Tuition fees are the burden of every parent/student. Back in January 2018, I made a post where I detailed which cards can earn you miles from the payment of tuition fees.
The time is coming where tuition fees are going to be due again, at least for the universities. So I thought it appropriate to consolidate the various methods you can use to pay your (or your child’s) tuition fees and earn some miles while you’re at it.
Which cards don’t earn miles
For starters, here are the banks/cards which are officially excluded from earning any points/miles when making payments to educational institutes:
- DBS (all cards)
- Citi Premiermiles, Citi Prestige, Citi Rewards
- OCBC VOYAGE
Which cards do earn miles
Here’s a table of cards that you can use for the payment of tuition fees if credit card payments are accepted. Note that I am only referring to tuition fees payable in universities (NUS, NTU etc.) and polytechnics.
| Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
 HSBC Revolution Visa | 2.0 | Only valid for online payments. Earn 0.4 mpd first, 1.6 mpd to be credited by the end of second calendar month from when the transaction was made |
 BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard | 1.5 | |
 UOB PRVI Miles Card | 1.4 | Payments made after 1 September 2019 will not earn UNI$ |
 Standard Chartered Visa Infinite | 1.4 | Minimum spend of S$2,000 required per statement month. Otherwise, 1.0 mpd |
 HSBC Visa Infinite | 1.25 | Minimum spend of S$50,000 in previous membership year required. Else, 1.0 mpd. |
 KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card | 1.2 | Payments made after 1 September 2019 will not be awarded KrisFlyer miles |
 AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card | 1.2 | |
 AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card | 1.1 |
Consider sign up bonuses
Tuition fees are not small amounts. If you/your child is studying in a course such as law, your tuition fees can easily hit close to or even exceed S$5,000 a semester. As such, knowing the due dates of your child’s tuition fees payment date is extremely important especially if you are applying for cards with sign-up bonuses.
To see which cards are currently offering sign-up bonuses, you can check out this page below:
With the imminent launch of the X-card, I will be waiting to see what will be the sign-up offer spending requirement for that card before making my decision on which card to use to pay for the upcoming semester’s school fees.
Concluding Thoughts
Tuition fees are a great way to rack up a decent miles pool, and it gets even better if you can use these big-ticket payments to hit the sign up bonus spending amounts. Just be sure to read the T&Cs of the card you use- don’t use a card that excludes these payments!
Lol I have a tuition bill to pay by 27th. Do you think I’ll be able to have my X card approved by then?
Probably not. I can’t remember if SCB has a virtual card option though.
UOB Reserve VI @ 2.0mpd, if total annual spend min. $250k 😇
WELL…
Unreachable for a lot of us.. Who would have the ability to spend 250k when still in tuition. Or maybe their parents has that ability but still..
I honestly think we people playing the miles game are poor folks who has to try to squeeze out savings from every transactions. I think for really rich people that spends 250k a year, they have no time for such tiny savings. No flame, I’m one of those poor folks unfortunately:(
You’ll be surprised how many people are asset-rich, cash-poor. This class of people earn a *lot* (the kind where you’ll be wondering if their salary amount is monthly or yearly), but end up having very little in their bank accounts. 🙂
citi payall leh?
Would the UOB VS qualify for overseas university tuition? I did not see any exclusion for education.
Yeah it should get 4 mpd (capped at S$2,000) if it’s paying for an overseas tuition
I’ve applied for BOC since April 2019. Still waiting. LOL
I pay $3200/month for moe tuition fee for my children, because we are foreigner.
Pls advise the card can earn miles for moe tuition fee,
Thanks
What’s up with “educational institutions”? UOB One excluding them from 1 Sep 2019 (both card and account)!
Would there be cash back for the SCB Unlimited Cash Back card ?
Would there be cash back for the SCB unlimited cash back card?
Is tuition fees eligible for the SCB X card bonus miles? Heard they recently changed their terms and conditions?
they changed it indeed, but whether it excludes private as well remains to be seen. they *may* have excluded just public.
I understand from Matthew’s articles (including the previous one) that HSBC Revo’s 2mpd applies to only local universities/polytechnics
was wondering if anyone has used HSBC revol to pay for overseas (UK) unis (through online payment portals) and received 2mpd?
looks like almost all gaps are closed… Visa/MC of Revo, SC X, Unlimited, UOB, DBS, OCBC…
yeah i just saw. depressing, the article this year will be very empty
Any update on the article coming up ?
Yes, will be paying soon too. Any cards that we can used for overseas tuition fees payment?
SMU MCC is 9399