Which banks pool credit card points?

If you’re playing the miles game, chances are you’ll have more than one credit card from a given bank. In that case, points pooling is a highly desirable feature, since it minimises conversion fees and orphan miles, and makes card cancellations more frictionless.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at which banks pool credit card points, and some of the finer details you should be aware of. 

Why does points pooling matter?

Points pooling means that points earned on different cards are combined into one central account, instead of being held in individual silos. 

Consider the following example. Let’s say I have a total of 27,000 miles with UOB (in the form of 13,500 UNI$) and 27,000 miles with Citibank (in the form of 67,500 TY points).

💳 UOB Cards  (Points Pooled)
Card	Points	Total
UOB Lady’s Card	4,500 UNI$	13,500 UNI$
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa	4,500 UNI$
UOB Visa Signature	4,500 UNI$

💳 Citi Cards  (Points Not Pooled)
Card	Points	Total
Citi Prestige	22,500 TY points	22,500 TY points
Citi Rewards Mastercard	22,500 TY points	22,500 TY points
Citi Rewards Visa	22,500 TY points	22,500 TY points

With UOB, points are pooled, so if I have three cards with 4,500 UNI$ each, I redeem my points from one central pool of 13,500 UNI$. 

With Citi, points are not pooled, so if I have three cards with 22,500 ThankYou points, I redeem my points from three separate pools of 22,500 ThankYou points each.

Points pooling therefore offers three big advantages. 

(1) Save on conversion fees

Points pooling allows cardholders to save on conversion fees when transferring credit card points to airline miles.

With UOB cards there’s only one central pool to draw from. No matter how many UOB cards I have, I will only pay a single conversion fee when transferring UNI$ to airline miles. 

But with Citi cards, each card has its own “points silo” that doesn’t mix with the rest. Therefore, I will have to pay one conversion fee for each card.

(2) Avoid orphan miles

While pooling does not eliminate orphan miles altogether, spending with credit cards that pool points can help reduce the frequency and magnitude of the problem.

What are orphan miles, and how do you avoid them?

Both Citi and UOB have a minimum conversion block of 10,000 miles, but because of the different rules on pooling, you get two very different outcomes.

Here’s the situation with UOB:

💳 UOB Cards  (Points Pooled)
Card	Points	Min. Block
UOB Lady’s Card	4,500 UNI$	5,000 UNI$
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa	4,500 UNI$
UOB Visa Signature	4,500 UNI$
Total Points	13,500 UNI$
Total Conversion	2x 5,000 UNI$
Orphan Points	3,500 UNI$

Since UOB pools points, I only need to deal with the minimum conversion block once, and that leaves me with 3,500 orphan UNI$.

Then consider Citi:

💳 Citi Cards  (Points Not Pooled)
Card	Points	Min. Block
Citi Prestige	22,500 TY points	25,000 TY points
Citi Rewards Mastercard	22,500 TY points	25,000 TY points
Citi Rewards Visa	22,500 TY points	25,000 TY points
Total Points	67,500 TY points
Total Conversion	Nothing!
Orphan Points	67,500 TY points

Since Citi does not pool points, I need to deal with the minimum conversion block three times, and since the block requires at least 25,000 ThankYou points, all my 67,500 ThankYou points are orphaned.

See how annoying that is? I have the same number of miles in my Citi and UOB accounts, but I can’t access the ones in my Citi account until each card has reached the minimum conversion block individually!

(3) Simpler cancellations

With points pooling, cancelling cards becomes less troublesome because there’s no need to cash out the points on the cancelled card.

💳 UOB Cards  (Points Pooled)
Card	Total
UOB Lady’s Card	13,500 UNI$ (Pooled)
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa
UOB Visa Signature

💳 Citi Cards  (Points Not Pooled)
Card	Total
Citi Prestige	22,500 TY points
Citi Rewards Mastercard	22,500 TY points
Citi Rewards Visa	22,500 TY points

For example, if I were to cancel my UOB Visa Signature, I don’t lose the 4,500 UNI$ associated with the card. Those are already in the central pool, and are unaffected.

On the other hand, if I were to cancel my Citi Rewards Visa, I would lose the 22,500 ThankYou points associated with the card. Therefore I’ll need to cash them out before cancelling the card.

Which banks pool points?

Here’s a summary of which banks do and don’t pool points.

Bank	Pools Points?	Remarks
	✓ Yes
	✕ No
	✕ No
	✓ Yes
	✓ Yes
	✓ Yes
	✓ ✕ Some	OCBC has three rewards currencies. Only similar currencies pool
	✓✕  Some	StanChart has two tiers of cards. Only points from the same tier pool
	✓ Yes

There is some nuance to this, so be sure to read the details below.

