Which cards track spending by transaction date vs posting date?

When using credit cards with bonus caps or minimum spend requirements, one crucial question is whether spending is tracked based on transaction date or posting date. 

While the two are usually very close, they’re often not the same— and that can make a  huge difference to how many miles you earn!

In this post, I’ll explain why the distinction is important, and how different cards handle it.

What’s the difference between transaction date and processing date?

Here’s the difference between transaction date and posting date:

• Transaction date: The date the transaction actually takes place
• Posting date: The date the transaction is processed and reflected in your card account

Most merchants don’t send each individual payment to the bank immediately. Instead, they collect the day’s transactions and submit them in a batch at the close of business, and if it happens to be a weekend or public holiday, the batching may be delayed. There may also be further delays due to fraud screening or network issues.

Therefore, the posting date usually comes after the transaction date, with a 1-3 day lag. There can instances where the transaction and posting date happen to be the same — see below — but you shouldn’t count on it.

Most of the time, this doesn’t really matter. But if you’re spending towards the end of the month, you might end up with a situation where where your transaction date is in Month X, but your posting date is in Month X+1.

Here’s three scenarios illustrating how this can mess up your day.

Monthly bonus caps

If I make a transaction on the UOB Lady’s Card on 30 November, but it posts on 1 December, that spending will count towards December’s bonus cap and not November’s.

This could result in me underutilising November’s bonus cap, or overutilising December’s.

Min. spend for bonus miles

Suppose I have a UOB Visa Signature Card, and my statement date (i.e. the last day of the statement period) is the 15th of each month. In the current statement period, I’ve already made S$900 in FCY spend, and on 14 November, I make a further transaction of S$300 in FCY. 

If this transaction only posts two days later, on 16 November, it will count towards the minimum spend for the November-December statement period. My S$900 FCY spend would only earn 0.4 mpd, because the sum of my posted transactions in the October-November statement period is less than S$1,000.

Min. spend for welcome offers

Suppose I sign up for a credit card that offers 10,000 bonus miles with a minimum spend of S$2,000 within 60 days. So far, I’ve already spent S$1,800, and towards the end of the 60-day period, I make a further transaction of S$300.

If that transaction posts after the 60-day period ends, then I will not receive the bonus miles, because the sum of my posted transactions in the 60-day period is less than S$2,000.

Card by card: transaction vs posting date

Here’s a card by card rundown of how some popular credit cards track their minimum spend and bonus caps.

Card	Feature	Is Based On
Citi Rewards Card Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,000) for 4 mpd on online spending	Posting
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,500)1 for 4 mpd on online spending	Trxn
DBS yuu Card Apply	Monthly min. spend (S$600) and cap (S$600) for 10 mpd on yuu merchants	Trxn
HSBC Revolution Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,500)2 for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Posting
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	Monthly min. spend (S$800) for 2.8 mpd on FCY and air tickets, and cap (S$10,000 for air tickets)	Special case- see below
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	Monthly min. spend (S$4,000)3 for 3.2 mpd on FCY	Special case- see below
OCBC Rewards Card Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,110) for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Posting
StanChart Journey Card Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,000) for 3 mpd on selected MCCs	Posting
StanChart Smart Card Apply	Monthly min. spend (S$800 or S$1,500) for 7.42/9.28 mpd on selected MCCs	Posting
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	Monthly min. spend (S$2,000) for 1.4/3 mpd on local/FCY spend	Posting
UOB Lady’s Card  Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,000) for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Posting
UOB Lady’s Solitaire  Apply	Monthly cap (S$2,000)4 for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Posting
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Apply	Monthly cap (S$1,110) for 4 mpd on contactless, and selected online MCCs	Posting
UOB Visa Signature Apply	Monthly min. spend (S$1,000) for 4 mpd on FCY, contactless and petrol,  and cap (S$2,000)5	Posting
1. Cut to S$1,000 from 1 August 2025 2. Cut to S$1,000 from 1 November 2025 3. Earn 2.8 mpd on FCY spend with min. spend of S$800 per calendar month 4. Cut to S$1,500 from 1 August 2025 5. Cap of S$2,400 from statement date ending 1 September 2025 onwards, split into S$1,200 for FCY and S$1,200 for contactless and petrol

The tl;dr version is that only DBS and Maybank track spending by transaction date. So even if it’s 11 p.m on the last day of the month and you haven’t hit the minimum spend on the DBS yuu Card yet- there’s still time!

For the rest of the banks in Singapore, tracking is based on posting date (there’s no point listing every card in the table because there’s just too many).

However, there are two important quirks to be highlighted.

DBS

While DBS tracks spending by transaction date, they do not follow Singapore time. The transaction date is “subject to merchant or their acquirer’s timezone”.

This throws a further spanner into the works, because even if you know the merchant’s timezone, their acquirer may be a different timezone. Unfortunately, there are conflicting reports online- some report their transactions made early in Month X end up reflecting a transaction date of Month X-1, and others report their transactions made late in Month X end up reflecting a transaction date of in Month X+1.

You might think that transacting in Singapore would remove all ambiguity, but again, there are reports saying otherwise. If you want to be safe, it’s better to avoid transactions on the 31st and 1st altogether. 

Maybank

When computing the S$800 minimum spend necessary to trigger the 2.8 mpd for air tickets and FCY spend, the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature will consider transactions made in Month X but posted by the 6th of Month X+1 to be part of Month X’s minimum spending.

This is not explicitly addressed in the T&Cs, but I would assume the S$10,000 monthly cap for earning 2.8 mpd on air tickets also follows this rule (that is, air ticket transactions which post by the 6th will be taken as part of the previous month’s bonus cap). 

Likewise, when computing the S$4,000 minimum spend necessary to trigger the 3.2 mpd for FCY spend (or the S$800 minimum spend necessary to trigger the 2.8 mpd for FCY spend), the Maybank World Mastercard will consider transactions made in Month X but posted by the 7th of Month X+1 to be part of Month X’s minimum spending.

Either way, this policy is beneficial in the sense that “late arriving” transactions completed towards the end of a month will still count towards the minimum spend for that month. For the avoidance of doubt, transactions made in a Month X that post before the 6th/7th of Month X will still count towards Month X’s spend, not Month X-1.

If all this is confusing you, refer to the table below.

Do any merchants post on the same day?

If it’s almost the end of the month/spending period and you want to sneak in an additional transaction to meet the minimum spend, or fully utilise the bonus cap, then the following merchants have reported by the MileChat community to post on the same day.

• 7-11
• Cold Storage
• Food Junction
• Food Republic
• Genki Sushi
• Joyden Seafood
• Singlife (though it doesn’t earn points or count towards minimum spend anyway…)
• Starbucks
• Sushi Tei
• Toastbox
• ToriQ

Keep in mind, I can’t promise it will be the same for you (it could depend on outlet, or even which bank’s credit card you’re using). Search the MileChat for “same day post” to find more examples (or don’t, and get mercilessly abused).

Conclusion

The distinction between transaction and posting dates becomes crucial when you’re nearing the end of the month, or the end of the spending period for a welcome bonus. 

Many people believe that so long as they swipe their card within the month or period, the transaction will qualify. But, with the exception of DBS (and probably Maybank), that’s not true. A transaction usually takes at least a day to post, and a day could make all the difference!

Any other merchants you know of that post on the same day?