How to earn 4 mpd at more places with OCBC Titanium Rewards and mobile payments

Great opportunity to turn general spending into bonus miles earning.

Image result for ocbc titanium rewards

OCBC relaunched the Titanium Rewards card back in October last year and repositioned it as a card for shopping rewards. You could earn 10X points (4 mpd) for up to $12,000 of annual (card anniversary, not calendar anniversary) spending on the following categories:

It’s true that there’s some overlap with what Citibank Rewards offers (although do note that Citibank Rewards doesn’t offer 10X for personal care and electronics/gadgets), but what really gets my attention is the 10X promotion that the Titanium Rewards is running for mobile payments from now till 31 December 2018. Simply link your Titanium Rewards card to your mobile wallet and you’ll earn 4 mpd for up to $12,000 spend per year.

The benefits of this should be obvious: it means the Titanium Rewards card can become your de facto card in situations where you’d otherwise be earning general spend rates (1.2-1.4 mpd).

Examples of where this can work for you-

  • Groceries (Giant, Cold Storage, NTUC, Sheng Siong)
  • Convenience Stores (7 Eleven)
  • Movie tickets (assuming you’re buying them at the counter instead of online) (Cathay, Shaw, We cinemas)
  • Pharmacies (Watsons, Guardian, Unity, GNC)
  • Telco in-store payments (Singtel, Starhub, M1)
  • Electronics purchases (Best, Challenger, Gain City, Harvey Norman)
  • Wine (Wine Connection)
  • Electricity Bill (if you were so inclined, you could trek down to SP’s offices in Toa Payoh, Woodlands or Raffles Place to pay via Samsung Pay)
  • Hospitals (reading HWZ and our Telegram chat group confirms that quite a few of them offer this as a payment method at least in the outpatient areas)

I’m sure the above list isn’t exhaustive so feel free to chime in if you have other examples. This card can also be helpful to those of you who do not have a dedicated dining card, because eateries like Pasta Mania, Salad Stop, Subway, Toast Box, Soup Spoon, Breadtalk etc. take mobile payments.

Note that a lot of places which accept mobile payments will also probably take Paywave, so it’s true that you could also use your UOB PPV and earn 10X.  That said, if you don’t have a UOB PPV (or simply want to conserve your monthly 10X cap for use at restaurants), then adding a Titanium Rewards card to your portfolio can still be useful. Also remember that UOB PPV will not earn UNI$ wherever the merchant also offers SMART$, whereas the Titanium Rewards has no such restriction.

Less ambiguity is good

One thing I like about promotions for mobile payments is that there’s less ambiguity.

With category bonuses, the eternal question on people’s minds is “what’s the MCC?” There’s nothing more frustrating than to think you’re earning 10X and end up getting 1X because the MCC didn’t turn out to be what you expected. But with mobile payments, you don’t need to worry what the MCC is. So long as a place accepts Android/Samsung/Apple Pay you know for sure you’ll get your 10X.

Final points to note

Although the 10X points are capped on $12,000 of spending each card anniversary year, this is on a per card basis. The Titanium Rewards card comes in two flavors- Blue and Pink. You can apply for both cards and double your spending cap to $24,000.

Remember that OCBC only partners with Krisflyer, so you won’t be able to build your Asiamiles balance with the Titanium Rewards card.

I see the Titanium Rewards filling a crucial gap in my miles strategy because it enables me to turn regular general spending into a category bonus. With careful planning, I imagine I’d be able to max out two cards, so 96,000 additional miles on spending that normally wouldn’t have attracted a bonus sounds pretty sweet to me.

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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Vk

This is my main card now using samsung pay on all sorts of machines even the old ones…

invisible

Couple of questions:

1. ‘Mobile payments’ is not the same as ‘contactless’ (paywave/paypass), correct?
2. ‘Telco in-store payments’ – since when Singtel allows pay bill in store? I have corporate phone from office and was told that the only way to pay bill is either sign up for bill payment directly with Singtel or third party, or pay it via SAM/AXS.

