10 noob mistakes to avoid when starting the miles game

Earlier this month, I gave a talk on the basics of the miles game at Seedly Personal Finance Festival 2023. While there’s only so much you can cover in a 20-minute slot (even when speaking at my usual 1,000 words per minute), I hope it served to whet the appetite for a new generation of miles chasers!

Since we’re talking basics, I thought it might be helpful to put together a post on common mistakes made by first-timers to the miles game. In other words, if you could shake your miles noob friend and scream “don’t do this!”, what would it be?

Here’s my list.

(1) Wasting your new-to-bank status

A new-to-bank customer is usually defined as follows: 

Someone who does not hold any principal credit cards with a given bank, and has not cancelled any in the past 12 months

A few things to note:

• This only refers to a principal credit card; a supplementary credit card, in and of itself, does not disqualify you (except in some extreme cases with mickey mouse banks)
• This only refers to credit cards; a debit card, in and of itself, does not disqualify you
• This only refers to consumer cards; a corporate or business card, in and of itself, does not disqualify you
• Recent cancellations of a principal credit card will start a “time-out” period, usually 12 months (but can be as little as six for certain banks), after which you’ll be considered new again. This is to stop people from gaming the system by cancelling and then reapplying the next day

New customers are a crucial metric for banks, so if you count as one you’re very valuable to them! For example, new Citi and Standard Chartered cardholders typically get at least S$300 cash, while new American Express or UOB cardholders can earn thousands of bonus miles. 

Therefore, the last thing you want to do is sign up for a random credit card at a roadshow to get a free power adapter or water bottle (SITEX booths are the worst culprits, if you ask me). It’s like trading your inheritance for a bowl of stew. 

What you should instead be doing is monitoring the latest offers, and striking when the opportunity arises.

(2) Not cancelling cards you don’t use

This is an offshoot from the previous point, but if you have a card that’s just sitting in your drawer collecting dust, and it happens to be your last card with that particular bank, consider cancelling it.

This will then start the countdown on your new-to-bank status resetting, when you’ll be eligible for lucrative sign-up gifts once more.

Before you cancel any card, be sure to:

• transfer out any points to miles, and redeem the remainder for whatever you can find in the rewards catalogue (assuming this is your last card with a given bank, or if points do not pool)
• make sure you haven’t set it as the default card for some billing arrangement like insurance, or hosting subscriptions- as I discovered one night when The MileLion went down. 

(3) Buying miles via annual fees

Many credit cards offer miles upon payment of the annual fee, but if miles are the only reason you’re paying the annual fee, then you’re very likely overpaying.

Here’s a list of credit cards that award miles for paying the annual fee. Note in particular the last column labelled “CPM”, which refers to cents per mile (annual fee divided by miles).

💳 Miles with Annual Fee
Card	Annual Fee	Miles	CPM
SCB Visa Infinite Apply	S$594	35,000 (first year only)	1.70
HSBC Visa Infinite Apply	S$656.08	35,000 (first year only)	1.87
Citi PremierMiles Apply	S$194.40	10,000	1.94
DBS Altitude AMEX Apply	S$194.40	10,000	1.94
DBS Altitude Visa Apply	S$194.40	10,000	1.94
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	S$194.40	10,000	1.94
OCBC 90°N Mastercard Apply	S$194.40	10,000	1.94
OCBC 90°N Visa Apply	S$194.40	10,000	1.94
Citi Prestige Apply	S$540	25,000	2.16
SCB X Card Apply	S$702	30,000 (first year only)	2.34
DBS Vantage Apply	S$594	25,000	2.38
UOB VI Metal Card Apply	S$648	25,000	2.59
OCBC VOYAGE Apply	S$492.50^	15,000	3.28
*S$492.56 for HSBC Premier customers ^Alternative option: Pay S$3,240 for 150,000 miles, which cannot be kept as VOYAGE miles and will be automatically converted to KrisFlyer

It’s hard to justify those prices, especially when bill payment services like Citi PayAll or CardUp offer miles from as little as 1 cent each during promotions. You can use these services to settle expenses like:

• education fees
• hospital bills
• income tax
• insurance premiums
• MCST fees
• mortgage loans
• property tax
• rental
• season parking
• town council fees
• utilities bills

Basically, the average person should be able to find something to pay, which removes the need to buy miles via annual fees. 

