Review: DBS Vantage Card

Back in June 2022, DBS finally decided to join the $120K party with the DBS Vantage Card, its metal offering for the mass affluent segment. 

The Vantage launched with a beefy 80,000 miles sign-up offer, plus an upsized 4 mpd on dining and petrol. Together with perks like an Accor Plus Explorer membership and 10 lounge visits, it was a very compelling proposition- at least for the first year. 

But DBS is finding that a hard act to follow. The 4 mpd bonuses are no more, the DiningCity tie-up is over (not that it was worthwhile in the first place!), and even though the current welcome offer of 85,000 miles is actually even better than at launch, that’s a first-year-only perk.

So all things considered, is there a case to be made for renewal?

DBS Vantage Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
First Year	Recurring
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It	☐ Take It ☑Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
While its sign-up bonus can make the first year lucrative, renewing the DBS Vantage Card for a second year is a much more marginal proposition
👍 The good	👎 The bad
Complimentary Accor Plus membership with one free hotel night Generous 85,000 miles welcome offer Annual fee waiver possible with S$60K annual spend	Free lounge visits capped at 10 No more 6 mpd on flights and hotels with Expedia No airport limo or complimentary travel insurance Limited transfer partners
Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: DBS Vantage Card

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the DBS Vantage Card.

Apply
Income Req.	S$120,000 p.a.	Points Validity	3 years
Annual Fee	S$599.50	Min. Transfer	5,000 DBS Points (10,000 miles)
Miles with Annual Fee	25,000	Transfer Partners	4
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	S$27.25
Local Earn	1.5 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	2.2 mpd	Lounge Access?	Yes: 10x Priority Pass
Special Earn	N/A	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

The DBS Vantage comes in metal cardstock, and weighs in at 10g. That makes it one of the lighter metal cards on the market, if that sort of thing is important to you.

Although it’s made of metal, the card still has payWave capability (made possible by the much-criticised slit on the front near the chip, which is actually an embedded antenna). Alternatively, you can add it to Apple, Google or Samsung Pay and tap your phone to pay.

How much must I earn to qualify for a DBS Vantage Card?

The DBS Vantage Card has a S$120,000 p.a. income requirement, and DBS applies this very strictly.

How strict? For starters, you won’t even be able to see the DBS Vantage Card on the DBS/POSB ibanking card application portal if your income records with DBS reflect earnings of less than S$120,000. You’ll need to update your income records with DBS before you can apply for the DBS Vantage Card. DBS/POSB customers can visit this link to update their income, which will take five working days to process.

Therefore, if you haven’t hit the magic S$120,000 figure yet, I wouldn’t be too optimistic about getting approved.

What sign-up offers are available?

Apply

Customers who apply for a DBS Vantage Card by 30 September 2024, spend S$4,000 within 30 days of approval and pay the first year’s S$599.50 annual fee will receive:

This is an excellent offer if you ask me, even better than the offer at launch (80,000 miles with S$8,000 spend). Even if you don’t value any of the other benefits the Vantage has to offer, as a new-to-bank customer you’re paying just 0.71 cents per mile (S$599.50/85,000 miles). It’s very hard to lose at that price.

For existing customers, it’s a more marginal 1.5 cents per mile (S$599.50/40,000 miles). You would probably want to assign a value to the Accor Plus Explorer membership and 10 lounge visits to bring down that figure to something more palatable.

How much is the DBS Vantage Card’s annual fee?

The DBS Vantage Card has an annual fee of S$599.50 for the principal cardholder, and no fee for supplementary cards.

For the sake of comparison, here’s how that measures up to other cards in the $120K segment. 

Card	Annual Fee	Miles with AF
AMEX Plat. Reserve	S$545	1N stay at Fraser properties +  dining & lifestyle vouchers 🔁 Recurring
Citi Prestige	S$545	25,000 miles 🔁 Recurring
DBS Vantage	S$599.50	25,000 miles 🔁 Recurring
HSBC Visa Infinite	S$662.15 (S$497.12 for HSBC Premier)	35,000 miles
Maybank Visa Infinite	S$654 (1st yr. free)	None
OCBC VOYAGE	S$498	15,000 miles 🔁 Recurring
SCB Visa Infinite	S$599.50	35,000 miles
UOB VI Metal Card	S$654	25,000 miles 🔁 Recurring

The first year’s annual fee must be paid. Subsequent years’ annual fees can be waived if cardholders spend at least S$60,000 per membership year. 

This S$60,000 figure consists only of retail spend, i.e. anything that’s eligible to earn base rewards with the DBS Vantage. Refer to the section on exclusions below for more information on what does and doesn’t count.  

Paying the annual fee gets you 25,000 miles in return, which means buying miles at ~2.35 cents each. While that sounds much higher than what a mile should be worth, you can’t take that figure in isolation since it’s necessary to factor in the other benefits of the card too.

How many miles do I earn?

SGD/FCY Spending

DBS Vantage Card cardholders earn:

• 3.75 DBS Points for every S$5 spent in Singapore Dollars
• 5.5 DBS Points for every S$5 spent in foreign currency (FCY)

1 DBS point is worth 2 miles, so that’s an equivalent earn rate of 1.5 mpd for local spending, and 2.2 mpd for FCY spending.

