Credit card tracking periods: Calendar month, statement month, or something else?

Tracking bonus caps, minimum spend and other benefits for credit cards can be a confusing exercise, as different cards use different timeframes.

Some are based on the calendar month, while others use the statement month. To complicate matters further, internal consistency is not guaranteed. For example, UOB tracks bonus caps by calendar month for some cards (UOB Lady’s Card, UOB Preferred Visa), but statement month for others (UOB Visa Signature).

And it doesn’t stop there. Some cards track spending across a membership year, or use a completely arbitrary 12-month period altogether!

In this post, I’ll provide a detailed listing of which time periods the major credit cards in Singapore use to track spending and benefits.

Cards with monthly tracking

Calendar month or statement month

If a card tracks bonus caps and minimum spend on a monthly basis, it could either be the calendar month, or statement month.

• Calendar month is self-explanatory; it’s basically the period from the 1st to the last day of a given month
• Statement month is the period between two consecutive statement generation dates, and varies from person to person

To work out your statement month, download your e-Statement and look for the statement date. This is the last day of your statement month. For example, if my statement date is 12 May 2025, then my statement month runs from the 13th of each month to the 12th of the following month.

Obviously, calendar month is a lot more intuitive. It’s hard enough to remember the statement date on one card, let alone several. 

Incidentally, this is also why changes to cards that use statement months can be so confusing — the effective date will be different for everyone!

For example, when UOB Visa Signature split its bonus cap into S$1,200 for FCY spend and S$1,200 for contactless and petrol spend, the change took place for statement dates from 1 September 2025 onwards. This meant that every cardholder transitioned at a different time.

Which month do cards track by? 

Here’s a rundown of which cards use calendar month vs statement month for tracking minimum spend and bonuses.

Card	Feature	Is Based on
Chocolate Visa Card Apply	S$1K cap for 1 mpd on all spend	Calendar
	100 miles cap for bill payments	Calendar
Citi Rewards Card Apply	S$1K cap for 4 mpd on online spend	Statement
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	S$1K cap for 4 mpd on online spend	Calendar
DCS Imperium Card Apply	S$4K min. spend for 4 mpd on FCY spend	Calendar
DBS yuu Card AMEX Visa	S$800 min. spend for 10 mpd on yuu merchants	Calendar
	S$823 cap for 10 mpd on yuu merchants
HSBC Revolution Apply	S$1K cap for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Calendar
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	S$800 min. spend for 2.8 mpd on FCY and air tickets	Calendar
	S$10K cap for 2.8 mpd on air tickets
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	S$4K min. spend for 3.2 mpd on FCY spend	Calendar
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	S$800 min. spend for 2.8 mpd on FCY spend	Calendar
	S$4K min. spend for 3.2 mpd on FCY spend
Maybank XL Card Apply	S$500 min. spend for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Calendar
	S$1K cap for 4 mpd on selected MCCs
OCBC Rewards Card Apply	S$1.1K cap for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Calendar
StanChart Journey Card Apply	S$1K cap for 3 mpd on selected MCCs	Statement
StanChart Smart Card Apply	S$800 min. spend for 7.42 mpd on selected MCCs	Statement
	S$1.5K min. spend for 9.28 mpd on selected MCCs
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	S$2K min. spend for 1.4/3 mpd on local/FCY spend	Statement
UOB Lady’s Card  Apply	S$1K cap for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Calendar
UOB Lady’s Solitaire  Apply	S$750 cap (per cat.) for 4 mpd on selected MCCs	Calendar
UOB Preferred Visa Apply	S$600 cap (per cat.) for 4 mpd on contactless, and selected online MCCs	Calendar
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	S$1K min. spend (per cat.) for 4 mpd on FCY, contactless and petrol	Statement
	S$1.2K cap (per cat.) for 4 mpd on FCY, contactless and petrol

Cards with annual tracking

Calendar year, membership year, or other 12-month period

While monthly tracking is more common, there are also cards which use the calendar year, membership year or some other 12-month period for tracking.

• Calendar year is self-explanatory; it’s the period from the 1st to the last day of the year
• Membership year refers to the 12-month period starting from the month your card was approved or renewed
• Some cards track spending based on a specified 12-month period, which may not have any apparent logic behind it!

Again, calendar year is the most intuitive, but membership year isn’t that hard to obtain either — just look at the expiry date on your card. If your expiry month is May, for example, your membership year runs from 1st May to 30th April each year. 

Which year do cards track by? 

