Maybank Horizon Visa Signature offering uncapped 3.2 mpd on FCY spend

Fresh from a bonus category shake-up, this month the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card has repositioned itself into the fee-free general spend card category, with one important feather in its cap – an unlimited 2.8 mpd earn rate on FCY transactions, if you spend at least S$800 on the card in the same calendar month.

The change came at the expense of a 3.2 mpd rate for dining, petrol, taxis and hotel bookings via Agoda, but it certainly simplifies the card’s bonus structure, which also includes a 2.8 mpd earn rate on air tickets with any airline, capped at S$10,000 per month.

To celebrate the card’s new lease of life, Maybank has launched a new promotion offering up to 3.2 mpd in the bonus earn categories, 14% more than usual, for both new and existing Horizon Visa Signature cardholders.

Maybank is offering its Horizon Visa Signature cardholders an upsized 3.2 mpd earn rate on FCY spend (uncapped) and air ticket transactions (capped at S$10,000 per calendar month), over the next three months, subject to a minimum spend of S$800 on the card in the same calendar month.

Here’s how the deal is structured, depending on on whether you are an existing or new-to-card customer.

	Existing Cardholder	New-to-Card
Card Approval	Before 1 Nov 2023	1 Nov 2023 – 31 Mar 2024
Spend Period	1 Nov 2023 – 31 Jan 2024	3 full calendar months from approval
Min. monthly spend	S$800
Earn rate (FCY & Air Tickets)	2.8 mpd 3.2 mpd

New-to-Card customers will have three full calendar months to benefit from the enhanced earn rate, not including the month of card approval.

For example, if card approval is on 15th November 2023, new cardholders can earn 3.2 mpd under this offer from 15th – 30th November 2023, 1st – 31st December 2023, 1st – 31st January 2024 and 1st – 29th February 2024.

For existing cardholders, the deal is for a fixed three-month period from 1st November 2023 to 31st January 2024.

If you’re not a Horizon Visa Signature cardholder yet and you have significant FCY spend coming up later in 2024, you may wish to hold off applying until the three-month spend window covers your peak FCY expenses (e.g. if you’re approved in mid March 2024, you’ll earn 3.2 mpd on FCY spend through to 30th June 2024).

The Maybank Horizon Visa Signature (see our updated review) comes with annual fee waiver for the first three years of card membership, subsequently waived from year four onwards with $18,000+ spend in the previous membership year.

The Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card now earns miles at three basic rates, if your total spend on the card is less than $800 in the same calendar month.

Less than S$800 total spend
in same calendar month

Spend Type	Spend Category	Earn Rate
Local	Education Insurance Medical Utilities	0.24 mpd
	Dining Food Delivery Supermarkets Transport Petrol Department Stores Selected Retail Stores Air Tickets Hotels Cruises Travel Packages	1.2 mpd
	All other Local Spend	0.4 mpd
FCY	All FCY Spend	1.2 mpd

Not much to write home about here for low spenders – you can be earning at least these rates or far more with other general and bonus spend cards on the market in Singapore.

On the plus side, the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card is one of the few on the market in Singapore offering miles on spend categories such as Insurance, Utilities, Private Hospitals, Charities and Education, though only at 0.24 mpd.

Local retails spend that earns 1.2 mpd with this card must fall under one of the following specific Merchant Category Codes (MCCs).

The key to this card is unlocking its bonus earn rate of 2.8 mpd on all FCY spend (completely uncapped) and on air tickets in any currency (up to $10,000 per calendar month), and this is the rate that’s hiked to 3.2 mpd during this three-month promotion.

To do so, you’ll need to spend $800 or more on the card (on any eligible transaction), though if you’re looking to benefit from the uncapped FCY spend bonus, hitting the minimum spend is likely to be no issue.

S$800+ total spend
in same calendar month

Spend Type	Spend Category	Earn Rate
Local	Education Insurance Medical Utilities	0.24 mpd
	Dining Food Delivery Supermarkets Transport Petrol Department Stores Selected Retail Stores Hotels Cruises Travel Packages	1.2 mpd
	All other Local Spend	0.4 mpd
FCY	All FCY Spend	2.8 mpd 3.2 mpd
Local or FCY	Air Tickets*	2.8 mpd 3.2 mpd*

* Capped at S$10,000 spend per calendar month, thereafter 1.2 mpd

As you can see it’s the S$800+ spend cardholders that pick up the perks in general with this card, and that’s the focus of this promotion, with FCY spend at a very nice uncapped 3.2 mpd, and air tickets, at a capped 3.2 mpd.

