The miles game is about to get a lot more interesting from 11 February 2025, when the Chocolate Visa Platinum Debit Card starts earning 2 Max Miles per S$1 on virtually everything.
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| Apply here |
Yes, everything. AXS payments. Donations. Education. Government services. Hospital bills. Insurance premiums. Utilities. All the categories that banks nerfed a long time ago, Chocolate is going to reward.
This, coupled with the fact that the Chocolate Visa will be earning Max Miles, makes it unlike any other card we’ve had on the market before.
I know everyone’s excited about this, but it’s good to remember that this is one of those “burn money” campaigns, and will almost certainly be scaled back in terms of scope or generosity at some point.
Until then, however, it’s all about milking it for all its worth, and here’s my game plan for spending.
Recap: Chocolate Visa Platinum Debit Card
 Chocolate Visa Card |
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| Apply here | |||
| Income Req. | None | Annual Fee |
None |
| Earn Rate |
2 MMpd (first S$1K per c. mth) 0.4 MMpd (>S$1K per c. mth) |
FCY Fee | None |
| Trxn Limit | S$5,000 | Daily Limit | S$20,000 |
| Annual Limit | None | Edible | No |
From 11 February 2025, the Chocolate Visa Card will award:
- 2 Max Miles per S$1 on the first S$1,000 of spend per calendar month
- 0.4 Max Miles per S$1 on all spend above S$1,000 per calendar month
This applies to both online and offline transactions, in local or foreign currency (FCY). All FCY transactions will be converted into SGD at the prevailing Visa rates, with no further FCY transaction fee.
The only transactions that are excluded from earning Max Miles are MCCs related to money transfers or prepaid account top-ups (e.g. GrabPay, YouTrip).
| ❌ Excluded Transactions | |
| MCC | Merchant Category Name |
| 4829 | Money Transfer |
| 6010 | Financial Institutions – Manual Cash Disbursements |
| 6011 | Financial Institutions – Automated Cash Disbursements |
| 6012 | Financial Institutions – Merchandise, Services and Debt Repayment |
| 6050 | Quasi Cash – Financial Institutions, Merchandise, Services |
| 6051 | Non-Financial Institutions – Foreign Currency, Money Orders (Not Wire Transfer), Stored Value Card/Load, Travelers Cheques, and Debt Repayment |
| 6529 | Quasi Cash – Remote Stored Value Load – Financial |
| 6530 | Quasi Cash – Remote Stored Value Load – Merchant |
| 6540 | Non-Financial Institutions – Stored Value Card |
There is a maximum limit of S$5,000 per transaction and S$20,000 per day on the Chocolate Visa Card. Unlike wallet-backed cards like Revolut or YouTrip, there is no annual spend limit.
There is currently no end date for this promotion, which will continue until further notice.
Before you start earning, you’ll need to do two things.
(1) Create Chocolate Finance account
To get a Chocolate Visa Card, you’ll first need to open a Chocolate Finance account. After that, you can create a virtual Chocolate Visa Card immediately.
This can be used for online payments, or added to an Apple Pay or Google Pay wallet for in-store payments using your mobile phone. There’s also the option of ordering a physical card, if you want a fall-back option for situations where contactless payments aren’t accepted.
As this is a debit card, you’ll also need to fund your account before spending. Accountholders currently earn:
- 3.3% p.a. on the first S$20,000 (guaranteed)
- 3% p.a. on the next S$30,000 (guaranteed)
- 3% p.a. on any amount above that (non-guaranteed)
There is no lock-in period, and funds can be withdrawn at any time. Withdrawals of up to S$20,000 per day are processed instantly.
(2) Link card to Heymax
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| 👍 250 Max Miles joining bonus |
| Sign up for a Heymax account and get up to 250 Max Miles as a welcome bonus |
| 250 bonus Max Miles |
If you don’t have a Heymax account, you’ll need to create one, which can be done via the link above.
After that, you need to pair the card with Heymax under Your Cards > Add Card. A test transaction will be charged and later refunded.
You can link a maximum of one Chocolate Visa Card to one Heymax account.
Once linked, Max Miles will be automatically awarded after the transaction posts, which usually takes 1-3 days.
What should you spend on?
With close to no reward exclusions, one could argue that it doesn’t matter what you use your Chocolate Visa for.
