Bills such as insurance premiums, tuition fees, income tax, rent, and utilities are a regular part of life. However, they often can’t be paid with a credit card, or even if they can, most banks usually exclude these transactions from earning rewards.
But if you’re willing to pay a small admin fee, platforms like CardUp allow you to pay bills and earn miles in the process. Whether this makes sense ultimately boils down to your valuation of a mile, though with the right card and promo codes, the cost can be rather attractive.
In this post I’ll answer some common questions about CardUp, as well as which cards and promo codes help you achieve the lowest cost per mile.
๐ณ What’s the Best Card for… | ||
โ Overall Guide |
||
โ๏ธ Air Tickets |
๐ Amaze | ๐ฐ CardUp |
๐ Car Rental | ๐ Charity |
๐ฝ๏ธ Dining |
๐ซ Education | โก EV Charging | ๐ฅก Food Delivery |
๐จ Hotels | โ๏ธ Insurance | ๐ฑ Kris+ |
โ๏ธ Medical | ๐๏ธ Overseas | ๐ Pharmacies |
โฝ Petrol | ๐ Public Transport | ๐ Supermarkets |
๐ฐ Utilities | ๐ Weddings |
๐ฐ Guide: Best Card for CardUp |
What is CardUp?
CardUp Pricing |
First-time CardUp users enjoy an admin fee of 1.79% on their first payment with the promo code MILELION. No minimum payment required; for Visa cards only |
CardUp is a platform that allows users to pay bills with their credit card and earn rewards, in exchange for a small admin fee.
Here’s how it works:
- You submit a payment request to CardUp
- CardUp charges your credit card for the amount due, plus an admin fee
- CardUp makes a bank transfer to the receiving party on your behalf. The receiving party need not be registered with CardUp
To put some figures into the illustration:
- John submits a payment request to CardUp for a S$1,000 insurance premium
- CardUp charges John’s DBS Vantage Card for S$1,022.50 (insurance premium + 2.25% admin fee)
- John earns ~1,534 miles from his DBS Vantage Card (ignoring rounding)
- His cost per mile is ~1.47 cents (S$22.50 / 1,534 miles)
Aside from the obvious benefit of earning credit card rewards, CardUp also allows you to stretch your cashflow. Had you used a GIRO arrangement or PayNow to settle your bill, the funds would be deducted from your account immediately. But when you pay with a credit card, you enjoy an interest-free period of up to 55 days, depending on your statement cycle and when the bill is due.
What payments does CardUp support?
CardUp currently supports the following payments:
๐ณ CardUp Supported Payments | |
|
|
Most of those categories are self-explanatory, though some could use further elaboration.
Renovation includes any payments for home furnishing, painting, flooring, plumbing, carpentry, interior design, and other expenses incurred in the process.
Miscellaneous includes post-paid purchases of goods and services, event services, food catering, accounting fees, legal fees and school bus fees. Other payments may also be processed, subject to approval. An official tax invoice with the recipient’s UEN and bank account details must be submitted.
What MCC does CardUp code as?
CardUp transactions code under two possible MCCs:
- Non-rental payments
- MCC 7399 Business Services Not Elsewhere Classified
- Rental payments
- MCC 6513 Real Estate Agents and Managers
- MCC 7399 Business Services Not Elsewhere Classified
If you’re making non-rental payments, the situation is very clear cut.
Rental payments are slightly more complicated, as transactions can code under MCC 6513 or MCC 7399. MCC 6513 is excluded by Citi, OCBC, Standard Chartered and UOB, but that said, there are many successful reports of Citi and UOB cardholders earning miles for CardUp rental payments nonetheless.
While CardUp refuses to confirm this officially, my understanding is that they route transactions on the backend, depending on card, to the MCC that ensures you earn rewards.
There are two exceptions to note:
- HSBC cards do not earn rewards on CardUp transactions, ever since July 2020
- The UOB One Credit Card no longer offers cash rebates on CardUp transactions, ever since August 2022
Unfortunately, bank CSOs sometimes misinform customers that CardUp transactions aren’t eligible to earn rewards. This usually happens because the customer asks something like “will insurance paid through CardUp earn rewards?”
Odds are, the CSO has never even heard of CardUp in their life and has no idea what it does. All they hear is “insurance”, and once that trigger word is spoken, the answer will almost certainly be no!
Does CardUp count towards minimum spend?
CardUp also counts towards the minimum spend for welcome offers and other card benefits, though again some exceptions apply:
- For DBS/POSB, transactions under MCC 7399 will not count towards the minimum spend for welcome offers, even though they still earn base rewards
- CIMB does not include CardUp transactions in minimum spend for bonus cashback
Otherwise, CardUp transactions are normally treated like regular retail spend. For example, a StanChart Visa Infinite Cardholder who spends at least S$2,000 on CardUp in a statement month will earn 1.4 mpd on local currency transactions, instead of the regular 1 mpd.
