Maybank repeats its 2-month ‘Triple One’ promo for the Horizon Visa

If you hold the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card you’ll probably recall the last ‘Triple One’ promotion, which ran for 2 months during August and September this year and awarded an extra mile per dollar on regular earning rates for retail spending, subject to some conditions.

Well the promotion is back for the festive season, kicking off again this Thursday (1st November 2018) and running until the end of the year.

As with the last promotion, you’ll need to spend at least S$1,000 on your card in both November and December to enjoy the enhanced rates throughout the promotional period. Alternatively you can choose to participate for just one of the two months if you prefer, by meeting the minimum qualifying spend in that particular month.

The bonus rates

The headline rate of 4.2 miles per dollar is in the dining, petrol and taxi fares spend category, however once again we feel it’s the increases for overseas spend and general (local) spending which are more impressive – rising to 3.0 miles per dollar and 1.4 miles per dollar respectively.

BOC is better

If you went for it, you’ll still do better with the BOC Elite Miles card, assuming you’ve received yours (yes, many still haven’t). That card is awarding 2.0 miles per dollar on local spend and 5.0 miles per dollar on overseas transactions until the end of 2018.

See our full review of the BOC Elite Miles card for details.

For dining, petrol and taxi fares however, the Maybank Horizon Visa comes out on top during this campaign.

Overseas spend

As we outlined during the previous promotion, Maybank are only charging a 2.5% foreign transaction fee, so at 3 miles per dollar on overseas spend that’s a very attractive cost per mile of just 0.91 cents. That’s only beaten by the bonus rate on the BOC Elite Miles card.

Effectively this is based on the additional amount you are paying using your credit card over and above using cash overseas obtained at Singapore money changer rates. For the full methodology on the cost per mile analysis, see our article from February.

Cost per mile on overseas credit card transactions by card
(Best to worst, November & December 2018)

* Note that the BOC Elite Miles overseas transaction fee will increase to 3.0% in mid-January 2019, increasing the cost per mile to 1.07 cents, however this Maybank promotion will have ended by then.

As you can see that’s a very competitive cost per mile on overseas spend during this promotion, which again of course does depend on a minimum total spend of S$1,000+ on the card in each of the calendar months you wish to participate in (November and December if you want to maximise the offer).

If you’re using the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite card to earn 3.0 mpd overseas, previously one of the cheapest ways to ‘buy’ miles, each mile is costing you 34% more than with the Maybank Horizon Visa under this promotion. If you’re using the UOB PRVI Miles card it’s even worse – you’re spending 57% more per mile with that card.

Another benefit of the Maybank Horizon Visa is that unlike some cards, which require foreign currency transactions to be processed overseas to be eligible for the bonus rate, with this card any transaction posted in foreign currency is included.

That takes away the worry of whether an online shopping transaction for example will be eligible for the higher earning rate – provided it doesn’t post in SGD it will qualify.

The Mileslife equation shifts

In our full review of the Maybank Horizon Visa we broke down some computations on whether you should be using this card to earn the enhanced rate on dining transactions at a restaurant which is also included in the Mileslife program. It’s a little complicated, as Mileslife transactions are not coded under the dining category meaning they will earn at the local general spend rate on this card.

It meant that outside the offer period you should be using your Maybank Horizon Visa to pay the restaurant directly at Mileslife 1 mile per dollar restaurants, you should be paying through Mileslife at 3 miles per dollar restaurants and for 2 miles per dollar restaurants it probably didn’t matter either way, depending what other general spending cards you hold.

With these new rates though the calculation is slightly different, again assuming you are meeting the S$1,000+ spending threshold in one or both of the calendar months to activate the enhanced promotional earning rates.

Remember the Maybank Horizon Visa card will earn 1.4 miles per dollar for Mileslife transactions during this promotional period.

In summary, at a Mileslife restaurant during this promotion:

• Offering 1 mile per dollar – use the Maybank Horizon Visa to pay the restaurant directly (4.2 mpd vs. 2.4 mpd)
• Offering 2 miles per dollar – use the Maybank Horizon Visa to pay the restaurant directly (4.2 mpd vs. 3.4 mpd)
• Offering 3 miles per dollar – pay through Mileslife (4.4 mpd vs. 4.2 mpd)

Terms and conditions

The bonus rates will apply provided you spend a minimum total of S$1,000 on this card either in the calendar months of November or December (to earn the bonus rates in each respective month), or both months (to earn the bonus rates throughout the promotional period).

For example if you spend $950 in November and $1,100 in December you will only earn the bonus rates for transactions in December. You must achieve a total spend of $1,000+ in both calendar months for all your transactions in both months to be eligible for the bonus.

Miles are awarded as bonus ‘TREATS Points’ (2.5 points = 1 mile) and will be awarded based on the transaction date. For details of how the ‘TREATS Points’ scheme works and their validity, see our card review.

The offer is capped at 10,000 bonus miles (25,000 bonus ‘TREATS Points’) per calendar month, so you’ll max out this particular promotion with $10,000 of total spending each month.

Remember also the combined cap on ‘regular’ bonus miles, which applies generally to the card (12,000 miles per month, or 30,000 ‘TREATS Points’) remains in force, so if your spending levels are high you may hit this threshold first. Your earning rate would then drop to 1.4 miles per dollar until this ‘Triple One’ offer was exhausted, then down to 0.4 miles per dollar after that, something you don’t want to happen.

For a breakdown of how the ‘regular’ monthly cap on bonus miles works for this card, click here to go straight to that section of our full review. If your monthly spend in the bonus categories on this card doesn’t exceed S$4,000 you don’t have to worry about any of this. Above that, take a look as it may affect you.

For a full list of the terms and conditions for this offer, which is valid for Maybank Privilege Horizon Visa Signature and Horizon Visa Signature Cards, click here.

Summary

Once again this Maybank promotion with earn rates of 1.4 miles per dollar for local spend and 3.0 miles per dollar for foreign currency transactions are now up there with the best cards on the market during this 2-month promotion, notably excluding the BOC Elite Miles card if you have one.

During the campaign the Maybank Horizon Visa represents one of the most competitive cost per mile rates for foreign currency transactions.

The 4.2 miles per dollar on dining transactions is a very attractive rate and if you already hold this card primarily to take advantage of that perk then you’ll no doubt make good use of the bonus in November and December. Be careful at Mileslife restaurants – do the maths on the earning rate before deciding which payment method to use as the calculation has shifted slightly during this promotion.

Do bear in mind the minimum S$1,000 spend in November and/or December using this card to be eligible for the bonus miles in each respective month (do both to get the bonus through the whole 2 month period).

Also remember the ‘regular’ bonus miles cap might come into play before the cap on this +1 mile promotion if you’re spending a large amount each month. For more than $4,000 spending in the bonus categories per month – you need to consider this before spending much more.

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(Cover Image: Maybank)