KindSoul

“mobile payment” is not the same as “contactless”. Paywave/paypass using the physical card is not eligible for 10x points under this promo.

Smudger

He meant paying for the handset. I recently paid for my iPhone X using this card via mobile payment. Loads of points.

Dulux

Mobile payment got no cap on the transaction unlike paywave ($100 or $150, cant remember) ???

Aaron Wong

Actually paywave caps have been mostly removed. Old terminals max 100 but I don’t encounter that restriction anymore

invisible

At FairPrice now limitation is $200.

BTW, could anyone clarify if it is possible to pay Singtel’s bill at the store?

Smudger

I tapped $1.2K at the paywave @ Singtel (UOB terminal). It’s dependent on the paywave terminal itself.

If all else fails, use Samsung Pay MST. I only had once Samsung Pay MST couldn’t work, when I paid for my Starhub (auth reseller) iPhone X and the machine didn’t even have swiping function, only chip.

Confirmed Singtel bill no way to pay at the store.

Rajiv

OCBC 360 account holders will earn an additional 0.3% interest if $500 is spent on this card.

YX

I could be wrong, but if you read the T&C of the 10X mobile payments, it seems to suggest that at merchants eligible for 10X points (such as the drug stores and pharmacies), using mobile payments will not yield the 10X points, which then would mean that at merchants eligible for 10X points already, you should pay by card and NOT any mobile payments?

Aaron+Chan

I believe that OCBC is just making it clear that no double dipping is allowed. So for merchants already eligible for 10X points to begin with, the mode of transaction (chip, swipe, mobile or tap) should make no difference, since you’ll be earning 10X with that merchant.

YX

Sounds right, thanks!

P

I always thought contactless payment meant PayWave AND mobile payment. I’d be surprised if the card issuer distinguished between the two forms, since the technology is the same!

invisible

Technology is the same, but how transaction is performed – means – is not. With paywave actual credit card number is transmitted, while with apple/android it is never shown.

JC

To clarify, with mobile payments, the card number is tokenized (i.e. a diferent set of 16-digit card number is used), doesn’t mean it is never shown. With mobile payments, the tokenized card number is transmitted to the card terminal through the contactless reader. That is why when you use Samsung Pay, on the visual representation of the card surface, you see 2 sets of the last 4 digits of the card number, one for the physical card actual card number and the other set is for the tokenized number. When you do a MST transaction on a normal terminal with… Read more »

P

By the way, anyone has any idea if charitable contributions made by credit card on Giving.sg earn miles? UOB seems to exclude the posssibility, but I can’t quite get any answers looking at public information available on DBS and Citibank…

YX

DBS states that points will not be awarded for payments to non profit organization though. This comes as a surprise to me. Thanks!

invisible

Citi does not.

Jackjack

@invisible you mean that Citi PM does not get anything too?

I think UOB Prvi should get although I have not tried, since the restriction on earning points for non-profit organizations come only in Feb 2018

CK

Not sure about giving.sg but I have recurring donations to spore cancer society which earns points with Citibank prestige card

invisible

Used Citi Rewards and Citi PM. Did not get points/miles.

Aaron+Chan

Another useful feature of this card is that there is no monthly cap on 10X transactions, unlike the UOB PPV which has a cap of $1000 per calendar month. You just have to be sure that you do not exceed $12000 on eligible transactions per card anniversary when using the Titanium Rewards Card to earn 10X.

invisible

So in theory one can go to SQ’s ION office, buy business class ticket for $8000 and do mobile payment 80x$100 times…

Peter

You can samsung pay mst the entire amt.

invisible

Any confirmation that mst mode is counted as well?

Smudger

OCBC has confirmed it multiple times already, MST is definitely considered barring the excluded transactions.

Tabea

Anyone know if using mobile payments overseas also gets 4 mpd?

invisible

Yes, very eager to know this.

invisible

at HWZ OCBC said that it is.

