InstaReM's AMAZE MasterCard

[Trazora]

hmm ..whats advantage of using FRIZ card then if its only 1% cashback ?

1.75% for online spend with minimal exclusions

 

[silverbomb]

If the billing organisation is strictly only payable via AXS, Friz is not to be mentioned.

Any other stuffs that's normally excluded by banks except prepaids, Friz then come into frame.

 

[fr33d0m]

If the billing organisation is strictly only payable via AXS, Friz is not to be mentioned.

Any other stuffs that's normally excluded by banks except prepaids, Friz then come into frame.

Most can go uob absolute + grab route.

 

[wira]

Most can go uob absolute + grab route.

grab + UOB Abs wins as can be used on all txn including AXS right ?

 

[Trazora]

grab + UOB Abs wins as can be used on all txn including AXS right ?

yes but it eats into the spend limit for powerup challenge

 

[xsoldix]

Guys, anyone encounter such error before?
wondering what this is.. cso not very helpful. Keep repeating the error message to me. The linked card is a CitibanMastercard, credit card and its got more credit limit than i want to use.

Dear xx,​

Your transaction of USD 1000.00 at xxx was declined due to insufficient balance.

Please check the balance on your linked card or try using another card.

sometimes randomly do the transaction again will go through.
And after awhile will hit this error again.

 

[Trazora]

Guys, anyone encounter such error before?
wondering what this is.. cso not very helpful. Keep repeating the error message to me. The linked card is a CitibanMastercard, credit card and its got more credit limit than i want to use.


sometimes randomly do the transaction again will go through.
And after awhile will hit this error again.

probably issue with the website you paying on?

 

[xiaosinsinful]

Why does everyone think that eventually the banks will block the amaze card or change their rules against you simply because the transaction occurs via amaze?? Some folks even seem to be getting a little paranoid and wanting to keep the conspiracy quiet.

My take on this it is that all Amaze is doing is passing transactions through to the paired mastercard CC to act as the actual clearer and with amaze collecting a small clip on the ticket for itself. You are still primarily dealing with the bank of your credit card I suspect (I asked Amaze who i speak to if there is a fraud transaction and they said ... "your bank will investigate") Banks were offering these points cash backs anyway to you & all they are doing now is sharing a little bit with an introducer. It might even be that the 1% is actually just part of the amount they pay to mastercard that is then on-shared with amaze as a side deal from mastercard itself. This could be why amaze only pays the amounts quarterly ... they will get their funds from the banks/mastercard at the end of the quarter and they are simply paying you the 1% further out of this latter that same month.

I bet they have bartered it up with mastercard to stand in and get the FX done at the wholesale rate with a little haircut and then pass the resultant sgd side on again to the cleared bank. If the banks get angry about anything it will be this 2.5% to 3.5 % loss of fx (which is an absolute theft) and they may change their programs to curb around this. I suspect soon foreign transactions fees will start coming through from them to the amaze card hidden in the fx transaction cause if you note their t&C allow for future monthly charge on card and also transaction fees. That can't be coincidental. Amaze clip will be very small so it wont affect banks much on normal transactions and hence i dont see the there is any need to impact points/cash programs. Grab will have been an issue though because mupphets will have been creating bonus points via deposits and then withdrawing the cash and doing it again and again. they had to deal with that somehow.

Overall, before you fear that your bank is getting upset at losing out to amaze just realise how much meat must be in these transactions for banks to offer these points / cash backs any way ... and realise amaze will be just gather a few cents with essentially no service offer other than a re-route and fx overide ... it is easy business with very little care or responsibility and the 1% with severe restrictions is the carrot to entice the flow via amaze to banks not to steal it from banks ... so banks probably are already aware and happy with amaze standing in the middle (expect for fx) cause the impact on them is little other than folks greedily rushing to the best cash back mastercards to support their amaze addiction.

Why would banks be happy?
they are losing the 3.5% FX transaction fee but still have to pay out rewards(in what world does this benefit them?)

assuming you are right, then why did they block merchants that are doing the same thing e.g paypal*

 

[hclee01]

Guys, anyone encounter such error before?
wondering what this is.. cso not very helpful. Keep repeating the error message to me. The linked card is a CitibanMastercard, credit card and its got more credit limit than i want to use.


sometimes randomly do the transaction again will go through.
And after awhile will hit this error again.

Do you have problems just with Citi cards or other cards as well on the particular merchant?

 

[hclee01]

Why would banks be happy?
they are losing the 3.5% FX transaction fee but still have to pay out rewards(in what world does this benefit them?)

assuming you are right, then why did they block merchants that are doing the same thing e.g paypal*

Nothing personal or discriminatory here. The original poster created a new account just to post this message. That puts his credibility at stake.

 

[xiaosinsinful]

Nothing personal or discriminatory here. The original poster created a new account just to post this message. That puts his credibility at stake.

Pretty sure that guy is a troll

Ideas!!​

Junior Member
Joined Today at 11:13 AM
Last seen A moment ago · Viewing thread InstaReM's AMAZE MasterCard
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[fr33d0m]

Why does everyone think that eventually the banks will block the amaze card or change their rules against you simply because the transaction occurs via amaze?? Some folks even seem to be getting a little paranoid and wanting to keep the conspiracy quiet.

