Nerfed: Maybank Platinum Visa Caps Spend on Insurance, CardUp and Other Categories From 1st July 2025
From 1st July 2025, Maybank is revising Maybank Platinum Visa’s cashback programme for the worse — spending on selected categories would now be capped at 30% of the monthly minimum spend requirement. These include things like insurance, medical, education and even CardUp transactions. Also, some areas of spend like charitable donations are excluded completely.
Mechanic before 1st July 2025
Before 1st July 2025, Maybank Platinum Visa cardholders just need to spend S$300, S$1,000, or S$2,000 each month for a calendar quarter to get quarterly cashback:
| Tier | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 | Quarterly Cashback |
| 1 | S$300 | S$300 | S$300 | S$30 |
| 2 | S$1,000 | S$1,000 | S$1,000 | S$100 |
| 3 | S$2,000 | S$2,000 | S$2,000 | S$200 |
In October 2023, a nerf came into effect that capped transactions on insurance to at most 50% of the eligible spend each month. This means that if you’re gunning for the S$1,000 tier, only S$500 can be met using insurance premiums.
New mechanic from 1st July 2025
From 1st July 2025 after the nerf takes effect, a cap of 30% will be placed on selected categories. The selected Merchant Category Codes (MCC) are:
| Categories | Merchant Category Codes |
|---|---|
| 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 | 7399 |
This means that the cap for insurance premiums has been reduced from 50% to just 30%, and the cap will extend to other categories like medical and education transactions. In particular, CardUp uses MCCs of 7399 and 6513, which means it is also affected.
RIP Maybank Platinum Visa for CardUp… what about ipaymy?
For a few years now, it has been possible to simply set up a recurring payment and meet the monthly required spend on CardUp to get cashback on things like mortgage and other bills that typically do not accept credit card payment.
With the nerf, CardUp is a major casualty and this change means that it would not be possible to use Maybank Platinum Visa as a “Cardup-only card”. Instead of just charging S$300, S$1,000, or S$2,000 a month to the service and be done with the spend requirement, you can now charge at most 30% to CardUp and have to use the card on other transactions for as much as 70% of the spend requirement.
With CardUp and ipaymy being very similar services, it seems that ipaymy should also be affected by this change. Interestingly, however, ipaymy has been using a variety of MCCs in my experience which means it should be able to sidestep this nerf at least for now. Given the quarterly nature of the card’s cashback and ipaymy’s service fee, do only try this at your own risk.
Excluded categories
Maybank has also decided to exclude 4 MCCs altogether:
- MCC 7523 – Automobile Parking Lots & Garage
- MCC 8651 – Political Organisations
- MCC 8661 – Religious Organisations
- MCC 8398 – Charitable and Social Services Organisations
See Maybank’s website for full details.
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Maybank Platinum Visa has been a pretty good way to get cashback on payments like insurance and other bills with services like CardUp, so this is quite an unfortunate development. Nonetheless, ipaymy might still work and there are other cards to choose from, so it’s still possible to get card rewards from things like your mortgage and tax bills.
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Thanks to Thomas from the Telegram for pointing out
Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.
He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.
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