2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Education, Enrichment and Childcare

Now that the MileCub is in the picture, I’ve been forced to confront the daunting concept of lifelong learning.

My initial plan to let her be raised by the streets has been thoroughly vetoed by the MileLioness, who favors a more traditional gauntlet of childcare, tuition, and enrichment, in the hope that she will one day be a doctor, astronaut and Navy SEAL.

Unfortunately, education is a category much unloved by the banks, who believe that learning should be its own reward- how absurd! 

That said, not every bank has excluded it yet, and by racking the old noodle, you can even find some workarounds.

What MCC does education code as?

Banks usually define education as transactions under the following MCCs:

There are, however, certain “education-adjacent” transactions like child care services and enrichment which have their own MCCs and are not subject to the general exclusions on education. I’ll address this later in the article.

If you want to know the MCC of a particular merchant, there’s three ways of looking it up before making a transaction:

Merchants assigned education MCCs typically pay a below-average processing fee, which makes these transactions less profitable for banks.

Which credit cards earn rewards for education?

Because of the lower margin on education transactions, most banks exclude this category from rewards altogether.

DBS added education to its exclusion list in July 2017, Citibank in October 2018, UOB (with some exceptions) in September 2019, Standard Chartered in May 2020, Bank of China in June 2020, HSBC in July 2020, and American Express (with some exceptions) in October 2023. 

This leaves Maybank and selected AMEX/UOB cards as your only options.

Bank	Awards Points for Education?
Plat Charge & Centurion	✓
All other cards	✕
	✕
	✕
	✕
	✕
	✓
	✕
	✕
Privilege Banking, Reserve, Visa Infinite Metal	✓
All other cards	✕

Here’s the list of cards that still earn miles for education transactions.

Card	Local Earn	FCY Earn
Maybank Manchester United Card	2.0 mpd + 3% cashback  (on days where Man Utd win)
	0.4 mpd + 1% cashback (otherwise)
UOB Reserve Card	1.6 mpd	2.4 mpd
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
UOB Privilege Banking Card	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
Maybank Visa Infinite	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX Centurion	0.98 mpd	0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge	0.78 mpd	0.78 mpd
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature	0.24 mpd	2.8 mpd*
*With min spend of S$800 per calendar month on all retail transactions

Most of the options favour the privileged (“that’s a microcosm of the education system right there!” said some edgelord):

• UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card: Minimum income requirement of S$120,000
• Maybank Visa Infinite: Minimum income requirement of S$150,000
• UOB Privilege Banking Card: Minimum AUM of S$350,000
• UOB Reserve Card: By invitation only, with a minimum income of S$500,000

This leaves the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature and the Maybank Manchester United Card as the only “mass-market” options.

The Maybank Horizon is actually an excellent card to use if your transaction is in foreign currency. Cardholders who spend at least S$800 in a calendar month (on any retail transactions) will earn an uncapped 2.8 mpd (upsized to 3.2 mpd for new cardholders) on all foreign currency transactions, including education.

The Maybank Manchester United Card offers a potentially intriguing alternative with up to 2 mpd and 3% cashback on local and FCY transactions, although it’s basically a gamble unless you can time your spending to fall on one of those match days where the result comes out before midnight Singapore time. 

Fee-paying alternatives

If you’re willing to pay a fee in exchange for earning miles, the following options are available.

Provider	Fee	Cost Per Mile
	2.2%	1.22 cents (till 29 Feb 24)
	1.9%	From 1.36 cents
	2.25% (code: GET225) S$30 off first payment with code: MILELION	From 1.38 cents
AXS Pay+Earn	2.5%	From 1.52 cents

These are only options for local payments to selected educational institutions. 

Whether it’s “worth it” to buy miles all boils down to how much you value a mile- I personally wouldn’t pay more than 1.5 cents. 

“Education-adjacent” transactions

As mentioned earlier, banks usually define education as MCCs 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249 and 8299.

However, there are so-called “education-adjacent” transactions like child care, sports and music enrichment, some of which have MCCs of their own.

To the extent that these are not explicitly excluded in the T&Cs, you should be able to earn miles under the general spending rate for cards. 

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month Review
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month. Must be online Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.1K per c. month, must use mobile payments Review
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	4 mpd	Min S$1K, max S$2K per s. month on contactless & petrol Review

On the other hand, there are centres which might seem more in the nature of enrichment, but really turn out to be education. For example, Marsden Aquatics and Happy Fish Swim School both code as MCC 8299.

Therefore, it’s always best practice to confirm the MCC beforehand using the Instarem or DBS “block card” method.

Workarounds

If the merchant you’re paying falls under an education MCC, don’t lose hope. There’s still one final roll of the dice, which is to see whether it partners with a BNPL provider.

For example, Atome codes as MCC 5999, and has a very extensive list of schools and enrichment providers (the list below isn’t exhaustive, refer to the app for the full selection).

Likewise, Shopback PayLater (MCC 5999), and Grab PayLater (MCC not confirmed- likely to be 5999) have their own list of partners too, so it’s always worth checking whether your merchant accepts them.

The following cards will earn the most miles on MCC 5999. 

💳 Best Cards for MCC 5999 (Online)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$1K per s. month
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$2K per c. month^
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$1K per c. month
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$1.1K per c. month
KrisFlyer UOB Card Apply	3 mpd	Min. S$800 spend on SIA Group in m. year
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month  ^Reduced to S$1.5K from 1 March 2024

Remember: it’s best practice to manually trigger the following month’s payment a few days ahead of time, instead of letting it be billed automatically.

This is to avoid a situation where you don’t earn bonus points on the 2nd and 3rd month’s installments because they code as offline (a potential issue for the Citi Rewards and DBS WWMC).

Conclusion

If you’re looking to pay school or university fees, the opportunities to earn miles are few and far between. Only a handful of AMEX, Maybank and UOB cards still offer rewards for this category, and most of the options are only available to high income earners.

However, if you’re looking to earn miles on enrichment or child care services, then opportunities still exist. As long as the MCCs avoid the 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249 and 8299 range, you can still earn up to 4 mpd with the right cards.

And even if the MCC falls within the education range, you can check whether the merchant is available on Atome or another BNPL platform, which changes the MCC to a rewards-friendly one.

Are there any other ways to earn miles on education/tuition fees?