Earning miles on utilities bill gets harder each year. It’s long been excluded on Citi and OCBC cards, and in recent times we’ve seen American Express, Bank of China, DBS, HSBC and UOB follow suit.
It’s not quite impossible, as we’ll see in a moment, but with each year I update this article, the list gets smaller and smaller.
| 💳 What’s the Best Card for… | ||
| ❓ Overall Guide | ||
| ✈️ Air Tickets | 🌎 Amaze | 💗 Charity |
| 🍽️ Dining | 🏫 Education | 🥡 Food Delivery |
| 🏨 Hotels | ☂️ Insurance | 📱 Kris+ |
| ⚕️ Medical | ⛽ Petrol | 🚍 Public Transport |
| 🛒 Supermarkets | 🚰 Utilities | |
What MCC do utilities bills code as?
There are two ways an electricity retailer can bill you:
- Direct
- via SP Group
If the electricity retailer bills you direct, you’ll receive two utilities bills: one from your electricity retailer, and one from SP Group (for water and waste).
If the electricity retailer bills you via SP Group, you’ll receive one utility bill that covers electricity, water, and waste.
Regardless of whether you pay direct or via SP Group, the transaction will code as MCC 4900: Utilities- Electric, Gas, Heating Oil, Sanitary, Water.
If, for whatever reason, you want to double confirm the MCC, there’s three ways of looking it up before making a transaction:
| Method | Ease of Use | Reliability |
| ❓HeyMax | ●●● | ● |
| 📱 Instarem app | ●● | ●● |
| 🤖 DBS digibot | ● | ●●● |
And because I get so many questions about this, I should probably state that telco bills are not utilities. I get that the phone company can be seen as a utility, but it’s nothing of the sort- those code under MCC 4814.
What cards should I use for utilities payments?
One unfortunate trend we’re seeing is the progressive exclusion of rewards points for utilities transactions.
As of 2024, only Maybank, Standard Chartered, and selected UOB cards have yet to add it to their exclusion lists.
| Bank | Awards Points for Utilities? |
 | ✕ |
 | ✕ |
 | ✕ |
 | ✕ |
 | ✕ |
 | ✓ |
 | ✕ |
 | ✓ |
 Absolute, One, Reserve | ✓ |
| All other cards | ✕ |
This leaves the following cards as options.
| Card | Earn Rate |
 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 |
 SCB Visa Infinite | 1.4 mpd* |
 SCB Journey Card | 1.2 mpd |
 Maybank Visa Infinite | 1.2 mpd |
 SCB Priority Banking Visa Infinite | 1 mpd |
 Maybank World Mastercard | 0.4 mpd |
 SCB Rewards+ | 0.29 mpd |
 Maybank Horizon Visa Signature | 0.24 mpd^ |
| *With min. S$2K spend per statement month, otherwise 1 mpd ^If, for whatever reason, your utilities bill is in FCY, you will earn 2.8 mpd with a min. overall spend of S$800 per month. | |
If you’re a cashback user, then the UOB One Card and UOB Absolute Cashback Card continue to earn cashback for utilities too.
Bill payment services
If you’re willing to pay a fee in exchange for earning miles on utilities, then bill payment platforms like CardUp, Citi PayAll and AXS Pay+Earn are potential options.
| Provider | Fee | Cost Per Mile |
 | 2.25% (code: GET225) S$30 off first payment with code: MILELION | From 1.38 cents |
 | 2.2% | 1.22 cents (till 29 Feb 24) |
 AXS Pay+Earn | 2.5% | From 1.52 cents |
Each of the above methods has its advantages and drawbacks.
- CardUp is open to cardholders from any bank, but does not support payments to the SP Group
- Citi PayAll requires a hefty minimum spend of S$8,000 to trigger its promotional rate, but offers the cheapest miles you’ll find anywhere
- AXS Pay+Earn has the highest admin fee, but doesn’t require any minimum spend, and supports payments to SP Utilities.
Whether it’s “worth it” to buy miles at this price all boils down to how much you value a mile. The gold standard is of course to earn miles for free, though if banks keep cracking down, this may be the only option left.
Conclusion
Just like education and insurance, it’s getting harder and harder to earn miles on utilities. It’s not the end of the story yet though, if you have a Maybank or StanChart card.