What’s the best card to use with CardUp?
Since CardUp is basically a way of buying miles, the best card to use for CardUp is the one that gives the lowest cost per mile.
Two things to note about the above formula:
- Both the amount charged and the CardUp admin fee are eligible to earn miles. For example, if I charge S$1,000 to CardUp with a 2.6% admin fee, the full S$1,026 amount will earn miles
- The formula does not take into account the impact of rounding. For example, if I charge a S$1,026 CardUp transaction to a UOB card, I will only earn miles based on S$1,025 (because UOB rounds all transactions down to the nearest S$5). However, the impact of rounding becomes less significant as the amount charged increases
What this formula shows is that we can lower the cost per mile by:
- Maximising the earn rate
- Minimising the admin fee
Or both!
Maximising the earn rate
While CardUp transactions are technically online, they do not qualify for online spending bonuses with the likes of the Citi Rewards Card or DBS Woman’s World Card.
Therefore, you should stick to general spending cards for CardUp, and use the highest-earning general spending card you have.
Minimising the admin fee
As important as earn rates are, they’re just part of the picture because the admin fee also dictates the final cost per mile.
CardUp’s standard admin fee is 2.6% for locally-issued American Express, Mastercard and Visa cards. However, this is frequently discounted; in fact, the de facto fee for Mastercard and Visa should be 2.25% (just use the code OFF225).
Here’s the list of current promotions at the time of publishing.
Code | Payment | Cards |
OCBC90N15 1.5% |
Any payment New |
OCBC 90ยฐN Visa & MC |
OCBC15 1.5% |
Any payment New |
OCBC VOYAGE & Premier VI |
MB173 1.73% |
Any payment New Existing |
MB Platinum Visa |
MILELION 1.79% |
Any payment ex. tax New |
Visa |
SAVERENT179 1.79% |
Rent New Existing |
Visa, MC |
TAX18 1.8% |
Tax New Existing |
Visa |
OCBC18 1.8% |
Any payment New Existing |
OCBC VOYAGE & Premier VI |
REC185 1.85% |
Recurring payments ex. tax New Existing |
Visa |
GLOBE185 1.85% |
Overseas payments New Existing |
Visa |
OCBC90NV 2% |
Any payment New Existing |
OCBC 90ยฐN Visa |
OCBC90NMC 2% |
Any payment New Existing |
OCBC 90ยฐN MC |
OFF225 2.25% |
Any payment ex. tax New Existing |
Visa, MC |
For the full details of these codes including minimum spends and caps, refer to the article below.
What’s the cost per mile?
For the mathematically challenged, I’ve taken the liberty of putting together a series of tables that show the cost per mile, depending on the earn rate of your card and the CardUp fee payable.
Do note that because of American Express internal compliance restrictions, the AMEX HighFlyer Card cannot be used with CardUp.
2 mpd: StanChart Beyond (PB & PP)
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 1.27 |
2.25% | 1.10 |
2% | 0.98 |
1.9% | 0.93 |
1.85% | 0.91 |
1.8% | 0.88 |
1.79% | 0.88 |
1.78% | 0.87 |
1.75% | 0.86 |
1.5% | 0.74 |
1.6 mpd: Citi ULTIMA, DCS Imperium, DBS Insignia, OCBC VOYAGE (BOS, PPC, Premier), UOB Reserve
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 1.58 |
2.25% | 1.38 |
2% | 1.23 |
1.9% | 1.17 |
1.85% | 1.14 |
1.8% | 1.11 |
1.79% | 1.10 |
1.78% | 1.09 |
1.75% | 1.07 |
1.5% | 0.92 |
1.5 mpd: DBS Vantage, StanChart Beyond (Regular)
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 1.69 |
2.25% | 1.47 |
2% | 1.31 |
1.9% | 1.24 |
1.85% | 1.21 |
1.8% | 1.18 |
1.79% | 1.17 |
1.78% | 1.17 |
1.75% | 1.15 |
1.5% | 0.99 |
1.4 mpd: StanChart Visa Infinite, UOB PRVI Miles, UOB VI Metal Card
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 1.81 |
2.25% | 1.57 |
2% | 1.40 |
1.9% | 1.33 |
1.85% | 1.30 |
1.8% | 1.26 |
1.79% | 1.26 |
1.78% | 1.25 |
1.75% | 1.23 |
1.5% | 1.06 |
1.3 mpd: Citi Prestige, DBS Altitude, OCBC 90ยฐN, OCBC VOYAGE
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 1.95 |
2.25% | 1.69 |
2% | 1.51 |
1.9% | 1.43 |
1.85% | 1.40 |
1.8% | 1.36 |
1.79% | 1.35 |
1.78% | 1.35 |
1.75% | 1.32 |
1.5% | 1.14 |
1.28 mpd: OCBC Premier Visa Infinite
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 1.98 |
2.25% | 1.72 |
2% | 1.53 |
1.9% | 1.46 |
1.85% | 1.42 |
1.8% | 1.38 |
1.79% | 1.37 |
1.78% | 1.37 |
1.75% | 1.34 |
1.5% | 1.15 |
1.2 mpd: AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, Citi PremierMiles, KrisFlyer UOB Card, Maybank Visa Infinite, StanChart Journey
Fee | Cost Per Mile |
2.6% | 2.11 |
2.25% | 1.83 |
2% | 1.63 |
1.9% | 1.55 |
1.85% | 1.51 |
1.8% | 1.47 |
1.79% | 1.47 |
1.78% | 1.46 |
1.75% | 1.43 |
1.5% | 1.23 |
Are there any restrictions on the types of payments I can make?
