2026 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Education, Enrichment and Childcare

Once you add up the cost of childcare, enrichment classes, school fees, tuition, and university studies, the total cost of education can be a hefty expense indeed.

Unfortunately, it’s also an expense that most banks are unwilling to reward. Over the years, it’s become harder and harder to find a credit card that still rewards education-related expenditure. 

But the game’s not over yet, as there are still a few options for earning miles- and a few workarounds too.

What MCC does education code as?

When banks say that they exclude “education” transactions, they’re usually referring to transactions coding under the following MCCs:

There are, however, certain “education-adjacent” transactions like child care services and enrichment which have their own MCCs, and are not subject to the general exclusions on education. I’ll address this later in the article.

If you need to check the MCC of a particular merchant, there are three ways of looking it up before making a transaction:

Merchants assigned education MCCs typically pay below-average processing fees, which makes these transactions less profitable for banks, and more likely to be excluded from rewards.

Which credit cards earn rewards for education?

Because of the lower margin on education transactions, most banks exclude this category from rewards altogether.

DBS added education to its exclusion list in July 2017, Citibank in October 2018, UOB (with some exceptions) in September 2019, Standard Chartered in May 2020, Bank of China in June 2020, HSBC in July 2020, and American Express (with some exceptions) in October 2023. 

This leaves Maybank and selected AMEX/UOB cards as the only remaining options.

Issuer	Awards Points for Education?
	✓1
	✕
	✕
	✓
	✕
	✕
	✓
	✕
	✕
	✓2
1. AMEX Platinum Charge and AMEX Centurion Card only 2. UOB Privilege Banking Card, UOB Visa Infinite, UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card and UOB Reserve Card only

Here’s the list of cards that still earn miles for education transactions.

Card	Local Earn	FCY Earn
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	1.2 mpd	3.2 mpd^
Maybank XL Rewards Card Apply	0.4 mpd	4 mpd@
UOB Reserve Card Apply	1.6 mpd	2.4 mpd
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Apply	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	0.4 mpd	3.2 mpd#
UOB Privilege Banking Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	0.16 mpd	2.8 mpd*
Maybank Manchester United Card Apply	0.4 mpd	1.12-2.8 mpd (depending on Man Utd results)
Chocolate Visa Card Apply	1 mpd	1 mpd
AMEX Centurion Card Apply	0.98 mpd	0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge Apply	0.78 mpd	0.78 mpd
^With min spend of S$4,000 per calendar month  @With min spend of S$500 per calendar month, capped at S$1,000 per calendar month #With min spend of S$4,000 per calendar month, otherwise 2.8 mpd with min spend of S$800 per calendar month  *With min spend of S$800 per calendar month

Most of the options favour the privileged (“that’s a microcosm of the education system right there!” said some edgelord, probably), with high income requirements or annual fees.

• AMEX Centurion Card: By invitation only
• AMEX Platinum Charge: Annual fee of S$1,744
• UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card: Minimum income requirement of S$120,000
• Maybank Visa Infinite: Minimum income requirement of S$150,000
• UOB Privilege Banking Card: Minimum AUM of S$350,000
• UOB Reserve Card: By invitation only

However, there are some options that most people should be able to access.

Chocolate Visa Debit Card

Apply

No annual fee or minimum income requirement

The Chocolate Visa Debit Card earns 1 Max Mile per S$1 on all spend, including education. This is capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, beyond which the earn rate reduces to 0.4 Max Miles per S$1.

While Chocolate does enforce a cap of 100 Max Miles per month on so-called bill payments, education (or charitable donations, for that matter) does not fall under this category. 

👍 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

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

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. 

One great feature of the Chocolate Visa Card is that it has no foreign currency transaction fees, so if you’re paying overseas education expenses, the amount will be converted into SGD at the Visa rate, with no further markup.

Maybank Horizon Visa Signature and Manchester United Card

Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply

Maybank Manchester United Card Apply

The Maybank Horizon Visa Signature considers education to a so-called “Selected Category”, for which a reduced rate of 0.16 mpd is awarded. There is also a cap of 480 miles per month on all Selected Categories, which also includes insurance, medical, rental, professional services and utilities. 

However, if your payment is in foreign currency, that gets upsized to an uncapped 2.8 mpd (with a minimum overall spend of S$800 per calendar month). 

The Maybank Manchester United Card earns 0.4 mpd on education expenses in SGD, but if you spend in foreign currency, you can earn anywhere between 1.12 to 2.8 mpd, depending on Manchester United’s performance.

Maybank XL Rewards Card

The Maybank XL Rewards Card will earn 4 mpd on education transactions provided they’re charged in FCY. This is subject to a minimum spend of S$500 per calendar month, and capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. 

Bill payment services

If you’re willing to pay a fee in exchange for earning miles on education, 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 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 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 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.

“Education-adjacent” transactions

As mentioned earlier, banks usually define education as MCCs 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249 and 8299.

However, there are so-called “education-adjacent” transactions like childcare, sports and music enrichment, which have MCCs of their own.

To the extent that these are not explicitly excluded in the T&Cs, you should be able to earn miles under the general spending rate for cards. 

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month (with 1% fee for SGD trxns) Review
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must be online Review
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$600 per c. month, must use mobile payments Review
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	4 mpd	Min S$1K, max S$1.2K per s. month on contactless & petrol Review

On the other hand, there are centres which might seem more in the nature of enrichment, but actually fall under education MCCs. For example, Marsden Aquatics and Happy Fish Swim School both code as MCC 8299.

Therefore, it’s always best practice to confirm the MCC beforehand using the Instarem or DBS “block card” method.

Workarounds

If the merchant you’re paying falls under an education MCC, don’t lose hope. There’s still one final roll of the dice, which is to see whether it partners with a BNPL provider.

For example, Atome codes as MCC 5999, and has a very extensive list of schools and enrichment providers (the list below isn’t exhaustive, refer to the app for the full selection).

Refer to the following post for the best cards to use with Atome.

What’s the best card to use for Atome?

Remember: it’s best practice to manually trigger the following month’s payment a few days ahead of time, instead of letting it be billed automatically. This is to avoid a situation where you don’t earn bonus points on the 2nd and 3rd month’s installments because they code as a recurring payment.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to pay school or university fees, the opportunities to earn miles are few and far between. Only a handful of American Express, Maybank and UOB cards, plus the Chocolate Visa Debit Card, still reward these expenditures. 

However, if you’re looking to earn miles on enrichment or child care services, then opportunities still exist. As long as the MCCs avoid the 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249 and 8299 range, you can still earn up to 4 mpd with the right cards.

And even if the MCC falls within the education range, you can check whether the merchant is available on Atome or another BNPL platform, which changes the MCC to a rewards-friendly one.

Are there any other ways to earn miles on education/tuition fees?