Should you pay your credit card annual fee to earn miles?

Which card offers the most miles for paying the annual fee, and is it a good way of building your stash?

No one enjoys paying their credit card’s annual fee, but the good news is that unlike cashback cards, you often won’t walk away empty-handed. That’s because the vast majority of general spending cards offer miles in exchange for paying their annual fee. Those miles have a value, which helps offset the fee- but to what extent? 

In this post, we’ll look at which card offers the best deal for paying your annual fee (and whether you should pay it in the first place).

Which credit cards offer miles with the annual fee?

Below is a list of all the credit cards that offer miles with annual fee payment. 

๐Ÿ’ณ Miles with Annual Fee
Card Annual Fee Miles CPM
HSBC Visa Infinite
(Premier)
Apply
S$497.12 35,000
1st Year Only
1.42ยข
SCB Visa Infinite
Apply
S$599.50 35,000
1st Year Only
1.71ยข
HSBC Visa Infinite
(Regular)
Apply
S$662.15 35,000
1st Year Only
1.89ยข
OCBC 90ยฐN MC
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
OCBC 90ยฐN Visa
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
Citi PremierMiles
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
DBS Altitude AMEX
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
DBS Altitude Visa
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
HSBC TravelOne Card
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card
Apply
S$196.20 10,000 1.96ยข
SCB Journey Card
Apply
S$196.20 10,000
1.96ยข
Citi Prestige
Apply
S$545 25,000 2.18ยข
DBS Vantage
Apply
S$599.50 25,000 2.40ยข
UOB VI Metal Card
Apply
S$654 25,000 2.62ยข
OCBC VOYAGE
Apply
S$498 15,000 3.32ยข

Here’s a few additional things to consider.

Annual Fee divided by miles, not the other way round

When considering the cost of miles, you should always take the annual fee divided by the number of miles received, not the other way round.

For example, if you pay a S$196.20 annual fee and get 10,000 miles, then the cost per mile is 1.96 cents, give or take.

Why not do it the other way round? It might be tempting to say, “well, I paid S$196.20 and got 10,000 miles- that’s 51 mpd, an incredible rate and a no brainer!” Stop right there. 51 mpd would be an incredible rate, but that’s conceptually flawed.

When you spend on day-to-day items with your card, miles are a byproduct. In other words, you get the good or service, plus miles. When you pay the annual fee on your card, you’re paying for miles directly. It’s not the same thing.

First year vs recurring

Does the card award miles for paying the annual fee every year, or just in the first year?

If you hold an HSBC Visa Infinite or SCB Visa Infinite, miles are only awarded for the first year’s annual fee. In subsequent years you’ll need to call in to appeal, and even then, will typically get a reduced amount (e.g. the SCB Visa Infinite usually offers 20,000 miles instead of 35,000 miles from year 2 onwards).

For all other cards, you’ll receive the same number of miles every year you pay the annual fee.

Annual fee waivers

Annual fee waivers are possible with certain cards, but if the fee is waived, you won’t receive any miles.

โœ… Fee Waiver Possible โŒ No Fee Waiver
  • Citi Prestige
  • HBSC Visa Infinite
  • StanChart Visa Infinite
  • UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card
*Spend requirement not strictly enforced

For example, here’s how it works with the DBS Altitude.

Upon renewal of annual membership and principal Card annual fee imposed, principal Cardmembers are eligible to receive bonus 10,000 miles (equivalent to 5,000 DBS Points). The 5,000 DBS Points will be credited to the principal Card account when annual fee of S$196.20 is charged. If the annual fee is automatically or subsequently waived, 5,000 DBS Points given will be reversed upon annual fee waiver

The sole exception to this rule is the UOB PRVI Miles AMEX, which flips the script. 

Apply

The UOB PRVI Miles AMEX does not award any miles with the payment of its S$261.60 annual fee. However, if you spend at least S$50,000 in a membership year, the annual fee is waived, and 20,000 miles awarded.

Are there other benefits to take note of?

While it may be tempting to compare cards on the basis of cost per mile (i.e. annual fee divided by miles received), that could be overly simplistic in some cases. 

For example, the Citi Prestige has a cost per mile of 2.18 cents (S$545/25,000), compared to the HSBC Visa Infinite’s 1.89 cents (S$662.15/35,000). But we can’t immediately conclude that the Citi Prestige is inferior, because it has perks like the 4th night free on hotel stays, a wider variety of transfer partners, one free guest for lounge visits and the Citi PayAll facility.

