Despite several changes to its T&C, the DBS Woman’s World Card remains one of the best cards to use for online spending. For the first $2,000 of online spend each month, you can earn 4 mpd. And yes, for the umpteenth time, men can apply.
There’s just one problem- what seems to be a clear cut online transaction may not always register as such on the DBS side. And because DBS iBanking doesn’t provide a detailed breakdown of the points awarded per transaction (plus the Woman’s World Card awards 0.4 mpd at first and 3.6 mpd in the month after, further complicating reconciliation), it’s necessary to monitor your points balance to ensure your bonuses are credited properly.
I was reminded of this after reading Mark’s recent post on how some of his transactions with Alaska Airlines were not getting 10X. So I sent a message to DBS via the secure inbox feature on iBanking, asking them to send me an itemized points excel statement for my past four months of transactions.
After about five days, I received an excel that covered May to August.
Here’s the summaryย (Edit 5 Oct: DBS has responded with July and August transactions too, which I have updated below)
Eligible Transactions
- Vueling Airlines
- Paypal *MyTaxi
- Paypal* AwfullyChoc
- T-Mobile Hotspot
- GoGo Inflight
- Trusted Tours of America
- FlyDubai
- Uber
- Uber Eats
- Deliveroo
- Book Depository
- HonestBee
- The Enchanted Tree
- Grab
- Singapore Airlines
- OnAir
- AirBnB
Ineligible
- Skype
- Cathay Pacific (done via phone, so I suppose the credit card details were processed offline)
Let’s start with the eligible- it’s comforting to know my Uber, Uber Eats and Paypal transactions are still getting 10X. Some people were reporting that Uber was processed as a recurring billing arrangement and therefore not eligible for points. Similarly, Paypal has always been a bit hit and miss. Some say that it counts as a money transfer service and therefore is not eligible, but this seems to prove otherwise (that said, it could be because I was sending money to Paypal business accounts. It might be different if I were sending to a personal account, although one year back this regularly netted me 10X).
As for the ineligible- Skype and Linkedin are definitely transactions I’m going to dispute, because I can’t think of a more nailed-on example of an online transaction (I don’t think the absence of a OTP necessarily disqualifies a transaction from counting as online, as my Paypal and Uber transactions show). I’ve written back to DBS asking them to investigate this.
I’d encourage anyone who owns a Woman’s card to make this a monthly, or at least bi-monthly habit- it doesn’t require much effort from you beyond sending a secure message.ย I’d also like to point out that you can check against this crowdsourced spreadsheet to see other people’s reports of transactions that successfully qualified for 10X.
I have been tracking my dbswwc manually since may and have had no issue. One thing you may wish to point out Aaron is that the 9x bonus is counted after aggregating all eligible spend, so you may get more points even if they are not in multiples of 5.
Eg. If u take 10 uber rides at $1 each in 1 calendar month, you get 0 points upfront and 18points thereafter. Also bonus is based on transaction date, not posting date (unlike ocbc).
Then the dbs cso who replied me has not take good care of my request. He/She told me that only if I have dispute that I can request for the itemized data!
If you’re not averse to spreadsheets/calculations and find it a hassle dealing with CSOs, the self-monitoring option would be to check your points balance before and after the 16th of each month (when bonus points are credited). My card statement usually gets generated on the 14th, and I don’t really use it all that much anyway, so it’s pretty easy to calculate.
In fact, I wonder if it’s possible to request for your card statement date to be shifted to facilitate this arrangement? I know you can request a change in cycle, for OCBC.
yeah but the problem with this is that you’ll only know if something is missing, you won’t know exactly which transaction didn’t get 10X
When I asked DBS for my points tally they gave me a list with the 1x points calculated per transaction and then an aggregated number of points for the full month representing the 9x points. This did not let me reconcile the total number of points awarded per transaction. How did you receive the points tally from DBS? Perhaps I need to be more specific with my request?
I have been asking DBS for breakdown of my points . Reply was that they do not give breakdown of points. And I noticed I am missing some bonus points in my statement. Surprised to read that DBS actually provided the breakdown in Excel. I am going to ask again.
try via the secure message system?
Yes. It was via the secure message system in Internet banking. Seems that each CSO handles the requests differently.
I also experienced that DBS didn’t give me the bonus points for my Altitude card for 2 of my Agoda bookings. It was only after many secure messages and sending them my Agoda receipts then they said they would credit my points. I am still waiting for my Oct statement to see that. Transactions were in June. Fume, fume.
Sorry to hear that. I can’t suggest anything but message again.
