What’s the minimum spend required to earn miles?

While we commonly use the term “miles per dollar” (mpd) when referring to earn rates, it tends to oversimplify the calculations that go on behind the scenes. 

Not every card awards miles per dollar, in fact, most of them don’t. For example, the UOB PRVI Miles Card advertises a local earn rate of 1.4 mpd, but it actually awards 3.5 UNI$ (7 miles) for every S$5 spending block.

So if you charged a transaction of S$9.99, it would first be rounded down to S$5, which earns 3.5 UNI$. But since UOB doesn’t award partial UNI$, this is further rounded down to 3 UNI$, equivalent to 6 miles— an effective earn rate of just 0.6 mpd (6 miles / S$9.99)!

It’s an extreme example, yes, and the effect of rounding will diminish as the transaction size increases. However, it goes to show that points calculations are not a simple matter of spend x mpd, and that rounding can quietly chip away at your earnings.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the minimum spend required to earn points with various miles and points cards, so you know how to better handle smaller transactions.

S$10: Amaze card

Card	SGD	FCY
Amaze Card Apply	S$10	S$10

If you have an Amaze card, you’ll need to spend at least S$10 to earn InstaPoints on wallet-linked transactions (though the earning block after the first S$10 reduces to S$1).

To pre-empt any confusion, I’m not referring to card-linked transactions where you pair Amaze with a credit card, e.g. the Amaze x Citi Rewards pairing. In those scenarios, the minimum spend to earn points will depend on the card you’ve paired.

S$5: Maybank, OCBC, Trust, UOB cards

Card	SGD	FCY
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	S$5	S$5
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	S$5	S$5
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	S$5*	S$5*
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	S$5	S$5^
Maybank XL Rewards Apply	S$5@	S$5@
OCBC 90°N Card MC Visa	S$5	S$5
OCBC Premier Visa Infinite Apply	S$5	S$5
OCBC Rewards Card Apply	S$5	S$5
OCBC VOYAGE Card Apply	S$5	S$5
Trust Freedom Card Apply via app with referral code 2GQEAM81	S$5	S$5
UOB Preferred Visa Apply	S$5	S$5
UOB PRVI Miles Card AMEX MC Visa	S$5	S$5
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Apply	S$5	S$5
*Refers to the 4 mpd for petrol and speciality retail/dining. Different rules apply to FCY spend (see below) ^Refers to the base 2 mpd for FCY spend. The bonus 1.2 mpd, awarded for spending at least S$4,000 per calendar month, follows a different set of rules (see below) @Aggregated monthly, see below

If you have a Maybank, OCBC, Trust or UOB card, you might have heard that all transactions are rounded down to the nearest S$5 before points are awarded. For example, a S$9.99 transaction would earn the same number of points as a S$5 transaction, and a S$4.99 transaction would earn no points at all!

This is generally true, but there are a few exceptions.

UOB cards

With the UOB Lady’s Card, Lady’s Solitaire Card, Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card and Visa Signature, individual transactions are rounded down to the nearest S$5 before awarding the X base UNI$ (0.4 mpd).

However, the remaining 9X UNI$ (3.6 mpd) will only be credited the following month. To calculate this figure, UOB will sum up all eligible transactions — including cents — and then round down the aggregated figure once to the nearest S$5 before awarding UNI$.

Card	1X Base Points (0.4 mpd)	9X Bonus Points (3.6 mpd)
UOB Lady’s Card	Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis	Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card	Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis	Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card	Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis	Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5
UOB Visa Signature	Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis	Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5

To put it another way, with the UOB Preferred Visa, you could lose a maximum of 20 miles per transaction. With the UOB Lady’s Card, Lady’s Solitaire and Visa Signature, you would lose a maximum of 18 miles per bonus period (from the bonus 9X component; as mentioned the base 1X is still subject to transaction-level rounding).

Maybank cards

A similar concept applies to the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature, Visa Infinite, World Mastercard and XL Rewards Card.

