The gender-neutral DBS Woman’s Cards (open to both men and women) are one of the best options for online transactions in Singapore. You can earn up to 4 mpd on the first $2,000 of online spending each month, be it airfares, shopping, groceries, movie tickets or food delivery.
 DBS Woman’s Card |
 DBS Woman’s World Card |
|
| Income Requirement | $30K | $80K (but not strict) |
| Annual Fee | $160.50 (first year free) | $192.60 (first year free) |
| Online Spending | 2 mpd, capped at $1K per month | 4 mpd, capped at $2K per month |
| Foreign Currency Spending | 0.4 mpd | 1.2 mpd |
| Other spending | 0.4 mpd | 0.4 mpd |
Historically speaking, DBS hasn’t offered much in the way of sign up bonuses on these cards. However, from now till 31 March 2020, new-to-bank applicants who apply online and spend $800 within 60 days of approval will get $120 cashback.
| DBS defines new-to-bank as someone who does not currently hold any DBS/POSB credit cards, and has not in the 12 month period before 1 October 2019 |
The $120 cashback will be credited to your card account within 120 days from card approval date, if the spending criteria is met. Qualifying spend excludes the usual suspects like education, government, insurance, non-profit and gambling transactions. Supplementary cardholder spending will be combined with principal cardholder spending in determining whether the spending criteria has been met.
The full T&C of this offer can be found here.
Which sign up bonus should I take?
Some of you may recall that the DBS Altitude is currently running a sign up bonus as well. From now till 31 January 2020, new-to-bank customers who spend $6,000 within 3 months of approval will get 10,000 bonus miles.
Since your “new-to-bank” status is only valid for one of these offers, the natural question is which one you should take.
| New-to-bank offers |  DBS Altitudeย |
DBS Woman’s World Card |
| Spend | $6,000 | $800 |
| Time Period | 3 months | 60 days |
| Reward | 10,000 miles | $120 cashback |
| Value of Reward | ~$180 (based on KrisFlyer mile valuation) | $120 |
| Effective Rebate | 3% | 15% |
Based on the maths, it’s clearly a better idea to take the Woman’s Card offer- you have a lower spending requirement and a higher effective rebate. The caveat is that you’ll want to make sure all your $800 spending is online, so as to max out the miles earned. If you have an upcoming airfare booking or big ticket Black Friday purchase, this shouldn’t be an issue.
But keep in mind that it’s not entirely an either/or proposition- DBS Altitude is offering a smaller sign up bonus for existing customers.
| Existing customer offer | DBS Altitudeย |
| Spend | $6,000 |
| Reward | 5,000 miles |
| Value of Reward | ~$90 (based on KrisFlyer mile valuation) |
| Effective Rebate | 1.5% |
What you might do is sign up for the DBS Woman’s World Card, spend $800 and get $120 cashback, then spend a further $6,000 on the DBS Altitude as an existing customer to get a bonus 5,000 miles.
However, this only really makes sense if other sign up bonuses are out of reach to you, because that same $6,000 spending could yield:
- 10,000 bonus miles on the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card (new-to-bank, plus $100 cash if you sign up via SingSaver)
- 10,000 bonus miles on the UOB PRVI Miles AMEX (new-to-bank)
- 17,500 bonus miles on the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card (only $5,000 spending required)
- 60,000 bonus miles on the SCB X Card (annual fee of $695.50 must be paid)
| See the full list of current credit card sign up bonuses here |
Conclusion
If you’ve got new-to-bank status with DBS and don’t already have a Woman’s card, you’ll definitely want to give this one a look. With the sheer number of online transactions most of us do in a month, it just makes sense to have a specialized spending card for this category.
(HT: Adam)