They used to give me the detailed breakdown of points whenever i asked (which was every month). about 3 months ago, i was told that they would stop doing it. and they will only be able to provide the aggregate, and if there are any discrepancies, then i can raise an enquiry for a specific transaction that i think was missing bonus points. This used to be quick and easy, and like Aaron said, they provide the breakdown within a few days. Even after they stopped giving breakdowns, they would reply within a few days with the aggregate, which i… Read more »
It’s not just the Woman’s Card; I’ve also had to follow-up with DBS regarding my travel category points on the Altitude. I’ve had to email them proof it was a travel transaction (with United Airlines, no less; how can they mistake that?) and do follow-ups.
Poor system calculation, if you ask me.
Have just updated the article with more transactions from July and August. Looks like Linkedin is a constant problem…
I always call the CSO and tell them to give me the breakdown based on the points indicated on the statement and they are able to tell me either right away or a call back later, no issues so far.
Quick question about supplementary card: would my supp card holder be entitled to 10x points for a separate limit of $2000? (i.e. main card + supp card has a combined limit of $4000 that is eligible for 10x points)
thanks!
Sonia
No. If you have 10 supp cards do u think they’ll give u 20k 10x limit?
Unless u have 2 diff cards.
the $2000 cap is per principal account. (eg. 1 principal card + 2 supp cards = $2000 limit. 2 principal cards $4000 limit)
no, for all intents and purposes your supp card is your principal card (in terms of points earning, points caps, legal liability to pay etc). if you have a supp card, all the transactions are taken as if they were incurred on the principal card.
Thanks Aaron, Jei, and hi!
Unfortunately, the problem isn’t unique to only DBS’s Woman card. DBS Altitude also has the same issue for their online F&H bonus miles. Even the Expedia (up to 9 miles) promotion and link provided which they had run for several months had issues.
Every month since Apr there are missing DBS points (already more than 10k points) and the compensation is only 5k points… i should have rejected the compensation and ask for more ๐
i was reading on HWZ reports that even airline spending like united airlines was not coding properly on the altitude card. that’s shocking if true. all the more reason to be vigilant.
I got the same reply from DBS:
“Kindly note that the total DBS Points you earned per statement cycle is reflected in your statement. You may tally the points per statement cycle and you may revert to us if you need further clarification.
I am seeking for your kind understanding as we are unable to provide the breakdown of your DBS Points unless you will specify the discrepancy. ”
Why the difference in responses?
I just replied them asking for the transactions which DID NOT accrue 9x bonus points for the month(s) I’m asking for.
I tried the method used by T (transactions that DID NO accrue bonus pts) and the CSO did give a breakdown of the bonus pts awarded for Aug and Sep. And lo and behold indeed there was a shortfall of 898 bonus pts for Sep, which the CSO automatically credited back to me. Interestingly despite the manual computation by the CSO, there was still a shortfall of 137 pts (I made 2 identical transactions – to the same merchant, for the same amt each – one was awarded the full 9X while the other was awarded like 7.5X pts). Goes… Read more »
I have also requested for my itemized point breakdown and was flatly turned down. I then asked if my bonus points equivalent to 12000 miles sign up bonus was credited? They couldn’t answer and said have to check.
They even have the cheeks to mention that they don’t provide itemized point breakdown at all.
You need to also calculate yourself and present the discrepancy to them. I’ve never failed to get a breakdown, sometimes even in Excel, when I do it to them. If you just ask for a breakdown flat out, then chances of rejection is higher. Having said that, I don’t think banks are allowed not to give a breakdown. Imagine if your bank savings account statement has no breakdown, “your balance for the month is $535.60 but we are not telling you how it became this way”. Points and miles have been recognised by the courts as having value, so they… Read more »
Apologies. Had sent this to a different thread earlier. It seems airbnb spend is not considered online retail spend on DBS WWMC for purposes of bonus points? Anyone faced a similar issue, and managed to convince DBS to credit the bonus points?
airbnb worked for me
airbnb works for sure, as per my statement
After getting my spreadsheet, I probably just realized that an online transaction made in a foreign currency is considered as foreign transaction even though its with a OTP (thus netting you 3x only rather than the 9x), this has left me with loads of wasted points for the month of August!
Aaron,
Care to explain how are the bonus points calculated on the screenshot provided above?
no, what you’ve said is not correct. an online transaction in a foreign currency is still awarded 10x. just that you get 3x credited first and 7x the next month.
Is this arrangement because such a transaction qualifies as both “forex” and “online”, and so you get 3x up front first, but 9x later (but capped at 10x so it becomes 7x)?
