When it comes to the best card for online spending, there are two names that consistently pop up: the Citi Rewards Card and DBS Woman’s World Card.
Both offer 4 mpd for online spending, with a cap of S$1,000 per month, but that’s where the similarities end. Each has its own set of rules, limitations and quirks, and because of this, they’re far from perfect substitutes.
| 💳 Summary: Citi Rewards vs DBS Woman’s World Card | ||
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Min. Income | S$30K p.a. | S$80K p.a. |
| Annual Fee | S$196.20 (first year free) |
S$196.20 (first year free) |
| Min. Spend for AF Waiver | N/A | S$25K |
| Online Bonus | 4 mpd (ex. travel, mobile wallet) |
4 mpd |
| Other Bonuses | 4 mpd (dept. stores & shopping) |
1.2 mpd (FCY spend) |
| Bonus Cap | S$1K per statement month | S$1K per calendar month |
| Points Expiry | Up to 5 years | 1 year |
| Points Pooling | No | Yes |
| Transfer Partners | 11 | 4 |
| Min. Transfer Block | 10,000 miles | 10,000 miles |
| Conversion Cost | S$27.25 | S$27.25 |
| Points Posting | Base and bonus awarded together | Base and bonus awarded separately |
| Points for Amaze | Yes | No |
In this post, I’ll walk you through the important differences to be aware of. I’ve also written detailed reviews of both cards, which you can refer to in the links below.
Income requirement & annual fee
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Min. Income | S$30,000 p.a. | S$80,000 p.a. |
| Annual Fee | S$196.20 (first year free) |
S$196.20 (first year free) |
| Min. Spend for AF Waiver | N/A | S$25K |
The Citi Rewards Card has a minimum income requirement of S$30,000 per annum, with an annual fee of S$196.20. This fee is waived for the first year.
The DBS Woman’s World Card has a higher minimum income requirement of S$80,000 per annum, with an annual fee of S$196.20. This is also waived for the first year.
That said, it’s an open secret that DBS does not enforce the S$80,000 income requirement. So long as you earn at least S$30,000 per year, you have a very good chance of being approved for the DBS Woman’s World Card.
As for annual fee waivers, the DBS Woman’s World Card requires a minimum spend of S$25,000 in a membership year for an automatic fee waiver. The Citi Rewards Card does not have a published minimum spend for a waiver.
In practice, however, I’ve been able to easily waive the annual fee on both cards year after year— even without meeting the minimum spend on the DBS Woman’s World Card.
Online bonuses and bonus cap
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Online Spending | 4 mpd | 4 mpd |
| Exclusions | ||
| Cap | S$1K per statement month | S$1K per calendar month |
Both the Citi Rewards Card and DBS Woman’s World Card earn 4 mpd on online spending, with no minimum spend necessary. This covers a wide range of transactions, such as food delivery, groceries, Grab/gojek rides, movie tickets, streaming subscriptions, and e-commerce websites such as Amazon and Shopee.
However, the Citi Rewards Card does not award 4 mpd on travel-related transactions, defined as the following.
| ❌ Travel-Related Blacklist | |
| MCC | Description |
| MCC 3000 to 3350 MCC 4511 | Airlines |
| MCC 3351 to 3500 MCC 7512 | Car Rental Agencies |
| MCC 3501 to 3999 MCC 7011 | Lodging- Hotels, Motels, Resorts |
| MCC 4111 MCC 4112 MCC 4789 | Passenger Transport and Railways |
| MCC 4411 | Cruise Lines |
| MCC 4722 MCC 4723 | Travel Agencies and Tour Operators |
| MCC 5962 | Direct Marketing- Travel Related Arrangement Services |
| MCC 7012 | Timeshares |
The Citi Rewards Card also does not earn 4 mpd on in-app or online mobile wallet payments, so if an app or website offers the option to pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay, you should use a “naked” Citi Rewards Card instead. In-person mobile wallet transactions (where you tap your phone to pay at the counter) will earn 4 mpd, provided the transaction falls under the bonus whitelist (see below).
| 👍 Double the bonus cap…while it lasts |
| Both the Citi Rewards Mastercard and Citi Rewards Visa have their own 4 mpd bonus cap, so holding both allows you to double your earning. However, the Citi Rewards Visa is no longer available for application, and indeed will be discontinued in the near future. Enjoy it while it lasts! |
The DBS Woman’s World Card has no such restrictions, but unfortunately, its 4 mpd cap was recently cut from S$1,500 to S$1,000 per calendar month. That puts it on par with the Citi Rewards Card, which tracks its bonus cap by statement month.
