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The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread

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Old Oct 31, 2014, 6:05 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: lifeonthego_k
I'm going to update this first post as more info flows in to create a 'master list' of all credit cards that offer a decent way of accruing miles - so please help out!

If you know of and/or use any other cards (or the ones already mentioned), please share your thoughts.

***ALL VALUES BELOW IN SINGAPORE DOLLARS (SGD)***
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In no particular order (apart from personal preference in terms of good-mileage opportunities):
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1. UOB PRVI Miles VISA, MasterCard, AMEX

VISA:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...iles_visa.html
MasterCard:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...astercard.html
Amex:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...amex_card.html
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...ard/microsite/



Mileage accrual:
The earn rate will be 1.4 miles for every $1 spent in multiples of S$10 (every multiple of S$5 gives 6 to 7 miles due to 3.5 UNI$ rounding off, every S$10 gives 14 miles), and 2.4 miles for every $1 spent OVERSEAS (every $5 gives 12 miles).

Requirements: min. income $80,000 (not strict).
Cost: First year free, then S$256.80 for main, first two supplementary always free. Annual fee waiver for Amex card if you charge $50,000 or more in a year.
Miles conversion fee: $25 per conversion. UNI$ are combined in 1 cardholder's name/FIN Number/NRIC together for all UOB cards which earn UNI$.

Pros: Best mileage accrual rates for overseas spend only. 20,000 bonus miles and annual fee waiver with spend of $50,000 per year (both only for Amex card). $45 1-way airport transfer voucher for $1,000 overseas spend in a given quarter (Amex only).
Cons: AMEX not always accepted by merchants. Points allocated on every $5 spent, rounded down to next $5. Transfer in blocks of 5000 UNI$ points = 10,000 miles. Points are valid for 2 years (transfer before expiry and they will subsequently be valid for a further 3 years from the date of transfer to KrisFlyer).

2. UOB Preferred Platinum Visa


http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards..._platinum.html
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...visa_card.html


Mileage accrual: Earn 4 miles for every $1 spent using ONLY MOBILE CONTACTLESS every $5 gives 10 UNI$ which equal 20 miles). Same incredible mileage-earning ratio for internet shopping with certain restrictions (travel-related, utilities, etc.). Earn 0.4 mile for every $1 for regular, signature-based payments AND ORPHAN SPEND DUE TO $5 ROUNDING OR EXCEEDING THE BONUS U$2000 SPEND (every $5 gives 1 UNI$ which equal 2 miles).

Earning 4 miles/$ is limited to the first S$1110 spent during the per calendar month (via Mobile Contactless). 2,000UNI$ refers to the extra 9UNI$ and does not include the normal 1UNI$.(Stop when you notice you earn 3UNI$ (1 + bonus 2) for the last S$5 transaction. ($1110/5)x9=1998UNI$, hence the last S$5 transaction will earn 2 bonus UNI$. The total bonus UNI$ awarded to you from qualifying spend on Selected Online Transactions and Mobile Contactless Transactions is capped at UNI$2,000 for each calendar month. THE CAP IS ON THE 9 UNI$ BONUS NOT 10UNI$ TOTAL YOU GET WITH BASE OF U$1 PER $ SPEND

Keep in mind that some merchants offer different, non-mileage accruing awards with UOB cards which are called SMART$. Some popular merchants include Cold Storage, Guardian and Giant Supermarket, ToastBox and Starbucks. A full list of merchants where Mobile contactless transactions will NOT earn miles can be found here:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...smartclub.html

Requirements: min. income $30,000 ($60,000 for foreigners).
Cost: First year free, then $192.60 for main and $96.30 for supplementary. Annual fee waived off easily.
Miles conversion fee: $25 per conversion, in blocks of 5000 UNI$=10,000 miles. UNI$ are combined in 1 cardholder's name for all UOB cards.