(4) Letting your points expire

There’s no worse feeling than having your points expire on you, so it pays to be organised.

Unfortunately, bank points can be a confusing labyrinth, because each has their own set of rules and regulations. Here’s a quick summary of expiry policies by bank; be sure to read the footnotes because even within a given bank, expiry policies may differ depending on which card you use!

Bank	Currency	Expiry
	Membership Rewards	No expiry
	Rewards Points	12-24 months
	Citi Miles	No expiry
	ThankYou Points	Up to 5 years1
	DBS Points	1 year2
	Rewards Points	37 months
	TREATS	1 year3
	OCBC$	2 years
	Travel$	No expiry
	VOYAGE Miles	No expiry
	360° Points	Up to 3 years4
	UNI$	2 years5
1. ThankYou points earned on the Citi Prestige and ULTIMA never expire 2. DBS Points earned on the DBS Altitude and Insignia never expire; DBS Points earned on the DBS Vantage expire after 3 years 3. TREATS Points earned on the Maybank Visa Infinite and World Mastercard never expire 4. 360° Rewards Points earned on the SCB Visa Infinite and X Card never expire 5. UNI$ earned on the UOB Reserve Diamond Card never expire

You can try to track your points with an automated system like AwardWallet (though their support for Singapore banks is very hit and miss), but I do it more old school with a simple spreadsheet.

(5) Frequently using your general spending card

Some people think that their general spending card should be handling most of their day-to-day transactions, with specialised spending (i.e. 4 mpd) cards used occasionally when the opportunity presents itself.

That gets things the wrong way round. In fact, you should be using your specialised spending cards for the bulk of your expenses, swiping the general spending card only as a fall-back solution.

Why? Because of how easy it is to earn 4 mpd these days. For all your in-person transactions, you could use either of the cards below to earn 4 mpd regardless of merchant.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
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	S$1K-2K per s. month on contactless & petrol Review
C. Month= Calendar Month, S. Month= Statement Month. Exclusions apply for UOB$ merchants

For all your online transactions, either of these cards would do the trick.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month, excludes travel Review
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month Review
C. Month= Calendar Month, S. Month= Statement Month

Since it’s so simple to earn 4 mpd on the majority of your transactions, the only situation I’d be using my general spending card is if contactless payments weren’t accepted, or if I’d hit the 4 mpd caps on my specialised spending card s already.

(6) Mixing up blacklist and whitelist policies

It’s easy for first-timers to get confused about the difference between the:

• Citi Rewards Card
• DBS Woman’s World Card
• HSBC Revolution
• OCBC Titanium Rewards
• UOB Preferred Platinum Visa

because they all award 4 mpd for online transactions in some way or another.

But there’s a crucial difference in how they award points: blacklist vs whitelist.

The ideal scenario is a blacklist approach, where all online transactions earn 4 mpd unless they fall into a blacklisted category (like donations or insurance). However, some cards may use a whitelist approach, where online transactions do not earn 4 mpd unless they fall into a whitelisted category (like shopping or dining). 

A blacklist approach offers a much wider scope than a whitelist one, and that’s why all things equal, the Citi Rewards Card and DBS Woman’s World Card are better than the rest.

(7) Spreading yourself too thin

As much as we want to earn 4 mpd on everything, there is a possibility of over-optimising. This refers to a situation where you spread your spending over too many cards, thereby incurring additional conversion fees or ending up with orphan points. 

It’s not so much the conversion fees I’m concerned about. They’re annoying, and we try to minimise them where we can, but paying them isn’t the end of the world (an extra S$25 fee here and there isn’t going to destroy the overall value proposition of the miles game).

