2026 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Insurance Premiums

Insurance premiums are a category that banks have progressively excluded over the years. When I first started writing this blog a decade ago, you could easily earn up to 4 mpd on premium payments. Today, you’d be lucky to earn anything!

The good news, if you dare to call it that, is that earning miles on insurance premiums isn’t impossible. The scope is just very limited, or you’ll need to pay a fee for the privilege.

What MCC does insurance code as?

Insurance transactions code under two main MCCs: 

• 5960: Direct Marketing Insurance Services
• 6300: Insurance Sales, Underwriting and Premiums

In case you’re uncertain about the MCC, there are three ways of looking it up before making a transaction:

Merchants assigned insurance-related MCCs typically pay a below-average processing fee, and banks are therefore less inclined to offer rewards on such transactions. 

Which credit cards earn rewards for insurance?

As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of banks now exclude insurance transactions from earning points. Here’s a snapshot of each bank’s policy:

Issuer	Awards Points for Insurance?
	✓1
	✕
	✕
	✓2
	✕
	✕
	✓3
	✕
	✓4
	✓5
1. Only for insurance products purchased through American Express authorised channels (e.g. Chubb) 2. Capped at 100 miles per month 3. Only for Maybank Visa Infinite and Maybank Horizon Visa Signature 4. Only for SC Prudential Platinum & SC Prudential Visa Signature 5. Only for UOB KrisFlyer Debit Card

Don’t get too excited if you see a green tick in the table above— one glance at the footnotes, and you’ll understand just how limited the scope for earning miles on insurance premiums is!

American Express cards

Card	Earn Rate for Insurance
AMEX Solitaire PPS Credit Card Apply	1.3 mpd
AMEX PPS Credit Card Apply	1.3 mpd
AMEX HighFlyer Card Apply	1.2 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Apply	1.2 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card Apply	1.1 mpd
AMEX Centurion Apply	0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge Apply	0.78 mpd
AMEX Platinum Reserve Apply	0.69 mpd
AMEX Platinum Credit Card Apply	0.69 mpd

While American Express cards generally exclude rewards for insurance payments, there is one exception: buying insurance from the AMEX x Chubb portal.

Earn your usual card rewards, including Membership Rewards® points, KrisFlyer miles and cashback when you sign up for Amex Insurance plan(s) with your American Express® Card.

-American Express

The types of insurance you can purchase on this portal are limited to:

• Travel insurance
• Hospital cash insurance
• Surgical cash insurance
• Gadget insurance
• Personal accident insurance (I don’t see a way of getting a quote for this online, so you might have to call in to ask)

Chocolate Visa Card

Apply

No annual fee or minimum income requirement

The Chocolate Visa Card earns 1 Max Mile per S$1 on the first S$1,000 spent per calendar month, after which the rate reduces to 0.4 Max Miles per S$1.

This includes insurance premiums, but here’s the catch: Chocolate has a cap of 100 Max Miles per month on so-called “bill payments”, which include insurance premiums plus the following categories:

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

👍 200 Max Miles joining bonus

Sign up for a Heymax account and get up to 200 Max Miles as a welcome bonus

200 bonus Max Miles

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. 

Maybank Visa Infinite & Maybank Horizon Visa Signature

Card	Earn Rate for Insurance
	SGD	FCY
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	1.2 mpd	3.2 mpd Min. S$4K / c. mth 2 mpd
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	0.16 mpd	2.8 mpd Min. S$800 / c. mth 1.2 mpd

While the T&Cs of the Maybank TREATS programme excludes insurance payments, an explicit exception is carved out for the Maybank Visa Infinite and Maybank Horizon Visa Signature.

The Maybank Visa Infinite earns 1.2 mpd (SGD) or 2 mpd (FCY) on all spending, including up to S$3,000 of insurance premiums per calendar month. If the total monthly spending across all transactions exceeds S$4,000, the FCY earn rate is enhanced to 3.2 mpd.

However, spending on insurance premiums does not count towards the S$3,000 minimum spend required to qualify for airport limo transfers or gym and pool day passes.

The Maybank Horizon Visa Signature will earn 0.16 mpd (SGD) or 1.2 mpd (FCY) on insurance premiums. If the total monthly spending across all transactions exceeds S$800, the FCY earn rate is enhanced to 2.8 mpd.

However, insurance premiums (along with other selected categories such as medical, education, rentals and professional services) are capped at 480 miles per month. This cap only applies to transactions made in SGD; FCY spending would not be subject to a cap. 

Spending on insurance premiums will also not count towards:

• the S$800 minimum monthly spend required to earn 2.8 mpd on FCY spend (uncapped) and 2.8 mpd on air tickets (capped at S$10,000 per calendar month)
• the S$1,000 single-transaction spend required to earn a complimentary Plaza Premium Lounge pass valid at selected airports

Standard Chartered Prudential Cards

Card	Earn Rate for Insurance
SC Prudential Platinum Apply	0.29 mpd
SC Prudential Visa Signature Apply	0.43 mpd

The little-known Standard Chartered Prudential Platinum and Standard Chartered Prudential Visa Signature explicitly state that rewards points are awarded on insurance premiums— even if they’re not from Prudential.

