2023 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Dining

One of the biggest categories of spending for most Singaporeans will probably be eating out, and thankfully there’s no shortage of credit cards that earn bonus miles on restaurants and eateries, whether you’re sitting down for a multi-course fine dining meal, or grabbing a pastry at the MRT station.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to assume that you’re paying for your meal in-store. However there are some restaurants with QR code menus where you pay with your phone at the time of ordering. That’s more in the nature of food delivery or a generic online transaction, and you can refer to my separate post on the topic for the best cards to use in those situations.

What MCC does dining come under?

Restaurants and eateries can code under any of the following MCCs:

That’s quite a wide range, and it’s not always straightforward. For example, will eating in a hotel restaurant code as a hotel, or a restaurant? Will a Delifrance inside a grocery store count as a restaurant, or a supermarket?

Fortunately, it’s possible to check the MCC before spending. Here’s three ways of looking it up:

Of course, the exact MCC only matters if you’re paying with a card that uses a whitelist approach. If you’re using a card with a blacklist approach, things are much simpler.

What cards should I use for dining?

Below is a summary of the cards you can use to earn 3-6 mpd on dining. 

🍽️ Best Cards for Dining
Card	Earn Rate	Cap
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	6 mpd	S$1K per c. month. Must choose Dining as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	6 mpd	S$3K per c. month. Must choose Dining as bonus category Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd	S$1-2K per s. month on local contactless spend Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	S$1.1K per c. month Review
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month Review
KrisFlyer UOB Card Apply	3 mpd	No cap. Min S$800 spend on SIA Group in m. year Review
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month | M. Year= Membership Year

Let’s start with the blacklist cards, because they’re more straightforward:

• Citi Rewards Card + Amaze will earn 4 mpd on all dining transactions, since Amaze converts all offline transactions into online ones
• UOB Preferred Platinum Visa will earn 4 mpd on all dining transactions, so long as mobile payments are accepted (i.e. tap phone to pay)
• UOB Visa Signature will earn 4 mpd on all dining transactions, so long as contactless payments are accepted (i.e. tap physical card or phone to pay), subject to a minimum local contactless spend of S$1,000 per statement month

As for the rest of the whitelist cards, MCC matters.

Here’s how each of the cards compares in terms of dining MCC coverage:

🍽️ Dining Card MCC Coverage
	HSBC Revo	UOB Lady’s	KF UOB
5811	✅	✅
5812	✅	✅	✅
5813	✅		✅
5814	✅	✅	✅
5441	✅
5462	✅
5499	✅	✅
Earn Rate	4 mpd	6 mpd	3 mpd
Monthly Cap	S$1K	S$1K/3K	No cap

There’s an interesting trade-off running across these three cards:

• the HSBC Revolution offers the widest dining MCC coverage, but has a monthly cap of S$1,000 and an earn rate of 4 mpd
• the UOB Lady’s Card/Lady’s Solitaire have a more restricted dining MCC coverage, but have a monthly cap of S$1,000/3,000 and an earn rate of 6 mpd
• the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card has the narrowest dining MCC coverage, but offers 3 mpd with no cap (assuming you meet the min. S$800 spend on SIA Group merchants per membership year, which shouldn’t be that hard to do)

I suppose I should also briefly address the StanChart Smart Card, for the sake of completeness. This card will earn 5.6 mpd on spending at McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Burger King, Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Toast Box, capped at S$818 per statement month. If those are places you patronise, by all means- just beware of the orphan points problem, which can arise if you don’t otherwise use the card all that much.

This was previously positioned as a limited-time offer that ends on 31 December 2023, but the language regarding expiry has now been removed from the T&Cs- so I guess it’s permanent.

What if I’m buying a dining deal?

If you’re buying a dining deal on a platform like Kris+ or Shopback, it’s safest to use a card that gives a blanket bonus for online spending like the DBS Woman’s World Card, or Amaze + Citi Rewards combination (not Citi Rewards alone, because in-app payments are ineligible for 4 mpd).

What about Kris+?

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

Kris+ is great way of racking up additional miles on dining, on top of what you earn from your credit cards. There’s a few hundred dining partners offering an extra 1-9 mpd, and it doesn’t cost you anything extra to use.

For a guide on the best cards to pair with Kris+, refer to the article below.

What’s the best card to use for Kris+?

Other ways of saving on dining

While this article has focused on miles earning, just a quick reminder that there are credit cards which offer special dining privileges that can take a bite out of the bill:

• AMEX Platinum Charge, Platinum Reserve and Platinum Credit Card members have access to the Love Dining programme, which offers up to 50% off food at selected hotels and restaurants
• AMEX HighFlyer Card and DBS Vantage Card members get a complimentary Accor Plus membership, which offers up to 50% off food at participating hotels
• UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card members get up to 50% off a la carte weekday lunch at Pan Pacific Singapore and PARKROYAL Pickering, Beach Road and Kitchener Road
• HSBC Visa Infinite Card members get up to 50% off dining at Goodwood Park Hotel, Fairmont Singapore, Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel, and Swissotel The Stamford
• All HSBC principal cardholders get a complimentary copy of The Entertainer with HSBC, which offers more than 200 1-for-1 dining offers

Conclusion

While banks are clamping down on rewards for non-discretionary spend like education and utilities, dining is one luxury they’re happy to continue encouraging.

You can earn anywhere from 3-6 mpd on dining transactions, and offering to pay the bill for family and office gatherings (with reimbursement on the back end, of course) is one surefire way to grow your miles balance.