DCS Card Centre (which no matter what, will always be Diner’s Club to me) has launched the DCS Flex Visa Platinum Card, its first-ever miles card in Singapore.
Or should I say, miles or cashback or investment credits card because, as the name suggests, the Flex is all about offering flexible rewards, allowing cardholders to choose what they wish to earn.
DCS Flex Card |
And that choice is crucial, because your entire opinion about this card boils down to what reward you pick.
As a cashback or investment credits card (though I don’t see why anyone would pick the latter since the earn rate is the same as cashback), the DCS Flex Card is pretty decent. With a relatively low minimum spend of S$600 per month, you can earn 6-8% cashback on foreign currency, online and contactless spend. In a way, it’s a bit like a pre-nerf DBS LiveFresh/OCBC FRANK/UOB EVOL.
As a miles card, the DCS Flex Card is terrible. You still have the same minimum spend of S$600 per month, but the best you can earn is a ho-hum 1.8-2.4 mpd with a stingy cap that even if maxed out, would only be enough for a round-trip Economy Class ticket to Bangkok every year. This mediocre value proposition makes me wish they’d taken whatever resources were allocated here and just focused on making the cashback proposition even better!
Details: DCS Flex Card
DCS Flex Card | |||
Apply | |||
Income Req. | S$30,000 p.a. | Points Validity | 3 years |
Monthly Fee | S$16.35 (FYF) |
Min. Transfer |
5,000 miles |
Miles with Annual Fee |
N/A | Transfer Partners |
1 |
FCY Fee | 3.25% | Transfer Fee | S$27.25 |
Local Earn | Up to 1.8 mpd | Points Pool? | No |
FCY Earn | Up to 2.4 mpd |
Lounge Access? | Yes |
Special Earn | – | Airport Limo? | No |
Cardholder Terms and Conditions |
Minimum income & fees
The DCS Flex Card has a minimum income requirement of S$30,000, and a monthly fee of S$16.35, waived for the first 12 months.
Yes, that’s right. Monthly fee. In an interesting break from tradition, the DCS Flex Card is charging its membership fee each month, instead of each year. I do wonder what happens after the first year free period- will you need to call up each month for a waiver? Will it even be possible?
Cardholders have a choice of three card designs:
Card | Description |
Yellow | A bold and flashy statement piece in eye-catching yellow, this design perfectly embodies the fearless and adventurous go-getter in you. |
Black | This sleek and sophisticated look in black will make a stylish addition to your wallet. A pop of yellow guarantees you’ll still turn heads. |
Avatar |
If exclusivity is your thing, these limited-edition designs depict iconic figures curated from the Cyberpunk series by NFT Collective Theirsverse. Available in limited quantities, so snag yours early.
Extra one-time fee of S$21.80 applies |
In terms of earn rates, cardholders have a choice of earning miles, cashback, or investment credits with iFast Financial. Since the earn rate and caps for investment credits is identical to that of cashback (which makes me wonder why anyone would choose it), I’m just going to refer to cashback and miles for the rest of this article.
Earn rates
The DCS Flex Card offers bonuses on three categories of spend:
- Foreign currency (FCY)
- Online (SGD)
- Contactless in-store (SGD)
At the risk of stating the obvious, FCY spending can be either online or offline, contactless or contact.
Cardholders who spend at least S$600 per statement month will earn up to 8% cashback or 2.4 mpd per the table below.
Category | Earn Rate | Cap Cashback Miles S$ Equiv. |
FCY Spend | 8% 2.4 mpd | S$25 750 miles S$312.50 |
Online SGD | 6% 1.8 mpd | S$25 750 miles S$416.67 |
Contactless SGD | 6% 1.8 mpd | S$25 750 miles S$416.67 |
All Others* | 0.3% 0.4 mpd | S$25 750 miles |
*No min. spend required |
Do note that it’s not actually possible to hit the S$600 minimum spend on any single bonus category alone, so you’ll have to spend across two or more bonus categories (e.g. S$400 on online SGD, S$200 on FCY spend). That said, given that these categories are broad and non-MCC specific, it shouldn’t be difficult to max them all out.
