Although itโs โfreeโ to use your credit card in Singapore (unless the merchant imposes a surcharge, which they really shouldnโt), swiping it overseas entails an explicit cost thanks to foreign currency transaction fees.
Banks know that consumers are generally skittish about bringing their cards on holiday. Therefore, they try to incentivize usage by offering bonus points on foreign currency transactions. In fact, almost every general spending card on the market offers a higher earning rate on foreign currency transactions than those in SGD.
Because of the fee involved, many people ask me whether itโs โworth itโ to use their cards overseas to earn miles. To answer this question, you need to ask yourself:
- How much do you value a mile?
- How much are you paying for miles when you use your credit card overseas?
Weโve addressed the first question in this article (tl;dr: 1.8 cents, but it varies depending on the individual). Now letโs look at the second.
What fees do banks impose for foreign currency transactions?
Hereโs the fees that each bank charges for foreign currency transactions (inclusive of the fees levied by Visa/Mastercard/AMEX)
[table id=3 /]
You can use the official Visa and Mastercard currency converters to get an estimate of the final amount that will post to your card. AMEX does not have a similar tool. |
In general, weโve seen these fees creep up over the past 12 months, as almost every bank (bar AMEX) has raised their fees.
- On 1 Apr 18, Maybank increased its FCY charge on Visa Diamante, Visa Infinite and World Mastercard from 2.5% to 2.75%
- On 4 Oct 18, Citibank increased its FCY charge from 2.8% to 3%
- On 1 Nov 18, HSBC increased its FCY charge from 2.5% to 2.8%
- On 1 Jan 19, CIMB removed the admin fee waiver for FCY transactions on the Visa Signature and Platinum Mastercard, thereby increasing the fee from 1% to 3%
- On 2 Jan 19, DBS increased its FCY charge from 2.8% to 3%
- On 15 Jan 19, BOC increased its FCY charge on Mastercard transactions from 2.5% to 3% (Visa fees increased from 2.5% to 3% on 1 Dec 18)
- On 15 Mar 19, OCBC increased its FCY charge from 2.8% to 3%
- On 4 Sep 19, UOB will increase its FCY charge from 2.8% to 3.1%
How much are you paying per mile?
Given the foreign currency transaction fees and FCY earn rates, hereโs how much you effectively pay per mile.
FCY | Fee | CPM | Remarks | |
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4.0 | 3.0% | 0.75 | Until 29 Feb 2020, 2.1 mpd after |
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4.0 | 3.1% (from 4 Sept) | 0.78 | Min S$1K, max S$2K spend per statement period. Payment must be processed outside of Singapore |
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3.0 | 3.0% | 1.0 | Payment must be processed outside of Singapore |
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3.0 | 3.5% | 1.17 | Spend >S$2K in a statement period, otherwise 1 mpd |
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2.9 | 3.5% | 1.21 | Capped at S$2.2K of FCY spend per year |
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2.25 | 2.8% | 1.24 | Spend >S$50K in the previous membership year, otherwise 2 mpd |
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2.4 | 3% | 1.25 | Until 31 Dec 2019, 2.3 mpd after |
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2.4 | 3% | 1.25 | |
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2.0 | 2.5% | 1.25 | June/Dec only, otherwise 1.2 mpd |
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2.0 | 2.5% | 1.25 | June/Dec only, otherwise 1.1 mpd |
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2.4 | 3.25% | 1.35 | Payment must be processed outside of Singapore |
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2.0 | 3% | 1.5 | |
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2.0 | 3% | 1.5 | |
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2.0 | 3% | 1.5 | |
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2.0 | 3.1% (from 4 Sept) | 1.55 | Payment must be processed outside of Singapore |
Provided your value of a mile is greater than the cost of acquisition, then yes, itโs worth using your card overseas (just beware of the DCC scam!)
What about specialized spending cards?
