What credit card should you use to buy a car?

“What card should I use to pay for a car?” is a question I get often, but I never really saw the point in writing a dedicated guide, because there aren’t any cards which offer special bonuses for this type of transaction. You basically approach it the same way you would any other big-ticket purchase.

That said, a car will very likely be the second most expensive thing you ever buy (after your house), so I can understand the anxiety to want to get it right. I myself took the plunge back in 2023 after the birth of The MileCub, and if you’re planning to do the same, here’s what to consider.

Do car dealers accept credit cards?

Step 2: Go back to November 2008 for S$2 COE

While I can’t speak for every car dealer out there, the vast majority of authorised dealers and larger parallel importers should accept credit cards.

Obviously, no one is going to let you swipe the full cost of the car — the fees they’d pay would be cost-prohibitive — but you can use a credit card for at least a portion of the costs (such as the initial deposit or booking fee).

The exact amount will vary from dealer to dealer, but S$10,000 is usually what you should expect. It may be possible to bargain for a higher amount, though that boils down to how good a negotiator you are (and you may be asked to cover the transaction fee).

I’m also going to assume that you can split the transaction over multiple cards, which is crucial to optimising your earnings. 

What MCC are car dealerships?

Car dealers in Singapore generally code under one of the following MCCs:

• 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

You can always confirm the MCC using one of the methods below…

…but ultimately it doesn’t really matter which of the three it is, because banks treat all these MCCs the same. These are not eligible for any specialised spending bonuses (aside from generic bonuses for contactless/online spending), but neither are they on the exclusion list of any bank.

Step 1: Leverage all possible welcome bonuses

A big ticket purchase like this is a prime opportunity to meet the minimum spend for welcome bonuses. There’s little point in listing specific offers that may no longer be available by the time you read this post, but I keep a monthly roundup of all the offers here.

How do you choose? Well, the general rule is to prioritise offers with the highest payoff ratio, i.e. bonus miles divided by minimum spend. So look for the payoff ratio table in the roundup article, and work your way downwards, keeping in mind that most welcome offers are only for new-to-bank customers.

Most welcome offers require the minimum spend to be met within the first 30-90 days of approval, so based on which cards you’re applying for, time your applications accordingly. 

Step 2: Max out 4 mpd cards

Once the welcome bonuses are used up, you should switch to cards which award 4 mpd based on method of payment (rather than a specific MCC).

Card	Earn Rate	Maximum
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Apply	4 mpd (use mobile contactless)	S$600
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	4 mpd (use contactless)	S$1,200
Citi Rewards + Amaze Apply	4 mpd (1% admin fee applies)	S$1,000

The UOB Preferred Platinum Visa will earn 4 mpd on up to S$600 of spending, provided you use mobile contactless (i.e. add the card to your mobile phone and tap to pay).

The UOB Visa Signature will earn 4 mpd on up to S$1,200 of spending, provided you spend at least S$1,000 per statement month and use contactless (i.e. tap the physical card, or add the card to your mobile phone and tap to pay).

The Citi Rewards + Amaze pairing will earn 4 mpd by virtue of the fact that Amaze converts the transaction into online spend.

Unfortunately, these options are less attractive compared to 2023 when I was buying my car, because the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa and UOB Visa Signature have effectively halved their bonus caps for contactless payments with the introduction of sub-caps. Moreover, Amaze now charges a 1% admin fee on all SGD-denominated transactions, which means the S$1,000 payment will come with a fee of S$10.

Step 3: Mop up the rest with general spending cards

If there’s any amount remaining, this is where you bring in your general spending cards to cover what’s left.

There’s no special trick here; it’s simply a matter of using the highest-earning general spending card at your disposal. I’m not going to list every single option, but the cards below would be a good place to start.

Card	Earn Rate	Qualification
StanChart Beyond Card Apply	PB & PP: 2 mpd Regular: 1.5 mpd	Min. income S$200K
HSBC Premier Mastercard Apply	1.68 mpd	Min. AUM S$200K
Citi ULTIMA Card Apply	1.6 mpd	Invite-only
DBS Insignia Card Apply	1.6 mpd	Invite-only
UOB Reserve Card Apply	1.6 mpd	Invite-only
OCBC VOYAGE Card (Premier, PPC, BOS) Apply	1.6 mpd	Min. AUM S$350K

You may have noticed that all of these have high minimum income/AUM requirements or annual fees, so they won’t be options for everyone.

If you’re looking for a more accessible option, then the UOB PRVI Miles Card at 1.4 mpd would be the highest-earning entry-level general spending card.

Use two-player mode!

Two-player mode is exactly what it sounds like: you find a second person to apply for credit cards. The idea is to increase the amount of spending that is eligible for welcome offers and 4 mpd, while minimising the amount charged to general spending cards.

For example, a husband-wife team would be eligible for twice as many welcome offers, and enjoy twice the bonus caps on the 4 mpd cards I mentioned earlier. 

And of course, there’s nothing stopping you from bringing additional people into the picture, provided you don’t mind the miles being spread across even more accounts. Frankly speaking though, I would be surprised if there were enough spend to spread out over that many people, given that S$10,000 is usually the maximum you can pay with cards.

Additional miles-earning opportunities

On top of the miles from your credit card, there may be opportunities to earn additional miles through other promotions.

For example, I recently wrote about how Kris+ had added Car Choice Singapore as a partner, a parallel importer of automobiles with six showrooms islandwide.

Users earn 2 miles per S$1 spent on up to S$10,000 worth of payments, and if you stacked this with the right cards (DBS Woman’s World, Citi Rewards + Amaze and KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card), you could earn a total of 52,000 miles.

Alternatively, some car dealers 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

Going further back in history, there are some additional examples of banks offering additional miles for certain types of car purchases:

• 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

What about the car loan?

🎁 New User Promo

Use code MILELION to enjoy a 1.79% fee on your first payment of up to S$5,000, valid for payments with Visa cards only

If you’re taking out a car loan (and good luck dealing the salesperson if you’re not!), you can earn additional miles by paying the instalments via CardUp.

You can use the promo code 3HOME26R to enjoy an admin fee of 1.77 to 1.83% on car loan payments, or REC185 for an admin fee of 1.85%. 

Conclusion

There’s no big secret to earning miles for a car purchase. Since this category isn’t eligible for any specialised spending bonuses, it’s a simple matter of earning whatever welcome offers you can, maxing out the 4 mpd caps on contactless payment cards, then using general spending cards for whatever remains.

Of course, you can try and get your spouse or partner to apply for cards of their own, so you can double the welcome offers and 4 mpd caps. Also, it might not be the worst idea to visit the Singapore Airlines website and check which dealers are currently offering KrisFlyer miles as a purchase incentive (though I’m sure the salesperson will tell you too).

Any other miles tips for buying a car?