The best way of growing your miles balance, apart from sign-up bonuses, is to divert as much spend as you can to specialised spending cards.
It should be obvious why: specialised spending cards offer earn rates of 4 mpd, allowing you to earn your free flights much faster than general spending cards with their earn rates of 1.2-1.6 mpd.
But not all specialised spending cards are made the same. You may have come across the terms “blacklist policy” and “whitelist policy”, and wonder what it all means.
In short, blacklist cards reward modes of spending, while whitelist cards reward categories of spending. Modes is broader than categories, which makes blacklist cards more versatile and straightforward solutions.
| Mode | Categories |
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That said, whitelist cards still have a role to play, and in this post we’ll see how to best optimise between both.
Blacklist cards
| ๐ณ Blacklist Cards |
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| Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
 Citi Rewards CardFor online trxns Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per s. month |
 DBS WWMCApply |
4 mpd | Max S$1.5K per c. month |
 UOB Pref. Plat. VisaFor offline trxns Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1.1K per c. month |
 UOB Visa Signature Apply |
4 mpd* | Min. S$1K Max S$2K per s. month |
Let’s first start with blacklist cards, where the rule is very simple:
All transactions earn bonuses, unless they’re on the exclusions list
DBS Woman’s World Card
The DBS Woman’s World Card awards 4 mpd on all online transactions, except those on the DBS general exclusions list.
Citi Rewards Card
The Citi Rewards Card is a hybrid of blacklist and whitelist:
- For online transactions, it adopts a blacklist approach, awarding 4 mpd on all transactions except:
- For in-person transactions, it adopts a whitelist approach (see next section)
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa
The UOB Preferred Platinum Visa is also a hybrid:
- For in-person transactions, it adopts a blacklist approach, awarding 4 mpd on all mobile contactless payments (e.g. Apple, Google, Samsung or Fitbit Pay), except those on UOB’s general exclusion list
- For online transactions, it adopts a whitelist approach (see next section)
UOB Visa Signature
The UOB Visa Signature awards 4 mpd on all foreign currency, contactless and petrol transactions, except those on UOB’s general exclusion list.
When using this card, take care with how you calculate the S$1,000 minimum spend, which can be quite confusing to first-timers.
Whitelist cards
| ๐ณ Whitelist Cards |
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| Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
 UOB Lady’s CardApply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per c. month |
 UOB Lady’s SolitaireApply |
4 mpd | Max S$2K per c. month |
| Citi Rewards Card For offline trxns Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per s. month |
 HSBC RevolutionApply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per c. month |
 OCBC RewardsApply |
4 mpd | Max S$1.1K per c. month |
| UOB Pref. Plat. Visa For online trxns Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1.1K per c. month |
The rule for whitelist cards is:
Transactions don’t earn bonuses, unless they’re on the inclusions list
UOB Lady’s Cards
The UOB Lady’s Card and UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card allow cardholders to pick one and two bonus categories respectively from a list of seven options, including beauty & wellness, dining, entertainment, family, fashion and travel.
These can be rotated every calendar quarter, allowing the card to be different things to you at different times.
UOB Lady's Card whitelist
| Category | MCCs | Description |
| Beauty & Wellness | 5912, 5977, 7230, 7231, 7298, 7297 | Discount, Mass and Drug Stores, Cosmetics Stores, Barber and Beauty Shops, Health and Beauty Spa, Massage Parlours |
| Dining | 5811, 5812, 5814, 5499 | Caterers, Eating places and Restaurants, Fast food restaurants and food deliveries |
| Entertainment | 5813, 7832, 7922 | Bars, Taverns, Lounges and Nightclubs, Motion Picture Theatres, Theatrical Producers and Ticket Agencies |
| Family | 5411, 5641 | Grocery stores, Children and Infants wear store |
| Fashion | 5311, 5611, 5621, 5631, 5651, 5655, 5661, 5691, 5699, 5948 | Department Stores, Men’s and Boy’s Clothing and Accessories Store, Women’s Ready-to-wear Stores, Women’s Access and Specialty, Family Clothing Stores, Sports and Riding Apparel Stores, Shoes Stores, Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores, Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessories Shops, Luggage and Leather Stores |
| Transport | 4111, 4121, 4789, 5541, 5542 | Local Commuter Transport, Taxi, Cabs, Limousines and Travel Service, Service Stations and Automatic Gas Dispensers |
| Travel | See here | Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Liners, Duty-free Stores, Online and Regular Travel Agencies |
Citi Rewards Card
When spending offline, Citi Rewards Cardholders are confined to earning bonuses only at department stores, or shops which sell shoes, bags or clothes.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to circumvent this. Simply pair it with the Amaze Card and all your transactions become online!
