DBS adds CardUp and ipaymy to rewards exclusion list (update: exclusion removed)

CardUp and ipaymy allow cardholders to earn credit card rewards on education, insurance premiums, rental, income tax and insurance transactions, which are normally excluded by the banks.

However, it’s not always been smooth sailing. HSBC became the first to exclude CardUp and ipaymy entirely in July 2020, UOB excluded ipaymy in August 2022, and now it seems like DBS is set to follow suit. Per an update to the DBS Rewards Programme T&Cs, both CardUp and ipaymy transactions no longer earn points. 

This is a confusing development to say the least, given the lack of notice and recent confirmation from DBS that CardUp transactions continue to earn base rewards as per normal. I’m in the midst of seeking clarification from the bank, but in the meantime you should pause any planned payments with DBS cards for either of these two platforms.

DBS Rewards Programme updated T&Cs

DBS has published a new set of T&Cs for the DBS Rewards Programme to its website. For the sake of easy comparison, I’ve uploaded both the old and new T&Cs to Draftable, but in summary there’s two key changes to note:

• New rewards exclusions have been added
• Rewards exclusions are now defined by explicit MCC ranges, instead of category descriptions

CardUp and ipaymy now on exclusion list

In the previous version of the T&Cs, Clause 2.6(a) stated:

In the revised T&Cs, Clause 2.6(a) now states: 

Note the addition of CardUp, Fave eCard, FavePay, ipaymy, and SmoovPay.

Now, Fave eCard, FavePay and SmoovPay aren’t actually new. Even though these were not explicitly addressed in the DBS Rewards Programme T&Cs before, they were already known not to earn points.

What is new are CardUp and ipaymy, and I find it strange this comes so soon off the heels of DBS confirming that CardUp transactions will earn base points, though they will only count towards qualifying spend for welcome offers if they post under MCC 6513 (i.e. rental payments).

This then begs two questions:

1. Is this simply an error?
2. If it’s not an error, when does it take effect from?

(1) would be the ideal scenario, and I could see how this could happen. If you refer to the previous version of the T&Cs for the DBS Woman’s World Card, you’ll note on page 2 at point 2(ii) that payments made to CardUp, FavePay, ipaymy, SmoovPay and Fave eCard are excluded from 10X rewards.

That’s nothing new. The clause has been around for a long time now, if only to keep people from asking “CardUp is an online transaction no? Then where’s my 4 mpd?” Therefore, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that when updating the T&Cs, someone mixed up their files and copied the wrong line over.

But if that turns out to be copium on my part, the question then becomes when the new T&Cs take effect. There’s nothing in the document that addresses this, but I can find some information in the PDF’s metadata, which shows a modification date of 31 May 2024. 

So I’m guessing that if these changes are intentional and not a mistake, then they take effect from 1 June 2024.

Still, banks are supposed to provide a minimum of one month’s notice before making changes to their T&Cs, especially those which add new rewards exclusions. I may simply have missed it, but I don’t see any such notice on the DBS website, nor has it been mentioned in the MileChat (and trust me, nothing gets past that group). Needless to say, it’s very poor form if this is indeed a no-notice change. 

I’ve sent some questions over to the DBS team, so let’s see what they have to say.

Exclusion categories are now defined by MCCs

Back in April, I noted that DBS had began updating its T&Cs to explicitly state which MCCs are excluded from welcome offer qualifying spend.

This has now been expanded to the DBS Rewards Programme T&Cs as well. 

It’s a welcome, if long overdue move. Qualitative descriptions have the potential to create ambiguity (e.g. just how are you defining educational institutions?) and we should be aiming for less ambiguity, not more. A specific list of MCCs puts everything in black and white. 

Thankfully, there’s no additional surprises here that I can spot. 

Conclusion

The latest DBS Rewards Programme T&Cs explicitly excludes CardUp and ipaymy transactions from earning points, though this went live so quietly and suddenly that I can’t help but wonder whether it was intentional (“oh my sweet summer child”, I can just hear you saying).

If you have upcoming transactions with DBS cards on either of these platforms, I’d strongly advise holding off for now until we get greater clarity as to whether these changes are accurate, and if so, when they take effect from.

Stay tuned.

(HT: ds)