InstaReM's AMAZE MasterCard

[silverbomb]

seem like a fixed fee involved or varying rates at different timing?

Amaze is dynamic live rates. you pay for a Coke at 10am, 2pm and 10pm is all live rates, the rate of the charge is shown inside the Instarem app. Instarem do not publish the internal rate of margin on their end but my last 3 conseuctive weekends at msia tells me it's between 1.7% (mostly) to 2%

 

[ekardo]

Ya. Factor in 1% cash back and the other 1% for your credit card benefit. Still quite good actually.

 

[CrashWire]

Anyone notice that Amaze card exchange rate these few days are quite bad? Tried on different currencies and it's like more than 2% difference from XE rates. Is that normal?

seem like a fixed fee involved or varying rates at different timing?

Amaze is dynamic live rates. you pay for a Coke at 10am, 2pm and 10pm is all live rates, the rate of the charge is shown inside the Instarem app. Instarem do not publish the internal rate of margin on their end but my last 3 conseuctive weekends at msia tells me it's between 1.7% (mostly) to 2%

For USD, I found that using the Mastercard tool then adding 1.5% to the live rate was quite accurate recently:

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html
Mastercard rates are fast to rise but slow to fall. Not good for buying in USD recently, but slightly better today.

 

[jeremy89632]

Home Depot location in Florida, US.

Only magstripe swipe before then was in Chicago.

Hi, I got the same issue to me in December as well, did you travel overseas? I got hit by 3 transactions in Home Depot of $6.2k SGD and an initial card check by the children's place.

 

[vegavega25]

Hi, I got the same issue to me in December as well, did you travel overseas? I got hit by 3 transactions in Home Depot of $6.2k SGD and an initial card check by the children's place.

Oh wow!

Yes, I was in the US in December. I had initial card checks at HomeDepot.com and Lowes.com (both of which I missed because they didn't trigger alerts) a few minutes before the fraudent transaction. That transaction was in-person, it seems.


Did you have any magstripe-based charges before that? Will PM you separately to compare notes.

 

[BRYSG7]

Amaze is dynamic live rates. you pay for a Coke at 10am, 2pm and 10pm is all live rates, the rate of the charge is shown inside the Instarem app. Instarem do not publish the internal rate of margin on their end but my last 3 conseuctive weekends at msia tells me it's between 1.7% (mostly) to 2%

don't think that's the case. I did 2 transaction of the same amount on the same day, both showed the same amount when posted

 

[stonkogu]

Experiencing a 1.5% spread on a USD transaction as well. The rates are really starting to be bad now

 

[BRYSG7]

Experiencing a 1.5% spread on a USD transaction as well. The rates are really starting to be bad now

why is it bad? you get back 1% in points and i'm sure your credit card is giving you more than 0.5%

 

[HoGnix]

Can this Card be used to top up net FlashPay card? I tried to top up but failed.

 

[Trazora]

Can this Card be used to top up net FlashPay card? I tried to top up but failed.

yes, at GTM

 

[HoGnix]

yes, at GTM

Oh, may be my Card is something wrong. Cannot top up at GTM. Even I link the card to its own wallet.

 

[HyunJin]

Hello bros, i just got gotten my Amaze card and have linked it with my rewards card. I tried to make a payment shopee but it kept showing payment failed. Any idea why?

 

[Trazora]

Hello bros, i just got gotten my Amaze card and have linked it with my rewards card. I tried to make a payment shopee but it kept showing payment failed. Any idea why?

have u toggle the settings in instarem app to enable online spending?

 

[Trazora]

Oh, may be my Card is something wrong. Cannot top up at GTM. Even I link the card to its own wallet.

what own wallet? Either use Amaze physical card or Amaze card on googlepay (on android phone with nfc)

 

[HoGnix]

what own wallet? Either use Amaze physical card or Amaze card on googlepay (on android phone with nfc)

I means linked to its own card, not link to external card.
I suspect my card has problem, card can added to GooglePay, but after that, Google ask me to activate card to input the CVV, the card CVV is not correct after I input.

Update: Solved. I find out my card need to manually activate again! ( I click the Card Detail, the App got Error and after restart, it prompt me I need to activate the card after I received the Physical card).

 

[RedsYWNA]

Oh, may be my Card is something wrong. Cannot top up at GTM. Even I link the card to its own wallet.

Yes i couldnt top up this month, even though i enabled online. Not sure what went wrong too. I ask Amaze, and they werent sure as well.

 

[athaib99]

Oh wow!

Yes, I was in the US in December. I had initial card checks at HomeDepot.com and Lowes.com (both of which I missed because they didn't trigger alerts) a few minutes before the fraudent transaction. That transaction was in-person, it seems.


Did you have any magstripe-based charges before that? Will PM you separately to compare notes.

I have almost exactly the same issue on Dec 23rd started around 2AM SG time
All these fraudulent transactions happened in USA, I was not there and never used my card before for overseas transaction.

