Review: DBS Altitude Card

Here’s The MileLion’s review of the DBS Altitude Card.

Once upon a time, this was a very solid general spending card. Even though the local/overseas earn rates of 1.2/2 mpd were somewhat unexciting, cardholders could earn 3 mpd on up to S$5,000 of air tickets and hotel bookings per month. Even better- unlike its competitors, you weren’t forced to book on OTA portals with inflated pricing and limited selections. Altitude cardholders could book any airline or hotel they wished, via its official website.

Unfortunately, that was all undone in August 2023, when DBS gave a chicken wing by boosting the local/overseas earn rates to 1.3/2.2 mpd, then took back the whole chicken by removing the 3 mpd on air tickets and hotels. That’s not to mention the way they did so left a lot to be desired.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. In April 2024, DBS also removed the 6 mpd on Expedia flights and hotels and 10 mpd on Kaligo hotels, and the end result is a card that’s the 3.6 roentgen of the miles game: not great, not terrible.

DBS Altitude Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☐ Take It ☑ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
With middling earn rates and no bonus categories, the DBS Altitude offers little to get the pulse racing.
👍 The good	👎 The bad
2 free lounge visits (Visa version only) Non-expiring points which pool with other DBS cards	Lacks a compelling miles purchase facility Limited frequent flyer transfer partners No more bonuses for Expedia or Kaligo Minimum conversion blocks of 10,000 miles
💳 Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: DBS Altitude Card

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the DBS Altitude Card:

Apply (AMEX)
Apply (Visa)
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	No Expiry
Annual Fee	S$196.20 (First Year Free)	Min. Transfer	5,000 DBS Points (10,000 miles)
Miles with Annual Fee	10,000	Transfer Partners	4
FCY Fee	3% (AMEX) 3.25% (Visa)	Transfer Fee	S$27.25
Local Earn	1.3 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	2.2 mpd	Lounge Access?	Yes  (Visa)
Special Earn	N/A	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

The DBS Altitude comes in two varieties: American Express, and Visa. The fees, earn rates and benefits of the two are almost identical, though the American Express does have a more generous welcome offer than the Visa.

I’ll draw attention to the differences where relevant. 

How much must I earn to qualify for a DBS Altitude Card?

The DBS Altitude has a minimum income requirement of S$30,000 per year.

If you don’t meet the minimum income requirement, you can place a S$10,000 fixed deposit with DBS and get a secured version of the card. Visit any DBS branch for further information.

🤓 A bit of history

Once upon a time, most fresh graduates wouldn’t have been able to get a miles card straight off the bat. The minimum income requirement for any decent miles card was S$80,000, and the DBS Altitude was no exception. Over the years, however, that S$80,000 became less papal edict and more serving suggestion, and eventually in 2016, DBS became the first bank in Singapore to offer a miles card at the MAS-mandated minimum of S$30,000. This put pressure on the rest of the market, and eventually the Citi PremierMiles and UOB PRVI Miles Cards reduced their income requirements to S$30,000 as well.

How much is the DBS Altitude Card’s annual fee?

	Principal Card	Supp. Card
First Year	Free	Free
Subsequent	S$196.20	S$98.10

The DBS Altitude Card has an annual fee of S$196.20 for the principal cardholder, and a S$98.10 fee per supplementary card.

The first year’s fee is waived. Subsequent years’ fees are automatically waived if you spend at least S$25,000 in a membership year, though based on personal experience, you can get a fee waiver even if you spend less than this. 

Cardholders will receive 10,000 miles every time they pay the principal card’s annual fee, which means buying miles at ~1.96 cents per mile. You can opt to voluntarily pay the annual fee in the first year, and in subsequent years even if you spend above $25,000 should you wish to buy the miles anyway.

What welcome offers are available?

