Review: OCBC 90°N Card

Here’s The MileLion’s review of the OCBC 90°N Card, the card that makes you wish that the standard QWERTY keyboard came with a dedicated ° key.

OCBC was a relatively late entrant to the miles game, and when the bank finally unveiled its first miles card in 2015, it decided to go for the premium market with the OCBC VOYAGE Card. It would be a further four years before the mass-market OCBC 90°N Mastercard launched in August 2019, followed later by the OCBC 90°N Visa in October 2021.

At launch, the 90°N Cards had some sensational introductory offers, like 4 mpd on foreign currency spending, Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Air Asia and Jetstar, and 8 mpd on Airbnb— all uncapped!

Sadly, however, they just weren’t able to maintain that sort of momentum, and today they’re mediocre at best. They’re in dire need of a spark, and I don’t just mean the built-in LED. 

OCBC 90°N Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☐ Take It ☑Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
The OCBC 90°N Card gets a few things right, but is ultimately hamstrung by poor transfer ratios and middling earn rates.
👍 The good	👎 The bad
Choice of nine airline and hotel transfer partners Most transfers processed instantly 90°N Miles never expire Transfer blocks as small as 100 miles	S$5 earning blocks No bonus spending categories Underwhelming transfer ratios for most partners except Flying Blue and KrisFlyer No airport lounge access No points pooling with non-90°N cards
💳 Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: OCBC 90°N Card

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the OCBC 90°N Card.

Apply (Mastercard)
Apply (Visa)
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	No expiry
Annual Fee	S$196.20 (FYF)	Min. Transfer	1,000 90°N Miles (1,000 miles)
Miles with Annual Fee	10,000	Transfer Partners	9
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	S$25
Local Earn	1.3 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	2.1 mpd	Lounge Access?	No
Special Earn	7 mpd on Agoda	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

The OCBC 90°N Card is offered on both the Mastercard and Visa network. Historically, there were big differences between the two versions:

• The Visa had lower general spend rates, but enjoyed a bonus (insofar as 1.5 mpd can be called a bonus) on groceries, online food delivery and shopping
• The Mastercard had higher general spend rates, but lacked a bonus category

Both cards were harmonised in early 2023 and are now a single product, issued across two networks. The core features are identical, though I’d argue that the Mastercard has slightly better benefits (namely a complimentary FlexiRoam data plan; more on that later)

While initially issued on traditional horizontal cardstock, the 90°N Cards have now transitioned to the new portrait-style design that’s becoming increasingly common (portrait-style design supposedly allows for a smoother user experience, as it mimics how customers typically handle their cards when they tap to pay or dip the card into a chip reader).

And while we’re talking design, it would be remiss not to mention the so-unnecessary-yet-really-cool LED light embedded in the °, that lights up upon making a contactless transaction.

How much must I earn to qualify for an OCBC 90°N Card?

The OCBC 90°N Card has an annual income requirement of S$30,000 p.a., the MAS-mandated minimum to hold a credit card in Singapore.

If you earn below this threshold, it may be possible to get a secured version of the card with a S$10,000 fixed deposit. Contact OCBC customer service for further details.

How much is the OCBC 90°N Card’s annual fee?

The OCBC 90°N Card has an annual fee of S$196.20 for the principal cardholder, and a S$98.10 fee per supplementary card.

The first year’s fee is waived. Subsequent years’ fees are automatically waived if you spend at least S$10,000 in a membership year, though based on personal experience, the requirement is not strictly enforced.

Cardholders will receive 10,000 miles for paying the principal card’s annual fee, which means buying miles at ~1.96 cents per mile. They also have the option to upgrade their annual fee by paying an extra S$545, for which they’ll receive 22,000 miles. This represents a price of 2.48 cents per mile, which frankly speaking is way too expensive. You can buy miles for less through bill payment services like CardUp and Citi PayAll, so don’t waste your time here!

What welcome offers are available?

Apply (Mastercard)

Apply (Visa)

New-to-bank customers who apply for an OCBC 90°N Visa or Mastercard through the SingSaver links in this article can choose one of the following welcome gifts:

• Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
• Dyson Cool AM07 Tower Fan
• Hinomi Q2 Ergonomic Office Chair
• S$380 Grab voucher
• S$320 cash

A minimum spend of S$400 within 30 days of approval is required. These gifts rotate often, so always refer to the T&Cs for the latest offers.  

However, I would strongly advise that you apply for the OCBC Infinity Cashback Card as your first OCBC card. That’s because you can stack the SingSaver offer with OCBC’s public offer of S$100 Foodpanda vouchers, creating a lucrative double dip opportunity.

If you really want the OCBC 90°N Card, you can always apply for it subsequently as an existing customers. 

How many miles do I earn?

SGD/FCY Spend

OCBC 90°N Cardholders earn:

• 6.5 90°N Miles for every S$5 spent in Singapore Dollars
• 10.5 90°N Miles for every S$5 spent in foreign currency (FCY)

90°N Miles can be converted to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio, so that’s an equivalent earn rate of 1.3 mpd for local spend, and 2.1 mpd for FCY spend.