Note that the air tickets MCC definition shown above (4511 and 3000 – 3350) also applies when using this card in that 3.2 mpd bonus category.

To unlock this 3.2 mpd bonus earning deal, you’ll have to make S$800 spend in any eligible category with the card during the same calendar month.

Maybank maintains a list of spend which will not earn TREATS Points and will also not count towards the minimum $800 monthly spend to unlock the enhanced 3.2 mpd earn rate during this offer (or the 2.8 mpd earn rate once this offer is finished).

Some of the most important exclusion categories are:

• NETS and eNETS transactions
• Government or government-related payments
• Betting or gambling transactions
• Grab mobile wallet top-ups and other stored value card purchases or top-ups
• Transactions made via AXS or SAM machines
• Payment of funds to prepaid accounts like EZ-Link and YouTrip

Note that retail transactions charged to the card within a calendar month that are successfully posted to the card account prior to the 6th day of the following calendar month will be counted towards the minimum spend of the month that the transactions are made.

Retail transactions charged to the card which are made within a calendar month that are only posted to the card account after the 6th day of the following month will be counted towards the following month’s minimum spend.

Here are links to the promotion page and the terms and conditions applicable to this bonus miles earning offer.

 8X TREATS Points promo
 8X TREAST Points T&Cs

The main draw for this card is its uncapped 2.8 mpd for all spend in foreign currency, either at point-of-sale (physical) or online, and for this three-month period that’s hiked to 3.2 mpd.

This gives the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card the highest uncapped general spend earn rates for FCY transactions in Singapore during this promotion.

With no exclusions mentioned, this rate should also apply for FCY spend in the Education, Medical, Insurance and Utilities categories, which could be very useful for things like college and university fees.

Here’s how the promotional rate compares to other cards on the market with uncapped FCY earning of more than 2 mpd.

Uncapped FCY earn rates
(November 2023)

Card	FCY Earn Rate
Maybank Horizon VS	3.2 mpd**
SCVI	3.0 mpd*
UOB PRVI Miles	2.4 mpd
HSBC T1	2.4 mpd
HSBC VI (Step up rate)	2.25 mpd^
DBS Altitude	2.2 mpd
DBS Vantage	2.2 mpd
OCBC Voyage	2.2 mpd
OCBC 90oN	2.1 mpd

* Subject to spending S$2,000+ (any spend) in the same statement month, otherwise 1 mpd
** Subject to spending S$800+ (any spend) in the same calendar month during this promotion, otherwise 2.8 mpd after the promotion, or 1.2 mpd without the minimum spend
^ Only applicable from year 2 of card membership onwards, provided you spent at least $50,000 in the previous year, otherwise 2 mpd

The next best option is the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite (SCVI) card, earning 3 mpd for FCY transactions, but that requires a minimum spend of S$2,000 (across all spend) in the same statement cycle, significantly higher than the Horizon Visa Signature’s $800 minimum spend.

The SCVI card also has a high income requirement of S$150k and an annual fee of S$594, pinning it in a different category to the Horizon Visa Signature’s S$30k income threshold and fee-free for the first three years offering.

Of course it’s worth bearing in mind that many 4 mpd and 6 mpd cards on the market in Singapore earn at their bonus rates for FCY spend as well as for local spend, so you should be exhausting these first where possible, subject to the spend category and monthly caps applicable.

For example, online spend in FCY with the DBS WWMC card earns 4 mpd, but that’s capped at S$2,000 per month.

The Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card is offering new and existing cardholders an uncapped 3.2 mpd on foreign currency transactions, provided you spend at least $800 on the card in the same calendar month, for the next three months, instead of the regular 2.8 mpd.

That’s a great selling point for those who regularly max out bonus earn rates of 4 mpd – 6 mpd with other cards on the market, or for large transactions like tuition fees in FCY.

There’s also a generous 3.2 mpd on air ticket spend with any airline, up to $10,000 per calendar month, during the promotion.

The card benefits from being fee-free for the first three years (and probably thereafter for most), but do be aware of lacklustre local earn rates and 12-month points expiry – all covered in our updated review of the card.