I suppose there is a T&C clause somewhere that says a max of 10x?
yes. it’s basically what you’ve said. i’ve encountered this many times before. here’s an example-
i have a transaction in May for T-mobile hotspot of US$18.80 (S$27.20). the bonus points awarded are 38.08. That’s equal to 76.16 miles, or 2.8 mpd. the base 1.2 mpd has already been awarded in april when i first made the spend
Got following reply from DBS
“I am seeking for your kind understanding as we are unable to provide the breakdown of your DBS Points unless you will specify the discrepancy or if there are any specific transactions that you would like to enquire further. “
reading all your stories has made me realise that DBS is extremely inconsistent with how they address such things internally. Mark (shutterwhale) and I didn’t have any trouble getting this even without highlighting a specific transaction, same as some of my friends. but I’ve heard a lot more people who get the answer you got.
i’m still waiting for dbs to update me on linkedin points
Once upon a time there was only Aaron and Mark.
But cometh a many more from Milelion maketh DBS slave army insufficient.
Aaron, I would suggest that a new article topic would be how to successfully get a breakdown from any belligerent Bank CSO. Points are equivalent to currency so it naturally irks people that when customers can’t reconcile their points in any meaningful way, they feel they are literally being robbed. Also, I tend to think that your celebrity online gets you gold star service (which you fully deserve, the work you do is phenomenal) – but I see a pattern.
Haha that’s flattering but I can assure you I’m very certain dbs has no idea who I am. Uob, probably (heh) but not dbs. Honestly, I don’t think I could recommend anything other than escalating it to their superiors. It’s what i’d do.
Hi Aaron and anyone else reading this,
Do you know if ANA online tickets qualify for 4 miles per $1 on DBS World WMC and 3 miles per $1 on DBS Altitude?
Can somebody advise if the $5 spending floor works like the way UOB does? I read somewhere in the comments that it is cumulative. If cumulative, is it per merchant or across total transactions?
Tks
You won’t get the 1x points if you spend below $5, but the 9x is cumulative.
eg. Spending 10 times of $1 will get you 0 points up front but 18 DBS points (36 miles) on the 16th.
So think of it this way, every time you don’t spend in multiples of 5, you lose out only 10% of your 4mpd (or 3.6mpd). Unlike the UOB $5 calculation, which is in multiples of 5.
Tqvm for the explanation Jei!
I tried asking for the itemized list, but they said they weren’t able to provide.
In any case, the secure message doesn’t work anymore (they actually link you to some chat bot, you can only send in an email for 4 specific categories). I had to call in to ask them for more details.
I guess the best way to track is to do it manually :/
I realised this the other day. Really annoying, what is wrong with having the chatbot and the instant messaging? Just some moron trying to hit KPIs again, and the rest of us have to suffer for it
tangentially related but there’s something really silly with the dbs backend. I finally got my linkedin transactions recognised for the bonus 9X by submitting my invoices for previous months. I asked them- going forward will I still need to submit my receipts every month or will the dbs system be updated to automatically recognize linkedin as a 10x category transaction. the response? because it’s the merchant who sets their parameters i will need to continue to send in invoices every month if I want my points to credit properly. ridiculous- you’d think that a firm with the IT capability of… Read more »
hello! grateful if someone could let me know whether recurring gym membership payments earn 10X points on dbsww. thanks!
Just got off a phone call with CSO. Paypal is now excluded.
paypal merchant or paypal personal?
Aaron, would you be able to let us know if those paypal transactions you made to businesses/merchants are still netting you 10x on your WWMC ? Thanks! ๐
Also, do you know if credit card payments processed by paypal without a paypal account (e.g. payment to an ebay seller) qualify as business/merchant paypal transactions?
Hi everyone,
I’m sure I’ve read this on the site already, but can’t seem to track it down. Can anyone please confirm if the DBSWWC and DBS Altitude card caps apply per calendar month or per statement period?
Thanks!
calendar
Hi,this is a little irrelevant, but does anyone have any experience with this: when making hotel reservations via booking.com, the hotel collects payment on its own – so I assume this is a foreign currency spend but not an online transaction? So I should use the prvi miles card rather than the women’s world?
correct.
Thank you! ๐ Now to apply for the card…
The spreadsheet you linked is very useful! Unfortunately its read only.
I recently received a clarification that non-profit payment isn’t eligible for 10x points – FYI to everyone as in the spreadsheet it says yes to 10x points for ‘giveasia’.
Hi, just for your info, I recently contacted DBS about my points as I couldn’t get them to tally. Seems like now all bonus points go to the next calendar month? Hope you find this helpful in your calculation The reply I received was : The 10X DBS Points are only applicable for the first S$2,000 online spend per calendar month. For every S$5 online spend, 1X DBS Point (for local transactions) or 3X DBS Points (for overseas transactions) will be awarded one working day after the transaction posted date. The remaining additional 9X DBS Points (for local transactions) or… Read more »
I have a question on the $2000 cap per month for 10x rewards. Is this cap based on the transaction date (so all the online purchases / transactions made in a month) or the posting date (all the online purchases posted in that month)? I got some rather disturbing answers from 2 CSOs and I just wanted to make sure.. not sure if anyone has an experience with end of the month purchase / transaction