What’s the best way of spending yuu Points?

Regardless of where you fall on the miles vs cashback issue, I think we can all agree that if you’re shopping at yuu merchants, the DBS yuu Card is the way to go. 

With the DBS yuu Card, you’ll earn a beefy 36 yuu Points per S$1 spent at partners including Cold Storage, Giant, Gojek, Guardian, foodpanda and more, as summarised in the table below.

DBS yuu Card
Apply (AMEX)
Apply (Visa)
When linking your yuu Card to the yuu app for the first time, enter code TMCYRWM5 for 2,000 bonus yuu points!
	Earn Rate	Remarks
Non-yuu merchants	Base: 1 pt/S$1 0.5% rebate	No min. spend or cap
yuu merchants	Base: 10 pts/S$1 5% rebate	No min. spend or cap
	Bonus: 26 pts/S$1 13% rebate	Min. S$600 spend per c. month, cap at 15,600 points per c. month

But what can you do with these yuu Points? Should you redeem them for rebates, or is miles a better option? And what about the rewards catalogue? 

What can you do with yuu Points?

A quick recap of the things you should know about yuu Points:

• yuu Points are valid for 24 months from the date of accrual (unfortunately, it’s currently not possible to check the expiry date of yuu Points on the app, only the earn date)
• If you have both the DBS yuu AMEX and DBS yuu Visa, points will be pooled in the same yuu account
• Cancelling a DBS yuu AMEX/Visa has no impact on points already in your yuu account

There’s three main ways of spending yuu Points. 

Offset spending at yuu merchants

Pay with Points
Min. Amount	200 points
Value Per Point	0.5 cents
Fixed Denominations?	No

The most obvious way of using yuu Points is to Pay With Points at yuu merchants:

• A fixed rate of 1 point = 0.5 cents applies
• A minimum redemption of 200 points (S$1) is required
• Partial usage of points is not possible; if you have 10,000 points (S$50) and a S$75 transaction, you’ll need to redeem all 10,000 points at one go

Pay with Points is currently available at:

• 7-Eleven (in-store)
• BreadTalk (in-store)
• Cold Storage (in-store)
• CS Fresh (in-store)
• foodpanda (via app)
• Giant (in-store)
• Toast Box (in-store)
• Thye Moh Chan (in-store)

You won’t be able to use Pay with Points at other merchants like gojek or Singtel, though you can redeem fixed-denomination vouchers instead (see below).

KrisFlyer miles conversions

Conversions to KrisFlyer
Min. Amount	200 points
Conversion Rate	3.6 points = 1 mile
Fixed Denominations?	Conversions available in 1 mile increments beyond min. amount

yuu Points can be converted to KrisFlyer miles at a 3.6:1 ratio, instantly and with no conversion fees. A minimum conversion block of 200 yuu Points (55 miles) applies, after which conversions are in blocks of 1 mile.

The fact that conversions are both free and instant makes it a very useful tool for topping up a KrisFlyer account when you’re just shy of the miles necessary for a redemption. The relatively small conversion block also means you won’t be forced to transfer more points than you need.

Given that 1 yuu point is worth 0.5 cents, as we saw in the previous section, it can seem as if you’re paying 1.8 cents per mile. However, that’s not really the case. 

That math would be correct if you were dealing with a cashback card, where the rebate is offset against your monthly bill. But the yuu Card is not a cashback card. It’s a rewards card, where the points need to be offset against future spending.

Here’s a simple illustration. Suppose you spend S$600 on your yuu Card and earn 21,600 points. You now have a choice between:

1. Using those points to offset S$108 of spend at a yuu merchant
2. Converting those points to 6,000 KrisFlyer miles

Choose option 1 implicitly means you forgo the opportunity to earn 1,080 miles on your next transaction at a yuu merchant (because your bill is reduced by S$108, at 10 mpd). Therefore, by choosing the S$108 offset, you’re giving up not 6,000 miles, but 7,080 miles. Based on this, the opportunity cost is 1.53 cents per mile- something much more attractive.

Rewards catalogue

Rewards Catalogue
Min. Amount	Varies
Value Per Point	Varies

The yuu app features a rewards catalogue that features a wide range of options from yuu merchants. As a tip, you can sort the deals by Most Discounted, to see the best offers upfront.

Some of these are quintessential “aunty deals”, like 400 points for a pack of 7-Eleven eggs or 250 points for orange juice. If that’s attractive to you, by all means, but my favourites are the Singtel CAST packages. The 7-day sports package comes in useful whenever there’s a tennis tournament I want to watch but don’t want to commit to an entire month’s subscription.

You can also find vouchers for Cold Storage, Giant, foodpanda, Gojek, Toast Box and BreadTalk, where the value can be marginally better than the Pay with Points option. For example:

The catch here is that the vouchers are only available in fixed denominations, unlike Pay with Points which has no such restrictions (beyond the minimum 200 points redemption threshold).

From time to time, yuu will list some Super Duper deals, like a S$10 Gojek voucher for 1,000 points (1 cent per point). These are available in limited quantity, so snag them if you can.

Conclusion

While paying with yuu Points offers a solid rebate in and of itself, that’s not the only use for them. You could consider KrisFlyer miles conversions to top-up an account instantly and without fees, or browse the rewards catalogue to see if any gems pop up.

KrisFlyer miles aside, I personally like to use my yuu Points for outsized value on Singtel sports packages or HBO Go, and keep some in reserve for Super Duper deals.

Any other yuu deals you’ve spotted?