While most credit cards do not have any restrictions on CardUp payments, there are a couple of exceptions.
Due to internal restrictions, American Express and Citi cards cannot be used for car loan or mortgage payments.
Personal American Express cards (including those issued by DBS and UOB) can only be used to pay the following CardUp expenses:
- Rental payments
- Rental deposits
- Income tax, property tax, stamp duty
- Tuition and school fees (to Singapore-based schools/education centres)
- Condo maintenance fees
- Insurance premiums
- Season parking
Personal American Express cards cannot be used for the following:
CardUp Personal Account | CardUp Business Account |
|
|
More details can be found in the article below.
Conclusion
CardUp Pricing |
First-time CardUp users enjoy an admin fee of 1.79% on their first payment with the promo code MILELION. No minimum payment required; for Visa cards only |
If you want to earn miles on your bill payments and don’t mind paying a small fee for the privilege, then CardUp would be one way of doing so. Of course, you’ll want to compare the cost per mile with what you could get through alternative platforms like Citi PayAll, and pick whichever is lower.
The idea is to keep the cost per mile as low as possible, which we do by using the highest-earning general spending card we have, and paying the lowest possible admin fee with promo codes.
CardUp transactions are eligible to earn rewards with all cards on the market except HSBC and the UOB One Card, so there’s plenty of options.
Probably good to clarify that other UOB cards will only award Based points for cardup transaction.
Tested with EVOL, not recognised as “online” category.
Evol will still contribute to the online spend category if your aim is just to meet the min $600 just that it doesnโt count as a spend
Hello, does Cardup count towards $500 spend for bonus interest for UOB One Account?
This is only relevant if you are spending exactly $250 on online and exactly $250 on contactless for EVOL, and are adding exactly $100 on CardUp per month to meet the minimum spend.
Seems impossible to execute in real life.
CardUp = 2.25% fee -> 1.84 cpm
(Miles awarded include fees)
Citi PayAll = 2.2% fee -> 1.83 cpm
(Miles awarded exclude fees)
Ever since Citi PayAll increases the fee from 2% to 2.2%, It is clear that I will be using CardUp in the future as miles awarded do include fees on CardUp. (To add on: Income tax = 1.75% fee using VISA cards)
Forget about the Citi PayAll 2.2 mpd promo – I can never hit the $8k spend on Citi PayAll payments!
Edit: Just realised CardUp doesn’t support payments to SP group for electricity and utility bills. Oh well, back to using Citi PayAll for those payments! ๐
Will be using CardUp for the upcoming income tax though for the cheaper 1.75% fee.
Citi payall offering 1.8mpd with 2.2% fee. Works out to be 1.22 cpm
Citi-PayAll 1.8 mpd with 2.2% fee promo requires $8k spend on Citi-PayAll payments, which is not for the majority of the users who do not have such big payments to make.
Could you please confirm that it is still correct? Thank you very much!
read on google review that many users complain about customer service as being a big issue if anything were to go wrong. does anyone have any experience on this?
some users say paying the extra for citipayall is worth it because of CS and security
Tried to pay for income tax with VTAX23 but system showed error saying fully redeemedโฆ
For HSBC, it was mentioned it does not recognise Cardup trxn for “regular rewards”.
However, you do not mention whether HSBC does / does not recognise Cardup trxn for “sign-up rewards”. Can help to clarify?
Will the DBS Altitude AMEX card for cardup earn miles and can I use the promo code 18AMEX for new user?
Hi! i wanted to ask if i were to setup cardup for my AIA insurance payments, do i need to cancel my recurring payments in AIA portal first? then set it up in Card up?
I saw there’s a spending cap under MCC for cardup using Credit Card in Malaysia to earn bonus reward mile. Is it just a bonus point and still earn unlimited regular reward for the spendings?
Hi, wanted to check if anyone has the experience of using CardUp with UOB Krisflyer Credit Card? If you have fulfilled the SIA-related transaction criteria, does CardUp still earn 1.3mpd, or 3mpd for general spending? Thank you!
Hi I wanted to check this as well! Do we get the full 3mpd if the SIA-transaction is met?
3mpd is for a specific list of MCC transactions, not all spend.
Maybe it’s just me, I couldn’t add my Citi Prestige in Cardup.