David

Still waiting to see if OCBC will extend the 10x promotion on mobile payments again…

Jei

They extended it in Sep 2017 to Dec 2018.

So you will wait till Christmas next year to hear?

David

I got the card months ago. “Waiting” for news doesn’t mean I don’t have the card.

Leonard

@David, I think u misread the “hear” for “get”.

Chill ?

melv

Does the UOB PPV give 10X payments for Apple Pay and Samsung Pay?

Zack

Thanks Aaron for the useful tip! This can help off load all the festive spending on dining. Especially since the Amex Krisflyer only gives 5.2 miles for a measly $300 spend.

RN

OT but… how does paying for the SP bill at its center at Toa Payoh work? Do they make an estimate? And why can you only use Samsung/Android Pay, and not Apple Pay? Thanks.

Smudger

Aaron was referring to Samsung Pay MST. They do not have paywave terminals. Apple Pay and Android Pay does not have MST.

RN

Thanks, that’s clear now.

Hady

Just to add some tips, currently SAM machine accept flashpay payment for IRAS, SPservice, Town council, Telco, prudential.
As far as I know, you can top up your FlashPay card up to 200$/mnth using OCBC mobile pay at GTM and get 4mpd for it. Then use your Flashpay to pay IRAS, SPservice, Town council.

invisible

$200/mo – is the limitation from OCBC? Is there any T/C?

invisible

OCBC says that no OCBC$ are awarded for any Ezlink transactions.

Hady

yes but item 3(k) override it for up to 200$

invisible

Did OCBC tell you this in writing?

Hady

nope, but you can try to ask them 🙂

invisible

Just want to mention – there are no 1x or 10x points awarded for Ezlink/GTM transactions regardless of mode of transaction. Tried different ways and also was told in writing that that are are no points awarded for such transactions by customer service.

L
Martin Go

Just trying to apply for this card. The whole system doesn’t work on so many levels. Can’t print the agreement form, they can’t send it either and send me to the branch. Also can’t attach documents to upload as they are all identified as being larger than 2MB, which they are not.
I heard that this is normal for OCBC… is it really that pathetic?

Aaron Wong

Drop me a note at [email protected], we’ll sort it out

Martin Go

I’ll send them all possible documents now via E-mail… hope this works. If not I’ll come back to you.

Big fan, keep up the good work !!!

derfner

WARNING to existing Titanium Card members! The new offer is great. Unfortunately, I just found out that cardmembers on the old “Titanium Card”, which looks almost the same as the new “Titanium Rewards Card” will not be getting the 10x OCBC$ per S$1. Existing members get only 1 OCBC$ per S$1. I found out accidentally when I was looking at my reward page online, saw that the miles didn’t tally (been only doing spendings that qualified for 10x OCBC$). I called OCBC and was told that I would have to apply for the new card to enjoy the offer. Old… Read more »

Jei

Wow
How to transparent
Very Scam
So warning

Anon

Yup. And prolly the worst customer service you will face, save for some.

Jesse

I notice through the SQ app you can pay via Apple Pay.

Louis Tan

In-app payments are excluded from 10x, unfortunately.

invisible

Just wonder – did anyone had a case using samsung/android/apple pay for a transaction and there was no 10x awarded for such transactions?

So far I’ve encountered that transaction at GTM does not earn any points. Would like to hear if there are other exclusions too.

Tim

This is a known exclusion published on their website

Almerick

What is the redemption procedure and cost for OCBC? Do points pool together between the blue an d pink? Does it pool with Voyage?

kit

it pools together but not with Voyage. but seems like redemption fee is not per transaction but per 10k. Pls correct me if I’m wrong.

D

I bought so much stuff from qoo10 but didn’t get the 10 ocbc$… Why? Online spending…!

Ken

Maybe you should ask OCBC…?

Tony Shen

Unfortunately this Mobile Pay promotion is end. Now I’m looking for another card that is suitable for Tuition fee..

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