This makes the DBS Vantage among the highest-earning cards in the $120K segment, especially when you factor in its lack of minimum spend and rounding policy:

💳 Earn Rates for S$120K Cards (sorted by sum of local and FCY earn rate)
Card	Local	FCY
SCB Visa Infinite	1.4 mpd#	3 mpd#
UOB VI Metal Card	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
DBS Vantage	1.5 mpd	2.2 mpd
OCBC VOYAGE	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
Citi Prestige	1.3 mpd^	2 mpd^
Maybank Visa Infinite	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
HSBC Visa Infinite	1 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX Plat. Reserve	0.69 mpd	0.69 mpd
^Additional 0.02 to 0.12 mpd awarded based on tenure with bank #With minimum S$2K spend per statement month. Otherwise 1 mpd for both

All FCY transactions are subject to a 3.25% fee, which is par the course for the market.

With a 2.2 mpd earn rate and a 3.25% FCY fee, using your DBS Vantage Card overseas represents buying miles at 1.48 cents apiece. 

The DBS Vantage allows cardholders to switch between earning DBS Points or cashback, but I’m ignoring the latter because it values your miles at an awful 1 cent each. Seriously, there’s no need to ever dabble in that.

Bonus Spend

Unfortunately, the DBS Vantage Card has lacked a bonus earn category ever since the introductory 4 mpd on dining and petrol ended at the end of 2022. Since then, it’s only returned once, and even then on a limited-time basis for targeted cardholders. 

Likewise, the 6 mpd bonus rate for Expedia flights and hotels ended on 31 March 2024 (along with the DBS Altitude), and has not been renewed. 

When are DBS Points credited?

DBS Points will be credited when your transaction posts, which generally takes 1-3 working days.

How are DBS Points calculated?

Some people get concerned when they read that DBS Points are awarded in S$5 blocks. That’s understandable, given how OCBC and UOB’s S$5 earning blocks result in lost miles from rounding, especially for small transactions (spend S$4.99? No points for you!). 

The good news is that DBS’s calculations aren’t nearly as punitive. Here’s how you can work out the DBS Points earned on your DBS Vantage Card.

Notice how the transaction is not rounded down to the nearest S$5; instead, it’s divided by 5 straight away. This means the minimum spend to earn points is:

• S$1.34, if spending in SGD
• S$0.91, if spending in FCY

If you’re an Excel geek, here’s the formulas you need to calculate: 

For the full list of formulas that banks use to calculate credit card points, do refer to these articles:

• General Spending Cards
• Specialised Spending Cards

What transactions aren’t eligible for DBS Points?

A full list of transactions that do not earn DBS Points can be found at point 2.6 of the T&Cs.

I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Amaze transactions (not that you could pair the DBS Vantage with Amaze anyway, since it’s a Visa card)
• Charitable donations
• Education
• Government institutions and services (court cases, fines, bail and bonds, tax payment, postal services, parking lots and garages)
• Hospitals 
• Insurance
• Top-ups of prepaid accounts e.g. GrabPay and YouTrip
• Utilities bills

CardUp transactions are eligible to earn DBS Points. However, they do not count towards the minimum spend required for welcome offers, unless they code under MCC 6513. For more on this confusing distinction, refer to this post.

What do I need to know about DBS Points?

Expiry

DBS Points expiry can be a confusing matter, because different cards apply different policies. DBS Points earned on the DBS Vantage Card expire in three years. 

This is rather disappointing, since DBS Points earned on the entry-level DBS Altitude Card never expire. All the same, I personally don’t consider non-expiring points to be that big a factor in deciding whether or not I get a card, since you get an additional three years validity once they’re on the KrisFlyer side. 

Pooling

DBS Points pool across cards for the purposes of redemption. If you have 10,000 DBS Points on the DBS Vantage Card and 5,000 DBS Points on the DBS Woman’s World Card, you can redeem 15,000 DBS Points at one shot and pay a single conversion fee.

However, DBS Points are not pooled when it comes to card cancellations. If I have a DBS Vantage Card and DBS Woman’s World Card and decide to cancel the former, I’ll need to transfer my points out before cancelling or forfeit them. 

Partners and Transfer Fee

DBS partners with the following frequent flyer programmes, and a minimum conversion block of 5,000 points is required (let’s ignore AirAsia, because converting points there is like throwing them away):

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (DBS Points: Miles)
	5,000: 10,000
	5,000: 10,000
	5,000: 10,000
	500: 1,500

Transfers cost S$27.25 per programme, regardless of how many points are transferred.

Do note that the DBS Vantage, surprisingly, is not eligible for DBS’s “auto conversion programme” (I initially thought it was an oversight, but DBS’s comms team has told me that’s how it should be).

The auto conversion programme, for the uninitiated, charges a flat fee of S$43.60 per membership year, and automatically converts DBS Points to KrisFlyer miles each calendar quarter in blocks of 500 points. It is currently available to DBS Insignia, DBS Black Treasures Elite, and DBS Altitude cardholders.

