If you’re privileged enough to be able to give, there’s no shame in asking which credit card lets you earn miles in return. After all, I’m sure a charity would prefer to receive S$100 less an admin fee than nothing at all!
Unfortunately, donations are one area where banks don’t feel particularly charitable. Because charities enjoy reduced interchange rates (the fee paid to accept credit cards), the margins on such transactions are smaller, and most banks therefore exclude them from earning rewards altogether.
Therefore, don’t be surprised at the brevity of the list — though there’s some good news if you have an American Express card…
What MCC do charitable donations code as?
The MCC for charitable donations depends on the type of organisation you’re donating to. The two you’re most likely to encounter are:
- MCC 8398- Organisations, Charitable and Social Service
- Examples: Giving.sg, Give.asia, Ray of Hope
- MCC 8661- Religious Organisations
- Examples: giving to churches or temples
In case you’re uncertain about the MCC, there are three ways of looking it up before making a purchase.
| Method | Ease of Use | Reliability |
| ❓HeyMax | ●●● | ● |
| 📱 Instarem app | ●● | ●● |
| 🤖 DBS digibot | ● |
●●● |
| Note: “Ease of use” and “reliability” are all relative. HeyMax already provides a solid baseline for reliability, and the DBS digibot is still simple enough to use, despite requiring more steps than the other two methods. | ||
What cards earn points/miles on donations to charity?
Following Maybank’s exclusion of charitable donations in July 2025, the only card issuers still rewarding this category are American Express and Chocolate Finance.
| Bank | Awards Points for Charity? |
 Plat. Charge, Centurion |
✓ |
| All other cards |
✕ (but see below) |
 |
✕ |
 |
✓ |
 |
✕ |
 |
✕ |
 |
✕ |
 |
✕ |
 |
✕ |
 |
✕ |
 |
✕ |
You can currently use the following cards to earn rewards on charitable donations.
| ❤️ Best Cards For Charitable Donations | |
| Card | Earn Rate |
 AMEX Solitaire PPS Credit CardApply |
1.3 mpd* |
 AMEX PPS Credit CardApply |
1.3 mpd* |
 AMEX HighFlyer CardApply |
1.2 mpd* |
 AMEX KrisFlyer AscendApply |
1.2 mpd* |
 AMEX KrisFlyer Credit CardApply |
1.1 mpd* |
 Chocolate Visa CardApply |
1 mpd^ |
 AMEX CenturionApply |
0.98 mpd |
 AMEX Platinum ChargeApply |
0.78 mpd |
| *Unofficial — proceed at your own risk! ^Capped at S$1,000 per month, 0.4 mpd after |
|
American Express
American Express excluded donations from earning rewards in October 2023, but carved out an explicit exception for the AMEX Platinum Charge and AMEX Centurion Card.
|
2) No Membership Rewards points will be awarded for charges that are not eligible u) Transactions relating to education and other non-profit purposes (including charitable |
That said, it appears that other American Express cards are still earning rewards on charitable donations nonetheless. I recently confirmed this on the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, and another MileLion community member provided a positive data point for the AMEX HighFlyer Card.
Given that this is an unofficial feature, however, it could be “fixed” at any time, so proceed at your own risk.
Chocolate Finance
The Chocolate Visa Card earns 1 Max Mile per S$1 on the first S$1,000 spent each month, including on charitable donations. Any spend beyond this cap will earn 0.4 Max Miles per S$1.
For what it’s worth, charitable donations are not subject to the 100 Max Miles per month cap on so-called “bill payments”.
However, the Chocolate Visa Card will only work for donations to Singapore-based charities. Transactions to overseas-based charities aren’t excluded per se, but are blocked on the backend due to compliance reasons.
Cashback options?
Given the dearth of ways to earn miles on donations, should we be looking at cashback options instead?
Well, the picture’s not much better:
- The AMEX True Cashback card earns 1.5% cashback on donations, but most charities don’t accept AMEX, if they accept cards at all
- The UOB Absolute Cashback card earns 0.3% cashback on donations (with the same AMEX-acceptance problem)
Other ways to earn points on donations
| Provider | Fee | Cost Per Mile |
 |
2.6% | 1.63 to 2.17 cents |
If you really want to earn miles on donations, and don’t mind paying an admin fee, then Citi PayAll would be an option (CardUp, SC EasyBill and AXS Pay+Earn do not support donations to charities).
Given a 2.6% admin fee and earn rates of 1.2-1.6 mpd, your cost per mile will be 1.63 to 2.17 cents. For most people, it won’t be worth paying the admin fee outside of a promotion.
Conclusion
There are only a handful of credit cards which still offer rewards for charitable donations, and for several of them, it’s more likely a bug rather than a feature.
It’s worth noting that gift card retailer Wogi has a section for charities, which historically allowed you to earn 4 mpd on donations to organisations like the Children’s Aid Society, Singapore Cancer Society and Food from the Heart — along with tax deductions. This disappeared in early 2025, but it’s always worth monitoring the page to see if it returns.
Any other ideas for earning miles on donations?
I can confirm a plain vanilla donation on http://www.giving.sg does not get points for Citi Premiermiles card. Donated last month
Workaround for Community Chest Donations with tax deduction using GPMC: Donate via their website (https://www.comchest.sg/) and select Paypal as the payment method (GPMC is rejected when using the credit card payment method). Grabpay points are also awarded.
Ah, that’s very clever.
Can confirm SCB X card gives points for one-off donations via giving.sg, as well as church online tithing.
thank you for the confirmation
Works for Maybank F&F card too
thanks for the data point!
It falls under the min $800 monthly spend consideration ? Or applicable under the Miscellaneous 0.3% Cashback?
Thanks 🙏
Hi, has anyone tried and confirmed the Lazada workaround with the OCBC Titanium and Citi Rewards cards?
I just made a donation to giving.sg via grabpay mastercard. It went through and I earned points for it. I’m not sure if it worked because I already had the money in my grabpay wallet (did not need to pull from a card).
I’m so sorry for the wrong info!! Grab worked for give.asia but not giving.sg 🙁
Anybody tried the Lazada workaround?
Just tried paying GiveAsia with GrabPay Card. It get declined and contacted CS said like below.
Thank you for your details. As per our terms & conditions, GrabPay wallet cannot be used for political, religious, spiritual, charitable and non-profit organizations of any kind. https://www.grab.com/sg/terms-policies/payment-rewards/
Do we know if Maybank platinum visa can get Cashback for donations to overseas charities?
Successfully donated and earned miles on the Amex krisflyer. an interesting thing to note is that Amex doesnt charge extra 1% for the benevity platform, unlike Visa.
Successfully donated via Amex krisflyer and earned 1.1 mpd. Interesting thing to note is that Amex doesnt seem to charge the extra 1% charged by Benevity donation platform. I donated with visa last week and got charged 1% extra
Need to update/ delete the section on using Amex/ UOB Absolute card to top-up GrabPay.
AMEX Krisflyer Card –
Exclusions: Transactions relating to education and other non-profit purposes (including charitable
donations) (with effect from 1 October 2023)
TrueCashBack Amex – 1.5% Cashback on Charities spends
Has anyone tried the wogi.sg method? Can’t seem to add any vouchers for purchase on their website.
no more charity organisations registered with wogi from Mar 25 onwards. Wonder what happened? anyone knows?
Giving.SG and Give.Asia donations
Confirmed, 1.5% cashback on Amex TrueCashback card
What about Mari 1.7% on “everything else”?