In addition to the cards above, you can also consider using the following for 4 mpd on overseas spending. Do note that this is only applicable to certain categories of spending, and there may be caps:
Earn 4 mpd on | Caps | |
![]() Citi Rewards Visa/ Citi Rewards Mastercard |
Online transactions, offline shopping on bags, shoes, clothes, department stores | S$1K per month |
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Online and offline shopping, electronics, department stores | S$12K per memberhsip year |
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Contactless (Paywave, mobile payments) | S$1.1K per month (T&C state S$1K, but practice shows otherwise) |
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Dining | S$6K per membership year |
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One (two for Solitaire) of seven categories: beauty, dining, entertainment, family, fashion, transport, travel | S$1K per month (S$3K for Solitaire) |
In this case, youโll take 4 divided by the relevant FCY charge (see the table above) to derive your cost per mile.
Important: How does your bank define overseas transactions?
For the vast majority of banks, an overseas transaction is defined as one processed in any currency other than SGD.
This means that regardless of whether youโre sitting in Singapore and buying something from a US site, or physically using your card at a cafe in Sydney, youโll earn the cardโs FCY rate.
However, UOB and BOC add a further restriction on overseas transactions: payment processing must be done outside of Singapore.

There are some websites (e.g. Hotels.com) which may bill you in FCY, but process the payment in Singapore. In this case, youโll be awarded miles based on the local earn rate instead. So for example, a US$100 transaction processed in Singapore would earn S$138.80 * 1.5 (instead of 3.0) = 208 miles on the BOC Elite Miles card.
How do you know where payments are processed? You donโt. Thatโs the worst thing about such a rule- it puts the onus on the customer to find out information thatโs not exactly readily available. Thankfully, most of the times the situation is pretty clear cut, but itโs still something you want to take note of for UOB and BOC cards.
Conclusion
As of today, the best card to use for overseas transactions is hands down the OCBC 90ยฐN Card. Unlike other cards which have minimum spend requirements or caps on earning, the OCBC 90ยฐNโs value proposition is very straightforward: 4 mpd on any spending that is not in SGD, until 29 Feb 2020.
The runner up would be the UOB Visa Signature, but you need to be careful with this one. To earn 4 mpd on overseas spending, you need to spend a minimum of S$1,000 in FCY in a given statement period (may not be the same as calendar month), and the 4 mpd is capped at S$2,000 of FCY. You also need to make sure the payment is processed outside of Singapore.
Finally: do exercise caution when using your card overseas. Itโs best practice not to leave the magnetic stripe activated longer than it has to be, and always monitor your statement closely in the months after returning. If youโre asked whether youโd like to pay in SGD, respond with a resounding โnoโ, and if youโre forced to do so anyway, lodge a complaint.
โYou also need to make sure the payment is processed in Singapore.โ Typo?
fixed it! thank you
The T&Cs for the UOB PPV actually state the total per calendar month for contactless and selected online is 2000 uni$ not S$1000. So you could make 1000s of <$5 transaction and not reach the cap or one $1000 transaction and hit the cap. (I think they have recently been revised).
Hi, thanks for another great and informative article. There seem to be little discussion on exchange rates used by the various banks for FCY. In most of their T&C, for non USD fcy, I notice they will change from X-Currency to USD then to SGD. This additional change is usually disadvantages, at least if at the money changer due to the BUY-SELL spread. Any thoughts on whether if compared to money changer rates, are the rates used by the banks any good? Do they differ significantly between banks? If we are going to determine CPM using FCY rate, shouldnโt weโฆ Read more ยป
Why USD in the middle is that Visa/MasterCard are from US. They clear in USD only.
For some currencies and banks USD is not used as an intermediate. For example UOB does a direct AUD to SGD conversion. In regards to money changer vs credit card. You can usually get a better rate than the Visa/MC rates and you forgo the additional ~3% fees so you are pretty much guaranteed to be better off using a local money changer (not Travelex) and cash.
Hey quek, you can use the visa/mc currency converters to see what rates they use (just put 0 fee to see the โpureโ rate). Banks will use the rates offered by visa/mc to process.
Thanks for the clarification! Didnโt know about the converters ๐ Did 2 random test for JPY, seems rather negligible. Difference between moneychanger, Visa, and MC was about 0.15-0.213%. Would you happen to know if Amex has something similar? Canโt seem to find it. :-S
Do does topping up foreign Wallet ( ie. MY GRAB) counts as FCY transation?
How about ICBC global travel master card which is 3% cash back on foreign currency spending?