While this is acceptable for a general spending card, OCBC’s nasty S$5 earning blocks mean you might be earning less than you expect on smaller transactions (more on that below).

💳 Earn Rates for General Spending Cards (Income Req: S$30K)
Cards	Local Spend	FCY Spend
UOB PRVI Miles Card Apply	1.4 mpd	3 mpd IDR, MYR, THB, VND 2.4 mpd All Others
BOC Elite Miles Card Apply	1.4 mpd	2.8 mpd
HSBC TravelOne Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2.4 mpd
DBS Altitude Card Apply	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
OCBC 90°N Card Apply	1.3 mpd	2.1 mpd
Citi PremierMiles Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2.2 mpd
StanChart Journey Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Apply	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card Apply	1.1 mpd	1.1 mpd

All overseas transactions are subject to a 3.25% FCY fee. This means that using your OCBC 90°N Card overseas represents buying miles at 1.55 cents each.

Bonus Spend

Agoda x OCBC

OCBC 90°N Cardholders can earn bonus miles for Agoda hotel bookings made by 30 November 2025 and completed (i.e. check-out) by 31 December 2025.

Cardholders will earn the regular 1.3 mpd (SGD) or 2.1 mpd (FCY) upon payment. The bonus 4.7 mpd (SGD) or 4.9 mpd (FCY) will be credited within two months of check-out from the hotel.

Do note that bookings made through bank x OTA tie-ups such as this can sometimes be more expensive than bookings made through the OTA site directly (or somewhere else, for that matter). Therefore, I would strongly urge you to do comparison shopping to make sure you’re not paying over the odds.

The T&Cs for this offer can be found here.

When are 90°N Miles credited?

90°N Miles are credited when your transaction posts, which generally takes 1-3 working days. 

How are 90°N Miles calculated?

Here’s how you can work out the 90°N Miles earned on your OCBC 90°N Card.

Unfortunately, OCBC has joined UOB in adopting a punitive rounding policy that sees all transactions rounded down to the nearest S$5 before points are awarded. That means a S$14.90 transaction earns the same number of miles as a S$10 transaction, and a S$4.99 transaction earns no miles at all! 

You basically need to spend at least S$5 to earn any points at all on the OCBC 90°N Card, and because of this policy, the OCBC 90°N Card can be outperformed by a competitor card with a lower headline earn rate. Consider the following:

	OCBC 90°N Card 1.3 mpd	Citi PremierMiles 1.2 mpd
S$5	7 miles	6 miles
S$9.99	7 miles	11 miles
S$15	20 miles	18 miles
S$19.99	20 miles	23 miles
S$25	33 miles	30 miles
S$29.99	33 miles	35 miles
S$35	46 miles	42 miles
S$39.99	46 miles	47 miles

If you’re an Excel geek, here are the formulas you need to calculate points: 

For the full list of formulas that banks use to calculate credit card points, do refer to these articles:

• General Spending Cards
• Specialised Spending Cards

What transactions aren’t eligible for 90°N Miles?

A full list of transactions that do not earn 90°N Miles can be found in the T&Cs.

I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Charitable Donations
• Education
• Government Services 
• Hospitals
• Insurance Premiums
• Prepaid Account Top-ups (e.g. GrabPay, YouTrip)
• Real Estate Agents & Managers
• SimplyGo (Bus/MRT transactions)
• Utilities

For avoidance of doubt, 90°N Miles will be awarded for CardUp transactions at a rate of 1.3 mpd. In fact, CardUp offers a special promo just for OCBC customers, which I’ll cover later. 

What do I need to know about 90°N Miles?

Expiry

90°N Miles earned on the OCBC 90°N Card do not expire, so long as the card remains valid.

Pooling

90°N Miles earned on the Mastercard and Visa versions of the OCBC 90°N Card pool together, so if you have 15,000 90°N Miles on the former and 20,000 90°N Miles on the latter, you could redeem a total of 35,000 90°N Miles in a single transaction.

However, 90°N Miles cannot be pooled with OCBC$ and VOYAGE Miles. Frankly, I really don’t understand why OCBC needs three different points currencies; life would be so much easier if they just stuck to one!

Partners and Transfer Fee

OCBC has a total of nine airline and hotel transfer partners.

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (90°N Miles : Miles)
	1,000 : 1,000
	1,000 : 1,000
	1,000 : 1,000
	1,000 : 1,000
	1,000 : 900
	1,000 : 900
	1,000 : 750
	1,000 : 700
	1,000 : 500

Sadly, the conversion ratios of most partners are disappointing. 

I would at the very least have expected Asia Miles to enjoy the same conversion ratio as KrisFlyer. That’s the way it is for every other bank on the market, and it effectively eliminates Asia Miles as a viable transfer partner. After all, why on earth would you take a 25% haircut on the value of your OCBC points (and therefore your card spending rebate) when no other bank forces you to do that?

Likewise, it’s disappointing to see that there’s a 10% haircut for British Airways Executive Club and Etihad Guest, when Citibank and the HSBC TravelOne Card offer transfers to both at the same ratio as KrisFlyer. 

