The Citibank Apple Pay chapter has finally come to an end. For the past 3 months, we enjoyed the luxury of being able to earn up to 8 miles per dollar (or 20X Rewards) almost everywhere. All good things have to come to an end and we’re now back to earning up to a “mere” 4 miles per dollar on our purchases. Hopefully, most of you will still remember how to employ a good credit card strategy to maximize your rewards from your spending.
If you have forgotten which cards you were using for purchases for specific categories pre-April 2018 on everyday spend, here’s a short refresher on which cards to use to optimize your miles returns.
Contactless Payment Methods (includes mobile payments)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| UOB Preferred Platinum Visa | 4.0 | Capped at UNI$2,000 per calendar month – except at SMART$ merchants |
| UOB Visa Signature | 4.0 | Subject to a minimum spend of $1,000 in contactless transactions, capped at S$2,000 per statement period – except at SMART$ merchants |
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Before you go and start going tap-happy everywhere with your UOB cards, just remember that UOB issues two different types of reward points – SMART$ and UNI$. At SMART$ merchants such as the Dairy Farm group of merchants (i.e Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian) you will earn SMART$ instead of UNI$ which is essentially a cash rebate. You can view the full list of SMART$ merchants here.
Dining (where there’s no contactless/mobile payment)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| Maybank Horizon Visa Signature | 3.2 | Minimum spend of S$300 Earn 4.2 mpd from now until 30 Sept 2018 with a minimum spend of S$1,000 |
| HSBC Revolution/BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 2.0 | BOC Elite Miles: Earn 2.0 mpd until 31 Dec 18 |
| OCBC VOYAGE | 1.6 |
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Online Purchases (for both SGD and FCY purchases)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 5.0 (for online FCY transactions) | 5.0 mpd until 31 Dec 2018 |
| UOB Preferred Platinum Visa | 4.0 | Capped at UNI$2,000 on per calendar month (select categories only) |
| UOB Visa Signature | 4.0 (for online FCY transactions) | Subject to a minimum spend of S$1,000 equivalent in foreign currency transactions and capped at S$2,000 in foreign currency equivalent per statement period |
| DBS Woman’s World Card | 4.0 | Capped at S$2,000 per calendar month |
| Citibank Rewards/OCBC Titanium Rewards | 4.0 | Selected categories only – capped at S$12,000 per card anniversary year |
| Standard Chartered Rewards+ | 2.9 (for online FCY transactions) | Capped at S$2,222 in FCY equivalent |
| HSBC Revolution | 2.0 | No cap on miles earned |
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Airfare Purchases (online)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 5.0 (for airfare purchases charged in FCY) | 5.0 mpd until 31 Dec 2018. |
| DBS Woman’s World Card | 4.0 | Capped at S$2,000 per calendar month |
| DBS Altitude | 3.0 | Capped at S$5,000 per calendar month |
| HSBC Revolution/Maybank Horizon Visa Signature/BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 2.0 | HSBC: no cap on miles earned Maybank: Minimum spend of S$300 is required BOC Elite Miles: Earn 2.0 mpd until 31 Dec 18 |
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Special mention goes to the UOB PRVI Miles card which will earn you 6.0 mpd for bookings done via the specific Expedia – UOB landing site and for bookings made via UOB Travel. Note that this higher earn rate only applies for bookings made on select airlines. You can refer to the full terms and conditions of the 6.0 mpd earn rate program here.
The DBS Altitude cards will also earn you 6.0 mpd for bookings done on the specific Expedia – DBS landing site. You can read the full terms and conditions of that promotion here.
Hotel Bookings (online)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 5.0 (for hotel bookings in FCY) | 5.0 mpd until 31 Dec 2018 |
| DBS Woman’s World Card | 4.0 | Capped at S$2,000 per calendar month |
| DBS Altitude | 3.0 | Capped at S$5,000 per calendar month |
| HSBC Revolution/BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 2.0 | HSBC: Online hotel bookings BOC Elite Miles: If the booking is in SGD. 2.0 mpd until 31 Dec 18 |
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You are able to earn 10 mpd using either a Citibank PremierMiles, DBS Altitude and UOB PRVI Miles when booking through their individual Kaligo landing pages. However, just be mindful that prices you see on Kaligo might be higher than what the hotels are offering if you book directly with them.
UOB PRVI Miles also will earn you 6.0 mpd for hotel bookings via Expedia and Agoda via the specific Expedia-UOB landing page. You can view the full terms and conditions for that program here.
The DBS Altitude cards will also earn you 6.0 mpd for bookings done on the specific Expedia – DBS landing site. You can read the full terms and conditions of that promotion here.
The Citibank PremierMiles will earn up to 3 mpd for bookings made on Expedia until 31 May 2019. You can view the full terms and conditions for the increased earn rate program here.
Petrol
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| UOB Visa Signature | 4.0 | Subject to a minimum spend of S$1,000 for contactless & petrol spending. Capped at S$2,000. per statement period. You will earn SMART$ at Shell instead of UNI$ |
| Maybank World Mastercard | 4.0 | Earns 5.0mpd until 30 Sep 2018 with a minimum spend of S$1,000 |
| Maybank Horizon Visa Signature | 3.2 | Minimum spend of S$300 is required. Earn 4.2 mpd from now until 30 Sep 2018 with a minimum spend of S$1,000 |
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Offline Spending for Electronics
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| OCBC Titanium Rewards | 4.0 | Capped at S$12,000 spend per card anniversary year |
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Offline Spending for Clothes, Shoes, Bags
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks |
| OCBC Titanium Rewards | 4.0 | Capped at S$12,000 spend per card anniversary year |
| Citibank Rewards | 4.0 | Capped at S$12,000 spend per card anniversary year |
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General Spending Cards (local)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks | ||||||||||||
| BOC Elite World Mastercard | 2.0 | 2.0 mpd earn rate valid until 31 Dec 2018 | ||||||||||||
| UOB PRVI Miles/Standard Chartered Visa Infinite | 1.4 | SCB VI : minimum spend of S$2,000 required per statement period to receive 1.4 mpd, else you will only earn 1.0 mpd | ||||||||||||
| Citi Prestige Card | 1.3 | Earn rate might be higher depending on your banking relationship with Citibank.