My take on this it is that all Amaze is doing is passing transactions through to the paired mastercard CC to act as the actual clearer and with amaze collecting a small clip on the ticket for itself. You are still primarily dealing with the bank of your credit card I suspect (I asked Amaze who i speak to if there is a fraud transaction and they said ... "your bank will investigate") Banks were offering these points cash backs anyway to you & all they are doing now is sharing a little bit with an introducer. It might even be that the 1% is actually just part of the amount they pay to mastercard that is then on-shared with amaze as a side deal from mastercard itself. This could be why amaze only pays the amounts quarterly ... they will get their funds from the banks/mastercard at the end of the quarter and they are simply paying you the 1% further out of this latter that same month.

I bet they have bartered it up with mastercard to stand in and get the FX done at the wholesale rate with a little haircut and then pass the resultant sgd side on again to the cleared bank. If the banks get angry about anything it will be this 2.5% to 3.5 % loss of fx (which is an absolute theft) and they may change their programs to curb around this. I suspect soon foreign transactions fees will start coming through from them to the amaze card hidden in the fx transaction cause if you note their t&C allow for future monthly charge on card and also transaction fees. That can't be coincidental. Amaze clip will be very small so it wont affect banks much on normal transactions and hence i dont see the there is any need to impact points/cash programs. Grab will have been an issue though because mupphets will have been creating bonus points via deposits and then withdrawing the cash and doing it again and again. they had to deal with that somehow.

Overall, before you fear that your bank is getting upset at losing out to amaze just realise how much meat must be in these transactions for banks to offer these points / cash backs any way ... and realise amaze will be just gather a few cents with essentially no service offer other than a re-route and fx overide ... it is easy business with very little care or responsibility and the 1% with severe restrictions is the carrot to entice the flow via amaze to banks not to steal it from banks ... so banks probably are already aware and happy with amaze standing in the middle (expect for fx) cause the impact on them is little other than folks greedily rushing to the best cash back mastercards to support their amaze addiction.

You obviously have no idea how the merchant discount is shared among the parties involved.

Amaze pays little to the original credit card issuers and gets a larger cut as a card issuer.

The banks lose big on this.

 

[SBC]

Any tips on how to use the points on Amaze app?

 

[Trazora]

Any tips on how to use the points on Amaze app?

as in instapoint? Only can use to offset remittance fee.

 

[someusername]

You obviously have no idea how the merchant discount is shared among the parties involved.

Amaze pays little to the original credit card issuers and gets a larger cut as a card issuer.

The banks lose big on this.

Why would the bank care if I get 4mpd using their card directly at amazon.sg or if I get 4mpd using Amaze and their card at amazon.com? Wouldn't the fees be the same? I'm trying to understand the Amaze business model. Is it because of the differences between debit and credit card fees? Surely Amaze gets charged each time they make a charge to the underlying credit card which would be the same as any other merchant.

 

[fr33d0m]

Why would the bank care if I get 4mpd using their card directly at amazon.sg or if I get 4mpd using Amaze and their card at amazon.com? Wouldn't the fees be the same? I'm trying to understand the Amaze business model. Is it because of the differences between debit and credit card fees? Surely Amaze gets charged each time they make a charge to the underlying credit card which would be the same as any other merchant.

Amazon still pays the same. The distribution is different with Amaze inserting itself into the chain. What is used to distribute to the bank, now goes to Amaze. However, Amaze does not pay the same rate as Amazon. So the bank now gets less because Amaze pays less than Amazon.

 

[fone]

Amazon still pays the same. The distribution is different with Amaze inserting itself into the chain. What is used to distribute to the bank, now goes to Amaze. However, Amaze does not pay the same rate as Amazon. So the bank now gets less because Amaze pays less than Amazon.

This does not make any sense to me. What you are claiming is that anyone can set up a business like Amaze and accept credit cards, then tell the bank that you only give them a fraction of the fee for what they are asking for. Kindly teach me how to do this with banks, I want to do that too. The best I can say is that due to their volume of transactions (after getting a sizeable customer base), they may negotiate a slightly better rate, but that is probably given to them by the banks willingly.

So for a $100 charge, say debit card rates are 1%, merchant A gets $99. However, when Amaze charges your card to the same MCC, it should also get the same rates, paying $100 to merchant A, while only receiving $97.60 from the banks (say 2.6% fee for credit cards). This is the cost of customer base acquisition for Amaze/Instarem.

Not sure if there is different fees for credit and debit in Singapore, but I'm quite sure in US, there has to be some difference.

 

[fr33d0m]

This does not make any sense to me. What you are claiming is that anyone can set up a business like Amaze and accept credit cards, then tell the bank that you only give them a fraction of the fee for what they are asking for. Kindly teach me how to do this with banks, I want to do that too. The best I can say is that due to their volume of transactions (after getting a sizeable customer base), they may negotiate a slightly better rate, but that is probably given to them by the banks willingly.

by being a bank, a financial institution, governments and/or a card issuer/acquirer.

Amaze, as a card issuer and a card acquirer(in traditional sense), negotiates with MasterCard the discount rate it pays, which is nowhere near what merchants pay.

Topping up grabpay stops earning rewards precisely because it stops paying the same merchant discount rate as a taxi company.

 

[fone]

by being a bank, a financial institution, governments and/or a card issuer/acquirer.

Amaze, as a card issuer and a card acquirer(in traditional sense), negotiates with MasterCard the discount rate it pays, which is nowhere near what merchants pay.

Topping up grabpay stops earning rewards precisely because it stops paying the same merchant discount rate as a taxi company.

Thanks for the enlightenment.

For the banks, I would presume they may see how much they are earning in total. Through Amaze, people may spend more, thus more for revenue for them.

 

[revhappy]

I think the loophole is closed already. I tried 2 AXS transactions, both failed