Review: OCBC Rewards Card

Here’s The MileLion’s review of the OCBC Rewards Card, better known by its former Titanium Rewards moniker. 

For the longest time, this Blue and Pink dynamic duo was a fixture in many miles chasers’ wallets, and oh, the times we had. Who can forget the heady days of 4 mpd everywhere via mobile payments, 12 mpd on public transport, 12 mpd on IKEA, and 8 mpd on online shopping during the pandemic?

But every dream team has its Yoko, and in November 2023, the OCBC Titanium Rewards was on the receiving end of a massive nerf which saw the bonuses for electronics stores, IKEA and Courts removed, and the 4 mpd cap changed from S$13,335 annually to S$1,110 per month. As painful as the former was, it’s the latter that really nuked the value proposition, since the main use case for this card was big ticket spending.

January 2024 saw a rebrand that dropped the “Titanium” label and dual colour scheme in favour of the more generic “OCBC Rewards”, but that was merely cosmetic, and the card offered little that competing cards couldn’t do better.

Until now. 

In another delightful twist, OCBC’s newly-launched quarterly bonus promotion has coincided nicely with the rise of HeyMax, and the two combined present an opportunity to earn 6 mpd on up to S$1,000 per month, on pretty much anything.

I don’t know whether that’s worth hopping onboard for the rest of 2024, but if nothing else it’s a nice reward for those who kept the faith.

OCBC Rewards
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
While it’s only a temporary reprieve, the OCBC Rewards faithful have been rewarded with a 9-month window to earn 6 mpd on almost anything
👍 The good	👎 The bad
Nine airline and hotel transfer partners Quarterly 6 mpd promotion, extendable to many categories of everyday spend via HeyMax vouchers	Limited bonus categories compared to other specialised spending cards S$5 earning blocks Underwhelming transfer ratios for most airline and hotel partners

Overview: OCBC Rewards

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the OCBC Rewards Card.

Apply
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	2 years
Annual Fee	S$196.20 (2 Years Free)	Min. Transfer	25,000 OCBC$* (10,000 miles)
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	S$25
Local Earn	0.4 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	0.4 mpd	Lounge Access?	No
Special Earn	4 mpd on online and offline shopping	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

Some legacy matters to address here. 

Back when this was known as the OCBC Titanium Rewards Card, both a blue and pink variant were available. Both cards were identical in every way except colour, and each card had its own bonus points cap. Customers were perfectly entitled to hold both cards, if they so wished (and many did).

In contrast, there is only a single OCBC Rewards Card. If you’re holding on to both the blue and pink Titanium Rewards Cards, you can enjoy double the bonus cap until they expire. After that, you’ll only receive a single OCBC Rewards Card as a replacement, and therefore no more double bonus cap.

How much must I earn to qualify for an OCBC Rewards Card?

The OCBC Rewards card has a minimum income requirement of just S$30,000 p.a., the MAS-mandated minimum.

If you do not meet the minimum income requirement, it’s possible to get a secured version of the card by depositing S$10,000 in a fixed deposit with OCBC. Visit any OCBC branch to do the necessary paperwork.

What welcome gifts are available?

Apply

New-to-bank customers who apply for an OCBC Rewards Card through the links in this post can enjoy welcome gifts from SingSaver, including:

• Samsonite Volant Luggage + 1x AirTag (worth S$525.40)
• Apple AirPods 3rd Gen with MagSafe charging case (worth S$274)
• S$220 eCapitaVoucher
• S$200 cash

A minimum spend of S$500 within 30 days of approval is required. Gifts are often rotated, but you’ll always be able to see the latest options on the landing page and T&Cs.

New-to-bank customers are defined as those who do not currently hold a principal OCBC credit card, and have not cancelled one in the past 12 months.

How much is the OCBC Rewards Card’s annual fee?

The OCBC Rewards Card has an annual fee of S$196.20 for the principal cardholder, and S$98.10 for each supplementary card. These fees are waived for the first two years.

In subsequent years, a fee waiver will be automatically granted if you spend at least S$10,000 in a membership year, though based on personal experience, OCBC is not very strict about this requirement.

No points are awarded for the payment of the annual fee.

How many miles do I earn?

SGD/FCY Spend

OCBC Rewards Card members earn:

• 5 OCBC$ for every S$5 spent in Singapore Dollars
• 5 OCBC$ for every S$5 spent foreign currency (FCY)

1 OCBC$ is worth 0.4 airline miles, so that’s an effective earn rate of 0.4 mpd for both local and FCY spending.

All transactions in FCY attract an FCY fee of 3.25%.

