DBS and Shopee have joined forces to launch Points to Coins, a partnership which allows DBS cardholders to convert DBS Points into Shopee Coins.
Apologies in advance for the PR fluff, but the following really sums up just how gullible companies think consumers are.
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| 📰 Press Release |
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Shopee and DBS join forces to amplify rewards for Singapore shoppers Shopee Singapore and DBS/POSB today announced the launch of Points to Coins, a joint rewards integration programme designed to offer a more rewarding shopping experience for Singapore shoppers who are DBS/POSB cardholders. A first for Shopee Singapore, this programme promises to deliver added value to customers across Singapore by enabling conversions of DBS Points or POSB Daily$ to Shopee Coins |
“Added value”? That’s got to be a typo, because in terms of value, this is the worst partnership I can think of since John and Yoko (or pizza and pineapple, take your pick).
The conversion rate represents abysmal value for your DBS Points compared to miles conversions, and even if you have no interest in miles and every interest in Shopee, there’s still no reason why you should opt for this.
Convert DBS Points to Shopee Coins
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| DBS Points | Shopee Coins |
| 100 | 100 |
DBS cardholders can now convert DBS Points to Shopee Coins instantly at a 1:1 ratio, with a minimum conversion of 100 DBS Points.
Shopee Coins can be used to offset the cost of a Shopee purchase at a rate of 100 Shopee Coins= S$1.
No, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke. 1 DBS Point is worth 2 airline miles, so this exchange is basically asking you to take a value of 0.5 cents per mile, or 1 cent per DBS Point.
Granted, there’s a limited-time offer from now till 31 October 2023 which offers 50% more Shopee Coins, but even that is a very poor 0.75 cents per mile, or 1.5 cents per DBS Point. Moreover, the bonus is capped at 1,000 Shopee Coins per cardholder, and the maximum number of bonus Shopee Coins that will be issued is capped at 5,000,000.
| ❓ 1.5X Bonus Illustration | |
| DBS Points | Shopee Coins |
| 1,000 | 1,000 base + 500 bonus |
| 2,000 | 2,000 base + 1,000 bonus |
| 3,000 | 3,000 base + 1,000 bonus (cap reached) |
| Bonus coins will be credited by 14 Nov 2023. T&Cs apply | |
I’ll consider it a personal failure on my part if that cap is actually hit!
There’s really no good use for this
No matter how hard I try, I just can’t think of a good use for this.
Fundamentally, it makes very little sense to convert DBS Points to Shopee Coins, when you could get much better value by converting DBS Points to airline miles.
| ❓ Options for Spending KrisFlyer Miles | ||
| Redemption Option | Value per mile^ | |
| ✈️ | Award flights | ≤5 cents |
| ✈️ | Cash + Miles | 0.95 cents |
| 🎡 | Pelago | 0.83 cents* |
| 🚘 | KrisFlyer vRooms | ≥ 0.8 cents |
| 🛍️ | KrisShop | 0.8 cents |
| 🏨 | Shangri-La Circle conversion | 0.75 cents |
| 🏬 | CapitaStar conversion | 0.7 cents |
| 📱 | Kris+ | 0.67 cents |
| 🛒 | LinkPoints conversion | 0.65 cents |
| 🏨 | Marriott Bonvoy conversion | 0.5 cents |
| ⛽ | Esso Smiles conversion | 0.33-0.67 cents |
| ^Multiply by 2 to convert to value per DBS Point *Temporarily upsized till 31 Dec 2023; normally 0.67 cents |
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Even if you had expiring DBS Points and fall short of the 5,000 minimum required for an Asia Miles or KrisFlyer conversion, you could still convert these DBS Points via Kris+, which reduces the minimum block to 100 DBS Points = 170 KrisPay miles.
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| S$5 for new Kris+ Users |
| Get S$5 (in the form of 750 KrisPay miles) when you sign-up with code W644363 and make your first transaction |
Ideally, you’d convert these KrisPay miles into KrisFlyer miles immediately, but even if you chose to spend them via Kris+ (which, keep in mind, is a terrible idea), you’d still be getting a value of 1.13 cents per DBS Point, more than what you’d get with Shopee Coins.
“But I don’t care about miles!”, you say. Doesn’t matter. You would still be better off using DBS Points to offset a transaction via PayLah! instead.
Here’s a simple example. Let’s say I spent S$51.16 at Shopee (or any other merchant, for that matter). On the PayLah! app, I can pay for this transaction with 5,116 DBS Points, which gives me the same value as Shopee Coins conversions: 1 cent per DBS Point.
In other words, outside the launch promo (which caps you at 1,000 bonus coins anyway), why would you ever convert your DBS Points into Shopee Coins?
Shopee Coins, after all, expire at the end of the second month after accrual. They can only be used to offset a maximum of 30% of a purchase, and you can only redeem up to 1,000 Shopee Coins per day.
It just doesn’t make sense to convert your DBS Points into a restricted currency for spending later, when you could cash them out for exactly the same value now!
Conclusion
DBS cardholders can now convert DBS Points into Shopee Coins, thereby unlocking a more rewarding shopping expe…sorry, I can’t even say that with a straight face.
This is just an awful idea, plain and simple. Whether you’re flush with DBS Points, or whether you’re looking for a way of extracting value from a small orphan balance, there’s simply no reason to go for Shopee Coins. Heck, you’d be better making a transaction on Shopee with your DBS card, then offsetting it with DBS Points later!
Is there any use for Shopee Coin conversions I’m not seeing?
lol…shhhh… someone in their office chair is making up projects for themselve.
there is actually a use case for this.
Topping up your shopee coin with cash requires a 2 % admin fee.
Hence, if i covert dbs points to shopee coin, i avoid the 2%
Also having shopee coin will avail yourself to more discounts using the many promo codes.
regardless, it is still a terrible idea to convert dbs points to shopee coins as it can be purchase at the value of 1.02 cents to 1 coin.
It is harder to find miles at 1 cents to 1 miles.
If you’re gonna consider promo codes when paying with shoppee coins you might want to take into account that paying with CC gives u back miles, which also allow you to use an additional promo code if available (since you aren’t using the shoppee coin promo code) lol
Top up Shopee Coin via PayNow or Bank Transfer also can avoid 2% fee
There’s another catch: Using those Shopee coins diminishes the value you can get using Shopee’s Cashback vouchers, because the Cashback voucher’s cashback is calculated AFTER offsetting the original price with Shopee coins. Example: Assume you are using a 15% Cashback voucher on a $10 item. You’d get 150 coins as Cashback. If you offset your purchase using 300 Shopee coins, the Cashback you’d get is only $7*15% = 105 coins Cashback. Effectively, your 15% Cashback vouchers has became 10.5% Cashback! So only use Shopee coins for non-cashback eligible items since you can’t use cashback vouchers anyway. If you use Shopee… Read more »
Shopee coins can only be redeemed per 24 hours and not per day. So if you redeemed 1000 coins at 2000hrs, you can only redeem again the next day at 2000hrs, it doesn’t refresh at midnight.
You talked about dbs point – what about POSB Daily$??? There’s a bonus 888 coins promotion now with 2000 shopee coins converted