Ouch: CardUp announces major increase in payment processing fees

Last month, CardUp announced that it would hike its service fees from June 2026, citing an industry-wide increase in card processing costs.

However, the only detail shared at the time was that the standard service fee would increase from 2.6% to 2.9%. While concerning, this rate was largely theoretical, given CardUp’s frequent promotions for rent, income tax, and other recurring payments. What everyone really wanted to know was how the promotional rates would be affected. 

Well, CardUp has now announced its new promotional rates, and the changes are brutal. From 13 June 2026, fees will increase by up to 36% across all categories, with nothing less than 2.25%.

To put things into perspective, the highest promotional fee today is roughly on par with the lowest promotional fee going forward!

Details: CardUp’s revised fee structure

Details

Here’s a summary of how CardUp fees will be changing for payments made from 13 June 2026 onwards.

Fees are increasing by 4% to 36% across categories, and what’s more, the vast majority of promotions are for Visa cards only. If you have an American Express or Mastercard, the lowest rate you can hope for is 2.59%.

Of course, there may be targeted offers from time to time, but it looks to me like the days of sub-2% fees are well and truly over. 

What about existing payments?

The most important thing to understand is that setting up your payments before the new fees come into effect does not lock in the current rates.

CardUp has provided the following transition timeline:

On 13 June 2026, all your payments will be automatically updated to the corresponding new code. For example, if I’m currently paying rent with the code RENT183 for a 1.83% fee, the payment arrangement will be updated to RENT23 with a 2.3% code on 13 June.

If you’re not agreeable to the new fees, make sure you cancel any payments that take place from 13 June 2026.

In spite of all the comms that CardUp is doing about these changes, it’s probably inevitable that some people will miss the memo. I imagine they’re going to be in for a bit of a shock when they check their statement and see how much the fees have increased by…

What is the cost per mile?

In the table below, I’ve summarised the lowest possible cost per mile for the various general spending cards in Singapore following the changes, based on a 2.25% fee for Visa, and 2.59% fee for AMEX and Mastercard.

Card	Earn Rate	Lowest CPM
StanChart Beyond Card Priority Private Priority Banking Apply	2 mpd	1.26¢
DBS Insignia Card Apply	1.6 mpd	1.38¢
OCBC VOYAGE Card (Premier, PPC, BOS) Apply	1.6 mpd	1.38¢
UOB Reserve Card Apply	1.6 mpd	1.38¢
DBS Vantage Card Apply	1.5 mpd	1.47¢
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	1.4 mpd	1.57¢
UOB PRVI Miles Visa Apply	1.4 mpd	1.57¢
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Apply	1.4 mpd	1.57¢
Citi ULTIMA Mastercard Apply	1.6 mpd	1.58¢
StanChart Beyond Card Regular Apply	1.5 mpd	1.68¢
DBS Altitude Visa Apply	1.3 mpd	1.69¢
OCBC 90°N Visa Apply	1.3 mpd	1.69¢
OCBC VOYAGE Card Apply	1.3 mpd	1.69¢
OCBC Premier Visa Infinite Apply	1.28 mpd	1.72¢
UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard Apply	1.4 mpd	1.80¢
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	1.2 mpd	1.83¢
StanChart Journey Card Apply	1.2 mpd	1.83¢
Citi Prestige Card Apply	1.3 mpd	1.94¢
OCBC 90°N Mastercard Apply	1.3 mpd	1.94¢
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Apply	1.2 mpd	2.10¢
Citi PremierMiles Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2.10¢
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	1.2 mpd	2.10¢
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card Apply	1.1 mpd	2.30¢
Note: BOC and HSBC cards, along with DBS- and UOB-issued AMEX cards, do not earn rewards with CardUp

It makes for pretty grim reading. Unless you have a Visa card that earns at least 1.5 mpd, or a StanChart Beyond Card with Priority Private/Priority Banking status, you can no longer achieve a cost per mile below 1.5 cents — my personal cutoff for buying miles. Such cards are largely inaccessible to the average miles chaser, due to hefty minimum income or AUM requirements, as well as substantial annual fees in most cases.

That said, miles valuation is a highly subjective figure, and there are valid arguments for buying miles above the 1.5 cents threshold. However, I would set a ceiling of 1.8 cents, since that’s the rate at which UOB PRVI Miles Cardholders can buy unlimited miles through the no-questions-asked UOB Payment Facility (which, unlike CardUp, does not require documentation).

It’s worth noting that Citi and StanChart cardholders in particular have much cheaper options at their disposal too:

• Citi cardholders can pay tax and non-tax payments with a lower cost per mile (starting from 1.19 cents) through the ongoing Citi PayAll promotion
• StanChart cardholders can pay tax and non-tax payments with a lower cost per mile (starting from 0.95 cents) through SC EasyBill or the SC Income Tax Payment Facility. 

Save 73% off Business Class tickets?

In the eDM that CardUp sent out announcing these changes, there’s one claim that I want to address.

Basically, CardUp argues that they’re still worth it because you can buy miles to redeem a Business Class flight to Paris for S$3,327, saving 73% off the S$12,500 retail price.

But there are a lot of problems with these figures.

First of all, I’m not quite sure how they came to a S$3,327 figure, given that my own calculations show something slightly higher:

• With a 2.3% fee and 1.5 mpd card, the cost per mile is 1.5 cents
• A round-trip Business Saver ticket from Singapore to Paris costs 217,000 miles + S$333.10
• The total cost is S$3,588

Second, and more importantly, the price of this ticket usually hovers between the S$7,000 to S$9,000 range, and can even be as low as S$6,526.

It’s certainly possible for the price to reach S$12,500, but if it did, that would typically indicate that only a few seats are left. At that point, it’s highly unlikely that a Business Saver award would be available.

Third, when comparing a commercial ticket to an award ticket, we have to account for the following:

• The commercial ticket offers far more availability than a redemption ticket
• The commercial ticket earns PPS Value and KrisFlyer miles, while the redemption ticket does not
• The commercial ticket would earn more credit card miles (fare + taxes) than the redemption ticket (taxes only)

All this to say: a 73% savings figure is probably vastly inflated, and in any case, the savings are only real if you would have been willing to pay for a Business Class ticket with cash in the first place.

Conclusion

CardUp’s revised fee structure takes effect on 13 June 2026, and it’s not pretty. Regardless of payment type, the fees will be substantially higher than before, pushing the cost per mile on many cards into unattractive territory.

Obviously, CardUp didn’t want any of this, but its business model is such that it will always be at the mercy of the card associations. That makes it difficult to compete with in-house payment facilities like Citi PayAll and SC EasyBill, which can undercut pricing by bypassing card associations entirely. 

Be sure to review any existing CardUp payments ahead of the deadline and adjust or cancel them as necessary, if you’re no longer comfortable with the new fees.