The DBS Altitude Card is currently offering the following welcome offers for new-to-bank customers, defined as those who do not:

• currently hold a principal DBS or POSB credit card, and
• have not cancelled a principal DBS or POSB credit card in the past 12 months

DBS Altitude AMEX

DBS Altitude AMEX
Apply
Promo Code	ALTA35	ALTAW25
Bonus Miles	25,000 miles
Base Miles From S$800 Spend (1.3 mpd local, 2.2 mpd FCY)	1,040 – 1,760 miles
Miles From S$196.20 Annual Fee	10,000 miles	Fee waived
Total Miles	36,040 – 36,760 miles	26,040 – 25,760 miles

Customers who apply for a new DBS Altitude AMEX Card between 16 July to 30 September 2024 (with approval by 14 October 2024) and spend at least S$800 within 60 days of card approval will earn:

• 25,000 bonus miles
• 1,040 to 1,760 base miles, depending on the breakdown of the S$800 spend (1.3 mpd for SGD spend; 2.2 mpd for FCY spend)

If they pay the first year’s S$196.20 annual fee, they will earn an extra 10,000 miles. 

Customers who wish to pay the annual fee should apply with the code ALTA35. Customers who want a fee waiver should apply with the code ALTAW25.

DBS Altitude Visa

DBS Altitude Visa
Apply
Promo Code	ALTV30	ALTVW20
Bonus Miles	20,000 miles
Base Miles From S$800 Spend (1.3 mpd local, 2.2 mpd FCY)	1,040 – 1,760 miles
Miles From S$196.20 Annual Fee	10,000 miles	Fee waived
Total Miles	31,040 – 31,760 miles	21,040 – 21,760 miles

Customers who apply for a new DBS Altitude Visa Card between 16 July to 30 September 2024 (with approval by 14 October 2024) and spend at least S$800 within 60 days of card approval will earn:

• 20,000 bonus miles
• 1,040 to 1,760 base miles, depending on the breakdown of the S$800 spend (1.3 mpd for SGD spend; 2.2 mpd for FCY spend)

If they pay the first year’s S$196.20 annual fee, they will earn an extra 10,000 miles. 

Customers who wish to pay the annual fee should apply with the code ALTV30. Customers who want a fee waiver should apply with the code ALTVW20.

How many miles do I earn?

🇸🇬 SGD Spend	🌎 FCY Spend	⭐ Bonus Spend
1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd	N/A

SGD/FCY Spend

DBS Altitude Card members earn:

• 3.25 DBS Points for every S$5 spent in Singapore Dollars (SGD)
• 5.5 DBS Points for every S$5 spent in foreign currency (FCY).

1 DBS Point is worth 2 airline miles, so that’s an equivalent earn rate of 1.3 mpd for SGD spending, and 2.2 mpd for FCY spending. These are competitive rates for a general spending card, though perhaps not market-leading.

💳 Earn Rates for General Spending Cards (income req.: S$30K)
Cards	Local Spend	FCY Spend
UOB PRVI Miles	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
HSBC TravelOne Card	1.2 mpd	2.4 mpd
DBS Altitude	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
OCBC 90°N Card	1.3 mpd	2.1 mpd
Citi PremierMiles Card	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
StanChart Journey	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	1.2 mpd	2 mpd*
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card	1.1 mpd	2 mpd*
BOC Elite Miles	1 mpd	2 mpd
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
*In June and Dec only

All overseas transactions on the DBS Altitude AMEX and Visa Cards are subject to a 3% and 3.25% FCY fee respectively. This means that using your DBS Altitude Card overseas represents buying miles at 1.36 cents (AMEX) and 1.48 cents (Visa).

💳 FCY Fees by Issuer and Card Network
Issuer	↓ MC & Visa	AMEX
Standard Chartered	3.5%	N/A
American Express	N/A	3.25%
Citibank	3.25%	N/A
DBS	3.25%	3%
HSBC	3.25%	N/A
Maybank	3.25%	N/A
OCBC	3.25%	N/A
UOB	3.25%	3.25%
BOC	3%	N/A
CIMB	3%	N/A

When are DBS Points credited?

DBS Points for local and overseas spending will be credited when your transaction posts, which generally takes 1-3 working days. 

How are DBS Points calculated?

