Which credit cards offer free miles conversions?

Unless you’re spending on a cobrand card that automatically credits miles to your frequent flyer account, you’ll eventually need to convert your bank points into airline miles.

This conversion process often comes with an administrative fee- but not always!

In this post, we’ll explore the conversion costs charged by different banks, and highlight the credit cards that offer free conversions.

💳 Credit Card FAQs

This article forms part of a series on Credit Card FAQs. Refer to the articles below for answers to other common questions.

Which credit cards offer free miles conversions? Which credit cards earn non-expiring points? How do you check credit card points breakdowns? Which banks pool credit card points? Which credit cards have the smallest conversion blocks? How do you avoid orphan miles? What happens to my credit card points after I die? How are points calculated on general spending cards? How are points calculated on specialised spending cards?

How much do miles conversions normally cost?

Banks adopt two main models for conversion fees: 

• Per conversion: Pay a fee every time you convert miles
• Annual option: Pay a fee that covers unlimited conversions in a 12-month period

Here’s how much various banks normally charge for points conversions to airline or hotel loyalty programmes:

💰 Points Conversion Fees by Bank
Issuer	Per Conversion	Annual Option
	S$201	N/A
	S$30	N/A
	S$27.252	N/A
	S$27.253	S$43.604
	Free	N/A
	S$27.255	N/A
	S$25	N/A
	S$27.25	N/A
	S$256	S$507
1. Waived for all Platinum and Centurion cardholders 2. Waived for Citi ULTIMA cardholders 3. Waived for DBS Insignia cardholders 4. Automatic conversions in blocks of 500 DBS points (1,000 miles) each quarter. Additional ad-hoc redemptions can be done for free 5. Waived for Maybank Visa Infinite and Maybank World Mastercard cardholders 6. Waived for UOB Reserve, UOB Visa Infinite Metal, UOB Visa Infinite and UOB Privilege Banking cardholders 7. Automatic conversions in blocks of UNI$2,500 (5,000 miles) each month for balances above UNI$15,000. Additional ad-hoc redemptions cost S$25

As the lengthy list of footnotes implies, exceptions do apply- be sure to read this table in conjunction with the rest of the article!

With the exception of Bank of China (naturally), the conversion fee is the same regardless of how many points you transfer. In other words, it costs the same to transfer 5,000 DBS points (10,000 miles) as it does 500,000 DBS points (1,000,000 miles), provided you do it in a single transfer.

Bank of China caps the maximum number of points you can transfer in a single conversion to 10 blocks (i.e. 60,000 Asia Miles or 100,000 KrisFlyer miles). If you want to transfer more than this, you’ll need to pay an additional conversion fee. It’s ridiculously arbitrary, but hey, it wouldn’t be BOC if it weren’t. 

Which cards don’t charge conversion fees?

Cobrand cards

Any Singapore Airlines cobrand card will batch and credit miles earned directly into the cardholder’s KrisFlyer account each month.

This saves on conversion fees, but on the flip side, your three-year expiry countdown starts immediately, and you don’t have any other choice of transfer partner.

💳 Singapore Airlines Cobrand Cards
Card	Income Req.	Annual Fee
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card	S$30K	S$196.20 (FYF)
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card	N/A*	S$179.85 (FYF)
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	N/A*	S$397.85
AMEX PPS Card	N/A*	S$561.35 (FYF)
AMEX Solitaire PPS Card	N/A*	S$561.35 (FYF)
*American Express cards no longer publish official income requirements, merely stating that approvals are “subject to internal review”

Non-cobrand cards

Regardless of the bank’s overall policy, some credit cards offer waivers of miles conversion fees. 

💳 Non-Cobrand Cards
Card	Income Req.	Annual Fee
HSBC Revolution Card	S$30K	Free
HSBC TravelOne Card	S$30K	S$196.20
Maybank World Mastercard	S$120K	S$261.60 (FYF)
AMEX Platinum Credit Card	N/A*	S$327
AMEX Platinum Reserve	N/A*	S$545
Maybank Visa Infinite	S$120K	S$654 (FYF)
UOB VI Metal Card	S$120K	S$654
AMEX Platinum Charge	N/A*	S$1,744
UOB Privilege Banking Visa Infinite	S$30K (min. S$350K AUM)	S$1,962 (waived if min. AUM is met)
DBS Insignia Card	S$500K	S$3,270
UOB Reserve Card	S$500K	S$3,924
Citi ULTIMA Card	S$500K	S$4,237.92
#American Express cards no longer publish official income requirements, merely stating that approvals are “subject to internal review”.

DBS

DBS Insignia Cardholders enjoy free points conversions, and since DBS Points pool, points earned on other DBS cards can also be converted for free.

HSBC

All HSBC cardholders enjoy fee-free conversions until further notice.

Maybank

Maybank Visa Infinite and Maybank World Mastercard Cardholders enjoy free points conversions, and since Maybank TREATS Points pool, points earned on other Maybank cards can also be converted for free.

UOB

UOB Privilege Banking Visa Infinite, UOB Reserve and UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders enjoy free points conversions, and since UNI$ pool, points earned on other UOB cards can also be converted for free.

Do conversion fees really matter?

I get it. No one likes paying conversion fees. They seem arbitrary, and in the case of Bank of China, opportunistic. Does it really cost S$25 to process a miles transaction? And with improved processes and API integration, shouldn’t the cost be falling over time? 

All the same, I don’t think you should get too hung up about them. Of course you should minimise fees where you can, but the odd S$25 fee here and there is more annoyance than deal-breaker.

The average person will transfer miles maybe once a year, and if you’re using a multi-card strategy, you’ll pay two, perhaps three fees which will add up to less than S$100. Put it another way: no one ever grumbled about conversion fees when he/she sat down in a Business Class seat for the first time.

If conversion fees really bother you, try and spread your spending across different cards within a bank that pools points, like UOB. For example, you might use the UOB PRVI Miles Visa as a general spending card, with the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa for PayWave. When the time comes to transfer points, you’ll only pay a single transfer fee as all your UNI$ are pooled together.

In contrast, Citibank does not pool points. If you use the Citi PremierMiles Card as a general spending card, with the Citi Rewards Card for online spending, you’ll need to pay two separate transfer fees as your points are kept in silos.

Conclusion

Points conversion fees are an annoying, yet persistent feature of the Singapore credit card market. Expect to pay around S$25 per conversion, though some banks may offer unlimited conversions for a fixed fee, or free conversions to selected programmes for a limited time.

It’s not something to lose sleep over, although you should obviously minimise them wherever possible.