Online and Offline Shopping

OCBC Rewards Card members earn:

• 50 OCBC$ for every S$5 spent (4 mpd) on online and offline shopping

This bonus applies to both local and FCY spend, and is capped at 10,000 bonus OCBC$ per calendar month, or S$1,110 per calendar month. 

Prior to 1 November 2023, the bonus cap was applied per membership year, allowing cardholders to utilise their entire 4 mpd cap on a single big ticket purchase of up to S$13,335. That’s no longer possible, and nerfs one of the best use cases for this card. 

Moreover, it was relatively easy to make one large transaction that maxed out the 120,000 bonus OCBC$ cap, then stop spending on the card for the rest of the year. Now, you’ll have to make transactions of S$1,110 for 12 consecutive calendar months, which realistically speaking would mean bonus OCBC$ left on the table.

What is online and offline shopping?

MCC whitelist

OCBC defines shopping as purchases made at any merchant with the following MCCs:

Do note that the OCBC Rewards Card no longer offers bonuses on computers (MCC 5045) or electronics stores (MCC 5732) ever since 1 November 2023, so this isn’t the right card to use at places like Best Denki, Courts, Harvey Norman or iStudio.

For avoidance of doubt, Amaze does not change the MCC of a transaction, so all the abovementioned transactions will still earn bonuses when you pair the OCBC Rewards Card with Amaze. This could come in useful when shopping at overseas factory outlet stores, for example.

Specific merchants

In addition to the MCC whitelist, transactions at the following merchants are also eligible for 4 mpd:

Do note that Courts and IKEA were removed from this list on 1 November 2023. 

Unlike the previous section, bonuses here are awarded based on specific merchant name. If you use a card that modifies the name of the merchant, such as Amaze, you will not earn the bonus.

Quarterly 6 mpd promotion

Since January 2024, OCBC has been running a quarterly promotion that gives Rewards Cardholders 6 mpd at selected merchants such as duty-free stores and departmental stores in Singapore and overseas.

• Q1: TANGS & SHEIN
• Q2: Duty-free shopping, department stores and Watsons
• Q3/4: Department stores and Watsons

No registration is required, and the 6 mpd earn rate is capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. Any spending above this threshold will earn the usual 4 mpd up till S$1,110, and 0.4 mpd after that.

What this means is that ever since the start of April, and all the way till the end of December, OCBC Rewards Cardholders have been able to earn 6 mpd on up to S$1,000 per month at department stores under MCC 5311.

Even if you don’t shop at Takashimaya or TANGS, this is a big deal because HeyMax, the website better known for its MCC lookup tool, also sells vouchers for a staggering array of merchants.

👍 1,000 Max Miles joining bonus
Sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 1,000 Max Miles as a welcome bonus (redeemable for 25 airlines &  hotels at a 1:1 ratio)
1,000 bonus Max Miles
Airalo AirlineGift Amazon Andersen’s of Denmark Best Denki Boarding Gate Carousel COCA Courts Creative Eateries Deliveroo DMK Dunkin’ Donuts  Earle Swensen’s ErgoTune Ferns N Petals Flower Chimp Flystaygift Foodpanda Fragrance Bak Kwa GetGo gojek Grab Hans Im Gluck HoneyWorld HotelsGift IKEA Isetan Klook LAC Lazada Luminous Dental Marche Movenpick Microsoft Xbox MINISO Motherswork Nano Partea Nanyang Optical Natureland NTUC FairPrice Online	Oddle Eats Orchid Bowl OSIM Paris Baguette Partea Pasta Mania Pelago Pet Lovers Centre Pizza Maru Puma Pupsik Qoo10 Rentacar Robinsons Ryde SaladStop Seoul Garden Seoul Yummy Sephora SHEIN Shell Spectacle Hut Swatch Swensens TADA TANGS The Cocoa Trees The Landmark Res The Planet Traveller The Wallet Shop Thirsty Beer Shop Toast Box Tokyu Hands ToursGift Tuk Tuk Cha Tung Lok Under Armour Wan Hao Chinese restaurant Zalora

These would normally code under a wide range of MCCs, but when purchased as vouchers through HeyMax, will universally code as MCC 5311. 

I hope you see where I’m going here. Whether you’re buying electronics or furniture, booking activities, taking a Grab or gojek, ordering food delivery, buying eSIMs or shopping online, you can use HeyMax to turn that into a 6 mpd opportunity for the OCBC Rewards Card.