Card	Points Calculation
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	For FCY and Air Tickets Base Points (1.2 mpd): Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis Bonus Points (1.6 mpd): Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	For FCY Base Points (2 mpd): Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis Bonus Points (1.2 mpd): Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	For FCY Base Points (0.4 mpd): Rounded down to S$5 on individual trxn. basis Bonus Points (2.4/2.8 mpd): Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5
Maybank XL Rewards Card Apply	For FCY & Bonus Categories Base Points (0.4 mpd): Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5 Bonus Points (3.6 mpd): Individual trxns. summed up, then rounded down to S$5

Base points are subject to rounding at an individual transaction level (except the Maybank XL Rewards Card), while bonus points are derived from the sum of all eligible transactions, rounded down once.

S$1.60: AMEX Platinum cards

Card	SGD	FCY
The Platinum Card Apply	S$1.60	S$1.60
AMEX Platinum Reserve Apply	S$1.60	S$1.60
AMEX Platinum Credit Card Apply	S$1.60	S$1.60

If you have an AMEX Platinum card, the minimum spend to earn points is S$1.60.

That’s because transactions are divided by 1.6, then rounded down to the nearest whole number before the points earn rate (2X for regular spend, an extra 8X for 10Xcelerator) is applied. Any spend below S$1.60 would be rounded down to 0 at the second step.

S$1: Bank of China and Citi cards

Card	SGD	FCY
BOC Elite Miles Card Apply	S$1	S$1
Citi PremierMiles Card Apply	S$1	S$1
Citi Prestige Card Apply	S$1	S$1
Citi Rewards Card Apply	S$1	S$1

Bank of China and Citi cards round transactions down to the nearest S$1 before awarding points, so you can basically drop all the cents from your calculations.

Varies: AMEX KrisFlyer cards, DBS, HSBC, Standard Chartered cards

Card	SGD	FCY
DBS Chromo Card Apply	S$1.54	N/A
DBS Altitude Card AMEX Visa	S$1.54	S$0.91
DBS Vantage Card Apply	S$1.43	S$0.91
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	S$0.56	S$0.72
HSBC Revolution Card Apply	S$0.50	S$0.50
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card Apply	S$0.39	S$0.39
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Apply	S$0.34	S$0.34
HSBC TravelOne Card Apply	S$0.25	S$0.10
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	S$0.20	S$0.10 (Step-up rate) S$0.20 (regular rate)
StanChart Journey Card Apply	S$0.17	S$0.17
HSBC Premier Mastercard Apply	S$0.16	S$0.09
StanChart Beyond Card Apply	S$0.14	S$0.07

If you have an AMEX KrisFlyer card, DBS, HSBC, or Standard Chartered credit card, the minimum spend to earn points boils down to:

• whether you’re spending SGD or FCY
• what type of spend you’re making (in the case of cards that also offer bonus categories, like the StanChart Journey Card)

One important thing to highlight is that contrary to popular belief, DBS cards do not have S$5 earning blocks. Instead, transactions are divided by 5, multiplied by the relevant number of DBS Points, then rounded down to the nearest whole number. 

For the HSBC Revolution, transactions are rounded off to the nearest S$1 when awarding base points, so any spend of S$0.50 or more will earn base points. For bonus points, all eligible transactions including cents are summed up, rounded down to the nearest dollar, then multiplied by 9.

S$0.50: Chocolate Visa Card

Card	SGD	FCY
Chocolate Visa Card Apply	S$0.50	S$0.50

The Chocolate Visa Card specifies a minimum spend of S$0.50 before Max Miles are earned.

S$0.01: DBS yuu Card

Card	SGD	FCY
DBS yuu Card Apply	S$0.01	S$0.01

The DBS yuu Card awards points right down to the cent, so any transaction of at least S$0.01 will earn points.

You can see on the app that yuu Points are awarded to two decimal places.

Conclusion

Rounding policies can differ significantly by issuer, and depending on the card you use, you might need to spend as much as S$10 to earn any points at all!

It can be very confusing to keep track of everything, but some heuristics can help. For example, try to hit S$5 blocks with Maybank, OCBC, Trust and UOB cards (unless you’re using a card with delayed bonuses). Bank of China and Citi round everything down to the nearest S$1, and the DBS yuu Card gives you miles by the cent.

Any other data points for minimum spends?