How to calculate credit card points: Specialised spending cards

If you thought that tracking credit card points on general spending cards was hard, just wait till you try it with specialised spending ones.

Unlike general spending cards, most specialised spending cards split points into two batches:

• Based points are credited when the transaction posts
• Bonus points may be delayed till the month after, and awarded as one lump sum.

This can make tracking an absolute nightmare. And yet, it’s crucial for specialised spending cards. Because of the vagaries inherent in MCCs, (will a hotel restaurant code as dining, or accommodation?) tracking helps ensure you’re getting the bonuses you’re entitled to. Even if you’re not an Excel geek, it makes sense to eyeball your total spend and the number of points received each month, just to ensure everything’s in order.

In this post, we’ll look at how you can calculate points earned on specialised spending cards.

Calculations: Specialised Spending Cards

Here’s how various specialised spending cards award and round points.

Card	Remarks	Bonus Points
Citi Rewards	1X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$1, then multiply by 1 9X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$1, then multiply by 9	Instant
Maybank World Mastercard	1X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, then multiply by 5 9X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, then multiply by 45	Instant
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa	1X: Round down trxn. to the nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 1 9X: Round down trxn. to the nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 9	Instant
DBS Woman’s World Card	Local 1X: Divide trxn. by 5 and multiply by 1. Round down to nearest whole number 9X: Divide trxn. by 5 and multiply by 9, round down to nearest whole number FCY 3X: Divide trxn. by 5 and multiply by 1, round down to nearest whole number, divide trxn. by 5 and multiply by 2, round down to nearest whole number, add both 7X: Divide trxn. by 5 and multiply by 7, round down to nearest whole number Combined Add the bonus components for local and FCY and round down once more	Delayed: next calendar month
HSBC Revolution	1X: Round trxn. to nearest S$1, then multiply by 1 9X: Sum all eligible trxn. (including cents) and round down to nearest whole number. Multiply by 9	Delayed: next calendar month
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature	1X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, then multiply by 5 4X/7X: Round down all eligible trxn. to nearest S$5, then multiply by 20 (air tickets, FCY) or 35 (dining, bus, train, petrol, taxi, Agoda)	Delayed: next calendar month
OCBC Titanium Rewards	1X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 5 9X: Round trxn. down to nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 45	Delayed: next calendar month
UOB Lady’s Card/ Lady’s Solitaire	1X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 1 9X: Sum all eligible trxn. (including cents), round down transaction to nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 9	Delayed: next calendar month
UOB Visa Signature	1X: Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 1 9X: Sum all eligible trxn. (including cents), round down transaction to nearest S$5, divide by 5, then multiply by 9	Delayed: next calendar month

A few points to note.

Instant vs delayed bonuses

While most specialised spending cards award base and bonus points separately, there are a few exceptions where base and bonus points are awarded together at the time of transaction posting:

• Citi Rewards
• Maybank World Mastercard
• UOB Preferred Platinum Visa

Needless to say, this makes reconciliation much easier, especially since UOB provides transaction-level points breakdowns.

If bonus points are credited as a lump sum, you need to work backwards to figure out what did and didn’t earn points.

While that’s a headache, one benefit of delayed posting is that certain transactions which may not earn base points can still earn bonus points.

For example, if you spent S$4 online with the DBS Woman’s World Card:

• 0 base points are earned (4/5*1 is rounded down to 0)
• 7.20 bonus points are earned (4/5*9, rounded to 2 d.p) and added to the monthly bonus amount

Likewise, UOB Lady’s Card cardholders have reported that even though Giant and Cold Storage transactions do not earn 1X base UNI$ (since they’re UOB$ merchants), they still receive 9X bonus UNI$ the following month.

Round versus Round Down

It’s important to note whether your bank rounds or rounds down transaction and points amounts

• Round means 3.6 becomes 4, 3.4 becomes 3 (.5 is always rounded up)
• Round down means that both 3.6 and 3.4 become 3

Obviously, the former is more generous than the latter.

Calendar month vs statement month

When calculating bonus points, be careful to note whether your card applies a bonus cap based on calendar month or statement month.

Calendar month is straightforward (e.g. 1-31 January), but statement month needs a little explaining. Generate your e-statement and look for the statement date at the top right hand corner. This tells you what your statement month is; in the example below, it’s 12th to the 11th of the following month.

You should also take note of timing differences between the crediting of base and bonus points. For example, the HSBC Revolution card awards 1X base points in the current statement cycle, but the additional 9X bonus points will be credited by the last day of the following calendar month. Your statement cycle is unlikely to coincide exactly with the calendar month, which means you’ll need to carefully sort your transactions by date when reconciling.

Excel formulas

If you’re the sort who uses Excel to calculate your points, here’s formulas to plug and play. “X” refers to the eligible transaction amount, “Y” to the sum of all eligible transactions.

Card	Formula for Points
Citi Rewards	Base: ROUNDDOWN(X,0)*1 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN(X,0)*9
Maybank World Mastercard	Base: ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0)*5 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0)*45
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa	Base: ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0)*1 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0)*9
DBS Woman’s World Card	Local Base: ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*1,0) Bonus: ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*9,0) FCY Base: ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*1,0) + ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*2,0) Bonus: ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*7,0) Total Bonus (Local + FCY) =ROUNDDOWN(Local+ FCY)
HSBC Revolution	Base: ROUND(X,0)*1 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN(Y,0)*9
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature	Base: ROUNDDOWN(X/5,0)*5 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN(X/5,0)*35 [Replace 35 with 20 for 4X]
OCBC Titanium Rewards	Base: ROUNDDOWN(X/5,0)*5 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN(X/5,0)*45
UOB Lady’s Card/ Lady’s Solitaire	Base: ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0)*1 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN(Y/5,0)*9
UOB Visa Signature	Base: ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0)*1 Bonus: ROUNDDOWN(Y/5,0)*9

Remember that the formulas above give you the number of points you can expect to receive (e.g. UNI$, DBS Points, VOYAGE Miles, OCBC$), not miles. A further calculation is necessary to convert points to miles.

Conclusion

Is it worth tracking your credit card points? Definitely.

By monitoring their points, cardholders have spotted miscoded transactions, which were rectified upon appeal. For example, at one point Citi Rewards cardholders were not earning bonus points on Deliveroo. This was investigated and rectified eventually.

Is it worth tracking your credit card points at this level of detail? Well, only you can answer that.

Honestly speaking, I just eyeball my points balance each month. I’ve never actually created a spreadsheet to track them with the granularity that some do. For me, the main objective of checking your points is not to account for them to the last digit. Rather, it’s to help you:

1. realise when you didn’t earn the bonus points you thought you would
2. identify which transaction didn’t earn bonus points, and call up the CSO to investigate (if you have a case)

In other words, if I see a big discrepancy between what I have, and what I think I should have based on a ballpark calculation, it’s a sign that I should call up the bank and find out what’s going on. Of course, it’d be much better if banks just got it right the first time, but unfortunately the onus is still on the customer to spot discrepancies.