That’s true in one sense, but I’d argue that you should be prioritising transactions that can’t earn rewards with other cards. This minimises the opportunity cost of your spending, and plays to the Chocolate Visa’s biggest strength.
AXS
| ⚠️ Note: Chocolate Finance removed support for AXS payments on 5 March 2025 |
AXS probably presents the easiest option for maxing out the bonus cap each month. Through AXS e-station, you can pay many kinds of bills, including:
- Electricity bills
- Government services (HDB, LTA, NEA, URA etc.)
- Hospitals
- MCST fees
- Membership dues
- Insurance
- IRAS taxes (Property tax, income tax, corporate tax, GST)
- Season parking
- Telcos
- Town councils
When paying AXS bills with your Chocolate Visa Card, be sure to select Credit Cards (Local) > Other Banks and not Debit Cards.
Yes, I know, the Chocolate Visa is a debit card. But if you select Debit Cards, the transaction will fail.
I also want to highlight that you can’t use the Chocolate Visa to pay:
- Credit card bills
- Loans
Between my taxes, insurance policies, MCST fees and utilities bills, I’ll easily hit S$1,000 per month. In fact, I see no issue with spending beyond this cap, since 0.4 mpd is better than nothing at all.
Commonly-excluded transactions
Assuming AXS doesn’t cover the bill type you had in mind, your next step should be to check if the merchant accepts Visa payments directly. If so, then the Chocolate Visa would be a great choice for:
- Charitable donations
- Education
- Government services
- Hospitals
- Insurance
- Utilities
| ❓ Have a Maybank card? |
| Maybank cards still earn rewards on insurance premiums (Maybank Visa Infinite & Horizon only), education, donations, and utilities. However, the earn rate offered are on the low side (at least if they’re in SGD), so the Chocolate Visa may still be the better option |
Overseas spending
I’m a bit less enthusiastic about recommending this, because there are plenty of cards that will earn up to 4 mpd on overseas spend.
However, those cards all come with FCY fees of 3.25%. If you prefer to keep the transaction costs to a minimum, yet don’t want to resort to no-rewards options like Revolut or YouTrip, then the Chocolate Visa Card would be the next best choice.
Mind you, I’d still prioritise using the card for AXS or other excluded transactions before turning to this.
I don’t have any of those to spend on; should I still use Chocolate?
For the sake of argument, let’s say you have no bills to pay (lucky!), no commonly-excluded transactions and no overseas spending to do. Would it be better to earn 2 mpd with the Chocolate Visa, or 4 mpd with an alternative like the DBS Woman’s World Card or Citi Rewards?
It depends.
If you want to earn KrisFlyer miles and KrisFlyer miles only, then obviously avoid Chocolate, because Max Miles cannot be transferred to KrisFlyer.
But assuming you’re willing to explore other programmes, then 2 mpd could be better than 4 mpd once you take versatility into account. Max Miles don’t expire, and can be converted at a 1:1 ratio to 27 airline and hotel partners, with no fees.
| ✅ Heymax Transfer Partners | |
| ✈️ Airlines | |
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| 🏨 Hotels | |
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No other bank in Singapore offers anything close to the variety of Max Miles, and there are many exciting sweet spots to be enjoyed, as I’ve summarised in the post below.
Max-imum Fun: The best sweet spots for Max Miles redemptions
Of course, it should be mentioned that even if you max out the bonus cap each month, after one year you’d have just 24,000 Max Miles (and that’s assuming the promotion stays as-is, which I have doubts).
That wouldn’t be nearly enough to enjoy most of these redemptions (though you could still cash out via Accor Live Limitless, which gives you a value of about 2.8 cents per Max Mile), so hopefully the Chocolate Visa isn’t your only way of earning Max Miles.
Max Miles can also be earned through:
- Shopping online or making travel bookings at more than 500 merchants including Apple, iHerb, Marriott, Shopee, Singapore Airlines, Trip.com and more
- Buying vouchers for Amazon, Lazada, Deliveroo, foodpanda, Klook, Pelago and many other merchants
- Buying travel essentials like eSIMs or travel insurance policies
- Signing up for an investment account
Conclusion
| Chocolate Visa Card |
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| Apply here |
Chocolate Finance will kick off its Heymax partnership on 11 February 2025, allowing Chocolate Visa Cardholders to earn up to 2 Max Miles per S$1 on almost everything.
