OCBC has been just unveiled a raft of changes to its points-earning cards, which take effect from 1 June 2020. Weโve already discussed and analyzed the changes on the VOYAGE and 90ยฐN Cards, and now itโs the Titanium Rewardโs turn.
From 1 June 2020, the OCBC Titanium Rewards cards will adopt a new set of T&Cs, which introduce S$5 earning blocks and additional rewards exclusion categories.
The old T&Cs can be found here, while the new T&Cs can be found here. For ease of reference, Iโve created a comparison which you can view here.
Introduction of S$5 earning blocks
Hereโs how earning points on the OCBC Titanium Rewards card will change from 1 June 2020:
Before 1 June 2020 | From 1 June 2020 | |
Regular spending | S$1= 1 OCBC$ (0.4 mpd) |
S$5= 5 OCBC$ (0.4 mpd) |
10X categories* | S$1=10 OCBC$ (4 mpd) |
S$5= 50 OCBC$ (4 mpd) |
๐ The cap on 10X points remains the same at 120,000 OCBC$ (S$12,000) per card membership year. The Pink and Blue card each has its own cap. |
Although Iโve already discussed the impact of S$5 earning blocks in my article on the OCBC 90ยฐN, I think itโs necessary to do a separate discussion for the Titanium Rewards card.
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Thatโs because the 90ยฐN is a general spending card, while the Titanium Rewards is a specialized spending card. The way they compute and award points is different.
โ How do banks compute and award credit card points? Hereโs how it works for general spending and specialized spending cards. |
Points on the 90ยฐN are awarded instantly, when the transaction posts. With the Titanium Rewards, 1X points are awarded instantly when the transaction posts. The remaining 9X are awarded by the end of the next calendar month. This means that S$5 rounding blocks will affect both cards differently.
Hereโs how OCBC currently awards the 10X points on the Titanium Rewards Card:
- 1X points: Round transaction down to nearest S$1, then multiply transaction by 1.0
- 9X points: Sum all eligible transactions (including cents), multiply transaction by 9.0, round down
From 1 June 2020, hereโs how points will be calculated:
- 1X points: Round transaction down to nearest S$5, divide by 5.0, then multiply by 5.0
- 9X points: Round transaction down to nearest S$5, divide by 5.0, then multiply by 45
โ ๏ธ I know it seems dumb to divide by 5 then multiply by 5, but it helps when youโre trying to conceptualize the calculation- e.g S$45 has 9 blocks of S$5, and each block gets 5 OCBC$ |
In other words, your 9X points will now be calculated on a per transaction basis, instead of collectively.
Thatโs too much math for a public holiday, so letโs just do an illustration. Suppose you made five eligible 10X transactions over the course of a month, spending a total of S$739.19:
- Qoo10: S$8.99
- Lazada: S$46.50
- IKEA: S$19.50
- Amazon: S$4.30
- Mustafa: S$659.90
Hereโs how the points you earn change:
Before 1 June 2020 |
From 1 June 2020 |
|||
1X | 9X | 1X | 9X | |
Qoo10 | 8 | โ 6,652 โ |
5 | 45 |
Lazada | 46 | 45 | 405 | |
IKEA | 19 | 15 | 135 | |
Amazon | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
Mustafa | 659 | 655 | 5,895 | |
Total OCBC$ | 7,388 (2,955 miles) |
7,200 (2,880 miles) |
New exclusion categories
From 1 June 2020, the following transactions will no longer earn points:
- MCC 4784: Tolls and Bridge Fees
- MCC 5993: Cigars, Stores and Stands
- MCC 6010: Banks- Manual/Automated Cash Disbursement
- MCC 8675: Automobile Associations
- MCC 8699: Labour Union
- Transactions to Singapore Government Public Hospitals including Non-Profit Hospitals, Community Hospitals and Polyclinics under MCC 8062
Curiously enough, MCC 4111/4121/4131 (transport), which have been excluded under the VOYAGE and 90ยฐN cards, are not excluded here.
Iโm not really going to discuss these new exclusion categories because theyโre entirely academic- you wouldnโt use your Titanium Rewards card on such transactions anyway, as youโd only earn 0.4 mpd. This matters much more for the VOYAGE and 90ยฐN Cards, and Iโve done the analysis in the respective articles.
OCBC has maintained the same list of eligible 10X MCCs:
- MCC 5611: Menโs and Boysโ Clothing and Accessories Stores
- MCC 5621: Womenโs Ready to Wear Stores
- MCC 5631: Womenโs Accessory and Specialty Stores
- MCC 5641: Childrenโs and Infantsโ Wear Stores
- MCC 5651: Family Clothing Stores
- MCC 5661: Shoe Stores
- MCC 5691: Menโs and Womenโs Clothing Stores
- MCC 5045: Computers, Peripherals, and Software
- MCC 5732: Electronics Stores
- MCC 5699: Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessory Shops
- MCC 5311: Department Stores
Theyโve also codified the following specific merchants into the T&Cs:
- Alibaba
- AliExpress
- Amazon
- Courts
- Daigou
- Ezbuy
- IKEA
- Lazada
- Mustafa Centre
- Qoo10
- Shopee
- Taobao
Conclusion
S$5 earning blocks are annoying to be sure, but it was always inevitable that the Titanium Rewards would move onto the same system after the VOYAGE and 90ยฐNโs changes.
For what itโs worth, I donโt think itโs a dealbreaker- the OCBC Titanium Rewards continues to be extremely useful for online spending, and more importantly, its 10X cap is based on membership year. If you were buying a big ticket item of, say, S$5,000, youโd be able to process it all at once on the Titanium Rewards, instead of splitting it into smaller transactions for the DBS Womanโs World (cap: S$2,000 per month) or Citi Rewards (cap: S$1,000 per month).
Remember that itโs also possible to double your 10X cap by applying for the Blue and Pink cards- each has their own individual cap.
Hi Aaron,
Does it still award additional rewards for paywave transactions? Keen in this card for contactless transactions but found no mention of bonuses for contactless transactions for this card. Thanks!
the promotion for mobile contactless payments ended a long time ago.
Look at the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa instead. But do note that you need to use mobile wallet from 22 May onwards https://milelion.com/2020/04/22/psa-no-more-10x-on-contactless-payments-with-uob-preferred-platinum-visa-physical-card/