Kris+ has come a long way since its debut in July 2018. Initially a loose collection of restaurants and retail outlets, it now boasts more than 1,700 partners across Singapore, including some unexpected ones like enrichment centres, hair salons, wedding banquets, the National Gallery, and even, for a time, medical clinics (since removed, sadly).
Now, Kris+ has added what might be its most intriguing partner yet: a car dealership. This could very well be the biggest ticket purchase you ever make through the platform, even if you won’t be able to pay the entire amount through Kris+ alone…
Kris+ adds its first car dealership
Kris+ payments are now accepted at Car Choice Singapore, a parallel importer of automobiles with six showrooms islandwide.
Users will earn 2 miles per S$1 spent, but before you get too excited, you should know that Kris+ will only be accepted for up to S$10,000 worth of payments.
It’s really not that different from the situation at authorised distributors, where credit card payments, if accepted at all, are subject to a cap. When I bought my car from Cycle & Carriage, I was also allowed to swipe S$10,000. I’ve also heard of people managing to bargain for more, so it often comes down to how good a negotiator you are.
Now, at the risk of stating the obvious, you shouldn’t be choosing a dealership on the basis of miles alone. I mean, there’s little point earning bonus miles on an ultimately overpriced car. That said, if you like what you see at Car Choice, then this could be the extra nudge to pull the trigger.
What card should you use?
I haven’t tested it myself, but I would assume that payments to Car Choice via Kris+ would code as one of the three MCCs below:
- MCC 5511 Automobile and Truck Dealers-Sales, Service, Repairs, Parts and Leasing
- MCC 5521 Automobile and Truck Dealers (Used Only)- Sales
- MCC 7538 Automotive Service Shops
In practice, it doesn’t really matter which of the three it is, since none of these MCCs are excluded by banks, nor are they whitelisted for any specialised spending bonuses.
In addition to the 2 mpd that Kris+ offers, you can earn an extra 3-4 mpd with the cards below.
| 💳 Best Cards for Kris+ (All Categories) | ||
| Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
 DBS Woman’s World CardApply |
4 mpd | Max. S$1K per c. month |
 Citi Rewards + AmazeApply |
4 mpd | Max. S$1K per s. month. 1% admin fee (min. S$0.50) for all SGD transactions |
 KrisFlyer UOB CardApply |
3 mpd | No cap |
In an ideal scenario, you would pay S$1,000 with the DBS Woman’s World Card, S$1,000 with the Citi Rewards + Amaze (incurring a fee of S$10, since it’s an SGD-denominated transaction), and S$8,000 with the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, netting a total of 52,000 miles (20,000 miles from Kris+, 32,000 miles from credit cards).
Other ways of earning miles on cars
Car dealers occasionally offer KrisFlyer miles as a purchase incentive, and the Singapore Airlines website currently shows two ongoing promotions:
- Borneo Motors: Earn 100,000 KrisFlyer miles on a purchase of a Toyota Alphard or Vellfire
- Eurokars Auto: Earn 70,000 KrisFlyer miles with the purchase of a BMW 7 Series, BMW i7, BMW X7, BMW 8 Series or BMW XM
If we go back further in history, we can find some additional examples:
- Back in 2021, OCBC VOYAGE offered an extra 1 mpd on transactions at car dealerships on two separate occasions, capped at S$10,000/S$20,000
- Mazda used to be a Platinum 10Xcelerator merchant, which meant you could swipe your AMEX Platinum Charge and earn 7.8 mpd on up to S$5,000 of booking fees. This ended sometime in 2022
- UOB had a tie-up with Lexus that offers its premium cardholders (UOB Reserve Card, UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, UOB Privilege Banking Card and UOB Visa Infinite Card) a flat 104,000 miles when they paid their S$23,000 deposit
As for card strategy, you should approach this the way you would any other big ticket, non-whitelisted spend:
- Max out your sign-up bonuses
- Switch to contactless bonus cards like the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (S$600) and UOB Visa Signature (S$1,200)
- Use general spending cards for the balance
This is also a good opportunity to leverage “two-player mode”, by getting your spouse or partner to duplicate your cards, so you can enjoy (1) and (2) twice.
Conclusion
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| S$5 for new Kris+ Users |
| Get S$5 when you sign-up with code W644363 and make your first transaction |
Kris+ has added its first-ever car dealership, with users now earning 2 mpd for up to S$10,000 of payments at Car Choice. While Kris+ has had auto-related businesses before like car servicing, car rentals and car grooming, this is the first time you’ve been able to buy a car through the platform.
Again, I want to emphasise that I don’t know much about Car Choice, and can’t comment on how good their inventory or service is, but if this was on your radar before then the extra miles could prove decisive. With the right combination of cards, you could take home up to 52,000 miles on that S$10,000 payment, just shy of a one-way Business Class redemption to Japan or South Korea.