Pros: Incredible mileage accrual rates for Paywave transactions (not all merchants - some give SMART$ instead which are different rewards!) as well as internet transactions (some restrictions apply).
Cons: Points allocated on every $5 spent, rounded down to next $5. Transfer in blocks of 5000 UNI$ points = 10,000 miles. Points are valid for 2 years (transfer before expiry and they will subsequently be valid for a further 3 years from the date of transfer to KrisFlyer).

3. Citi PremierMiles MasterCard

https://www.citibank.com.sg/credit-cards/travel/premiermiles-card/?ecid=PSGONSGCCAENPM

Mileage accrual: Earn 1.2 miles for every $1 spent. Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent OVERSEAS. 10,000 bonus miles for each annual membership renewal.

Requirements: min. income $50,000 for VISA. Principal cardholder must be at least 21 years of age.
Cost: First year free, then $192.60 for VISA main, supplementary always free. Annual fee waiver available in exchange for forfeiting the 10,000renewal bonus.
Miles conversion fee: $25 per conversion.

Pros: Decent all-rounder, good for overseas spend. Points never expire. Bonus miles for annual card renewal. 11 frequent flyer programs & 3 hotel programs to choose from, including EVA Air - only 25,000 miles for 1 way Business Class within Asia!!
Cons: No miles awarded for EZ-Link & Transitlink transactions. Miles awarded per S$1. Cents not included. 1.2 miles/S$1. Transfer in blocks of 10,000 miles.

4. DBS Altitude VISA/AMEX

http://www.dbs.com/sg/personal/cards...e/default.aspx
http://www.dbs.com/sg/personal/cards...e/default.aspx



Mileage accrual: Earn 1.2 miles for every $1 spent (every $5 gives 3 DBS points which equal 6 miles). Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent OVERSEAS.

Requirements: min. income $80,000.
Cost: First year free, then $180 for main and $90 for supplementary. Annual fee waiver if you charge $25,000 or more in a year.
Miles conversion fee: S$26.75 per transfer, redeem 1700 DBS points to waive off.

Pros: Points never expire. No rounding down transaction amount to nearest $5 (calculation is done as follows: DBS points = 'transaction amount' divided by 5, multiply by 3, after that round down to nearest whole number. Minimum spend is S$1.67. Each DBS point = 2 miles). Earn 3 miles per S$1 spent on all online Flight and Hotel transactions (capped at S$5,000 per month). 10,000 miles renewal bonus if you have to pay card renewal fees.
Cons: All local spend now down to 1.2 miles/$ (since Dec 1, 2013). AMEX not always accepted by merchants. Transfer in blocks of 5000 DBS points = 10,000 miles (on the plus side points don't expire). Per transfer of S$26.75, redeem 1700 DBS points to waive off.

5. Maybank Horizon Platinum Visa

http://info.maybank2u.com.sg/persona...visa-card.aspx



Earn 3.2 air miles (8X TREATS Points) with every dollar spent on dining, petrol, taxi fares and hotel bookings at Agoda.com/horizon
Earn 2 air miles (5X TREATS Points) with every dollar spent on air tickets, travel packages and foreign currency transactions, with a minimal S$300 in a calendar month

Earn 0.4 mile for every $1 spent elsewhere (1 mile for every $2.50 spent).

Requirements: min. income $30,000 ($80,000 for foreigners).
Cost: $150 for main, supplementary always free. Unsure of any annual fee waiver conditions.
Miles conversion fee: In blocks of 5,000 points to 2000 Asia Miles or KrisFlyer. S$26.75 fee applies.

Pros: Great for ticket purchases and overseas spend. Complimentary access to selected VIP airport lounges when you charge a minimum of S$400 in a single transaction on air tickets or travel packages to your Card 3 months prior to the date of travel.
Cons: Great ONLY for ticket purchases and overseas spend. Points are valid for 1 year only, expire either on 30 June or 31 December of the same year if not Rewards Infinite member.

6. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend AMEX

https://www.americanexpress.com/sg/s...nd-credit-card



Mileage accrual: Earn 1.2 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 spent on all your eligible purchases with your Card

Earn 2 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 equivalent in foreign currency spent overseas on eligible purchases during June and December

Requirements: min. income $50,000 ($60,000 for foreigners). Principal cardholder must be over 21 years of age.
Cost: First year free, otherwise $256.80 for main, 2 supplementary cards always free (more available at $80.25 each). Annual fee cannot be waived unless you spend alot.
Miles conversion fee: None - your KrisFlyer miles are transferred to your account directly with no conversion fees or charges.

Pros: None, except for welcome offers (4 complimentary airport lounge access vouchers, one complimentary night with Millennium Hotels and Resorts).

Cons: Simply nothing special - there are better cards available for all types of purchases, including flight tickets, even with all of the bonuses above applied. AMEX not always accepted by merchants.

7. Citibank Rewards Card

http://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credi...CACRENCCHOCALM



Earn 10X Rewards (10 Rewards Points or 4 Miles for every S$1 spent) when you shop for clothes, bags and shoes or at departmental stores or online shopping websites, including SingTel & M1 online bill payment!

Pros: Transfer to 11 FFPs & 3 Hotel programs in blocks of 25,000 points=10,000 miles; S$25 fee.

Cons: Points awarded per S$1 spend. Cents not included. Cannot combined Thank You Points across cards.

8. DBS Woman's World MasterCard® Card

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards...astercard-card



10X Rewards for Online Retail Purchases
T&C Here: https://www.dbs.com.sg/iwov-resource...s_card_tnc.pdf

Pros: Men also can get this card!! DBS points are combined in 1 cardholder's name. No rounding down transaction amount to nearest $5 (calculation is done as follows: DBS points = 'transaction amount' divided by 5, multiply by 10, after that round down to nearest whole number. Minimum spend is S$1. Each DBS point = 2 miles).

Cons: DBS points are valid for 1 year based on card anniversary date. The additional 9X DBS Points for online retail spend in a calendar month will be awarded on the 16th of the next calendar month. If the above days are not working days, the Points will be awarded on the next working day. The additional 9X DBS Points are only applicable to the first S$2,000 online retail spend every calendar month.

9. OCBC Titanium Rewards Card

https://www.ocbc.com/personal-bankin...astercard.html

10x OCBC$ on your shopping Local & Overseas Shopping Transactions, Local & Overseas Department Store Transactions and Local & Overseas Online Transactions.
The remaining 9 OCBC$ will be posted to the Card Account by the end of the next calendar month

https://www.ocbc.com/assets/pdf/card...ons.pdf?rand=1
10,000 KrisFlyer miles requires OCBC$ 25000, For each conversion of OCBC$ to KrisFlyer miles a fee of S$25 will be charged

10. UOB Lady's Card
https://www.uob.com.sg/personal/card...ard/index.page

============

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The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread

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Old Sep 2, 2015, 2:01 am
  #4636  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 61
Originally Posted by 248477
OCBC 365. Rebates and cashback at Esso in line with Citi Dividend. Best thing about OCBC 365 is the 6% cashback on weekend dining. There's a $600 monthly spend minimum though.
Correct. I realized after posting. Thanks.
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 2:32 am
  #4637  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
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Programs: TK-G | Accor P | SQ-G | Marriott T
Posts: 3,829
Originally Posted by percysmith
I suggested another FTer lodge a complaint when HSBC HK gave a similarly lame response "wait for my statement" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...l#post25227891 . Not just a Singaporean problem.

Where are Singaporean CS outsourced to? India or Malaysia? HK CS is outsourced to Guangzhou.
For this particular bank, I think not outsource. If it does, it should be back at their HQ
lingua101 is online now  
Old Sep 2, 2015, 2:35 am
  #4638  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
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Originally Posted by carrotjuice
FWIW, Citibank readily discloses the MCC when you call. At least they are transparent.
this can only happen after you charged to the card right? I doubt Citibank can tell you the MCC before you charge to the card.

