Guide: Mastercard’s free FlexiRoam global data roaming benefit

Back in June 2020, FlexiRoam announced a tie-up with Mastercard, which offers selected Mastercard customers a complimentary data roaming package valid across 120+ countries worldwide.

Depending on which card you have, this offers up to 3GB of roaming data— perhaps not enough to watch Netflix on the train, but certainly sufficient for most other purposes. 

Benefit Details

In this post, I’ll walk you through which cards are eligible for the FlexiRoam benefit, how to activate your plan, and potential pitfalls to take note of.

Which Mastercards are eligible for FlexiRoam?

The following Mastercards offer complimentary FlexiRoam packages, with a maximum of one redemption per calendar year, per eligible card. In other words, if you have multiple eligible cards, you can stack multiple packages (though be careful of FlexiRoam’s sensitive anti-fraud measures, explained below).

This benefit is available for both principal and supplementary cards. 

World Elite Mastercards

World Elite Mastercards enjoy a standardised benefit of a 3GB FlexiRoam data package, valid for 15 days.

Card	Annual Fee	Qualification Req.
Citi Prestige Card Apply	S$651.82	Income ≥ S$120K
Citi Private Client Debit Card Apply	N/A	Min. AUM S$1.5M
Citi ULTIMA Card	S$4,237.92	Income ≥ S$500K
DCS Imperium Card Apply	S$1,294.92	Unknown
HSBC Premier Mastercard Apply	N/A*	Min. AUM S$200K
HSBC Prive Card Apply	S$5,327.92	HSBC Global Private Banking relationship
OCBC Premier Debit Card Apply	N/A	Min. AUM S$350K
OCBC PPC Debit Card Apply	N/A	Min. AUM S$1.5M
StanChart Beyond Card Apply	S$1,635	Income ≥ S$200K
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card Apply	S$598.99	Spend S$45K in 3-month period on UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card
*Waived if min. AUM is maintained, otherwise S$708.50

Selected World Mastercards

It’s a slightly more complicated situation for World Mastercards, because only a couple of them offer the FlexiRoam perk, and the package differs between cards. 

Card	Annual Fee	Data Plan
CIMB Founders Card Apply	S$338	1GB 5-day pass
OCBC 90°N Mastercard Apply	S$196.20 (FYF)	3x 1GB 5-day pass
Note: Amaze previously offered this perk, but it was discontinued from October 2023.

How to redeem your FlexiRoam package

To enjoy your complimentary FlexiRoam data package, you’ll need to first download the FlexiRoam app (Android | iOS).

Create an account using your email address or phone number, then on the homepage, tap the Mastercard logo at the top.

You’ll be prompted to enter your 16-digit card number and email address to redeem your plan. A US$1 hold will be made on your card to ensure it’s still active, and released subsequently. 

After successful verification, you can find your data plan under My Plans > In-active

How to activate your FlexiRoam package

You have until the end of the current calendar year to activate your free data plan, upon which the validity period (e.g. 15 days for the 3GB plan for World Elite Mastercard) begins.

In other words, you can redeem the plan now and activate it later- a useful tactic if you don’t plan to renew your Mastercard beyond the end of its current membership year.

When you tap Activate Plan, you’ll have the choice to activate it immediately, or schedule a future start date as late as the last day of the calendar year. 

For the avoidance of doubt, your validity period can span over two different calendar years, so if you activated a 15-day plan on 28 December 2026, it would be valid until 12 January 2027. 

How to get your SIM card

The first time you redeem a promotional data plan, FlexiRoam will, “with the help of AI, intelligently select and provide a SIM card or eSIM based on your device compatibility”. But really, if you really need AI to tell you whether you need an eSIM or physical SIM for your phone…

eSIMS will be sent to you via email within one hour, while physical SIMs will be shipped for free to your home address within 3-7 working days (you can top up extra for expedited shipping).

What if I run out of data?

Mastercard cardholders will enjoy a 20% discount on any subsequent FlexiRoam data plans purchased with Mastercard.

That said, I think you could find far cheaper eSIM plans elsewhere, so you might want to check out eSIMDB first.

Warning: FlexiRoam account locks

A word of warning: FlexiRoam is known to have very sensitive anti-fraud measures. 

For example, one MileChat member learned the hard way that FlexiRoam caps each account at 3x complimentary Mastercard redemptions per year. Attempt to add more, and your account will be locked.

Also, take care when entering your card number on the Mastercard redemption screen, because FlexiRoam will lock your account if you make too many incorrect attempts. I learned this the hard way when I was guess and checking my Mastercards to see which ones had the perk. After just two ineligible cards, my account was locked and I had to contact customer service with photo ID to get it back to normal. Following that, I tried another ineligible card, and my account was locked once again.

My guess is this benefit sees a fair amount of abuse, hence the trigger-happiness with blocking.

Conclusion

Mastercard customers may be eligible for a complimentary FlexiRoam global data roaming package, which offers up to 3GB for a period of up to 15 days. 

Depending on your data needs, this can save you from having to buy a separate data roaming plan on your trips, so check whether you have an eligible Mastercard and redeem your plans.

Any other Singapore-issued Mastercards with a FlexiRoam benefit?