1st trx Lowes.com USD0 - should have received OTP if this is an online trx, but no OTP received
2nd trx HomeDepot.com USD0 - also no OTP receive despite it's a "dot com" store

Then the real attack started
3rd trx The Home Depot 1060 (it's a POS - point of sales trx, so someone use a fake card with my card detail at cashier payment point in the store) USD8.7k+ equivalent to almost SGD12k
4th trx The Home Depot #1110 (another POS trx at different POS 6 mins from the previous one) USD2.7k+ equivalent to SGD3.8k+

5th trx attempt (declined as my card remaining limit already exhausted) The Home Depot #05... cant see the rest of the detail (another POS trx at different POS 5 mins from the previous one) USD1.3k+ equivalent to SGD1.8k+

6th trx attempt (declined as my card remaining limit already exhausted) The Home Depot #63... cant see the rest of the detail (another POS trx at different POS 2 mins from the previous one) USD2.8k+ equivalent to SGD3.k+

I woke up on that day with unpleasant surprises of trx notifications in my email inbox.
I quickly reported to Instarem and also took pic of my card in possession just in case I need to prove the card is no where near USA a few hours from those trx (from the pic geo location info).

After submitted the form with details, they told me that they have filed a chargeback against the merchant through Mastercard and it will take 45-90 days to process with NO GUARANTEE of success.
The possibility of having to pay first the fraud amount of almost SGD16k scares the life out of me, so I double report to my linked card issuer bank, Standard Chartered.
Next billing cycle is tomorrow, anxious to see how the billing will look like.

I first thought the fraudster get the hold of my card detail because I made online payment for concert ticket for my daughter (perhaps the ticket agent database got hacked).
But now that I know I'm the third person in this forum that faced similar problem, could it be the data breach/leak is from ....?

I've now permanently blocked my old amaze card and got replacement card.
And I de-activated overseas transaction function.

 

[silverbomb]

I first thought the fraudster get the hold of my card detail because I made online payment for concert ticket for my daughter (perhaps the ticket agent database got hacked).
But now that I know I'm the third person in this forum that faced similar problem, could it be the data breach/leak is from ....?

I've now permanently blocked my old amaze card and got replacement card.
And I de-activated overseas transaction function.

It's abit unfortunate that crooks can card cloning or obtaining card infos easily via swiping the magnetic stripe (so the issue could have happened to any card not solely Amaze) wch is why the networks are moving on from the mag stripes. and more surprising that an often misunderstood "advanced" country like America still takes so long to upgrade their card networks.

In SG, MY, TH I really have to think really hard as to how long ago was the last time I years I needed to swipe my magnetic stripe. All paywave alr (or chip sometimes if the paywave not working).

 

[vegavega25]

I have almost exactly the same issue on Dec 23rd started around 2AM SG time
All these fraudulent transactions happened in USA, I was not there and never used my card before for overseas transaction.

1st trx Lowes.com USD0 - should have received OTP if this is an online trx, but no OTP received
2nd trx HomeDepot.com USD0 - also no OTP receive despite it's a "dot com" store

Then the real attack started
3rd trx The Home Depot 1060 (it's a POS - point of sales trx, so someone use a fake card with my card detail at cashier payment point in the store) USD8.7k+ equivalent to almost SGD12k
4th trx The Home Depot #1110 (another POS trx at different POS 6 mins from the previous one) USD2.7k+ equivalent to SGD3.8k+

5th trx attempt (declined as my card remaining limit already exhausted) The Home Depot #05... cant see the rest of the detail (another POS trx at different POS 5 mins from the previous one) USD1.3k+ equivalent to SGD1.8k+

6th trx attempt (declined as my card remaining limit already exhausted) The Home Depot #63... cant see the rest of the detail (another POS trx at different POS 2 mins from the previous one) USD2.8k+ equivalent to SGD3.k+

I woke up on that day with unpleasant surprises of trx notifications in my email inbox.
I quickly reported to Instarem and also took pic of my card in possession just in case I need to prove the card is no where near USA a few hours from those trx (from the pic geo location info).

After submitted the form with details, they told me that they have filed a chargeback against the merchant through Mastercard and it will take 45-90 days to process with NO GUARANTEE of success.
The possibility of having to pay first the fraud amount of almost SGD16k scares the life out of me, so I double report to my linked card issuer bank, Standard Chartered.
Next billing cycle is tomorrow, anxious to see how the billing will look like.

I first thought the fraudster get the hold of my card detail because I made online payment for concert ticket for my daughter (perhaps the ticket agent database got hacked).
But now that I know I'm the third person in this forum that faced similar problem, could it be the data breach/leak is from ....?

I've now permanently blocked my old amaze card and got replacement card.
And I de-activated overseas transaction function.

Listen, my sympathies. I fully understand what you're going through. Of course you're stressed right now, rightfully so. But don't lose hope. If our experiences are anything to go by, the transactions will be successfully disputed and the payment reversed.

Since your linked card payment won't be due for 3 weeks or so, there is a very high chance that the reversal will happen before that. In my case, it took 7 calendar days after notifying Amaze for the reversal to show in the app, and 3-4 days after that to see the funds credited back to the credit card.

Hard to say where the breach has happened.. If Amaze had been hit with it, I would guess many people including on this forum would've chipped in. But one cannot rule it out. Maybe most others are savvy enough to keep international transactions turned off.

Where our card numbers are getting into the hands of these fraudsters is really beyond me. Are they necessarily using magstripe during the fraudulent transaction - possible because these are somewhat higher value transactions? Actually, I also wonder who these people are. Couldn't some agency see CCTV footage to see and identify them in these Home Depot locations? I guess no agency or bank is going to send out a person to check. It makes sense for them to just bear the loss and return the money to us.

 

[xiaowhois]

only way to disable overseas transaction and enable when you need it and perm just disable magnetic swipe function since wont be using it anyway