| ||||||||||||
| OCBC VOYAGE/DBS Altitude/Citibank PremierMiles/AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend | 1.2 | |||||||||||||
| AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card | 1.1 |
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General Spending Cards (overseas)
| Credit Card | Earn Rate (Miles per Dollar) | Remarks | ||||||||||||
| BOC Elite World Mastercard | 5.0 | 5.0 mpd earn rate valid until 31 Dec 2018 | ||||||||||||
| UOB Visa Signature | 4.0 | Subject to a minimum spend of S$1,000 equivalent in FCY, capped at S$2,000 equivalent in FCY | ||||||||||||
| Standard Chartered Visa Infinite | 3.0 | SCB VI : minimum spend of S$2,000 per statement period to receive 3.0 mpd, else you will only earn 1.0 mpd | ||||||||||||
| Standard Chartered Rewards+ | 2.9 | Capped at S$2,222 in FCY spend per card anniversary | ||||||||||||
| UOB PRVI Miles | 2.4 | |||||||||||||
| OCBC VOYAGE | 2.3 | |||||||||||||
| Citi Prestige Card | 2.0 | Earn rate might be higher depending on your banking relationship with Citibank.
| ||||||||||||
| DBS Altitude/Citibank PremierMiles | 2.0 |
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Concluding Thoughts
Life must go on in a post-8mpd world where the highest possible earn rate which we can achieve everywhere will be 4.0mpd. If you plan your expenditure properly around these cards, you will still be able to have an optimum points earning strategy.Unless of course, you’re switching over to the cashback camp for the next few months to recuperate the excessive expenditure that you amassed during the Citibank Apple Pay promotion.
All cards listed here are publicly-obtainable cards and do not include special cards such as the OCBC Premier banking VOYAGE and the DBS Treasures AMEX cards.
For a full guide on which card to use for what, check out the Credit Card Guide page here.
The Maybank World Mastercard would earn 5mpd for certain categories (e.g. Petrol) under the ongoing Triple one promo which ends in Sep 18. Confirmed with Maybank via FB. But it’s subject to minimum spend of 1k of cos.
Hi. Thanks! Will update the table
UOB PPA for dining
DBS Altitude cards (Visa / AMEX) earn 6mpd for Expedia flight & hotel bookings until 31 March 2019. Capped at $5000 spend per month. Promo details on DBS website.
Right. Had that nagging feeling i left something out. Thanks!
Hi Matthew, great report. Can I confirm with you regarding the UOB VS card, does that means that by having contactless / petrol spending of 1k in singapore will grant you 4mpd , and for overseas with a minimum spending of 1k foreign currency to get 4mpd ? I checked a couple of times on the T&C and found it quite confusing, do we have to hit both overseas and local 1k to qualify for 4mpd or it’s separated i.e. in order for overseas transaction to get 4mpd = spend 1k minimum overseas, and locally 4mpd = spend 1k contactless/petrol… Read more »
From what I understand, if you hit 1k on local contactless you’ll get 4mpd already. But any UOB VS holders can verify? Thanks!
Local+Petrol is one category. Overseas is another one. You have to reach SGD1k in each, otherwise you don’t get 4mpd for the respective category. Of course, overall cap is at SGD2k. Hence ideal is to do a SGD 1k in each category, but make sure to hit the 1k or it will be painful
This is correct.
If spending in one category, then spend at least $1k and no more than $2k.
If spending in both categories, then try to spend exactly (or just a little over) $1k in each.
What happened to the UOB Preferred Platinum AMEX? Doesn’t that net you 4 mpd on dining?
I didn’t list the UOB PPA as it’s not publicly available anymore. But yes for those of you who still hold on to that card, it does give 4mpd on dining.
Gotcha, thanks!
Might be worthwhile noting that the Maybank cards also earn 1.4 mpd for general spends until end of September subject to minimum spend of $1k. This makes it slightly more useful than the UOB PRVI cards because of the rounding issue, as long as you can hit the minimum spend (maybe not too difficult if you also include other spend with higher earning like dining or petrol)
I woke up on the morning of 1 Aug feeling quite bored (I think I posted something about this somewhere).. No more 8 mpd.. all the shopping that was needed, and then some, were all done and dusted.. I’m both happy (more so) than sad/ upset (just one of those things) that it didn’t take very long (thank you, Aaron, again) that on the morning of 3 Aug, I’m all excited again! And.. after reading and re-reading Aaron’s post on the “new” Amex Plat Charge Card (and cross-referencing Amex’s own pages), it also dawned on me (yes, I am a… Read more »
hi anyone knows if UOB PP visa earns 4mpd for contactless payment at petrol kiosk (excluding shell)?
I tried to ask DBS for an itemized point breakdown recently, but they declined to do so. They used to do it in the past. Answers from DBS as follows ——————————————————————————————————————- Before we proceed, I’m taking this opportunity to share that you may also get instant responses to your future queries via our Live Chat service. Simply click on the ‘Chat’ icon (bottom right) in digibank online (internet banking). With regards to your query on the itemized points breakdown, I apologize as we are unable to provide the breakdown of your DBS Points unless you will specify the discrepancy or… Read more »