Renewed: 21% discount at SPC for American Express cards

Since 2021, American Express has been running a popular offer with petrol chain SPC that gives registered cardholders up to 21% off petrol.

This offer has now been renewed for the whole of 2024. Re-registration is required, and each card can enjoy a maximum statement credit of S$120. 

Enjoy up to 21% off petrol at SPC

From 12 January to 31 December 2024, American Express cardholders can save up to 21% off petrol at SPC. This is broken down as follows:

• 10% discount for SPC&U Members
• 5% discount for American Express cardholders
• 7.1% rebate for registered American Express Cards

The mathematically-inclined amongst you might notice that 10+5+7.1=22.1%, so why are the savings quoted as 21%? It comes down to discounts versus rebates. Cardholders will receive a 15% discount upfront, with a further 7.1% rebated to them via statement credit.

For example, if you purchase S$100 worth of petrol:

• You’ll pay S$85 at the counter (15% discount)
• You’ll receive a 7.1% rebate from S$85 (S$6.04) credited to your account
• All in all, you’ve paid S$78.96 for S$100 of petrol, a discount of ~21%

The maximum statement credit that can be received per registered card is S$120, which means you’d max this out with ~S$1,690 of petrol spending (after the 15% discount).

If you use more petrol than that, you can register more than one card. I see the SPC offer available across my

• AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend
• AMEX Platinum Reserve
• AMEX Platinum Charge
• AMEX HighFlyer Card

However, please only register as many cards as you need since there’s a registration cap of 60,000 cards per type (e.g. 60,000 AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, 60,000 AMEX HighFlyer Card etc.; the only outlier is the AMEX True Cashback Card with a cap of 5,000). 

Statement credits should reflect on your account within five business days from qualifying spend. The full T&Cs can be found below:

No miles or points for SPC transactions

As a reminder, you won’t earn any rewards with American Express cards at SPC stations, which means using your card will be a pure money-saving play.

Rewards for SPC stations were removed for the AMEX KrisFlyer and Platinum cards in March 2020, followed by the HighFlyer card in April 2023. The only exception to the no-rewards rule is the AMEX True Cashback Card, where cardholders will still earn 1.5% cashback as per normal.

Is it worth forgoing miles/points at SPC in favour of a larger discount? It comes down to your personal valuation of a mile, really, but in general given the discounts on offer I’d say yes. 

Pay with Points+ at SPC

💳 AMEX Pay with Points+
1,000 MR points	⇒	S$4.80 S$6.00

In 2021, American Express launched an enhanced Pay with Points programme, aptly called Pay with Points+ (or PWP+ for short). This scheme allows cardholders to redeem Membership Rewards points at an enhanced rate at selected merchants. 

SPC is a PWP+ merchant, which means you can redeem 1,000 MR points for S$6, instead of the usual S$4.80. But this represents poor value still, because by choosing PWP+, you’re accepting an implicit value of 

• For Platinum Charge/Centurion members, 1 mile= 0.96 cents
• For all other AMEX card members, 1 mile=1.08 cents

I’d pass on it if I were you.

What other cards can you use for petrol?

If we’re approaching the question from a simple “which card gives the most miles, period” perspective, then the answer is pretty straightforward:

⛽ Highest Miles Earning Cards for Petrol
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Lady’s Card	6 mpd	Max. S$1K per c. month, must declare transport as quarterly 10X category
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card	6 mpd	Max. S$3K per c. month, must declare transport as quarterly 10X category
UOB Visa Signature	4 mpd	Min. S$1K spend on petrol + contactless per s. month, max. S$2K
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa	4 mpd	Max. S$1.1K per c. month, must use mobile payments
Maybank World Mastercard	4 mpd
Amaze + Citi Rewards Mastercard	4 mpd	Max. S$1K per s. month
C. Month= Calendar Month, S. Month= Statement Month

Where it gets complicated is that the best card from a miles perspective may not necessarily be the best card from a discounts perspective.

I’ll eventually get round to updating my “best cards to use for petrol” article for 2024, which takes into account both miles and discounts, so stay tuned.

Conclusion

American Express has renewed its partnership with SPC, offering a 21% discount for registered cardholders throughout 2024. A total of 60,000 slots are available per card, so drivers will want to get registered as soon as possible.

Just keep in mind that the discount comes at the expense of earning miles, and if that’s what you primarily you care about, then the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa and Sinopec’s simple flat discount scheme could be a better bet.