The best foreign-currency card here, if you are under 40 and spend every month.
4 mpd on all FCY with no channel rules, plus travel agencies that other cards exclude. Two conditions decide whether you can use it at all.
| Eligibility | Min income | Base earn | Bonus earn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 21 to 39at application, no exceptions | S$30,000S$45,000 for foreigners | 0.4 mpdand what a quiet month pays | 4 mpdall FCY, dining, shopping, travel |
| Monthly cap | Activation floor | Annual fee | Points expiry |
| S$1,000shared across all bonus categories | S$500total card spend, or everything drops to base | S$87.20waived two years, then on S$6,000 spend | 12 to 15 monthsshort, unless on Rewards Infinite |
This card pays in TREATS Points, and 2.5 of them buy 1 airline mile, so "4 mpd" means every S$1 earns 4 miles. Two conditions matter more than the rate: you have to be under 40 to get it, and you have to spend S$500 in a month for the bonus to apply at all.
TLDR
4 mpd on every foreign currency transaction with no online-or-contactless rule attached, which is unusually clean. Dining, shopping, travel and entertainment earn the same in SGD. The annual fee is S$87.20 and waived for two years, so the cost of trying it is nothing.
Two conditions, and they are unforgiving. You must be 21 to 39 at application, and you must spend S$500 of total card spend in a calendar month or the entire bonus drops to 0.4 mpd. Not the amount above S$500. All of it.
Get it if
- You are under 40 and spend abroad or in foreign currency regularly
- You book travel through online agents, which this card actually pays on
- You want a genuinely cheap card: S$87.20, waived for two years
Look elsewhere if
- You are 40 or over, in which case you cannot apply at all
- Your spending is uneven and some months fall below S$500
- You accumulate slowly: the points expire in 12 to 15 months
What does it cost to hold?
S$87.20 a year, waived for the first two years, then waived again on S$6,000 of annual spend.
| Card | First year | Second year on |
|---|---|---|
| Principal card | Waived | S$87.20 |
| Supplementary card | Waived | Free |
The cheapest card in this series by a distance, and the waiver condition lines up exactly with the spending you need to do anyway to earn the bonus. If you are hitting the S$500 monthly floor, the fee takes care of itself.
How many miles do I earn?
4 miles per dollar on all foreign currency and four broad SGD categories, capped at S$1,000 a month in total.
| Spend type | Rate | Condition | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| All foreign currency | 4.0 mpd | Any channel | Shared S$1,000 |
| Dining, shopping, travel, entertainment | 4.0 mpd | Any channel | Shared S$1,000 |
| Everything else | 0.4 mpd | Uncapped | |
| Any category in a month under S$500 | 0.4 mpd | The floor was missed | Uncapped |
No channel rules is the quiet advantage. Almost every 4 mpd card here makes you satisfy a category and a payment method at once. This one does not care whether you tapped, inserted, or typed the number in. On foreign currency in particular, that removes the most common way people lose a bonus.
The cap is shared, not per category, so S$1,000 is the total across FCY, dining, shopping, travel and entertainment combined. It is the tightest ceiling of the four cards here.
What spend actually counts for the bonus?
All foreign currency, plus dining, shopping, travel and entertainment in SGD. Supermarkets are the notable absence.
| What you’re buying | Bonus? | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| 🌏 Anything in foreign currency | ✓ Yes | Any channel, no online or contactless rule |
| 🧳 Travel agencies and OTAs | ✓ Yes | MCC 4722 is on the list, which is rare |
| 🍜 Dining and food delivery | ✓ Yes | Restaurants, fast food and caterers |
| 🛍 Retail and department stores | ✓ Yes | A wide list of shopping MCCs |
| 🎬 Cinemas, bars, ticketing | ✓ Yes | Entertainment is a named category |
| 🏪 Supermarkets | ✕ No | MCC 5411 is absent from the bonus list entirely |
| 💡 Utilities, insurance, education | ✕ No | Excluded outright, as on most cards |
Do you need a workaround here?
No, and that is the point. This card already earns on the thing most cards make you route around.
On the HSBC Revolution there is a whole section about paying through Atome to get a travel booking to code as something else, because MCC 4722 was dropped from its bonus list in January 2024. On this card 4722 is simply on the list. Book through the online travel agent, earn 4 mpd, move on.
| Card | How the booking earns | Miles |
|---|---|---|
| HSBC Revolution, booked directly | MCC 4722, outside the bonus | 1,200 |
| Maybank XL, booked directly | MCC 4722, inside the bonus | ~12,000 |
The honest caveat. The S$1,000 monthly cap means a S$3,000 booking cannot earn the bonus all at once on this card either. Split across three months it can, which is the same instalment logic the Atome route uses, without the credit product attached.
Where do people lose the bonus?
In a quiet month, and at the 40th birthday.
| Total card spend that month | Rate on bonus categories | Miles on S$800 |
|---|---|---|
| S$499 | 0.4 mpd | 320 |
| S$500 or more | 4.0 mpd | 3,200 |
The floor counts total card spend, bonus and non-bonus together, so it is easier to clear than it first reads. It is still the opposite failure mode to a cap: a cap costs you the spend above it, a floor costs you everything below it.
Maybank does not open this card to applicants aged 40 or over. If you are close to that line and want it, the application date is what counts. There is no relationship exception to ask about.
How do I turn points into miles?
25,000 TREATS to 10,000 miles, at S$27.25 a conversion, and the points expire in 12 to 15 months.
The expiry is the real constraint. Twelve to fifteen months on a S$1,000 monthly cap means a slow accumulator can reach the deadline before reaching a usable balance. Maybank World Mastercard holders get the transfer fee waived, and enrolling in Rewards Infinite removes the expiry, so this card rewards being inside the Maybank ecosystem more than most.
| Programme | TREATS for 10,000 miles |
|---|---|
 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 25,000 |
 Cathay Asia Miles | 25,000 |
What should I pair it with?
Something that covers groceries and does not care how much you spent this month.
| The gap | What it costs you | What closes it |
|---|---|---|
| A month under S$500 of card spend | The entire bonus, not part of it | Any card with no monthly floor |
| Groceries | 0.4 mpd on a bill almost everyone has | A card that pays on supermarkets |
| Spend past the shared S$1,000 cap | 0.4 mpd instead of 4 | Any uncapped general-spend card |
| Utilities, insurance, education | Zero | A card that does not exclude them, or accept it |
Build your miles card stack
One card never covers everything. Put in what you actually spend and see which cards to hold together, and what to put on each.
Build my stack→The verdict, restated
If you are under 40 and spend in foreign currency, this is the most straightforward 4 mpd card in the series: no channel rules, travel agencies included, and a fee that waives itself. Three things worth knowing on day one: the age gate is absolute, a month under S$500 pays base on everything, and the points expire faster than any other card here.
Maybank XL Rewards Card TREATS Points Programme T&Cs, checked 27 July 2026, and the Maybank XL product page. Rates, fees and caps correct as of 5 August 2026. A promotional S$1,500 monthly cap for new cardholders was reported as running to 30 September 2026; the standing S$1,000 cap is used here because promotional caps decay. The foreigner minimum income was not confirmed on an official page. This guide shares my own experience for education, it is not financial advice, and card terms change: always verify with the bank before applying.