Which card should I use for Grab and Uber?

Citibank Rewards and DBS WWMC come out on top, but Krisflyer cobrand may be useful in certain cases.

Edit (31/3/2018)  : Citi Rewards MC still currently earns 4mpd as of 22 March 2018. 

Recently, American Express made some enhancements to their portfolio of KrisFlyer co-branded credit cards which gives an earn rate of up to 3.3  KF miles per dollar (MPD) at a maximum of S$200 per calendar month when using it on ride hailing apps Uber, Grab as well as on UberEats (if you’re into this).

To summarize from an earlier article from Aaron :

Currently there’s a bit of a grey area on which cards would give you maximum returns on Grab/Uber.

We know the DBS Woman’s World MasterCard would definitely net you 4mpd. I personally tried using the Citibank Rewards MasterCard (I don’t have the Visa version) and can confirm that this too gives you 4mpd on Grab  . (Edit : Citibank Rewards would net you 4mpd on Uber, thanks Chelsea for the tip!) 

There has been a lot of chatter recently on the MileLion Telegram Group on which card works best for our daily (private vehicle) commute which has centered mainly on the DBS Woman’s World Mastercard and the KrisFlyer co-branded portfolio. Hence, we’ll be looking at these two cards in particular.

Breaking it down.

Now, let’s crunch some numbers. 

KrisFlyer Blue vs DBS WWMC
Amount Spent per MonthEarned on KF Blue
(3.1mpd)
Earned on DBS WWMC (4mpd)Miles Lost when using KF Blue per monthMiles Lost in 1 Year
$257710023276
$5015520045540
$7523230068816
$100310400901,080
$1253875001131,356
$1504656001351,620
$1755427001581,896
$2006208001802,160
KrisFlyer Ascend vs DBS WWMC
Amount Spent per MonthEarned on KF Ascend (3.2mpd)Earned on DBS WWMC (4mpd)Miles Lost when using Ascend per monthMiles Lost in 1 Year
$258010020240
$5016020040480
$7524030060720
$10032040080960
$1254005001001200
$1504806001201440
$1755607001401680
$2006408001601920
KrisFlyer PPS/Solitaire PPS Card vs DBS WWMC
Amount Spent per MonthEarned on KF PPS/Solitaire PPS (3.3mpd)Earned on DBS WWMC
(4mpd)
Miles Lost when using KF PPS/Solitaire PPS per MonthMiles Lost in 1 Year
$258210018216
$5016520035420
$7524730053636
$10033040070840
$125412500881,056
$1504956001051,260
$1755777001231,476
$2006608001401680

(Note that mileage figures are rounded down to nearest whole number)

Based on the above calculations, you could potentially be losing up to 2160 KrisFlyer miles per year if you were to place your spending on the KrisFlyer co-branded cards! This is assuming you’ll be spending exactly these amounts on Uber/Grab every month consistently.

I did not calculate spending for rides over S$200 a month as after S$200, the KrisFlyer co-brand cards will go back to earning their normal 1.1mpd to 1.3mpd rate. (and you should be putting it on the DBS WWMC instead)

Personally, I spend $100-$200 a year on Grab/Uber as I mainly use them when I can get rides for a dollar (yes I’m cheap), or go out late into the night (which tells you a lot about the nightlife I have) Thus, I wouldn’t mind putting the spending for Grab/Uber on the KrisFlyer Ascend card as the miles would be automatically transferred over to my KrisFlyer account and I can easily track how many miles I received for a particular month of Uber/Grab rides as I do not really use the Ascend card for any other purpose in general.

So what’s the best option?

If you regularly commute on Grab and Uber each month, I strongly recommend putting the spend on your DBS Woman’s World Mastercard if you have it as clearly, you would come out quite far ahead than using the KrisFlyer co-brand ones.

If you do not currently own none of the above mentioned cards, I have listed down their individual income requirements set out by the banks

  • KrisFlyer Blue : S$30,000
  • KrisFlyer Ascend : S$50,000
  • KrisFlyer PPS/Solitare PPS : S$30,000 + PPS Club / Solitaire PPS Club status on KrisFlyer
  • DBS Woman’s World MasterCard : S$80,000

 

This is where getting the Amex KrisFlyer Blue would be better than the Citibank Rewards, as the miles earned from spending are credited directly to your KrisFlyer account, avoiding the pesky transfer fees.

For those of us who are unable to qualify for the DBS WWMC, getting the KrisFlyer Ascend would be quite worthwhile too. In addition to its 3.2mpd earnings on Grab/Uber, it has a 1.2mpd earn rate for general spending, the same rate as the Citibank PremierMiles and DBS Altitude cards, making it a viable alternative to replace your general spend cards and at the same time, achieve a higher earning rate on your private hire commutes. It also has some perks tagged to the card (although you must pay the annual fee to get them).

If you currently already own the KrisFlyer co-brand card in addition to some random general spending cards, putting your Grab expenditure on the KrisFlyer co-brands would definitely be a wise choice as earning 3.1mpd on the KrisFlyer Blue is a big step up from earnings on a general spend card.

Also, check out this article on receiving 500 bonus KF Miles on your Grab ride with your KrisFlyer co-brand cards!

If you do not currently hold any of the Krisflyer cobranded cards, you can find an application link below if you’d like to apply for them, but do note that it may make sense to wait for an upsized sign up offer to come along.

[credit_card_shortcode cc_id=”21828″]

[credit_card_shortcode cc_id=”21776″]

Matthew Chong
Matthew Chong
Addicted to luxury travel while trying not to go broke, Matthew is always on the prowl for the best deals in the travel industry. When he's not busy studying, he can be found trawling the internet and reading up on credit cards, airlines and hotels. He also wouldn't mind taking you out on a date.

