Mid-Year Update: The Milelion’s 2020 Credit Card Strategy

We’re just past the half-way point of 2020, and now’s as good a time as any to reassess your credit card game plan. 

In the seven months that have passed since I first came up with my 2020 Credit Card Strategy, we’ve seen promotions come and go, major product nerfs and enhancements, as well as that minor inconvenience of not being able to fly anywhere. 

Long story short, I’m still keeping the faith with miles, but I’ve also temporarily adjusted my valuation down to around the 1.5 cent mark- hence my willingness to cash out some points for statement rebates under the recent AMEX Platinum promotion.

I still believe we’ll see leisure travel returning by mid-2021, and I’m personally not concerned about the prospect of a KrisFlyer devalution in the near term (as laid out in this discussion). So until then, here’s my updated take on card strategy. 

📱 Contactless & Mobile Payments: HSBC Revolution or UOB Preferred Platinum Visa

The UOB Preferred Platinum Visa continues to be the go-to card in this category, but take note that since 22 May, there’s been no more 4 mpd for tapping the physical card at contactless readers. Instead, you’ll need to add your card to your mobile wallet (Apple/ Fitbit/ Google/ Samsung Pay), an exercise which takes all of 30 seconds. 

Alternatively, you can use the HSBC Revolution, fresh from its 1 August makeover. Cardholders can now earn 4 mpd on contactless payments at:

• Travel merchants like airlines and hotels
• Department and retail stores
• Supermarkets, dining and food delivery
• Transportation (excluding public transport)

It’s not quite the “4 mpd everywhere” that the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa offers, but still a very wide range of day-to-day merchants. 

🍽️ Dining: HSBC Revolution or UOB Lady’s Card/Lady’s Solitaire

	Earn Rate	Remarks
HSBC Revolution Apply here	4.0 mpd	S$1,000 per calendar month Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply here	4.0 mpd	S$1,000 per calendar month. Must choose dining as 10X category. Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply here	4.0 mpd	S$3,000 per calendar month. Must choose dining as 10X category. Review

2020 started with limited 4 mpd options for dining. To earn this, you’d need to:

• hold a long-discontinued UOB Preferred Platinum AMEX
• hope the restaurant accepted contactless payments, and burn your UOB Preferred Platinum Visa’s 4 mpd cap
• have lady parts

If you ticked “no to all”, then the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature was the only solution, and a sub-optimal one at that. You’d earn 3.2 mpd with a minimum spend of S$300, and only at MCC 5812 (Restaurants)- no bonus for fast food, caterers, or bars. 

Therefore, the HSBC Revolution’s renaissance has been just what the doctor ordered. Cardholders can now earn 4 mpd whenever they use contactless payments at :

• MCC 5811: Caterers
• MCC 5812: Restaurants
• MCC 5813: Bars, Cocktail Lounges, Nightclubs
• MCC 5814: Fast Food Restaurants
• MCC 5499: Misc Food Stores 

Those categories are wide enough to settle all your dining needs. 

🌎 Foreign Currency (FCY): UOB Visa Signature

Sadly, the OCBC 90°N’s uncapped 4 mpd on FCY spending ended in March, dropping to a more sedate 2.1 mpd. 

In any case, no one’s really traveling at the moment, and since there are plenty of 4 mpd cards you can use when paying online in FCY, there’s no real need for a dedicated FCY card right now. 

Should that situation change, my weapon of choice would still be the UOB Visa Signature. This earns 4 mpd on FCY spending, provided (1) you spend at least S$1,000 in foreign currency in a given statement month, and (2) the payment processing is done outside of Singapore.

🛒 Offline Shopping: Citi Rewards or OCBC Titanium Rewards

No changes here, although I’d tend to use the OCBC Titanium Rewards for offline shopping and save the Citi Reward’s less restrictive 4 mpd cap for online spending. 

Remember, you can get both the Blue and Pink versions of the OCBC Titanium Rewards card to double your annual 4 mpd cap. You could equally use the HSBC Revolution or the UOB Lady’s/Lady’s Solitaire Cards (with fashion selected as your 10X category) for this category. 