Some people get anxious when they read in the T&Cs that DBS Points are awarded in S$5 blocks. That’s understandable, given how UOB’s S$5 earning blocks result in a lot of lost miles from rounding, especially for small transactions. 

But DBS’s calculations aren’t nearly as penalising. Here’s how DBS points on your DBS Altitude Card are calculated:

Local Spend	Divide transaction by 5 and multiply by 3.25. Round down to the nearest whole number
FCY Spend	Divide transaction by 5 and multiply by 5.5. Round down to the nearest whole number

Notice how the transaction is not rounded down to the nearest S$5; instead, it’s divided by 5 straight away. This means the minimum spend to earn points is not S$5, but rather:

• SGD spend: S$1.54
• FCY spend: S$0.91

To illustrate the point, here’s how the DBS Altitude compares to the UOB PRVI Miles. Note how it outperforms the ostensibly higher-earning PRVI Miles (1.4 mpd) on certain transaction sizes. 

	DBS Altitude Earn rate: 1.3 mpd	UOB PRVI Miles Earn rate: 1.4 mpd
S$5	6 miles	6 miles
S$9.99	12 miles	6 miles
S$15	18 miles	20 miles
S$19.99	24 miles	20 miles
S$25	32 miles	34 miles
S$29.99	38 miles	34 miles

If you’re an Excel geek, here’s the formulas you need to calculate points: 

Local Spend	=ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*3.25,0)
FCY Spend	=ROUNDDOWN ((X/5)*5.5,0)
Where X= Amount Spent

For the full list of formulas that banks use to calculate credit card points, do refer to these articles:

• General Spending Cards
• Specialised Spending Cards

What transactions aren’t eligible for DBS Points?

A full list of transactions that do not earn DBS Points can be found at point 2.6 of the T&Cs.

I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Charitable donations
• Education
• Government institutions and services (court cases, fines, bail and bonds, tax payment, postal services, parking lots and garages)
• Hospitals 
• Insurance
• Top-ups of prepaid accounts e.g. GrabPay and YouTrip
• Utilities bills

All CardUp transactions are eligible to earn DBS Points. However, when it comes to qualifying spend for the purposes of welcome offers, only CardUp rental transactions which code under MCC 6513 (Real Estate Agents and Managers) will count.

If you plan to use CardUp to meet the qualifying spend, do make a point of reading the article below for greater clarity. 

Clarified: Using CardUp rental for DBS welcome offers

ipaymy transactions are explicitly excluded from counting towards qualifying spend.

What do I need to know about DBS Points?

❌ Expiry	↔️ Pooling	💰 Transfer Fee
No expiry	Yes	S$27.25 (per conversion) or S$43.60 (per year)
⬆️ Min. Transfer	✈️ No. of Partners	⏱️ Transfer Time
5,000 DBS Points (10,000 miles)	4	1-3 working days (for KF)

Expiry

DBS Points normally expire after one year, but points earned on the DBS Altitude Card never expire.

Pooling

DBS Points pool across cards for the purposes of redemption. If you have 10,000 DBS Points on the DBS Altitude Card and 5,000 DBS Points on the DBS Woman’s World Card, you can redeem 15,000 DBS Points at one shot and pay a single conversion fee.

However, DBS Points are not pooled when it comes to card cancellations. If I have a DBS Altitude Card and DBS Woman’s World Card and decide to cancel the former, I’ll need to transfer my points out before cancelling, or else forfeit them. 

Partners and Transfer Fee

DBS partners with four  frequent flyer programmes, and a minimum conversion block of 10,000 miles is required (let’s ignore AirAsia, because converting points there is like throwing them away):

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (DBS Points: Miles)
	5,000: 10,000
	5,000: 10,000
	5,000: 10,000
	500: 1,500

For KrisFlyer specifically, DBS offers an alternative “Auto Conversion programme”. This charges a flat fee of S$43.20 per membership year, and automatically converts DBS Points to KrisFlyer miles each calendar quarter in blocks of 500 DBS Points. 

How does the DBS KrisFlyer Miles Auto Conversion Programme work?