Moreover, it doesn’t necessarily mean more cards = more fees. If you own multiple cards from the same bank, you may only pay a single conversion fee, provided the points are pooled. For example, a UOB customer could hold a UOB PRVI Miles, UOB Visa Signature and UOB Lady’s Card, all while paying only a single conversion fee. 

What I’m more concerned about is orphan points, which arise when you don’t have enough points in your account to cash out a block of miles. 

For example, suppose I drive very infrequently but get a Maybank World Mastercard, just so I can earn 4 mpd on petrol. I may be optimising on that particular transaction, but since Maybank has a minimum conversion block of 10,000 miles, it would take a very long time to earn enough points for a cash out. 

Which credit cards have the smallest miles conversion blocks?

Optimisation is good, but you need to look at both the micro and macro picture. If you don’t spend a significant amount on a particular category, then consider using your general spending card instead. 

(8) Not reading the T&Cs

Far too many cardholders don’t bother reading the T&Cs, where the all-important exclusions are listed. 

While some exclusions are common across banks (e.g government transactions and GrabPay top-ups), digging through the T&Cs can help you uncover bank-specific quirks, such as:

• American Express and Maybank still reward charitable donations
• Maybank, Standard Chartered and the UOB Reserve Card still reward utilities bills
• Maybank Visa Infinite lets you earn miles on up to S$3,000 of insurance payments per calendar month
• While most UOB cards exclude hospital bills, UOB Reserve and UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cards still award points
• American Express cards no longer reward public hospital transactions, but still allow earning on private hospitals
• DBS does not reward Amaze transactions
• HSBC does not reward CardUp or ipaymy transactions

For more fun things you can find in the T&Cs, refer to this post.

(9) Ignoring “two player mode”

For those who can convince their other half to join the miles game, “two player mode” is a simple way of doubling your sign-up cash, miles, and 4 mpd caps, or achieving hard-to-meet minimum spends. 

In one variant of “two player mode”, you forget about supplementary cards altogether, and each individual applies for his/her own principal cards. Remember: new-to-bank status counts on an individual basis, so you can enjoy two new-to-bank bonuses, assuming you can each hit the respective minimum spends.

Even if you’re no longer new-to-bank, you can enjoy double the bonus caps by getting a principal card each. Here’s a simple illustration of how a couple paying for a wedding banquet could earn up to 50,880 miles each month on S$11,220 of payments, leveraging the fact that bonus caps apply per principal card. 

💒 Monthly Banquet Payments
	🤵 Him	👰 Her
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	S$1,110	S$1,110
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	S$2,000	S$2,000
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	N/A	S$3,000*
HSBC Revolution Apply	S$1,000	S$1,000
Total Spend	S$4,110	S$7,110
Total Miles	16,440	34,440
*If banquet held in a hotel, select travel as your bonus category. If banquet held in a restaurant, select dining as your bonus category

In another variant, you use supplementary cards as a way of pooling spend towards a sign-up bonus. This is especially useful if neither of you is a particularly large spender. For example, if a sign-up bonus has a minimum spend of S$2,000, spending S$1,000 on the principal card and S$1,000 on the supplementary card would qualify. 

(10) Paying interest and late fees

One of the first things you should do upon receiving your new credit card is to sign up for a GIRO arrangement, which ensures you’ll never miss a payment (unless of course your account is overdrawn, in which case we should really have a chat about you getting a credit card).

It’s important to see credit cards as “debit cards with better rewards”- you use them because of points, not because you want to spend more than you have. The worst thing you can do is end up carrying a balance on your card, because the interest and late fees will quickly eat up any value from rewards. 

And of course, if the allure of earning miles causes you to spend more than you otherwise would have, then this isn’t the hobby for you. Miles are a way to avoid leaving money on the table, not an excuse to put more down!

Conclusion

Those are some of the most common mistakes I can think of when starting out in the miles game, but I’m sure it’s far from comprehensive. If you have other facepalm moments to share, rest assured that the comments section is a glorious shield of anonymity. 

Any other noob mistakes you should be avoiding?