Here’s a rundown of which cards use calendar year, membership year, or some other 12-month period for tracking minimum spend or bonuses.

Card	Feature	Is Based on
AMEX Platinum Charge Apply	S$800 annual statement credits	Calendar
AMEX Platinum Credit Card Apply	S$200 Fashion & Dining credit	Calendar
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	Min. spend (S$1K) for Accelerated Miles	Membership
StanChart Rewards+ Card Apply	Cap (5.8K miles) for 2.9 mpd on FCY spend	Membership
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Apply	Min. spend (S$10K FCY) for 18K miles voucher	Others 1 Nov to 31 Oct
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card Apply	Min. spend (S$12K) for S$150 SIA cashback	Others 1 Jul to 30 Jun
AMEX PPS Card Apply	Min. spend for 50K miles discount (S$75K) & double miles (S$15K)	Others 1 Jul to 30 Jun
AMEX Solitaire PPS Card Apply	Min. spend for 50K miles discount (S$75K) & First Class upgrade (S$50K)	Others 1 Jul to 30 Jun

Another perk worth clarifying is lounge access, where some cards track allowances based on calendar year, and others membership year.

I want to specifically emphasise that membership year here refers to your lounge pass membership, and not your credit card. If you applied for your Priority Pass as soon as you got your credit card, then it’s likely the two will be the same. However, if you delayed your application for whatever reason, then the two will be different.

Card	Feature	Is Based on
Diners Club Cards	1x lounge visit	Calendar
Citi PremierMiles Card Apply	2x lounge visits	Calendar
Maybank Premier World Mastercard Apply	2x lounge visits	Calendar
OCBC VOYAGE (Supp. Card) Apply	2x lounge visits	Calendar
HSBC TravelOne Card Apply	4x lounge visits	Calendar
UOB PRVI Miles Card AMEX MC Visa	4x lounge visits	Calendar
StanChart Beyond Card Apply	6x guest lounge visits (shared among all principal & supp. cards)	Calendar
DCS Imperium Apply	6x lounge visits	Calendar
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card	6x lounge visits	Calendar
AMEX Platinum Charge (1st Supp. Card) Apply	8x Priority Pass visits	Calendar
Citi Prestige Card Apply	12x lounge visits	Calendar
DBS Altitude Visa Apply	2x lounge visits	Membership
OCBC Premier Visa Infinite Apply	2x lounge visits	Membership
StanChart Journey Card Apply	2x lounge visits	Membership
CIMB Visa Infinite Apply	3x lounge visits	Membership
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	4x lounge visits	Membership
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	6x lounge visits	Membership
StanChart Priority Visa Infinite Apply	6x lounge visits	Membership
DBS Vantage Card Apply	10x lounge visits	Membership
BOC Visa Infinite Apply	4x lounge visits	Others 1 Nov to 31 Oct

Cards that track allowances by calendar year present an opportunity to “double dip” in your first year of membership.

For example, if I’m approved for a HSBC TravelOne Card in July 2026, I will have 4x lounge visits to use by December 2026. On 1 January 2027, I will receive another 4x lounge visits to use by December 2027. Therefore, I can utilise 8x lounge visits in my first membership year (which ends in July 2027), with no obligation to renew the card for another year.

Tracking with HeyMax

👍 200 Max Miles joining bonus

Sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 200 Max Miles as a welcome bonus

200 bonus Max Miles

If you have difficulty keeping track of your bonus caps, one useful tool is the HeyMax card tracker.

You link your cards to HeyMax, which tracks your transactions and keeps a running balance of how much bonus cap remains. For cards which track caps by statement month, you’ll also need to provide your statement date. 

This saves you from having to log in to internet banking and manually tallying amounts each time. Even if your card tracks bonuses by calendar month, transactions will still be grouped by statement month, which makes it complicated to calculate on the fly. 

The catch is that the HeyMax card tracker only supports Visa cards, so Mastercard users will still have to do things the old-fashioned way.

Conclusion

Tracking periods are a crucial piece of information, because messing this up can mean missing out on rewards. Missing a minimum spend window by a few days or overshooting a bonus cap can be very painful, believe me.

The challenge, unfortunately, is that there’s no standardisation across banks, or even within the same bank. Some cards use the calendar month, others the statement month, still others the membership year. There are even a handful which use arbitrary 12-month periods.

Tools like the HeyMax card tracker can help with the cognitive load somewhat, though it’s limited to Visa cards at the moment. For Mastercards, you’re stuck with keeping spreadsheets or on-the-fly tallying.