🖥️ Online Transactions: Citi Rewards or DBS Woman’s World Card

The most significant development on this front has been the discontinuation of the Citi Rewards Visa. For the uninitiated, Citibank made the decision back in March to switch all non co-brand cards to the Mastercard network.

Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, since Mastercard is accepted pretty much everywhere Visa is. But it was a huge deal for the Citi Rewards Card, because the Citi Rewards Mastercard is quite a different beast from the Visa.

The Mastercard version does not earn 4 mpd on GrabPay top-ups (but to be fair, neither does the Visa since 17 July), and is rife with reports of cardmembers not earning the 4 mpd they should be for online spending. 

That said, my advice would still be to stick to the Citi Rewards and DBS Woman’s World Card for online spending (just that Citi Rewards Mastercard users will need to check their points balance very carefully). These are the easiest to use, thanks to their “blacklist” approach- so long as it isn’t in the list of exclusions (e.g insurance, government), all online transactions will earn 4 mpd. 

⛽ Petrol: Maybank World Mastercard or UOB Visa Signature

	Earn Rate	Remarks
Maybank World Mastercard Apply here	4.0 mpd
UOB Visa Signature Apply here	4.0 mpd	Min S$1,000 Max S$2,000 on petrol + contactless spending per statement month. Excludes Shell, SPC

Although I feel the best card for petrol is the one that gives the biggest discount, the Maybank World Mastercard and UOB Visa Signature continue to earn the highest miles. 

The Maybank World Mastercard is probably the better choice, because you don’t have to deal with minimum spending restrictions nor avoid Shell and SPC. Give some thought to how much you spend on petrol, however, because you may end up with orphan points otherwise. 

🚆 Public Transport: UOB Lady’s Card/Lady’s Solitaire or Maybank Horizon Visa Signature

	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Lady’s Card Apply here	4.0 mpd	S$1,000 per calendar month. Must choose transport as 10X category. Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply here	4.0 mpd	S$3,000 per calendar month. Must choose transport as 10X category. Review
Maybank Horizon Apply here	3.2 mpd	Min S$300 per calendar month

Public transport won’t be a huge component of your monthly expenditure, but it’s still a category worth optimizing. Unfortunately, the UOB PRVI Miles has not extended its 4.4 mpd promotion on SimplyGo, which means there are currently no ongoing promotions here. 

Instead, females can use the UOB Lady’s Card/Lady’s Solitaire Card for 4 mpd, with transport selected as the quarterly 10X category. Everyone else can use the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature for 3.2 mpd (with a minimum monthly spend of S$300 on any category). 

Alternatively, you could use the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card for 3 mpd, but you’d need to spend at least S$500 on SIA-group transactions in a membership year- a little tricky in the current climate. 

💳 General Spending: UOB PRVI Miles Card

At the start of 2020 I was still using the BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard as my general spending card. But thanks to its ignominious nuking and the nerf of the BOC SmartSaver, I’m finally free to move on. 

This means the UOB PRVI Miles gets called up for duty once more, although it speaks volumes to the proliferation of contactless payments and online shopping that I hardly use it. Remember: your general spending card is a card of last resort. Save it for occasions where 4 mpd opportunities don’t exist. 

Best Cards for Other Categories

Should you be spending on other categories not explicitly mentioned above, you might want to refer to the guides below:

• What’s the best card for charitable donations?
• What’s the best card for hospital bills?
• What’s the best card for insurance premiums?
• What’s the best card for utilities bills?

Otherwise, have a check of The Milelion’s Credit Card Guide, which covers some additional categories. 

Conclusion

So that’s my game plan for the rest of 2020! There are of course many roads to Rome, and if you have alternative strategies, feel free to share them below. 

Finally, I’ve not said a word about sign up bonuses, on the assumption that you’ve already exhausted them. If not, check out this page where I keep track of the latest sign up bonuses on the market- they’re a great way to jump start your miles collection.