Also note that even though DCS markets the monthly cap as S$100 or 3,000 miles, it’s actually more like S$75 or 2,250 miles. That’s because no one in the right mind would spend on “all other” categories, which earn a miserable 0.3%/0.4 mpd, rendering the bonus cap for that segment virtually irrelevant.
Transfer partners
Miles earned on the DCS Flex Card will be credited to what’s called a Visa Flex Wallet. Here’s the key points to note:
- Miles in the Visa Flex Wallet are valid for three years from the date of accrual
- Miles in the Visa Flex Wallet can be converted into KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio
- A minimum conversion of 5,000 miles must be converted
- A conversion fee of S$27.25 applies
- Conversions take up to 15 working days
Airport lounge access
All DCS principal cardholders enjoy one complimentary lounge visit per calendar year to participating airport lounges worldwide. In Singapore, this includes the Plaza Premium Lounge, SATS Premier Lounge, Ambassador Transit Lounge and Marhaba Lounge.
Should you use the DCS Flex Card to earn miles?
The way I see it, this is a highly unimpressive miles card for three main reasons.
Low earn rates and caps
First, there are many other cards on the market that would offer much higher earn rates with better caps for every single category.
๐ณ FCY Earn Rates, DCS vs Competition |
||
Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
DCS Flex Card Apply |
2.4 mpd | Min. spend S$600, capped at S$313 per s. month |
UOB PRVI Miles Card Apply |
2.4 mpd | No min. spend or cap |
HSBC TravelOne Card Apply |
2.4 mpd | No min. spend or cap |
Maybank Horizon Apply |
2.8 mpd | Min. spend S$800 per c. month, no cap |
UOB Visa Signature Apply |
4 mpd | Min. spend S$1K, capped at S$2K per s. month |
For FCY spend, there’s no reason to settle for 2.4 mpd capped at 750 miles per month when you can earn 2.4 mpd uncapped with the HSBC TravelOne Card or UOB PRVI Miles Card. And if you’re able to boost your minimum spend, the Maybank Horizon offers an uncapped 2.8 mpd with a minimum spend of S$800, while the UOB Visa Signature offers 4 mpd with a minimum spend of S$1,000 per statement month, capped at S$2,000.
๐ณ Online SGD Earn Rates, DCS vs Competition |
||
Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
DCS Flex Card Apply |
1.8 mpd | Min. spend S$600, capped at S$417 per s. month |
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply |
4 mpd | Capped at S$1.5K per c. month |
Citi Rewards Card Apply |
4 mpd | Capped at S$1K per s. month |
For online SGD spend, there’s no reason to settle for 1.8 mpd capped at 750 miles per month when you could earn 4 mpd capped at 6,000 miles per month with the DBS Woman’s World Card, or 4 mpd capped at 4,000 miles per month with the Citi Rewards Card.
๐ณ Contactless SGD Earn Rates, DCS vs Competition |
||
Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
DCS Flex Card Apply |
1.8 mpd | Min. spend S$600, capped at S$417 per s. month |
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply |
4 mpd | Capped at S$1.1K per c. month, must use mobile payments |
For contactless SGD spend, there’s no reason to settle for 1.8 mpd capped at 750 miles per month when you could earn 4 mpd capped at 4,444 miles per month with the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa.
The DCS Flex Card’s low earn rates, coupled with the stingy caps, means that your upside is severely limited. Think about it. If you were to max out the FCY, online and contactless categories each month for a year, you’d only have 27,000 miles (750 miles x 3 x 12). That’s enough for a round-trip Economy Class ticket between Singapore and the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam; a relatively poor return for the S$13,750 you’d have to spend.