The earn rate is 1X points per S$1 for Prudential Platinum Cardholders, and 1.5X points per S$1 for Prudential Visa Signature Cardholders. This works out to 0.29 mpd and 0.43 mpd respectively.

Do note that the Prudential Visa Signature is only available to members of Ascend by Prudential.

KrisFlyer UOB Debit Card

Card	Earn Rate for Insurance
KrisFlyer UOB Debit Card Apply	0.4 mpd  + Miles from KrisFlyer UOB account

The KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card does not earn miles on insurance, but this exclusion does not apply to the KrisFlyer UOB Debit Card, which will earn at least 0.4 mpd on premium payments.

Why “at least”? Because accountholders can earn bonus miles for putting money in the KrisFlyer UOB Account and spending on their debit card. The current structure gives a bonus 5 or 6 mpd to anyone who keeps a minimum monthly average balance (MAB) of S$1,000 in the account. 

The catch is that you receive a paltry 0.05% p.a. interest, and the bonus miles are capped at 5% of the MAB. For example, someone who put the bare minimum S$1,000 in the account would be limited to earning just 50 bonus miles per month.

So unless you’re willing to forgo a significant amount of interest, it’s probably better to forget the KrisFlyer UOB Account altogether and just take the earn rate as 0.4 mpd.

KrisFlyer UOB Account Review: Do not resuscitate

Bill payment services

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

Provider	Fee
	2.25% 1.79% fee for first payment of up to S$5K with code MILELION
	2.6%
	1.9%

Whether it’s “worth it” to buy miles at this price all boils down to how much you value a mile, but to provide some illustrations:

• An SC Beyond Cardholder with Priority Banking/Priority Private status could pay insurance premiums via SC EasyBill with a 1.9% fee and earn 2 mpd, equivalent to 0.95 cents per mile
• A DBS Vantage Cardholder could pay insurance premiums via CardUp with a 1.85% fee (for recurring payments) and earn 1.5 mpd, equivalent to 1.21 cents per mile
• A Citi Prestige Cardholder could pay insurance premiums via Citi PayAll with a 2.1% fee (temporarily reduced with the current promotion) and earn 1.3 mpd, equivalent to 1.62 cents per 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.

Workarounds

While banks may not be fond of rewarding insurance purchases, there are ways of “disguising” the transactions. The key is to find an insurance premium sold by a company whose main line of business is not insurance.

Klook

Klook usually sells tours and attraction tickets, but they also sell a travel insurance product known as Klook Protect. These policies are underwritten by companies like AIG, AXA, FWD and Zurich, basically a white label kind of product.

Buying Klook Protect codes the same as any other Klook transaction: MCC 4722 Travel Agencies and Tour Operators. You can use the following cards to earn up to 4 mpd.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per calendar month Review
Maybank XL Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Min S$500 per c. month, max S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	4 mpd	Max S$750 per calendar month. Must choose Travel as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per calendar month. Must choose Travel as bonus category Review
KrisFlyer UOB Card Apply	3 mpd	No cap Review

Singapore Airlines & Scoot

When you’re booking a Singapore Airlines or Scoot air ticket, you’ll usually be offered the opportunity to include travel insurance.

If you opt in, the transaction will code under the airlines’ MCC, enabling you to earn 4 mpd with whatever card you’d normally use for airfares.

Great Eastern

The yuu Rewards Club app allows members to earn yuu Points when purchasing selected Great Eastern insurance policies (tap on Brands > Great Eastern).

At the time of writing, it’s possible to earn up to 35 yuu Points per S$1 on policies, equivalent to 9.7 mpd.

You must complete the purchase via the yuu Rewards Club app to be eligible. To be clear, the points will come from the yuu app, not your credit card- paying with the DBS yuu Card won’t earn anything extra as insurance premiums are a general exclusion. 

Conclusion

Earning miles on insurance premiums gets tougher and tougher each year, but there are still a handful of options.

The Maybank Visa Infinite is probably the best all-round solution, but with a minimum income requirement of S$150,000 and an annual fee of S$654 (waived for the first year), it won’t be an option for everyone. 

Alternatively, you can consider restricting yourself to policies from Chubb (and paying with AMEX) or Great Eastern (and earning yuu Points), but these may or may not offer the best coverage for your needs. I think it’d be quite silly to base your coverage decisions on the ability to earn points alone!

For everything else, there’s always CardUp and Citi PayAll, though the cost per mile will vary depending on which card you hold and the ongoing promotions.

Are there any other ways you know of earning points on insurance premiums?