Grocery shopping isn’t particularly glamorous, but it can be a highly reliable recurring source of miles. And with certain cards offering up to 6 mpd at supermarkets, there’s plenty of opportunities to turn your monthly marketing into your next vacation.
In this post, we’ll cover the best cards to use for this category of purchases, as well as some potential pitfalls to take note of.
💳 What’s the Best Card for… | ||
This guide forms part of the “best card” series. Check out other category specific guides below, or the overall guide here. | ||
✈️ Air Tickets |
💗 Charity | 🚗 Car Purchase |
🍽️ Dining |
🏫 Education | 🥡 Food Delivery |
🏥 Hospitals | 🏨 Hotels |
☂️ Insurance |
⛽ Petrol | 🚍 Public Transport | 🛒 Supermarkets |
🚰 Utilities |
How do supermarkets code?
All major supermarkets in Singapore will code as MCC 5411: Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, including:
- Cold Storage
- Don Don Donki
- Giant
- Hao Mart
- Jasons Deli
- Little Farms
- Market Place
- Meidi-Ya
- NTUC FairPrice (and subsidiary brands like FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra)
- Prime Supermarket
- Ryan’s Grocery
- Sheng Siong
If in doubt, you can easily look up the MCC before making a purchase with the following tools:
Method | Ease of Use | Reliability |
❓HeyMax | ●●● | ● |
📱 Instarem app | ●● | ●● |
🤖 DBS digibot | ● |
●●● |
Buying groceries online
If you do your grocery shopping online, the following cards will earn you 4-6 mpd, subject to the caps shown below.
🛒 Best Cards for Groceries (Online) |
||
Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
UOB Lady’s Card Apply |
6 mpd | Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review |
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply |
6 mpd | Max S$3K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review |
Citi Rewards Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per s. month Review |
DBS WWMC Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$2K per c. month Review |
HSBC Revolution Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per c. month Review |
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply |
4 mpd | S$1.1K per c. month Review |
Buying groceries in-store
If you do your grocery shopping in-store, the following cards will earn you 4-6 mpd, subject to the caps shown below.
🛒 Best Cards for Groceries (In-Store) |
||
Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
UOB Lady’s Card Apply |
6 mpd | Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review |
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply |
6 mpd | Max S$3K per c. month. Must choose Family as bonus category Review |
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per s. month Review |
HSBC Revolution Apply |
4 mpd* | Max S$1K per c. month Review |
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply |
4 mpd^ | S$1.1K per c. month Review |
UOB Visa Signature Apply |
4 mpd* |
S$1-2K per s. month on contactless spending Review |
*Must use contactless (tap card or use mobile payments) ^Must use mobile contactless (mobile payments) |
UOB$ merchants
If you’re spending with a UOB credit card at Cold Storage, Giant, Jasons Deli or Market Place, then some special caveats apply.
These supermarkets are part of the UOB$ programme, which awards cashback in lieu of UNI$. What this means is that you won’t earn any miles here, or a reduced number of miles, depending on which card you have.
Card | Earn Rate at Cold Storage, Giant, Jasons Deli, Market Place |
UOB Lady’s Card Apply |
5.6 mpd |
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply |
5.6 mpd |
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply |
None |
UOB Visa Signature Apply |
3.6 mpd |
Assumes you select Family as your quarterly bonus category (UOB Lady’s Card, UOB Lady’s Solitaire), or use contactless payments (UOB Visa Signature). |
For a full explanation of why this is, refer to the post below (it was written before the UOB Lady’s Cards earn rates were upsized to 6 mpd, so it assumes a 4 mpd earn rate in those cases, but the information is otherwise correct).
Confirmed: UOB$ merchants qualify for bonus miles with UOB cards
Fortunately, there are some easy workarounds that will allow you to earn the full amount of miles, such as pairing your UOB Lady’s Card or UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card with Amaze, or shopping online.
Workarounds: How to earn miles at UOB$ merchants with UOB cards
Limited-time: DBS yuu alternative
Even though we’re focusing on miles in this article, it’d be strangely amiss not to give a shout out to the DBS yuu Card and its 36 yuu Points per S$1 spent at Cold Storage and Giant, equivalent to an 18% rebate.
Points | Remarks |
Base 10 points per S$1 spent |
|
Bonus 26 points per S$1 spent |
|
This requires a minimum spend of S$600 (which can be on any retail transactions, not just Cold Storage and Giant), and the 18% rebate is capped at S$78 per calendar month.
It’s been confirmed that yuu Points will also be earned on grocery voucher purchases, so that’s another option if you fall short of the minimum spend.
So should you take 4-6 mpd, or 18% rebates? Well, for you to choose miles, you’d need to value a mile at 3-4.5 cents each, which I think is a bit on the high side.
Therefore, I think most people would be better off taking the yuu Points, at least until the upsized earn rate lapses on 29 February 2024.
Conclusion
By using the right credit cards at supermarkets, you could earn up to 6 mpd on your grocery bill each month. UOB cards offer the highest return, but do take care because of the unique circumstances surrounding UOB$ merchants like Cold Storage or Giant
There’s also an opportunity to earn up to 18% rebates with the DBS yuu AMEX and DBS yuu Visa up till 29 February 2024, which may prove even more attractive than miles for some.
How about the trust card used in NTUC?
Are payments made through the Fairprice app (scan QR at supermarket and kopitiam) considered online spend for the DBS WWMC?
yes.
Trust Fairprice not there
Doesn’t the (Amaze +) Citibank Rewards card also belong under online grocery options?
if the transaction is already online, what do you need the amaze for?
Trust card easily beats the competition for grocery shopping with its 21% rebate. The only drawback is that you need to clock $350 (NTUC member) of non Fairprice transactions per month which pays very low rebates.
If I chose family and food categories for Ladies card, and I made groceries purchases at NTUC and food purchases at Kopitiam but use the Fairprice app to scan QR code for payment linked to Ladies card. Do I get 6mpd?
Does paying at cashier via the Fairprice app linked to Citi Cashback qualify for the 8% cashback for groceries?