Maybank Visa Signature card review - Is this really the best card for Malaysian travellers?

The Maybank Visa Signature card¹ is available for Malaysian citizens and residents earning at least 70,000 MYR a year, and offers ways to earn Treats Points which you can redeem as cash back, air miles or for online shopping, plus other perks.

This guide walks through the Maybank Visa Signature benefits, features and fees - and also introduces an alternative for comparison. The Wise international debit card is a smart way to pay in 150+ countries, with the mid-market exchange rate and no foreign transaction fee² - so your money could go further when you travel. More on that later.

What is the Maybank Visa Signature credit card?

The Maybank Visa Signature credit card has a pretty good selection of benefits on offer, as well as ways to earn Treats Points at a variable rate which you can convert to cash or use for flights or shopping later. Aside from redeeming your Treats Points, you may also get an airport speed pass for some airports, so while Maybank isn’t currently promoting access to a Maybank Visa Signature airport lounge with this card, you’ll still be able to get through the airport smoothly when you travel. Cards also come with Visa concierge service support, and some travel insurance coverage for trips you pay for with credit.

To get your credit card in the first place you’ll need to have a minimum income of 70,000 MYR to 100,000 MYR with the Maybank Visa Signature credit limit being tailored to the customer based on personal circumstances. Overall, this card could suit people with a fairly high income looking for lifestyle benefits as well as cash back on card spending. We’ll walk through how Maybank Treats Points work later - firstly let’s start with an overview of the most important features and fees of the Maybank Visa Signature credit card³.

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Maybank Visa Signature card benefits

The Maybank Visa Signature credit card lets you earn Treats Points as you spend, with variable earning rates depending on the spend category. At the time of writing you can also earn cash back on some spending categories, which replaces the option to earn reward points. We’ll explore how that works and what you can do with your points in a moment. Other handy perks with the Maybank Visa Signature credit card include:

• Airport speed pass to fast track immigration at hundreds of airports
• 24/7 Visa concierge service and support
• Travel insurance including some travel accident cover, and cover for lost or delayed luggage and missed connections

It’s worth reading through the terms and conditions of the rewards and benefits carefully to check for exclusions and important limitations. The travel insurance cover is not intended to be a medical insurance policy, and so will not cover the costs of you falling ill abroad, for example - you’d still need a separate insurance policy for that.

Earning Maybank TreatsPoints

You’ve got a couple of ways to earn cash back with the Maybank Visa Signature card - you can earn Treats Points to redeem later, or on some spending categories you can simply earn cashback with no need to redeem points. The rate of earning varies by spending type - here’s a rundown:

It’s important to understand that while you earn extra Treats points on your overseas spending in foreign currencies, you’ll also be charged an extra fee here. The Maybank foreign transaction fees are pretty high, at 2.25% for this card. That includes a fee of 1.25% which is paid to Visa, and a 1% administrative fee that goes to the bank. This extra fee is added to your bill whenever you spend in a foreign currency, pushing up the overall cost. That means it’s important to think carefully about your foreign currency spending to avoid surprise fees. Getting a low cost debit card, like the Wise international debit card can be a helpful way to limit the overall costs of spending in a foreign currency - we’ll look at that in a bit more detail later.

Maybank TreatsPoints redemption

Once you have Treats Points in your account you can exchange them for air miles from various airlines to cover your next trip abroad - or shop from over 500 items in the Maybank catalogue for gifts and vouchers. You can also opt for direct cashback - in this case, 50,000 Treats Points convert to 100 MYR in cash. The redemption options include⁴:

• On the spot redemption at Maybank card centres and partner merchants
• Online shopping from the Maybank catalogues
• Redemption against annual fees or service fees for your card
• Conversion to cash back
• Redeem as air miles towards future flights

If you’re interested in using your points to fly, you can convert to Enrich points from Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia points and Krisflyer points from Singapore Air, giving a good choice of carriers. The redemption rates vary depending on which airline you prefer to use.

Travel with the Wise card - To worry less about additional fees and get more from currency conversions

See if you can save on your overseas spending with the Wise card.

The Wise card is an international debit card linked to a digital account you can use to hold and exchange 40+ currencies with mid-market rate currency conversion and no foreign transaction fee. There’s no annual cost for your Wise card - just a one time 13.7 MYR fee when you sign up. Add money to your account in ringgit and either convert to the currency you need or leave it to the card to manage the conversion for you when you pay.

Use your Wise card for spending and withdrawals in 150+ countries, including 2 free withdrawals of up to 1000 MYR a month with low, transparent ATM fees after that.

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Summary

Credit cards can be handy for spreading the costs of your spending and travel - but they can end up more expensive in the end once you account for annual fees, foreign transaction fees, interest and penalties. Use this guide to decide if the Maybank Visa Signature credit card may suit your specific needs - and compare it to a few other low cost options like the Wise card. The Wise card is a debit card not a credit card, which means no annual fee and no minimum income requirement - you just add money in MYR when you want to spend, and get currency conversion with the mid-market rate and low, transparent fees - easy.