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Maybank Family & Friends Credit Card - reward changes from next year

In my previous post The best credit card for my new house renotion, I compared some credit cards that I owned and have chosen the Maybank Family & Friends card as the best credit card that I would use for my new home's spending. Today I received an email from Maybank regarding some updates to the Maybank Family & Friends Card Cashback Programme starting from 1st January next year. Let's take a look.


What have changed?

RevisionsDescription
Cashback Awarding for selected cashback categories and additional bonus categoryTier 1: Up to 6% cashback with a minimum spend of S$800 per month (capped at S$20 per category)

Tier 2: Up to 8% cashback with a minimum spend of S$1,600 per month (capped at S$30 per category)
Base cashback0.22% cashback on all other spend
Eligible Merchant Category Codes (“MCC”) in selected cashback categories
  • Commute (previously “Transport”)
    MCC 4111, 4121, 4789, 4112, 4131
  • Automotive (previously “Pharmacy”)
    MCC 5541, 5542, 5532, 5533, 5599, 7531, 7535, 7538, 5552
Renaming of
cashback categories
  • “Data Communication & Online TV Streaming” to “Telco & Streaming”
  • “Pharmacy” to “Automotive”
  • “Retails & Pets” to “Kids & Pets”
  • “Transport” to “Commute”
Source: Maybank website

Downgrade of reward for $800 monthly spending

They are introducing two reward tiers, the new reward tiers are min $800 and $1600 monthly spend respectively, effective from January 2026.

Compared to the current 8% cashback & cap at $25 per spending category, the cashback would be reduced to 6% and a lower cap of $20 per spending category. For the original 8% cashback, one would need to spend $1600 per month instead, which for singles like me is very hard to achieve, I probably really need my family and friends' spendings in order to hit that amount. I wished there's a Travel category as their Transport category does not include flight ticket purchases. My current chosen categories are Groceries, Dining, Pharmacy, Online Shopping and Transport. 

Speaking of the Transport category, they are going to exclude SimplyGo transactions, which means it is going to be harder to hit the minimum spending requirements. "Transport" wilp be renamed to "Commute". i guess this means tapping your credit card at the entry will qualify for cashback but not for top-ups.

The website also states that they are renaming the "Pharmacy" category to "Automotive". I thought instead of renaming, a total category change is more like it. For "Automotive", its eligible merchant codes under Mastercard are MCC 5541, 5542, 5532, 5533, 5599, 7531, 7535, 7538, 5552. You can click here to see the Mastercard reference sheet. Pharmacy-related merchant codes no more.

As a prudent credit card user, my considerations in choosing a credit card are:
  1. What's the % cashback it offers (I don't go for the reward points system)
  2. What's the minimum per month spending needed to get the cashback reward
  3. Which are the qualifying retailers or categories of spending 
  4. Any need for consecutive 3 months minimum spending to get rewarded
If there's too many hoops to jump through, then I will rather not switch from my good o' simple UOB Absolute Cashback Amex card (which offers a flat 1.7% cashback with no spending requirement). 

Thanks for reading!

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