Citi Rewards whitelist
| MCC | Description |
| MCC 5311 | Department Stores |
| MCC 5611 | Men’s and Boy’s Clothing and Accessories Stores |
| MCC 5621 | Women’s Ready to Wear Stores |
| MCC 5631 | Women’s Accessory and Specialty Stores |
| MCC 5641 | Children’s and infant’s Wear Stores |
| MCC 5651 | Family Clothing Stores |
| MCC 5655 | Sports and Riding Apparel Stores |
| MCC 5661 | Shoe Stores |
| MCC 5691 | Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores |
| MCC 5699 | Misc. Apparel and Accessory Shops |
| MCC 5948 | Luggage and Leather Goods Stores |
HSBC Revolution Card
The HSBC Revolution Card gives bonuses on travel, shopping, groceries, dining and transport, provided you pay online or via contactless methods (tapping the physical card, or adding it to your mobile wallet)
HSBC Revolution whitelist
| Category | MCCs | Examples |
| Airlines, Car Rental, Lodging, Cruise Lines | 3000 to 3350, 3351 to 3500, 3501 to 3999, 4411, 4511 | Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Cathay Pacific, Emirates |
| Department Stores & Retail Stores | 4816, 5045, 5262, 5309, 5310, 5311, 5331, 5399, 5611, 5621, 5631, 5641, 5651, 5655, 5661, 5691, 5699, 5732 to 5735, 5912, 5942, 5944 to 5949, 5964 to 5970, 5992, 5999 | Amazon, Best Denki, Courts, Harvey Norman, Lazada, Qoo10, Shopee, Taobao |
| Dining | 5441, 5462, 5811, 5812, 5813 | Crystal Jade, Paradise Dynasty, Hai Di Lao |
| Transportation & Membership Clubs | 4121, 7997 | Comfort, Grab (excluding GrabPay top-ups), gojek, TADA, Ryde, Fitness First |
OCBC Rewards Card
The OCBC Rewards Card awards bonuses for shopping at department, apparel and luggage stores, as well as selected whitelisted merchants like Guardian, Lazada and Shopee.
OCBC Rewards whitelist
| Whitelisted MCCs |
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| Whitelisted Merchants | |
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| ^Amazon and Mustafa Centre transactions under MCC 5411 are not eligible to earn any OCBC$ *Shopee Pay transactions under MCC 5262 are not eligible to earn any OCBC$ |
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UOB Preferred Platinum Visa
When spending online, the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa awards bonuses on selected MCCs only, under shopping, supermarkets, dining, and entertainment.
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa whitelist
| Category | Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) |
| Department and Retail Stores | 4816, 5262, 5306, 5309, 5310, 5311, 5331, 5399, 5611, 5621, 5631, 5641, 5651, 5661, 5691, 5699, 5732-5735, 5912, 5942, 5944-5949, 5964-5970, 5992, 5999 |
| Supermarkets, Dining and Food Delivery | 5811,5812,5814, 5333, 5411, 5441, 5462, 5499, 8012, 9751 |
| Entertainment and Ticketing | 7278, 7832, 7841, 7922, 7991, 7996, 7998-7999 |
Mixing blacklist and whitelist cards
Because of their versatility, blacklist caps are inherently more valuable than whitelist caps.
It doesn’t matter what the MCC is (assuming it’s not on the general exclusions list, of course); so long as you pay via the prescribed method โ online, contactless, in foreign currency, as the case may be โ you’ll earn your bonuses.
The sum of monthly bonus caps on all blacklist cards comes up to S$5,610 a month. Assuming you’re the sort who regularly maxes out bonus caps, you should aim to preserve your blacklist cards’ more flexible caps by utilising whitelist cards’ caps first.
For example, if you’re buying something on Shopee, both the HSBC Revolution and DBS Woman’s World Card would earn 4 mpd. But since the HSBC Revolution is a whitelist card, and the DBS Woman’s World Card is a blacklist card, the smarter decision would be to use the former, and save the latter for other situations.
In that sense, whitelist cards’ bonus caps serve as a buffer that can be fully utilised before touching the blacklist cards’ bonus caps.
Blacklist cards are best used in situations where the merchant does not feature on any whitelist, such as car dealers, car servicing workshops, veterinarians, dentists, health screenings, teleconsultations, phone bills, streaming subscriptions, or furniture stores.
Blacklist cards can also be idiot-proof solutions you can give a spouse or family member who can remember every supporting characters’ name on their favourite Korean drama, but not what card to use at McDonald’s.
Conclusion
If you’re the sort who regularly busts bonus caps, the rule of thumb should be to draft in whitelist cards and utilise their caps first, only then switching to blacklist cards for non-whitelisted categories.
It does take a little more micromanagement, but it keeps you from having to put spend on general spending cards, or worse, a specialised spending card beyond its cap, where a dismal 0.4 mpd awaits.
How do you optimise spending among your whitelist and blacklist cards?
