2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Pharmacies

Pharmacies are an important category of everyday spend for a lot of people, whether it’s antihistamines or wellness items which may or may not vibrate.

While there are credit cards that will earn as much as 10 mpd on this category, where it gets a little tricky is that there are also special tie-ups and certain pitfalls to avoid. In this article, I’ll try to cover all the different scenarios I can think of.

How do pharmacies code?

Most pharmacy transactions will code as MCC 5912 Pharmacies or Drug Stores. This covers the vast majority of stand-alone pharmacies you’re likely to encounter, such as Guardian, Unity, or Watsons.

However, be advised that if you’re purchasing from SingHealth Pharmacy or NHG Pharmacy, the transaction will code as MCC 9399 Government Services, which is ineligible for rewards points with all cards. A possible workaround is to pay via HealthHub, as the MCC then becomes a rewards-eligible MCC 8099 Medical Services Not Elsewhere Classified, but that’s not possible for regular retail purchases.

Likewise, if you’re purchasing from the pharmacies located inside of hospitals, your transaction may code as MCC 8062 Hospitals, which is ineligible for rewards points with most cards.

To cover the full range of possibilities, I recommend reading this article in conjunction with the one below. 

2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Medical Expenses

If you’re uncertain about the MCC, here’s three ways of looking it up before making a purchase:

What’s the best cards to use?

I’m going to divide this into two scenarios: offline and online (hey, not everyone’s cool enough to waltz up to the counter with a bottle of Rogaine and a box of extra petite condoms, or as I call it, Friday night).

Offline

💊  Best Cards for Pharmacies (Offline)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
DBS yuu Card Apply	10 mpd	Guardian only. Min. S$600 Max S$600 spend per c. month Review
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month Review
OCBC Rewards Apply	4 mpd*	Guardian, Unity and Watsons only. Max S$1.1K per c. month Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Beauty & Wellness as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month. Must choose Beauty & Wellness as bonus category Review
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd^	Except Guardian. Min S$1K Max S$2K per s. month Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd^	Except Guardian. Max S$1.1K per c. month  Review
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month | M. Year= Membership Year *Upsized to 6 mpd till 31 December 2024 with Watsons ^Must tap phone to pay (Preferred Platinum Visa) or tap phone/physical card (Visa Signature)

Be sure to read the explanatory notes below.

Guardian’s UOB$ problem 

While the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa and UOB Visa Signature earn 4 mpd on contactless payments in general, you need to be careful with Guardian.

Guardian is a UOB$ merchant, offering 1% UOB$ cashback with a minimum spend of S$50. If you use your UOB Preferred Platinum Visa here, you will receive zero miles. If you use the UOB Visa Signature, you will receive 3.6 mpd instead of the usual 4 mpd 

The same caution applies for the UOB Lady’s Card and UOB Lady’s Solitaire, which will earn 3.6 mpd instead of the usual 4 mpd at Guardian, subject to choosing Beauty & Wellness as your quarterly bonus category. 

Thankfully, neither of these will be an issue from 1 November 2024 onwards, when UOB begins awarding UNI$ for transactions at UOB$ merchants.

OCBC Rewards Card

The OCBC Rewards Card’s bonus whitelist does not feature MCC 5912. Instead, it specifically mentions Guardian, Unity and Watsons, and while that should cover most of the brick-and-mortar segment in Singapore, it’s not quite all-encompassing.

From now till 31 December 2024, the OCBC Rewards Card is offering 6 mpd at Watsons, both offline and online. This is capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, which, somewhat confusingly, is less than the evergreen S$1,110 bonus cap for 4 mpd.

To avoid confusion, you’ll earn:

• 6 mpd on the first S$1,000
• 4 mpd on the next S$110
• 0.4 mpd after that

Incidentally, OCBC has informed me that the Watson’s bonus applies whether you’re buying in Singapore or overseas. If you’re doing the latter, the transaction description must start with Watsons%%, so avoid using any e-wallets which may change the description (e.g. Amaze).

Online

💊  Best Cards for Pharmacies (Online)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
DBS yuu Card Apply	10 mpd	Guardian only. Min. S$600 Max S$600 spend per c. month Review
Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month Review
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.5K per c. month Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max at S$1K per c. month Review
KrisFlyer UOB Card Apply	3 mpd	No cap. Min S$800 spend on SIA Group in m. year Review
OCBC Rewards Apply	4 mpd*	Guardian, Unity and Watsons only. Max S$1.1K per c. month Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Beauty & Wellness as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month. Must choose Beauty & Wellness as bonus category Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.1K per c. month  Review
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month | M. Year= Membership Year *Upsized to 6 mpd till 31 December 2024 with Watsons

Be sure to read the explanatory notes below.

DBS yuu Card

The DBS yuu Card will earn 10 mpd at Guardian, whether offline or online. However, if you purchase online, you’ll need to link your yuu ID to your payment in order for points to be awarded properly. Don’t forget this step!

No more UOB$ problems

Unlike offline purchases, there is no need to worry about UOB$ merchants for online purchases. Therefore, you can use whichever UOB card you wish, and still earn the regular amount of miles with Guardian pharmacy.

As mentioned above, the whole UOB$ merchants issue will cease to be a problem from 1 November 2024.

Conclusion

It’s quite easy to earn bonus miles on pharmacy purchases, but you do need to be careful as the ideal card will depend on whether you’re buying online or offline, as well as whether you’re at a stand-alone pharmacy or one which is part of a hospital.

Given that pharmacies are a whitelist category for several cards, I feel it’s a bit of a waste to use the more flexible caps of the DBS Woman’s World Card or UOB Preferred Platinum Visa here, unless of course you’re not in danger of busting those in the first place.