If you’re on the old DBS frequent flyer transfer scheme, beware…

You may not be informed of your old FFP expiry.

Back in November 2016, DBS changed the way it charged for miles conversions from an annual fee of $42.80 with unlimited conversions to a per conversion fee of $26.75.

Cardmembers who had already paid the annual fee would be on the “old” scheme until their membership year was up. That is to say, if you paid your $42.80 on October 10 2016, you would have unlimited transactions until October 9 2017, after which you’d pay per conversion.

[gview file=”https://milelion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/rewards-ffp-faq.pdf”]

In the FAQ that was provided with the program change, DBS clearly states under point 6) that-

I had not received anything from DBS, so I proceeded to do a transaction in early April to move some miles to Krisflyer.

On examining my ibanking statement, however, I saw that I had been hit with a $26.75 conversion fee. So I called DBS customer service to ask about it.

They told me that my annual membership expired end March and therefore I was on the new scheme. I reminded her about their FAQs which stated that customers would get a heads up via eDM or SMS.

Her response was that although she could see in their SMS outbox that I had not been sent anything, it was not practice for them to send out alerts about the impending expiry of your annual transfer fee.

They were not able to locate this FAQ on their side, soย I’ve since sent this PDF to their customer service team for escalation, in expectation that they will refund me the fee. I will update you when this is resolved.

But in the meantime, if you are part of the old annual scheme you might want to take note that alerts areย notย going out. So be vigilant, check your account and let DBS know if you are charged without notice.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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invisible

I went and briefly searched for 42.80 on both credit card and current account statements and could not find anything. Is that fee changed to credit card?

Chris

Mine is due in July 17. I actually received their eDM in December 16 reminding on the expiry date. I had since put a calendar reminder to transfer out the points one day before expiry.

Miss Solitaire

I have also received their eDM last Nov about the fee revision. The email stated the expiry date (Dec 2016) for me under the old scheme. Can always count on DBS to be transparent and systematic like that.

Have you been blacklisted by all the banks? No? Just UOB I guess. ? #UOBKrisflyerfail

Sam

Thanks for reminding me! I just dug up the email…and to my shock and horror, it is ending on the 29th April 2017!

Better go convert now!

invisible

Update on this matter after sending message to DBS. Got following reply:

“Kindly note the your Frequent Flyer Program expired last 18 February 2017.”

I never got any notification either.

Does not matter now, just will do transfers once a year.

Chris

Has DBS come back to you? I think they will still waive for u ๐Ÿ™‚

Jasonb

This is good stuff, considering my dbs altitude v just came in the mail and it’s the weekend.. might still stick to citi pm for a bit then. Thanks big A