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G

Why not use OCBC Titanium link to Android pay ? Both Uber and Grab. Limitation –
1)maximum SGD 12,000 to spend to get 4mpd per year
2) only until 31 Dec 2018
3) round down to the nearest dollars
4) if blue card reaches maximum per year 4mpd you need to apply apply the pink card to get another SGD 12,000 for 4mpd
5) only transferable to Krisflyer and other OCBC redeemable.
6) non uber/Grab transaction tag on Apple pay or Samsung pay
7) no monthly limits of earning miles

Louis Tan

“Online and in-app transactions ” are excluded from 10x for OCBC Titanium Rewards (check the T&C!).

invisible

Slightly off/topic but I reduced my Uber usage considerably this year due to significant price hikes. Now 1.8x-2.5x surge is common, ride from Clark Q/Raffles to West cost was estimated to cost $28 at 1AM. I took ordinary Comfort cab and it came as $11. The same situation happens all over with Uber, unless it is 11AM on Sunday morning and no rain.

Grab got pricier too, but not as much as Uber.

Joey

$11 comfort taxi fare from CBD to West Coast is impossible. Even more impossible at 1 am with midnight surcharge.

invisible

Do you want me to show you the receipt? It was from the Central to Haw Par VIlla. $11 – fare, plus $3.20 the booking fare.

Zack

Maybe Joey was referring to the other stretch of West Coast which is almost at the Jurong Town Hall Exit. I would consider Haw Par Villa = Pasir Panjang. Can be a good 5km difference.

Cheah+Zhao+Yan

How to earn 4mpd using Citibank Rewards Master ?
By topping up GrabPay credit ?

Jonathan

“I personally tried using the Citibank Rewards MasterCard (I don’t have the Visa version) and can confirm that this too gives you 4mpd on Grab.” – Would like some clarification if Matthew earned 4mpd through Grabpay credits top-up or paying for the ride through CC?

Rolance

Strangely I tried using my Citi Rewards MC on Grab rides back in late 2016 but did not get 10x.. Let me try 1 Grab ride using this card and we’ll see.

Joey

Cards with <$5 earning blocks like Altitude, KF AMEX and Citi Premiermiles come into play when the ride is <$5. With Grab it's easier to just top up Grab pay credits.

I'm surprised this article didn't mention anything about clicking thru ShopBack for ride bookings for cashback.

Zack

Milelion supports miles not cash back. It may be nice to balance your account books with cash back. But picture this scenario. One travels with a bunch of colleagues for work to Sydney. One upgrades to business with miles. That feeling of waking up in the morning from your full-flat seat after a 7.5 hour flight……. priceless! (disclaimer: back before premium econ came sadly) Though the colleagues got some pay back by insisting the one that slept the most, drive.

jimmy_enchant

nice analogy

Aaron Wong

well i think joey was referring to using shopback to earn cashback as opposed to using a cashback card. sure, by all means click through to uber via shopback’s app, but it’s 20 cents so i wouldn’t feel too bad if i forgot.

Joey

yeah it’s 20 cents per grabback but these really stack up and if the ride was $0 or $1, cheaper than taking bus already. end of the day, free money.

Jei

Which doesn’t work 80% of the time for me. Shopback tracking Grab that is.

Shopback for Uber works all the time for me.

Aaron Wong

well, yeah but it’s 20 cents cashback.

R

I use the kf Amex card with android pay when booking my rides. There’s double dipping as I seem to earn the bonus miles from using Android pay as well. So total extra 4 + 2 miles on top of the 1.1 mpd.

Barney

Does this work with Apple Pay too ? Anyone experienced it yet? Gonna try and post back.

Jet

Other than Grab and Uber, actually you can use paywave to pay for Comfort with OCBC Titanium to earn 4mpd as well (:

xxx

No admin charge ?

Jet

Book thru the app – flat fare will not incur any admin charge. Sorry that i missed that out

Wil

Does WWMC earn 4MPD via Android Pay for Grab/Uber?

Tai

Thanks for this very interesting article!

Can you please do a similar one for food ordering apps (Deliveroo, Foodpanda, UberEats…)? Always unsure what card to use for these. Thanks in advance!

Aaron Wong

well for all of these dbs wwmc is the safest bet. foodpanda and ubereats should be covered by uob ppv

abc

Wouldn’t citirewards be slightly superior due to the fact it rounds to the nearest dollar while WWMC rounds down to the nearest 5 dollars?

Hady

So can we use krisFlyer Amex to top up grabpay credit and earn 7.1/7.3 miles?

Aaron Wong

the promo for mobile payments and for grab stacks, so yes you can do that

jimmy_enchant

Hi you can’t top up GrabPay credits with Android Pay/Apple Pay (if Grab supports Apple Pay that is) . Only thru cards. Cheers

Hady

oh ya hor.. thanks for the clarification

Nik

Assuming the rides are at least >$5, why not use UOB PRVI instead of Citibank premiermiles?

Tiger9119

If your rides is $9.99, you only get miles/uni$ for $5.00. Correct me if I am wrong.

worldrally

I had 4 Grab Top ups using Rewards MC in Feb. No 10x only 1x

Jon Lim

I can confirm this as well. Rewards MC does not give 10x points.. Ugh

CK

Can anyone confirm if we earn 4mpd using WWMC for Uber rides overseas?

LK Tan

Heya does the citi rewards still get 4mpd on Grab? I see that it’s been strike out however on top of the post it still says
“Edit (31/3/2018) : Citi Rewards MC still currently earns 4mpd as of 22 March 2018. “

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