American Express

Membership Rewards points earned on the Platinum cards are pooled, but it’s slightly complicated.

AMEX Platinum Charge cardholders can convert Membership Rewards points to airline miles at a preferential rate of 400 points = 250 miles, versus 450 points = 250 miles for other AMEX cards.

If you hold an AMEX Platinum Charge and an AMEX Platinum Reserve or AMEX Platinum Credit Card, there are two possibilities.

(1) Some people will see their points pooled automatically on the back end, all convertible at the more advantageous 400:250 rate. If you’re in this situation, the drop down menu for “Your Points Account” will look like this.

(2) Some people will not see their points pooled on the back end. Instead, they’ll have one points account for their AMEX Platinum Charge, and another points account for their AMEX Platinum Reserve/Platinum Credit Card. If you’re in this situation, the drop down menu for “Your Points Account” will have a “Switch Account” button to toggle between points balances.

In this case, you can call up customer service to get your points manually combined and transferred at the more advantageous 400:250 rate.

The points pooling concept is irrelevant for the American Express KrisFlyer cobrand cards, because miles are automatically credited to the linked KrisFlyer account with no transfer fees (plus, you can’t own more than one KrisFlyer cobrand card anyway). 

Bank of China

While Bank of China only has one miles card in their entire portfolio, you may still end up paying multiple conversion fees anyway!

That’s because in March 2019, BOC capped the maximum number of points that can be converted in a single transaction at 10 blocks. This works out to 100,000 KrisFlyer miles, and means that if you want to convert, say, 250,000 KrisFlyer miles, you’d pay $30.56 x 3 =$91.68 of conversion fees.

It’s a very silly and arbitrary rule, but it wouldn’t be BOC if it wasn’t. 

Citibank

Citi has two different points currencies:

• Citi Miles (earned by the Citi PremierMiles Card)
• ThankYou points (earned by the Citi Prestige, Citi Rewards and  Citi ULTIMA Cards)

Sadly, points are not pooled — not even within the same currency type — so you’ll pay as many conversion fees as you have cards. 

DBS Bank

DBS Points are kept separate on the back end, but pooled together at the time of redemption.

However, outside of redemptions, DBS Points are kept separate. This means that if you cancel a given DBS card, you’ll forfeit all points earned on that card. Cash them out before cancelling!

HSBC

HSBC Rewards Points are kept separate on the back end, but pooled together at the time of redemption.

However, outside of redemptions, HSBC Rewards Points are kept separate. This means that if you cancel a given HSBC card, you’ll forfeit all points earned on that card. Cash them out before cancelling!

Maybank

Maybank TREATS Points are pooled across all cards.

If you have a Rewards Infinite membership (earned by spending at least S$24,000 in a membership year, or holding a Maybank Visa Infinite or Maybank World Mastercard), the benefit of non-expiring points extends to your entire TREATS balance.

OCBC Bank

OCBC has three different points currencies:

• 90°N Miles (OCBC 90°N Mastercard, OCBC 90°N Visa)
• OCBC$ (OCBC Rewards, OCBC Premier Visa Infinite)
• VOYAGE Miles (OCBC VOYAGE)

Similar points currencies will be pooled, but different points currencies will not.

For example, any OCBC$ I earn on the OCBC Rewards Card can be pooled with OCBC$ earned on the OCBC Premier Visa Infinite. However, OCBC$ I earn on the OCBC Rewards Card cannot be pooled with 90°N Miles earned on the OCBC 90°N Mastercard/Visa.

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered has two different tiers of cards

• Tier 1: Beyond, Journey, Priority Visa Infinite, Visa Infinite
• Tier 2: All other cards

Points are pooled within tiers, but not across tiers (so you can’t combine Tier 1 and 2 points in a single redemption, for example). 

UOB

UOB UNI$ are pooled across all cards. 

UOB Privilege Banking Visa Infinite, UOB Reserve, UOB Visa Infinite and UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card members enjoy complimentary conversions, so if you have one of these cards, you could use it as a conduit to convert points earned on other UOB cards for free!

Do note that the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card is a cobrand card that does not earn UNI$; instead, KrisFlyer miles earned are deposited directly into your KrisFlyer account once a month.

Conclusion

Not pooling points is a very customer-unfriendly decision, but my guess is that banks which don’t allow it aren’t doing so deliberately. More likely than not, it’s a hangover from an outdated IT system where points were kept in silos, which no one dares to touch.

That said, the lack of points pooling may not necessarily be a deal-breaker. I’d argue that it’s still worth using Citi cards, for example, thanks to the sheer variety of transfer partners and the opportunity to earn 4 mpd on online transactions with the Citi Rewards Card.

How important is points pooling to you?