The sheer variety of HeyMax voucher coverage means you should be easily maxing out the S$1,000 cap each month. To sweeten the deal even further, you can earn Max Miles from voucher purchases on top of your credit card miles, convertible to 25 different airline and hotel programmes at a 1:1 ratio.

So in a way, HeyMax is hard carrying OCBC here. OCBC’s offering the 6 mpd, but HeyMax is providing the bridge to everyday life. 6 mpd on S$1,000 each month is like the good old days of the UOB Lady’s Card, only that you don’t need to pick a bonus category!

When are OCBC$ credited?

Base points will be awarded when the transaction posts (typically in 1-3 working days).

Bonus points will be received by the end of the next calendar month.

If you’re earning points under the limited-time quarterly 6 mpd promotion, the extra 5X points (2 mpd) will also be credited by the end of the next calendar month.

How are OCBC$ calculated?

Here’s how you can work out the OCBC$ earned on your OCBC Rewards Card:

On 1 June 2020, OCBC started awarding credit card points in blocks of S$5. This means you’ll be penalised should your transaction not be in a block of S$5. For example, a S$9.90 transaction will earn the same number of points as a S$5 transaction, and a S$4.99 transaction will earn zero points. In other words, the minimum transaction to earn points is S$5. 

Here’s how this policy affects the miles you earn on the OCBC Rewards Card, compared to another 4 mpd card like the Citi Rewards. 

	OCBC Rewards Earn Rate: 4 mpd	Citi Rewards Earn Rate: 4 mpd
S$5	20 miles	20 miles
S$9.99	20 miles	36 miles
S$15	60 miles	60 miles
S$19.99	60 miles	76 miles
S$25	100 miles	100 miles
S$29.99	100 miles	116 miles

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

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

OCBC does provide a breakdown of points earned, though this is somewhat poorly executed since OCBC uses reference numbers rather than merchant names for tracking. You’ll need to cross reference your card statement to figure out which transaction is which.

Full instructions are provided below. 

How to check credit card points breakdowns

What transactions aren’t eligible for OCBC$?

A full list of transactions that do not earn OCBC$ can be found in the T&Cs.

I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Charitable Donations
• Education
• GrabPay Top-Ups
• Government Services 
• Insurance Premiums
• Non-Profit and Government Hospitals
• Real Estate Agents & Managers

The OCBC Rewards will not earn 4 mpd on platforms like CardUp, ipaymy and RentHero.

You can earn points on bus/MRT rides with SimplyGo, but there’s no reason to settle for 0.4 mpd when much better options exist.

For avoidance of doubt, Amaze transactions are eligible to earn 4 mpd with the OCBC Rewards, subject to the MCC falling under the relevant bonus categories.

What’s the best card to use with Amaze?

What do I need to know about OCBC$?

Expiry

OCBC$ earned on the OCBC Rewards Card expire after 2 years.

For example, OCBC$ earned from 1-31 July 2020 will expire on 31 July 2022, and OCBC$ earned from 1-30 November 2023 will expire on 30 November 2025.

Pooling

OCBC$ pool across all OCBC$-earning cards, but not with cards earning 90°N Miles or VOYAGE Miles.

For example, if you have 20,000 OCBC$ on the OCBC Rewards Card, and 10,000 OCBC$ on the OCBC Premier Visa Infinite, you can redeem 30,000 OCBC$ at one shot and pay a single conversion fee. However, you cannot combine 90°N/VOYAGE Miles together with OCBC$ in a single redemption.

Since OCBC$ pool, you do not need to transfer them out before cancelling your OCBC Rewards Card, assuming it’s not your last OCBC$-earning card.

Transfer Partners & Fee

After numerous delays, OCBC has finally added eight new airline and hotel partners to its rewards programme.

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (OCBC$ : Miles)
	25,000 : 10,000
	10,000 : 4,000
	10,000 : 4,000
	10,000 : 4,000
	10,000 : 3,600
	10,000 : 3,600
	10,000 : 2,900
	10,000 : 2,800
	10,000 : 2,000

Unfortunately, the transfer ratios for the eight new partners leave a lot to be desired. 

I would at the very least have expected Asia Miles to enjoy the same conversion ratio as KrisFlyer. That’s the way it is for every other bank on the market, and it effectively eliminates Asia Miles as a viable transfer partner. After all, why on earth would you take a 25% haircut on the value of your OCBC points (and therefore your card spending rebate) when no other bank forces you to do that?