I would say this tends to be more of a consideration for the cards in the $120K segment. If we’re talking about entry-level cards like the DBS Altitude or Citi PremierMiles, which don’t have much benefits to speak of, then a cost per mile comparison might be more appropriate (and anyway they all come out around the same). 

Is it worth it?

As with all “worth it” questions, we need to go back to our value of a mile. 

How much is a KrisFlyer mile worth?

My personal valuation of a mile is around 1.5 cents, but yours may be different based on your earning and burning patterns. 

I will say, however, that buying miles through annual fees is not the cheapest way of going about it. It’s possible to generate miles from paying bills through platforms like CardUp and Citi Payall from as little as 1.1 cents each. 

Method Cost Per Mile
CardUp (rent payment) 1.1-1.47 cents
StanChart VI Tax Payment 1.36-1.9 cents
StanChart EasyBill 1.35-1.58 cents
CardUp (other payments) 1.38-1.83 cents
AXS Pay+Earn 1.52-2.03 cents
Citi PayAll 1.63-2.17 cents
OCBC VOYAGE Pay 1.9-1.95 cents

Therefore, you should only buy miles from your annual fee if you’ve exhausted the options above. 

Conclusion

Credit card annual fees are an annoyance, but at least you’ll usually get some miles in return for paying. However, paying the annual fee is usually not the best way of buying miles. If you need to top-up your account, any of the bill payment services out there will typically offer a lower cost per mile. 

It’s for that reason that I try and get a fee waiver wherever possible, unless you’re talking about a premium segment card that comes with benefits beyond just the miles. 

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Stacy

i always valued SQ miles at 1.6 US cents … now will reevaluate to 1.5 SG cents

anion

$192.60 for 10000 miles.

I buy something for $192.60 I still wont get that much. its a good deal!

John

wrong valuation

Xin

You’re paying 192 outright to get those 10k miles, and nothing else in hand.

When you buy something for 192, you get the goods, plus some miles.

So it’s a different scenario.

: )

Anyone got X card fees waived again. SCB seems kind enough to waive it for another year.

Adam

Only going to get more expensive next year with GST increase

Jon

Would never pay cash for miles even if it was half the price. The entire point of the miles game is that the miles are a byproduct of one’s day-to-day spending. Spending cash for miles defeats the whole purpose

Fees

Sort of. Yes, paying too much for miles defeats the purpose. But if you have a real need to fly (not just leisure) then purchasing miles can result in cheaper tickets. 65,000 miles at 0.8c per mile equals $520 and with 65,000 miles you can get a one way business class seat to lots of places which currently cost about $1500 return in economy.

Mike

Not true – I bought miles at 0.8 cents and spent 496,000 miles for 4 return Biz Class tickets to NZ. Firstly, wouldn’t have been able to accumulate that much spending normally (that’s $124,000 purely on 4mpd cards, even if I had all available 4mpd cards the limits won’t be enough. Each ticket’s selling $10,500 now so paying $3,968 for $42,000 worth of tickets sounds like a really good deal to me.

So the key is accumulate miles to get good value, whether you buy them or not.

Mike

Grins ……. I only hogged one day, though i did hog it 355 days ago.

D L

How did you derive your personal value of 1.5 cents per mile

iloveyou

he already attached the link for a specific articles on that matter ๐Ÿ˜‰

Leslie

Hi Aaron, noob question here but when should I apply for annual fee waiver?

Do I do it only after I saw the fee appear on my cc statement? Or can I call up/request online for the waiver before that?

Gong

does it matter

Leslie

I’m not sure how it works. So we can actually request for waiver before they even bill us?

Geo

Even though it is explicitly stated that annual fee waiver is not possible for the above mentioned cards, it is in fact waivable at least in my own experience. I guess it rewards those who dare to try (and challenge the rules lol)

Marcus

Does AMEX Platinum Charge Card or Platinum Reserve also offer Miles for Annual Fees paid?

Anon

51mpd sunds good

Jaax

#dp SC no longer waives SC Journey annual fee. Hit 20k spend but still rejected even after RM’s appeal.

Travel Noob

Also no luck in getting the annual fee waived. Spent about 10k