2025 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Education, Enrichment and Childcare

Once you add up the cost of childcare, enrichment classes, school fees, tuition, and university studies, the total cost of education can be a hefty expense indeed.

Unfortunately, it’s also an expense that most banks are unwilling to reward. Over the years, it’s become harder and harder to find a credit card that still rewards education-related expenditure. 

But the game’s not up yet, as there are still a few options for earning miles- and a few workarounds too.

What MCC does education code as?

When banks say that they exclude “education” transactions, they’re usually referring to transactions coding under the following MCCs:

There are, however, certain “education-adjacent” transactions like child care services and enrichment which have their own MCCs and are not subject to the general exclusions on education. I’ll address this later in the article.

If you need to check the MCC of a particular merchant, there’s three ways of looking it up before making a transaction:

Merchants assigned education MCCs typically pay below-average processing fees, which makes these transactions less profitable for banks, and more likely to be excluded from rewards.

Which credit cards earn rewards for education?

Because of the lower margin on education transactions, most banks exclude this category from rewards altogether.

DBS added education to its exclusion list in July 2017, Citibank in October 2018, UOB (with some exceptions) in September 2019, Standard Chartered in May 2020, Bank of China in June 2020, HSBC in July 2020, and American Express (with some exceptions) in October 2023. 

This leaves Maybank and selected AMEX/UOB cards as your only options.

Issuer	Awards Points for Education?
	✓1
	✕
	✕
	✓
	✕
	✕
	✓
	✕
	✕
	✓2
1. AMEX Platinum Charge and AMEX Centurion Card only 2. UOB Privilege Banking Card, UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card and UOB Reserve Card only

Here’s the list of cards that still earn miles for education transactions.

Card	Local Earn	FCY Earn
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	1.2 mpd	3.2 mpd
Chocolate Visa Card Apply	2 mpd	2 mpd
UOB Reserve Card Apply	1.6 mpd	2.4 mpd
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Apply	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	0.4 mpd	3.2 mpd
UOB Privilege Banking Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	0.24 mpd	2.8 mpd*
Maybank Manchester United Card Apply	2 mpd + 3% cashback  (on days where Man Utd win)
	0.4 mpd + 1% cashback (otherwise)
AMEX Platinum Charge Apply	0.78 mpd	0.78 mpd
*With min spend of S$800 per calendar month on all retail transactions

Most of the options favour the privileged (“that’s a microcosm of the education system right there!” said some edgelord), with high income requirements or annual fees

• AMEX Centurion Card: By invitation only
• AMEX Platinum Charge: Annual fee of S$1,744
• UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card: Minimum income requirement of S$120,000
• Maybank Visa Infinite: Minimum income requirement of S$150,000
• UOB Privilege Banking Card: Minimum AUM of S$350,000
• UOB Reserve Card: By invitation only

However, there are some options that most people should be able to access.

Chocolate Visa Platinum Debit Card

Apply

No annual fee or minimum income requirement

From 11 February 2025, the Chocolate Visa Platinum Debit Card earns 2 Max Miles per S$1 on all spend, including education. This is capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, beyond which the earn rate reduces to 0.4 Max Miles per S$1.

You have the option of paying your education bills either directly, where Visa is accepted, or via AXS. Either option will be eligible for Max Miles. 

👍 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

To get the Chocolate Visa, you’ll need to download the Chocolate Finance app and open a Chocolate Finance account.

Once that’s done, you can create a virtual Chocolate Visa Card immediately.  After that, you need to pair the card with Heymax under the Your Cards > Add Card menu. A test transaction will be charged and later refunded. 

One great feature of the Chocolate Visa Card is that it has no foreign currency transaction fees, so if you’re paying overseas education expenses, the amount will be converted into SGD at the Visa rate, with no further markup.

Maybank Horizon Visa Signature and Manchester United Card

Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply

Maybank Manchester United Card Apply

The Maybank Horizon earns a miserly 0.24 mpd on local education spend, but if your transaction is in foreign currency, that gets upsized to 2.8 mpd (with a minimum overall spend of S$800 per calendar month). 

The Maybank Manchester United Card is basically a gamble. You’ll earn 2 mpd and 3% cashback on all spend, local or foreign currency, if you transact on a day where Manchester United win an EPL game. I’ll let you decide how likely that is!

Bill payment services

If you’re willing to pay a fee in exchange for earning miles on education, then bill payment platforms like CardUp, Citi PayAll and SC EasyBill are all options.

Provider	Admin Fee	Cost Per Mile
	2.6%	1.49 cents (till 28 Feb 25)
	2.25% 1.79% fee for first payment with code MILELION	From 1.1 cents
	1.9%	From 0.95 cents

These allow you to earn rewards when using credit cards to pay for education expenses, even if education is normally excluded. 

Whether it’s “worth it” to buy miles at this price all boils down to how much you value a mile. The gold standard is of course to earn miles for free, though if banks keep cracking down, this may be the only option left.

“Education-adjacent” transactions

As mentioned earlier, banks usually define education as MCCs 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249 and 8299.

However, there are so-called “education-adjacent” transactions like childcare, sports and music enrichment, which have MCCs of their own.

To the extent that these are not explicitly excluded in the T&Cs, you should be able to earn miles under the general spending rate for cards. 

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month Review
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month. Must be online Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.1K per c. month, must use mobile payments Review
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	4 mpd	Min S$1K, max S$2K per s. month on contactless & petrol Review

On the other hand, there are centres which might seem more in the nature of enrichment, but actually fall under education MCCs. For example, Marsden Aquatics and Happy Fish Swim School both code as MCC 8299.

Therefore, it’s always best practice to confirm the MCC beforehand using the Instarem or DBS “block card” method.

Workarounds

If the merchant you’re paying falls under an education MCC, don’t lose hope. There’s still one final roll of the dice, which is to see whether it partners with a BNPL provider.

For example, Atome codes as MCC 5999, and has a very extensive list of schools and enrichment providers (the list below isn’t exhaustive, refer to the app for the full selection).

The following cards will earn the most miles on MCC 5999. 

💳 Best Cards for MCC 5999 (Online)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$1K per s. month
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$1.5K per c. month
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max. S$1K per c. month
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month

Remember: it’s best practice to manually trigger the following month’s payment a few days ahead of time, instead of letting it be billed automatically.

This is to avoid a situation where you don’t earn bonus points on the 2nd and 3rd month’s installments because they code as offline (a potential issue for the Citi Rewards and DBS WWMC).

Conclusion

If you’re looking to pay school or university fees, the opportunities to earn miles are few and far between. Only a handful of American Express, Maybank and UOB cards, plus the Chocolate Visa Debit Card, still reward these expenditures. 

However, if you’re looking to earn miles on enrichment or child care services, then opportunities still exist. As long as the MCCs avoid the 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249 and 8299 range, you can still earn up to 4 mpd with the right cards.

And even if the MCC falls within the education range, you can check whether the merchant is available on Atome or another BNPL platform, which changes the MCC to a rewards-friendly one.

Are there any other ways to earn miles on education/tuition fees?