Transfer Times

DBS tells customers to expect points to be credited in 1-2 weeks, but in reality it usually takes about 1-3 working days at the very most (at least for KrisFlyer, transfer times to other programmes can be longer).

If you need your points credited instantly, you can do so via Kris+. 100 DBS Points can be transferred to 170 KrisPay miles, which can then be transferred to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio. 

S$5 for new Kris+ Users

Get S$5 (in the form of 750 KrisPay miles) when you sign-up with code W644363 and make your first transaction

There are pros and cons to this:

Pros

• Minimum conversion block is reduced to just 100 DBS Points, versus 5,000 DBS Points if converting via DBS’s rewards portal
• Transfers from DBS to Kris+, and Kris+ on to KrisFlyer are instant

Cons

• Those 100 DBS Points would normally be worth 200 KrisFlyer miles, so a 15% haircut is incurred

Therefore I wouldn’t recommend taking this option, unless you need a small top-up to redeem a flight, or have an orphan DBS Points balance (<5,000 points). 

If you choose to do so nonetheless, do remember that it’s a two-step process:

1. Transfer DBS Points to KrisPay miles
2. Transfer KrisPay miles to KrisFlyer miles

Do not forget the second step! If you wait more than seven days, or spend any of the converted KrisPay miles via Kris+, the entire balance will be stuck in the Kris+ app. KrisPay miles expire after six months, and can only be spent at a poor ratio of 150 miles = S$1. 

Other card perks

10 free lounge visits

Principal DBS Vantage Cardholders are entitled to 10 free lounge visits per membership year, via Priority Pass. These lounge visits can be shared with guests; for example, the cardholder could bring his wife and use two visits at once, or could bring three family members and use four visits at once.

Only the principal cardholder is entitled to this benefit. Once free visits are exhausted, you’ll be charged US$32 per additional visit. 

10 passes may be more than sufficient for the casual traveller who doesn’t have kids, but everyone else may want to consider a $120K card that has unlimited lounge access.

Card	Lounge Network	Free Visits (Per Year)
		Main	Supp.
HSBC Visa Infinite	LoungeKey	∞	∞
Citi Prestige	Priority Pass	∞ + 1 guest	N/A
UOB VI Metal Card	Dragon Pass	∞ + 1 guest	N/A
OCBC VOYAGE	Dragon Pass	∞	2
DBS Vantage	Priority Pass	10	N/A
SCB Visa Infinite	Priority Pass	6	N/A
Maybank Visa Infinite	Priority Pass	4	N/A
AMEX Plat. Reserve	N/A	N/A	N/A

Accor Plus

Principal DBS Vantage Cardholders receive a complimentary Accor Plus Explorer membership with one complimentary hotel night each year. This membership will be automatically renewed each year you retain the card.

This normally retails for S$418, and includes benefits such as:

• Up to 50% off dining at participating Accor hotels across Asia Pacific
• 15% off drinks bill in Asia
• 10% off the best available public rate
• Access to Red Hot Room sales with up to 50% off
• Accor Live Limitless Silver status

The full list of benefits can be found below.

The free hotel night can be redeemed at participating Accor properties across the Asia Pacific region, including the Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa, Mondarin Seoul Itaewon, and Sofitel Darling Harbour Sydney. 

How does the Accor Stay Plus free hotel night benefit work?

The other big draw of an Accor Plus membership are the dining discounts. The discount structure works like this:

• 25% off dining: 1 member only
• 50% off dining: 1 member and 1 guest
• 33% off dining: 1 member and 2 guests
• 25% off dining: 1 member and 3 guests
• 15% off drinks in Asia

Some examples of participating Accor Plus restaurants in Singapore include Prego, Mikuni and Asian Market Café at the Fairmont, SKAI, The Stamford Brasserie, and CLOVE at Swissotel and The Cliff and Kwee Zeen at the Sofitel Sentosa Resort.

Summary Review: DBS Vantage Card

Apply
🦁 MileLion Verdict
First Year	Recurring
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It	☐ Take It ☑Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It

In the first year of membership, it’s hard to go wrong with the DBS Vantage Card. New-to-bank customers can enjoy a whopping 85,000 miles welcome offer, which should itself more than pay for the S$599.50 annual fee. Everything else is just the icing on the cake.

It’s from the second year onwards that things get more dicey. Is an Accor Plus Explorer membership, 10 lounge visits and 25,000 miles worth the annual fee? It all boils down to your individual valuation, but when you consider that the Citi Prestige Card costs about 10% less, offers unlimited lounge visits for the cardholder and a guest, an airport limo benefit, the 4th night free on hotel stays, complimentary travel insurance, a wider variety transfer partners and Mastercard World Elite perks, it’s difficult not to feel like the Vantage asks more and gives less. 

I suppose the flip side is that there is a route to an annual fee waiver with the Vantage by spending at least S$60,000 per year, but no similar option for the Prestige. Still, I can hardly sanction spending so much on a general spending card anyway- unless perhaps you’re talking about CardUp transactions where general spending cards are the only option. 

So that’s my review of the DBS Vantage Card. What do you think?