OCBC 90°N Cards boost earn rates for general spend, remove bonus categories

OCBC currently offers two versions of the 90°N Card: Mastercard and Visa.

The 90°N Mastercard was the first to launch in August 2019, making quite the splash with an uncapped 4 mpd on overseas spending and Singapore Airlines/Scoot tickets. This was followed by the 90°N Visa in October 2021, offering 4 mpd on food delivery, groceries, online shopping, and overseas spending, albeit capped. 

Those bonuses, unfortunately, were for a limited-time only, and both cards have since reverted to their rather ho-hum regular earn rates. The thing is, unlike the DBS Altitude or UOB PRVI Miles, where the variants are basically the same card with a different network badge, the 90°N Mastercard and 90°N Visa are two fundamentally different products.

The OCBC 90°N Mastercard positions itself as a general spending card, with a flat rate on all spending, while the OCBC 90°N Visa positions itself as a specialised spending card, with bonuses on certain categories.

	OCBC 90°N MC	OCBC 90°N Visa
Local Spend	1.2 mpd	1 mpd
FCY Spend	2.1 mpd	2 mpd
Bonus Spend	N/A	1.5 mpd: Groceries, Online Food Delivery & Shopping 3 mpd: Streaming

OCBC is now moving to standardise the two cards, removing the bonus categories from the 90°N Visa while providing a slight bump to the general spending earn rates for both the 90°N Visa and 90°N Mastercard.

New OCBC 90°N Card earn rates

OCBC 90°N Mastercard

Effective immediately, the OCBC 90°N Mastercard’s earn rates will change as follows:

OCBC 90°N Mastercard
	Till 14 Feb 23	From 15 Feb 23
Local Earn	1.2 mpd	1.3 mpd
Overseas Earn	2.1 mpd	2.1 mpd

The OCBC 90°N Mastercard previously earned Travel$ at a rate of 6 Travel$ for every S$5 spent in local currency (equivalent to 1.2 mpd). This has been upgraded to 6.5 Travel$ for every S$5 spent in local currency (equivalent to 1.3 mpd)

The foreign currency earn rate remains the same at 10.5 Travel$ for every S$5 spent (equivalent to 2.1 mpd). 

OCBC 90°N Visa

From 17 March 2023, the OCBC 90°N Visa’s earn rates will change as follows:

OCBC 90°N Visa
	Till 16 Mar 23	From 17 Mar 23
Local Earn	1 mpd	1.3 mpd
Overseas Earn	2 mpd	2.1 mpd
Streaming	3 mpd	1.3 mpd
Groceries, Online Food Delivery & Shopping	1.5 mpd	1.3 mpd

The OCBC 90°N Visa previously earned Travel$ at a rate of 5 Travel$ for every S$5 spent in local currency (equivalent to 1 mpd). This will be upgraded to 6.5 Travel$ for every S$5 spent in local currency (equivalent to 1.3 mpd). 

Likewise, the foreign currency rate of 10 Travel$ for every S$5 spent (equivalent to 2 mpd) will be upgraded to 10.5 Travel$ for every S$5 spent (equivalent to 2.1 mpd). 

The bonuses for streaming, groceries, online food delivery and shopping will be discontinued, with all these earning a flat rate of 1.3 mpd going forward (or 2.1 mpd if spent in foreign currency). This may look like a loss on paper, but frankly speaking, I would never have used the 90°N Visa for these categories anyway given how easy it is to earn 4 mpd with other cards. 

How does this compare to other general spending cards?

With the revised earn rates, here’s how the OCBC 90°N Card stacks up against other entry-level general spending cards in the market. 

💳 General Spending Cards^
Card	Local Earn	FCY Earn	Other Perks
UOB PRVI Miles	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
OCBC 90°N	1.3 mpd	2.1 mpd
Citi PM	1.2 mpd	2.0 mpd	2x lounge visits
DBS Altitude	1.2 mpd	2.0 mpd	2x lounge visits (Visa)
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	1.2 mpd	2.0 mpd*	4x lounge visits, free Hilton night
AMEX KrisFlyer Card	1.1 mpd	2.0 mpd*
KrisFlyer UOB Card	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd	3 mpd on SIA & Scoot, food delivery, shopping, travel, transport
^First year fee can be waived for all cards except the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend (S$340.20) *In June and December only

I’ve sorted the table by earn rates, but there are other things to consider like lounge access, bonus categories, transfer partners and earning blocks. 

Speaking of earning blocks, even though the OCBC 90°N will be second only to the UOB PRVI Miles in terms of earn rates, it will also have the unfortunate disadvantage of S$5 earning blocks. This means that you might actually earn fewer miles on smaller transactions compared to a card with a lower earn rate but S$1 earning blocks.

	OCBC 90°N MC Earn rate: 1.3 mpd	Citi PremierMiles Earn rate: 1.2 mpd
S$5	7 miles	6 miles
S$9.99	7 miles	11 miles
S$15	20 miles	18 miles
S$19.99	20 miles	23 miles
S$25	33 miles	30 miles
S$29.99	33 miles	35 miles
S$35	46 miles	42 miles
S$39.99	46 miles	47 miles

If it’s any consolation, OCBC rounds partial Travel$ to the nearest whole number (instead of down, like UOB does with partial UNI$). For example, a cardholder who spends S$5 will actually earn 7 miles, since the 6.5 Travel$ is rounded up to 7.

Card	Remarks	Min. Spend to Earn Points
OCBC 90°N Card	Round down trxn. to nearest S$5, divide by 5, multiply by 6.5 (local) or 10.5 (FCY). Round to the nearest whole number	S$5
Local Spend	=ROUND (ROUNDDOWN(X/5,0)*6.5,0)
FCY Spend	=ROUND (ROUNDDOWN(X/5,0)*10.5,0)

More transfer partners coming

Travel$ can only be converted to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles at the moment, but additional partners are coming online by the end of February.

We don’t know the all-important transfer ratios yet, however, so this could either be a great development or a damp squib.

All transfers will be charged a conversion fee of S$25.

Conclusion

OCBC is moving to harmonise the CVP of the 90°N Mastercard and 90°N Visa, which will see both cards earning a flat 1.3 mpd on local spending and 2.1 mpd overseas. These are competitive rates for general spending cards, though OCBC’s punitive rounding policy takes some of the gloss off. 

What do you make of OCBC’s new 90°N Card value proposition?