On the other hand, optimise your choice of cards, and that same spend would get you a round-trip Economy Class ticket to Japan or South Korea. The choice is yours.
Opportunity cost too high
Second, by choosing miles over cashback, you’re incurring an opportunity cost of 3.33 cents per mile. I mean, I love my miles, but not enough to choose 2.4 mpd over 8% cashback.
Category | Cashback | Miles | Opp. Cost |
FCY | 8% | 2.4 mpd | 3.33 cents |
Online SGD | 6% | 1.8 mpd | |
Contactless SGD | 6% | 1.8 mpd |
No synergies with other DCS cards
Third, because the rest of the DCS ecosystem is weaksauce (to put it nicely), there’s no real synergy to be gained here. It’s not like you could pair the DCS Flex Card with other DCS cards to cobble together a coherent miles strategy, ala DBS or UOB.
Should you use the DCS Flex Card to earn cashback?
I don’t claim to be the foremost expert in this field, but the DCS Flex Card feels like the pre-nerf versions of the DBS LiveFresh, OCBC FRANK and UOB EVOL all had a polyamorous lovechild.
I say that in the best possible way though, since it represents a notable improvement on all three, in terms of minimum spend, earn rates and caps.
For example, compared to the UOB EVOL:
DCS Flex Card | UOB EVOL Card | |
Min. Monthly Spend | S$600 | S$800 |
FCY Earn | 8% S$25 cap |
10% In-store only S$20 cap |
Online Earn | 6% S$25 cap |
10% S$30 cap |
Contactless Earn | 6% S$25 cap |
|
Max Cashback Rate* | 6.5% | 6.4% |
*Assuming you meet the necessary minimum spend to max. out each bonus category. And even then it’s doubtful whether the UOB EVOL figure is realistic, since it requires in-person FCY spend each month. |
The DCS Flex Card acquits itself respectably in this battle, having a lower minimum spend, higher monthly cashback cap, and not requiring FCY spend to be in-person.
Likewise, compared to the OCBC FRANK:
DCS Flex Card | OCBC FRANK | |
Min. Monthly Spend | S$600 | S$800 |
FCY Earn | 8% S$25 cap |
8% S$25 cap |
Online Earn | 6% S$25 cap |
8% S$25 cap |
Contactless Earn | 6% S$25 cap |
|
Max Cashback Rate* | 6.5% | 6.3% |
*Assuming you meet the necessary minimum spend to max. out each bonus category |
The DCS Flex Card has a lower minimum spend and higher monthly cashback cap- and you can achieve its maximum cashback without spending a single cent on non-bonus categories, which isn’t the case for the OCBC FRANK (or UOB EVOL for that matter).
Anyway, I’m sure there are other finance bloggers more qualified to discuss the cashback angle, so I’ll swerve back into my lane now and end this section here.
What transactions are excluded from rewards?
The DCS Flex Card shares the same exclusions as most banks, including:
- Charitable donations
- Hospitals
- Insurance premiums
- Government services
- Education
- Utilities
Incidentally, Amaze is excluded too, not that you could pair it with a Visa card in the first place.
Conclusion
The DCS Flex Card tries to play it both ways with miles and cashback, but only does one of them right.
As a cashback card, it’s decent; perhaps even good. As a miles card, it’s hardly worth considering. The opportunity cost of earning miles is simply too high, whether compared to alternative cards, or even compared to the alternative reward option of cashback. The way I see it, there was no need for the Flex to be a miles card; it would have been perfectly fine sticking to cashback.
Almost makes you wish the DCS Imperium wasn’t vaporware, eh?
Very tempting… as you say it’s like a superior version of the pre-nerf Evol/Frank/LiveFresh, which were great cards.
I know you don’t really cover cashback cards, but would you know if DCS has any welcome bonus?
Those cards look like they were meant to be marketed to undergrads…
they do have a bit of a $500 micro credit card feel to them, yes. but which undergrad can consistently spend more than $600 a month?