2023 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Supermarkets

Grocery shopping isn’t particularly glamorous, but it can be a highly reliable recurring source of miles. And with certain cards offering up to 6 mpd at supermarkets, there’s plenty of opportunities to turn your monthly marketing into your next vacation.

In this post, we’ll cover the best cards to use for this category of purchases, as well as some potential pitfalls to take note of. 

How do supermarkets code?

All major supermarkets in Singapore will code as MCC 5411: Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, including:

• Cold Storage
• Don Don Donki
• Giant
• Hao Mart
• Jasons Deli
• Little Farms
• Market Place
• Meidi-Ya
• NTUC FairPrice (and subsidiary brands like FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra)
• Prime Supermarket
• Ryan’s Grocery
• Sheng Siong

If in doubt, you can easily look up the MCC before making a purchase with the following tools: 

Buying groceries online

If you do your grocery shopping online, the following cards will earn you 4-6 mpd, subject to the caps shown below.

🛒 Best Cards for Groceries (Online)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	6 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	6 mpd	Max S$3K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review
Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month Review
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	S$1.1K per c. month Review

Buying groceries in-store

If you do your grocery shopping in-store, the following cards will earn you 4-6 mpd, subject to the caps shown below.

🛒 Best Cards for Groceries (In-Store)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	6 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	6 mpd	Max S$3K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd*	Max S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd^	S$1.1K per c. month Review
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd*	S$1-2K per s. month on contactless spending Review
*Must use contactless (tap card or use mobile payments) ^Must use mobile contactless (mobile payments)

UOB$ merchants

If you’re spending with a UOB credit card at Cold Storage, Giant, Jasons Deli or Market Place, then some special caveats apply.

These supermarkets are part of the UOB$ programme, which awards cashback in lieu of UNI$. What this means is that you won’t earn any miles here, or a reduced number of miles, depending on which card you have.

Card	Earn Rate at Cold Storage, Giant, Jasons Deli, Market Place
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	5.6 mpd
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	5.6 mpd
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	None
UOB Visa Signature Apply	3.6 mpd
Assumes you select Family as your quarterly bonus category (UOB Lady’s Card, UOB Lady’s Solitaire), or use contactless payments (UOB Visa Signature).

For a full explanation of why this is, refer to the post below (it was written before the UOB Lady’s Cards earn rates were upsized to 6 mpd, so it assumes a 4 mpd earn rate in those cases, but the information is otherwise correct).

Confirmed: UOB$ merchants qualify for bonus miles with UOB cards

Fortunately, there are some easy workarounds that will allow you to earn the full amount of miles, such as pairing your UOB Lady’s Card or UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card with Amaze, or shopping online. 

Workarounds: How to earn miles at UOB$ merchants with UOB cards

Limited-time: DBS yuu alternative

Even though we’re focusing on miles in this article, it’d be strangely amiss not to give a shout out to the DBS yuu Card and its 36 yuu Points per S$1 spent at Cold Storage and Giant, equivalent to an 18% rebate. 

This requires a minimum spend of S$600 (which can be on any retail transactions, not just Cold Storage and Giant), and the 18% rebate is capped at S$78 per calendar month.

It’s been confirmed that yuu Points will also be earned on grocery voucher purchases, so that’s another option if you fall short of the minimum spend.

So should you take 4-6 mpd, or 18% rebates? Well, for you to choose miles, you’d need to value a mile at  3-4.5 cents each, which I think is a bit on the high side.

Therefore, I think most people would be better off taking the yuu Points, at least until the upsized earn rate lapses on 29 February 2024. 

Conclusion

By using the right credit cards at supermarkets, you could earn up to 6 mpd on your grocery bill each month. UOB cards offer the highest return, but do take care because of the unique circumstances surrounding UOB$ merchants like Cold Storage or Giant

There’s also an opportunity to earn up to 18% rebates with the DBS yuu AMEX and DBS yuu Visa up till 29 February 2024, which may prove even more attractive than miles for some.