time without giving prior notice or reason to any party:
- EZ LINK PTE LTD (FEVO)
- EZ Link
- EZ-LINK*
- EZLINK
- EZ-Link
- EzLink
- EZLINKS.COM
- EZ Link transport
- EZ-LINK (IMAGINE CARD)
- EZ-Link EZ-Reload (ATU)
- BANC DE BINARY
- BANCDEBINARY.COM
- Flashpay ATU
- MBMONEYBOOKERS.COM
- SNACK BY INCOME
- NETS VCASHCARD
- OANDA ASIA PAC
- PAYPAL* BIZCONSULTA
- PAYPAL* CAPITALROYA
- SKRSkrill.com
- SKRxglobalmarkets.com*
- SKYFX.COM*
- TRANSIT*
- TRANSITLINK*
- TRANSIT LINK*
- WWW.IGMARKETS.COM.SG
- WWW.PLUS500.CO.UK
- WWW.MYEZLINK.COM.SG
- YOUTRIP
- Any transaction deemed by Maybank at its sole discretion to be beyond personal consumption or of a business and/or corporate nature; and
- Any transactions deemed by Maybank at its sole discretion to be unsuitable or inappropriate to be considered as an Eligible Transaction.
- Effective 1 July 2025 these will be excluded:
- MCC 7523 – Automobile Parking Lots & Garage
- MCC 8651 – Political Organisations
- MCC 8661 – Religious Organisations
- MCC 8398 – Charitable and Social Services Organisations
Past Buffs/Nerfs:
Nerfs:
- Effective 1 July 2025, there will be changes on the minimum spend mechanics— a 30% cap will apply on selected categories:
Selected Categories | MCC |
Insurance | 6300 |
Medical | 4119, 5047, 5122, 5912, 5975-5976, 8011, 8021, 8031, 8041-8043, 8049, 8050, 8062, 8071 and 8099 |
Education | 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299 |
Rental | 6513 |
Professional Services (e.g. CardUp, iPayMy) | 7399 |
Tier | Minimum Monthly Spend Amount | Minimum Spend on General Categories (70%) | Maximum Spend on *Selected Categories (30%) |
1 | S$300 | S$210 | S$90 |
2 | S$1,000 | S$700 | S$300 |
3 | S$2,000 | S$1,400 | S$600 |
*Spending on ‘Selected Categories’ are not mandatory | |||
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- This means, even if you spend S$200 in selected categories, only S$90 will be considered for the S$300 minimum spend. You’d need to spend at least S$210 in general categories.
- This will also affect the cap for insurance premiums decreased from 50% to only 30%.
- Maybank also added more to the exclusion list:
- MCC 7523 – Automobile Parking Lots & Garage
- MCC 8651 – Political Organisations
- MCC 8661 – Religious Organisations
- MCC 8398 – Charitable and Social Services Organisations
Is it Worth it:
Advantages:
- Get up to 3.33% cash rebate on all your local and foreign currency spend.
- Quarterly service fee of S$20 (First 3 Years Free). Subsequently, quarterly service fee is waived when you charge to your card once every 3 months.
Disadvantages:
- No quarterly cashback if minimum monthly spend is below S$300 each month in a quarter.
- No additional cashback if you hit beyond the tier.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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Can I earn cashback when I pay my insurance:
You may use Cardup/iPayMy to make payments. You should leverage the new user code/link for Cardup as well as iPayMy first.
For S$30 off your first payment,
Cardup new user code: IJTLFREE
iPayMy new user sign up link: (Note that if you sign up directly, you will only get S$20 off your first payment)
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Do AXS payments count towards this card: no, AXS payments are not eligible for cashback.
Final Thoughts:
- This card is simple and adaptable when you spend only on general categories, but if you need to spend on the selected categories, the spending mechanics can be quite a hassle as it requires monitoring,
- After using Cardup + Maybank Visa Platinum for a few months, I don’t think it is worth the effort as we rarely need to pay an exact amount of $300, $1,000, $2,000. This matters because even if you spend $1999 each month, you still get 100 at the end of the quarter. More so after the nerf where you can only use 30% of your spending on cardup, decreasing the overall value. Personally, I’m using Maybank Family and Friends for daily spending, and then UOB PRVI Miles for insurance payments which you can check out in the links here. If you need a card with lower spending required, consider getting UOB One Card which can supercharge your UOB bank account interest on your savings. For miles, you can use Citi Rewards + Amaze which is my top recommended credit card.
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💳 Credit cards change their T&Cs every so often and it is difficult to stay updated. That’s why I created a Telegram Broadcast where you can receive timely bite-sized updates to get the most out of your spending.
💡 We believe in always paying our credit card bills on time and in full. It is only by doing that, can we fully maximise our credit card benefits.