As for hotel partners, the ratios for IHG and Marriott Bonvoy aren’t that appealing when you factor in the opportunity cost— you’re basically forgoing 1 KrisFlyer mile (~1.5 SG cents) for every IHG (~0.5 US cents/0.64 SG cents) or Bonvoy (~0.7 US cents/0.89 SG cents)

The only non-KrisFlyer programmes I might consider would be Air France-KLM Flying Blue and Accor Live Limitless. With Accor, 2,000 points = €40, so there is an opportunity cost of 1.5 cents per KrisFlyer mile, roughly what I’d deem acceptable.

OCBC, to its credit, does offer periodic transfer bonuses which can improve the ratios:

• November 2024: ~20% transfer bonus to Asia Miles
• July 2024: 70% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy
• June 2024: 15% transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club
• November 2023: 15% transfer bonus to Asia Miles
• October 2023: 20% transfer bonus to Flying Blue
• October 2023: 50% transfer bonus to IHG One Rewards

 Regarding minimum conversion blocks:

• Transfers to KrisFlyer must be in blocks of 1,000 90°N Miles
• Transfers for all other programmes must be a minimum of 1,000 90°N Miles, but subsequent conversions can be in blocks of 100 90°N Miles (e.g. you could transfer 1,200 or 5,900 miles)

The OCBC 90°N Card used to offer free points conversions, but this was nerfed in February 2023 and a S$25 fee now applies.

Transfer Times

OCBC splits its partners across two different platforms:

• Transfers for KrisFlyer miles are done via the OCBC Rewards portal, and are usually processed within 24 hours

• Transfers for the other programmes are done via the STACK Rewards portal, under the Points Exchange tab. Transfers should be more or less instantaneous, because they’re powered by Ascenda Loyalty which has a direct API linkage with the airlines. 

Other card perks

1.55-2% fee with CardUp

OCBC 90°N Cardholders can enjoy a discounted admin fee of 1.55% (new) or 2% (existing) with CardUp, which reduces the cost per mile to as low as 1.17 cents apiece.

Card	Earn Rate	Cost Per Mile (1.55% fee)	Cost Per Mile (2% fee)
OCBC 90°N Visa/MC	1.3 mpd	1.14¢	1.51¢

New CardUp users (defined as those who have yet to make a first payment on the platform) can use the code OCBC90N155 to enjoy a 1.55% admin fee on their first payment of any kind. 

The payment must be scheduled on CardUp by 31 March 2026, 6 p.m (SGT), with a due date on or before 3 April 2026.

No minimum payment is required, but the maximum payment is capped at S$10,000.  The prevailing 2.6% fee will apply to any portion of the payment that exceeds S$10,000. 

The code can be used either on a one-off payment, or the first payment of a recurring series.

Existing CardUp users can use the code OCBC90NV (for 90°N Visa) or OCBC90NMC (for 90°N Mastercard) to enjoy a 2% admin fee on any CardUp payment.

The payment must be scheduled on CardUp by 31 March 2026, 6 p.m (SGT), with a due date on or before 3 April 2026.

No minimum payment is required, nor is there any maximum. There is no limit on the number of times each account can use this code.

Bonus interest with OCBC 360 account

OCBC 90°N Cardholders who spend at least S$500 per month on their card are eligible to earn bonus interest of 0.4% p.a. on the first S$100,000 in their OCBC 360 account.

Assuming you keep the full S$100,000 inside, that works out to an extra S$400 interest per year, though you will need to consider the opportunity cost of the miles foregone by spending on the 90°N instead of on higher earning cards. 

Travel with OCBC portal

Travel with OCBC

OCBC 90°N Cardholders can use their 90°N Miles to pay for airfare and hotel bookings on the Travel with OCBC portal at the following rates:

This used to be much better in the past, where you could get up to 2.88 cents per 90°N Mile on First Class fares (and who can forget the time when you could buy Business Class tickets to Europe from just S$1,000!).

Unfortunately, that valuation has since been nerfed, and while 1.45 cents per 90°N Mile might make sense in certain circumstances, it’s not something I’d heartily endorse.

FlexiRoam package

The OCBC 90°N Mastercard offers a complimentary 3x 1GB 5-day FlexiRoam Data Plan once per calendar year. This provides mobile data in more than 200 countries, with both regular SIM and eSIM options available.

A further 15% discount is offered on all subsequent FlexiRoam data plans.

For redemption steps, refer to this guide. 

Summary Review: OCBC 90°N Card

Apply (Mastercard)

Apply (Visa)

🦁 MileLion Verdict

☐ Take It ☑Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It

The OCBC 90°N Card started out well, but since then it’s settled into more mediocre territory. Its earn rates are average for a general spending card (and possibly slightly worse once the S$5 earning blocks are factored in), it doesn’t offer airport lounge access, and OCBC’s insistence on having three different rewards currencies means you can’t pool 90°N Miles with the OCBC$ earned by the OCBC Rewards Card.

If you’re in the market for a general spending card, I reckon the Citi PremierMiles Card or HSBC TravelOne Card have a lot more to give, with better welcome offers, lounge access, and more transfer partners.

So it’s just very hard to make the case for the 90°N Card, unless you really love a gimmick in your card.