It’s also worth noting that the DBS Woman’s World Card does not earn 4 mpd on MCC 7399, which includes Points.com transactions. If you’re looking to purchase airline miles or hotel points from Aeroplan, Alaska, IHG, Hilton, Marriott, Qatar or any other programme that uses Points.com, you should instead use the Citi Rewards Card.
Other bonus categories
Department stores, bags, shoes and clothes
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| Citi Rewards Card | |
| Earn Rate for Department Stores, Bags, Shoes and Clothes | 4 mpd |
| Cap | S$1K per s. month |
The Citi Rewards Card earns 4 mpd on transactions made at department stores, or stores that sell bags, shoes and clothes, capped at S$1,000 per statement month.
These are defined by the following MCCs.
| MCC | Description |
| MCC 5311 | Department Stores |
| MCC 5611 | Men’s and Boy’s Clothing and Accessories Stores |
| MCC 5621 | Women’s Ready to Wear Stores |
| MCC 5631 | Women’s Accessory and Specialty Stores |
| MCC 5641 | Children’s and Infants’ Wear Stores |
| MCC 5651 | Family Clothing Stores |
| MCC 5655 | Sports and Riding Apparel Stores |
| MCC 5661 | Shoe Stores |
| MCC 5691 | Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores |
| MCC 5699 | Misc. Apparel and Accessory Shops |
| MCC 5948 | Luggage and Leather Goods Stores |
Do note that this bonus cap is shared with online spending. For example, if you’ve already earned 4 mpd on S$600 of online spend, you’ll only be able to earn 4 mpd on S$400 of department store, bags, shoes or clothes shopping for the rest of the statement month.
Overseas spending
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| DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Earn Rate for FCY Spend | 1.2 mpd |
| Cap | No cap |
The DBS Woman’s World Card earns 1.2 mpd on all in-person foreign currency (FCY) spending, with no minimum spend or cap. That said, there’s no reason to be using the DBS Woman’s World Card for such transactions, as you could easily earn 4 mpd with alternative cards.
In-app or online FCY spend earns 4 mpd as mentioned earlier, subject to the S$1,000 monthly bonus cap.
Points expiry and pooling
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Points Expiry | Up to 5 years | 1 year |
| Pooling | No | Yes |
The Citi Rewards Card has an advantage in terms of points expiry, because points are valid for up to five years (though some may expire sooner, depending on when they’re earned).
In contrast, DBS Woman’s World Card points expire after just one year, so you’ll need to transfer them out more frequently.
That said, Citi does not pool points across its cards, even if they earn the same currency. For instance, you can’t combine ThankYou points from the Citi Prestige and Citi Rewards Cards for a single redemption.
On the other hand, DBS does pool points, allowing you to combine rewards earned across all your DBS cards in a single redemption.
Transfer partners
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Transfer Partners | 11 | 4 |
| Full List |
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The Citi Rewards Card wins this category, with 11 different airline and hotel transfer partners. This includes EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Qatar Privilege Club, and Air France-KLM Flying Blue, all of which have lucrative redemption sweet spots.
The DBS Woman’s World Card offers far fewer options, with just four frequent flyer programmes. Realistically speaking though, it’s more like two because AirAsia Rewards and Qantas Frequent Flyer are not very useful for someone based in Singapore.
Minimum transfer block
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Min. Transfer Block | 10,000 miles | 10,000 miles |
If conversions are made through the respective bank portals, both the Citi Rewards Card and DBS Woman’s World Card have minimum transfer blocks of 10,000 miles.