Likewise, it’s disappointing to see that there’s a 10% haircut for British Airways Executive Club and Etihad Guest, when Citibank and the HSBC TravelOne Card offer transfers to both at the same ratio as KrisFlyer. 

As for hotel partners, the ratios for IHG and Marriott Bonvoy aren’t that appealing when you factor in the opportunity cost- you’re basically forgoing 1 KrisFlyer mile (~1.5 SG cents) for every IHG (~0.5 US cents/0.67 SG cents) or Bonvoy (~0.7 US cents/0.94 SG cents)

What about Accor? This is an easier comparison since Accor works like a cashback programme where 2,000 points = €40. This implies an opportunity cost of 1.5 SG cents per KrisFlyer mile, which is marginal, really. I would only consider it if Accor brings back one of its conversion bonuses.

OCBC, to its credit, does offer periodic transfer bonuses which can improve the ratios, but most of these aren’t I’d  call “must take” deals:

• July 2024: 70% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy
• June 2024: 15% transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club
• November 2023: 15% transfer bonus to Asia Miles
• October 2023: 20% transfer bonus to Flying Blue (this was a good deal, to be fair)
• October 2023: 50% transfer bonus to IHG One Rewards

 Regarding minimum conversion blocks:

• Transfers for KrisFlyer miles must be in blocks of 25,000 OCBC$
• Transfers for all other programmes must be a minimum of 10,000 OCBC$, but subsequent conversions can be in blocks of 1,000 OCBC$. 

A S$25 fee applies to all conversions. 

Transfer Times

OCBC splits its partners across two different platforms:

• Transfers for KrisFlyer miles are done via the OCBC Rewards portal, and are usually processed within 24 hours

• Transfers for the other programmes are done via the STACK Rewards portal, under the Points Exchange tab. Transfers should be more or less instantaneous (with the exception of Accor Live Limitless, which will take a few working days), because they’re powered by Ascenda Loyalty which has a direct API linkage with the airlines. 

Other card perks

Bonus interest with OCBC 360 account

OCBC Rewards Cardholders who spend at least S$500 per month on their card will be eligible for a bonus 0.6% p.a. on the first S$100,000 in an OCBC 360 Account.

Assuming you keep the full S$100,000 inside, that works out to an extra S$600 interest per year. 

Terms and Conditions

• OCBC Rewards Terms and Conditions
• OCBC Rewards 6 mpd promotion
• OCBC$ Rewards Programme Terms and Conditions

Summary Review: OCBC Rewards Card

Apply

🦁 MileLion Verdict

☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It

In my last review of the OCBC Rewards Card, I confidently said that you could leave it, because there were many other cards I’d sooner use which offered higher earn rates, bigger bonus caps, or wider bonus whitelists.

But everything changed in April when MCC 5311 became a 6 mpd category, and now that it’s been extended till 31 December 2024, a rethink might be necessary.

Obviously, this is great news for those who kept the faith and held on to the card, because it’s an easy opportunity to earn up to 54,000 miles from S$1,000 of spending each month- just add HeyMax. That’s as big a “take it” as I can think of.

Where it gets a bit trickier is if you (like me) cancelled the card already. Given that it’s already July, is it worth hopping back on?

Well, if you’re eligible for a new-to-bank welcome offer through SingSaver, I’d say why not (though I might apply for an OCBC 365 Card or OCBC 90°N Visa first, since the SingSaver sign-up reward is better at the time of writing, then apply for the OCBC Rewards as an existing customer). You can make the most of the remaining months, and get a nice gift for your efforts. 

This, after all, is the only 6 mpd card left in the market at the moment (yes, keyboard gang, the UOB Lady’s Card can offer 6 mpd too, but you’ll need to jump through the UOB Lady’s Savings Account hoop). And it’s just very hard to say no to 6 mpd.

It remains to be seen what OCBC does after this promo ends, but assuming a return to status quo, my previous advice still holds. Under normal circumstances, I can think of many other cards I’d sooner use than the OCBC Rewards (e.g. DBS Woman’s World Card, Citi Rewards, UOB Preferred Platinum Visa), so the OCBC Rewards only comes into the picture if:

1. You’re a big spender who maxed out the bonus caps on other 4 mpd cards already
2. You’re buying a big ticket item where the cost can be split over several cards, and the merchant is on the bonus whitelist

So that’s my review of the OCBC Rewards Card. What do you think?