CardUp extends 2.25% admin fee till end of 2021; buy miles from 1.38 cents

At the start of this year, CardUp cut their processing fee from 2.6% to 2.25%, an offer that was set to expire on 30 June 2020. That ended up being extended till 31 December 2020, and now it’s been extended once again, all the way till 31 December 2021. 

A 2.25% fee allows cardholders to buy miles from as low as 1.38 cents each when paying condo fees, insurance, car loans and more.

How does CardUp’s discounted fee work?

To enjoy the 2.25% fee, use the code GET225 when setting up your payment. If you have existing payments scheduled, there’s no need to cancel them- you can edit them in the dashboard to add this promo code instead.

A minimum payment of S$130 is required, and the payment must be set up on or before 31 December 2021 with a due date on or before 5 January 2022. This code is valid for any CardUp payment made with a Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard.

If this is your first payment with CardUp, you have the following additional options:

• Save S$20 off the admin fee for your first payment of S$1,000 or more with the promo code MILELION
• Enjoy an admin fee of 1.6% on your first two recurring payments of at least S$500 with the promo code HOLIDAY16ML

Either way, you can subsequently schedule the rest of your payments with the GET225 code for maximum savings. The full T&C of this promotion can be found here.

How much do miles cost with this promotion?

Here’s what a 2.25% fee means for your cost per mile with various credit cards. For more information on whether this is “worth it”, have a read of my guide to valuing miles. 

Card	MPD	CPM @ 2.25%
Citi ULTIMA	1.6	1.38
DBS Insignia	1.6	1.38
UOB Reserve	1.6	1.38
OCBC Premier, PPC, BOS VOYAGE	1.6	1.38
SCB Visa Infinite	1.4*	1.57
UOB PRVI Miles	1.4	1.57
UOB Visa Infinite Metal	1.4	1.57
Citi Prestige	1.3	1.69
OCBC VOYAGE	1.3	1.69
Citi PremierMiles	1.2	1.83
SCB X Card	1.2	1.83
DBS Altitude Visa	1.2	1.83
OCBC 90N	1.2	1.83
KrisFlyer UOB	1.2	1.83
BOC Elite Miles	1.0	2.2
*With minimum S$2K spend per statement month, otherwise 1.0 mpd

I’m attaching the usual CardUp FAQ below. Be sure to have a read, because it answers commonly asked questions like whether CardUp payments count towards sign up bonuses (they mostly do) and whether there are any 10X opportunities (there aren’t).

Conclusion

Sign up for CardUp here

With most cards already excluding points for insurance and education, CardUp may be your only option for earning rewards on such transactions. Whether or not the admin fee is “worth it” depends on your personal valuation of a mile of course, but if you have a card that earns at least 1.4 mpd, I’d say it’s worth looking at.