My advice would be to prioritise transactions that normally wouldn’t qualify for rewards, such as bill payments and donations. Once that avenue’s been exhausted, then use this card for overseas spending, as it does not impose any FCY transaction fees.
You could, of course, just use the Chocolate Visa for your meals, groceries, shopping and petrol- but that feels like a bit of waste, given how many alternatives you have for those!
What will you be using your Chocolate Visa Platinum Debit Card for?
Chocolate Card can’t seem to be added to Applepay
There are some technical issues now apparently. I managed to add to Google pay last week.
I managed to add it to Apple Pay just now without any issues.
Does MRT top up qualify?
Will recurring Visa payments for Utilities and Insurance get 2 mpd Max Mile?
Hi, just thinking it through. Plus: Max benefit 1K = 2K miles per month. At 1.8cpm for a HeyMax mile = $36 per month, maybe spend total 24K/year = (36×12) + (0.4x1000x0.018×12)=360+72=$518.40 per year.Is there any other plus point? Minus: Debit card not as safe as credit card. Inconvenient to have to remember to lock/unlock card. Money with a company called Chocolate Finance, not SDIC-insured, about 3% interest rate comes with risk that T-bill doesn’t. T-bill also about 3% now. See reddit on Chocolate. Inconvenient to put in 1-2K per month for spend. Easier to do application once to GIRO… Read more »
Interesting comment. While it’s understandable to be curious about how the company operates and how deep the pockets are, it’s also worth noting that enjoying the product or service can be separate from the financial health of the company. Many factors contribute to both product quality and financial performance. It’s important to remember that risk is an inevitable part of life, and businesses, like individuals, face challenges and uncertainties. That said, they seem transparent by publishing where it invests its funds and how much it generates before subsidizing the user which doesn’t seem to be killing it.
1 – I agree risk is part of life. It’s what I get for the risk taken that matters. And how much time taken to organize the gain vs risk. (reading this forum I consider leisure, not time ‘spent’, whereas hosting this forum like Aaron does I’d consider work, and time well-spent for him I’d hope). 2 – Not sure Chocolate is worth the risk or time for a $518 return (if it lasts a year to spend 24K). It’s less than my monthly utility bill, which I’d have to pay manually every month to fully take advantage of Chocolate.… Read more »
I agree, it seems like a lot of work for very limited upside. For transactions that do not give credit card points, using HSBC EGA to GIRO will yield 1% anyway with minimal effort. Am I missing something here?
Even beyond the initial $1000.
0.4mpd for free relegates the latest Payall promotion to a cpm of 1.93 cents
Hi Aaron, when you mention credit card bills excluded, do you mean that credit card bills via AXS, selecting Other Banks option, are still excluded from 2 mpd?
You can’t even use this card to pay for credit card bills, period.
Can share what would be valuable transfer partners? Aeroplan maybe? Apologies, not familiar outside KF.
Qatar, BA are interesting flights to consider
Doesn’t even need to transfer if you are not collecting miles from other programs, you can simply redeem the miles for cash by providing your air tickets purchased normally. I personally is also collecting avios for BA/Qatar.
Can you pay your tax bill on a monthly basis (similar to giro) but using AXS ?
Yes you can, just make the payments before the schedule GIRO deductions.
Is there a way to automate it or have to manually pay every month?
Anyone has data point on how long it takes for the physical card to arrive?
Can this card be used in conjunction with the VISA HeyMax promotion to earn miles on SimplyGo (bus/MRT)?
Yes
Hey, thanks for the reply! 🙂
Anyone has any issue with AXS? I tried to make a payment on AXS for HDB Carpark and to Town Council for S$180.50. Went through the route of entering the details manually and also entered the OTP sent. AXS says transaction not allowed but was deducted from my Debit card – Choc Finance. zzzzzz
Same here…
It does not work also for top-up of cashcard on NETS app.
Its definitely allowed and i have already paid a couple of time on AXS app.
did you choose debit card or credit card? you have to choose credit card.
My chocolate account was unilaterally terminated. Be careful.
My choc sent me 15 OTP when using the e-AXS on desktop…..
Something very wrong with using it to pay on ChocFin. Refuses to go through after keying in OTP. Call AXS, and they say the payment is being rejected by the bank. Contact Chocolate, and they say they can’t even see on their system the transaction being attempted, and is blaming AXS. I’m inclined to believe this is a ChocFin problem, without them even knowing it’s a problem!