However, if you transfer points via Kris+, the minimum conversion block is reduced to
- 10,000 Citi ThankYou Points = 3,400 miles
- 100 DBS Points = 170 miles
Do note that this entails a 15% haircut compared to conversions through the bank portal.
Conversion costs
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Conversion Cost | S$27.25 | S$27.25 |
Both the Citi Rewards Card and DBS Woman’s World Card charge a S$27.25 admin fee for points transfers.
Alternatively, you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points or DBS Points via Kris+ instantly and without admin fees, though you will suffer a 15% haircut as shown above.
Points posting
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Base Points | When trxn. posts | When trxn. posts |
| Bonus Points | When trxn. posts | Following month (usually 16th) |
The Citi Rewards Card awards both base (0.4 mpd) and bonus (3.6 mpd) miles together, at the time the transaction posts.
In contrast, the DBS Woman’s World Card awards base and bonus points separately. The base points (0.4 mpd for local online spend, 1.2 mpd for FCY online spend) are awarded when the transaction posts. The remaining bonus points (3.6 mpd for local online spend, 2.8 mpd for FCY online spend) will be credited the following calendar month, usually on the 16th.
Amaze pairing
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| Citi Rewards Card | DBS Woman’s World Card | |
| Earns Points with Amaze? | Yes | No |
| Remarks | 1% admin fee (min. S$0.50) for SGD transactions | N/A |
While DBS excluded Amaze transactions back in June 2022, Citi has yet to do so. You can pair the Citi Rewards Card with Amaze to earn 4 mpd on almost all transactions, since Amaze converts offline spend into online.
However, it should be noted that Amaze now charges a 1% admin fee (with a minimum fee of S$0.50) for any transactions in SGD. There are no admin fees for FCY transactions.
Which is better?
| Citi Rewards Card |
DBS Woman’s World Card |
| ➕ 11 transfer partners ➕ Points valid up to 5 years ➕ Can be paired with Amaze ➕ Base and bonus points post together |
➕ 4 mpd for all online spend ➕ Points pool with other DBS cards |
| ➖ Points don’t pool with other Citi cards ➖ Excludes travel and in-app/online mobile wallet |
➖ Points expire after 12 months ➖ Limited transfer partners ➖ No points for Amaze ➖ Base and bonus points post separately |
The way I see it, the Citi Rewards Card is the one to use if you want to earn “exotic” points currencies (i.e. anything other than KrisFlyer or Asia Miles), or if you’re looking to minimise the cost of overseas transactions while still earning 4 mpd.
But if you’re a KrisFlyer-only type of person, or if you don’t want to deal with the finicky travel exclusion, then the DBS Woman’s World Card would be the better option. Just keep in mind its points have an unusually short validity of 12 months, so you’ll need to transfer them out at least once a year.
Conclusion
The Citi Rewards Card and DBS Woman’s World Card are both excellent options for maximising online spending, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t keep both.
The Citi Rewards Card has the advantage of more transfer partners, longer points validity, and compatibility with Amaze—making it ideal for those who value flexibility. On the other hand, the DBS Woman’s World Card offers fewer bonus restrictions, and pooled points across DBS cards, which is better for those who want simplicity.
Which of the two cards do you prefer?
Only reason I not taking the WWC is the 12 mths expiry. Else, I would hv swapped it with my Citi Rewards. Low annual card spender…
Which is better?
Yes.
For none other reason then 5 years expiry vs 1, i chose rewards > WWMC
not to mention Citi has superior transfer partners
I prefer Citi Rewards Card because it gives rewards points per dollar spent. This is better than the $5 spending blocks of DBS cards. Also, it is much easier to get annual fee waivers for Citi credit cards.
In contrast, DBS and UOB often make me appeal to get annual fee waivers for their cards.
Only 1 yr expiry is a dealbreaker. Not worth paying conversion fees every single year.
Which is better table now both has same monthly bonus cap
thanks- have edited that.
I am a happy card holder of both Citi Rewards Visa and Mastercard until the sad news that Citi will discontinue Citi rewards Visa, I applied for WWMC. Unless anyone here has a better alternative?
Hi, if i use Amaze+Citi Rewards in China via Alipay or Wechat, will I still get 4mpd?