If you don’t, then unfortunately the only way around it is to pay a fee using a platform like CardUp or Citi PayAll.
https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/card-services/dbs-recurring-bill-payment
I use dbs altitude to pay for my utilities bill
they no longer award points for utilities- see the fine print: DBS Points will not be awarded for transactions made on DBS Esso Card, DBS Live Fresh Card, DBS Takashimaya Card, POSB Everyday Card and SAFRA DBS Card. DBS Points will not be awarded for Community Chest, iSwitch, MSIG, Prudential, SP Group and Town Councils recurring bill payment unless otherwise specified.
That’s sneaky! I never knew this. When did DBS amend the small print without informing customers?!
mAXS Pay+Earn: Looks like you’ll be needing it, that is if you are willing to pay 2.5% fee (2.03 cpm).
Any idea when did they start doing this? I checked the fine print last time and made sure that I will earn points when I signed up. That’s around more than a year ago. Didn’t monitor after that.
no idea. you might want to contact them and ask
Love the way you peppered the introduction with the electrical terminologies. Nice work. Keep it up! 🙂
KFA and KFB also has a separate bonus 3mpd offer for SP services, giving you 4.2/4.1mpd. This is a separate offer from the iswitch and senoko energy offer, with a cap of 600 KF bonus miles ($200 spending)
(h/t Victor Lau on your fb page)
CRV can also be used for online payment to get 4mpd, no?
darn! when did that happen.
Do UOB prvi cards earn 1.4mpd on a regular basis paying via web/app?
Or is that only for the metal vi?
Is there an error on the promo due date for Prvi Amex? I believe the promo ended in June.
fixed it, thanks ian.
Hi, any updates to this list?
I’m using my UOB VS for 4mpd (contactless payment at SP office over the counter) for my SP bills.
does UOB Visa Signature still give 4mpd now ?
Amex has these offers every now and then, where you “save” that offer into your card, you get rebates of $1-2 or something like that after each utilities bill is paid using that card.
Sembcorp power do not accept amex
Given that you can buy miles at 0.8 cents/mile. Everyone should use UOB Absolute, 1.7% is more than 2 miles per dollar
Brilliant article and once again, very helpful. Thanks Aaron!
Hi Aaron, thanks for writing all these ‘Best card for….’ articles. They truly are helpful. Just want to check if the UOB AMEX still offers 1.7% cashback. Should be 0.3% yes?
Yes it should be. Will update that!
Hi. See utilities can be paid via Citi PayAll. How do you pay a SP group in this way. I looked at my SP bill and there are no bank details to make the payment which need to be input on Citi PayAll? Anyone done this.
Doh! Just figured it out.
I should have selected electrical bills but picked utility bills.
thanks for this! i had the same issue previously. cheers
Card up seems to exclude SP services.
Time to update this article
Might it make sense to just use the UOB Absolute Cashback Card directly instead of through GrabPay? 1.7% cashback is better than the 0.3%. Not like you can use the Grab points for much now.
Yes, if amex is accepted by all means
Along the same lines, I don’t believe there are anymore credit cards that earn points for Town Council S&CC?
As of now only AXS Pay+Earn supports town council S&CC at 2.03 CPM for 1.2 MPD cards.
CardUp and Citi PayAll does not support town council transactions as of now.
Its on Citi PayAll, just setup today
not since amex highflyer nerfed grabpay
Sad. I’m debating whether it’s justifiable paying the 2.5% fee on AXS
So Amex Highflyer direct doesn’t yield any points for Utilities anymore?
Dead
Please update the ‘what card do I use table’ – it’s a god send!
yes, that’s a poor ohm-ission.
oh wait used that joke already.
i’m officially out of electrical puns
Shocking
If you have HSBC EGA account, you can still earn 1% in cashback from spending but no points.
Seven (!) electrical puns in one article. Outdone yourself you have good ser
Do the miles still apply for recurring transactions in SP app? (My first first guess is no)
i set an sc journey card as my recurring payment method for SP app and get miles each month.
Frankly, it’s only good option is UOB One Credit Card.
4.33% – SP Services bill
3.33% – Other Utilities bills
Alternatively, it’s GrabPay MasterCard, if u can hit the monthly Challenge.
GPMC Challenge, diff acc, diff min spend and reward points.
eg. Spend min $250, Get 3500 GrabReward Points ($7).
so = 2.8%
tested on 12 Feb 2024, SP Services bill is counted for the Challenge.
i’m using UOB 1 CC for SP Services as well. thanks for sharing on the GPMC Challenge details.