This reduces the minimum transfer block from 10,000 miles to 1,000 miles, but has the downside of starting the three-year expiry on your KrisFlyer miles early. 

Whether the Auto Conversion programme makes sense depends on your miles transfer patterns. If you make only one transfer to KrisFlyer per year, the “per transfer” model of S$27.25 would make more sense. However, if you find yourself making two or more transfers, the Auto Conversion programme may have some utility.

Cardholders enrolled in the Auto Conversion scheme can make ad-hoc conversions from DBS Points to KrisFlyer miles without paying the usual S$27.25 fee, but the usual minimum block of 5,000 DBS Points applies.

Transfer Times

DBS tells customers to expect points to be credited in 1-2 weeks, but in reality it usually takes about 1-3 working days at the very most (at least for KrisFlyer, transfer times to other programmes can be longer).

If you need your points credited instantly, you can do so via Kris+. 100 DBS Points can be transferred to 170 KrisPay miles, which can then be transferred to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio. 

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

There are pros and cons to this:

Pros

• Minimum conversion block is reduced to just 100 DBS Points, versus 5,000 DBS Points if converting via DBS’s rewards portal
• Transfers from DBS to Kris+, and from Kris+ on to KrisFlyer are instant

Cons

• Those 100 DBS Points would normally be worth 200 KrisFlyer miles, so a 15% haircut is incurred

Therefore I wouldn’t recommend taking this option, unless you need a small top-up to redeem a flight, or have an orphan DBS Points balance (<5,000 points). 

If you choose to do so nonetheless, do remember that it’s a two-step process:

1. Transfer DBS Points to KrisPay miles
2. Transfer KrisPay miles to KrisFlyer miles

Do not forget the second step! If you wait more than seven days, or spend any of the converted KrisPay miles via Kris+, the entire balance will be stuck in the Kris+ app. KrisPay miles expire after six months, and can only be spent at a poor ratio of 150 miles = S$1. 

Other card perks

Income tax facility

DBS Altitude cardholders can pay their income tax via DBS Payment Plans, earning 1.5 mpd (instead of the usual 1.3 mpd) with a 2.5% fee. 

This works out to 1.67 cents per mile, which is decent, but you could pay much less with a service like CardUp. Do refer to the article below for the lowest-cost way of paying taxes with  your DBS Altitude Card and other credit cards.

2024 Edition: Earning credit card miles on IRAS income tax

Two free lounge visits (Visa version only)

Registration

Principal DBS Altitude Visa Cardholders enjoy two free lounge visits per membership year, via Priority Pass. 

The two visit allowance is tracked by membership year, based on when they applied for their Priority Pass. Lounge entitlements can be shared with a guest, but once you exhaust your free visits you’ll be charged US$32 per additional visit. 

Here’s how this compares to other cards in its segment.

Card	Network	Free Lounge Visits (per year)
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	Plaza Premium	4X
HSBC TravelOne Card	DragonPass	4X
Citi PremierMiles	Priority Pass	2X
DBS Altitude	Priority Pass	2X (Visa Version Only)
StanChart Journey Card	Priority Pass	2X
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card	N/A	N/A
BOC Elite Miles	N/A	N/A
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card	N/A	N/A
OCBC 90°N Card	N/A	N/A
UOB PRVI Miles	N/A	N/A

Terms and Conditions

• DBS Altitude Card Terms and Conditions
• DBS Rewards Terms and Conditions

Summary Review: DBS Altitude Card

Apply (AMEX)

Apply (Visa)

🦁 MileLion Verdict

☐ Take It ☑ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It

It’s fair to say the DBS Altitude has lost a good bit of mojo in the recent years. With the loss of its bonuses on airlines, hotels and Expedia/Kaligo, this is a pure vanilla general spending card, and little more.

If you want to keep your banking ecosystem limited to DBS (why?), then pairing this with the DBS Woman’s World Card would be a passable combination, earning you 4 mpd online and 1.3-2.2 mpd offline. But if you’re willing to stretch your horizons broader, you’ll find much more rewarding options elsewhere.

So that’s my review of the DBS Altitude Card. What do you think?