Anyway, to me, I found that promotion that really on something that we do not know (MCC) or even worst charges that will be imposed is rubbish.

BTW, any one know what is the rationale that the bank only give more points of certain MCC?
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 3:36 am
  #4639  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Citibank/Expedia promotion is back again, wiki updated.

List of airlines remains the same, however I haven't read through the entire T&Cs, but it looks similar as before. Will read through again tonight. Remember to register.

Start your engines....

Damn, no British Airways, lucky there's Finnair.
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 5:49 am
  #4640  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,575
Originally Posted by lingua101
this can only happen after you charged to the card right? I doubt Citibank can tell you the MCC before you charge to the card.

Anyway, to me, I found that promotion that really on something that we do not know (MCC) or even worst charges that will be imposed is rubbish.

BTW, any one know what is the rationale that the bank only give more points of certain MCC?
Yes you will only know if you are charged the transaction. Although percysmith has a 'trick' where a call is made to the bank as soon as the transaction is charged by a merchant to find out the MCC, and if it's not an agreeable one, then the merchant is asked to void the earlier transaction and given a different card to charge. While I find this approach rather ingenius, the social awkwardness (and the frowning eyes of my spouse!) is a bit too much even for me!

The rationale is so that a cardholder uses the card for all spends and not only on specific spend categories that the card specifically incentivizes. The bank is counting on the specific category incentives to be attractive enough that enables that card to become your front of wallet card. And it works too... as people like us (who use different cards for different category spends) are by far the minority. Most of my friends have one, at most two, cards in their wallets.
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 7:04 am
  #4641  
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
Posts: 19,798
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
While I find this approach rather ingenius, the social awkwardness (and the frowning eyes of my spouse!) is a bit too much even for me!
Forgive my Putonghua but your spouse is up for a litte Reeducation!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...l#post19918163
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...l#post25072011

Last edited by percysmith; Sep 2, 2015 at 7:16 am
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 8:13 am
  #4642  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,575
Originally Posted by percysmith
Reeducation only works in Cantonese!
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 10:10 am
  #4643  
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
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Originally Posted by carrotjuice
The rationale is so that a cardholder uses the card for all spends and not only on specific spend categories that the card specifically incentivizes. The bank is counting on the specific category incentives to be attractive enough that enables that card to become your front of wallet card. And it works too... as people like us (who use different cards for different category spends) are by far the minority. Most of my friends have one, at most two, cards in their wallets.
A number of reasons, in ascending order of despicability:

1. Too expensive for banks to be general category killer cards - they have to specialise and be able to contractually define it

2. Stop awarding big spends like hospital and jewellery

3. Allow banks to advertise gimmicky rates (I'm waiting for 20 miles per $ on MCC 4444 Voodooism)
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 8:28 pm
  #4644  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by lcpteck

>does paywave 10x UNI$ work overseas as well?

Yes it does.
lcpteck, just saw a post on hardwarezone that the 10x paywave only works in Singapore.
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 9:16 pm
  #4645  
 
Join Date: May 2011
Programs: Krisflyer
Posts: 46
Is there any recent confirmation that Paypal is counted for 10x points under UOB Preferred Platinum?

I am planning to apply for UOB credit cards, but my main online spend is from independent small merchants who take Paypal payments.
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Old Sep 2, 2015, 9:59 pm
  #4646  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by rakso79
Is there any recent confirmation that Paypal is counted for 10x points under UOB Preferred Platinum?
There was a spreadsheet floating around and I remember seeing that Paypal does not get the 10x UNI$. DBS Women's World MC gets paypal points if you're keen.
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Old Sep 3, 2015, 12:43 am
  #4647  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by Memphis8
lcpteck, just saw a post on hardwarezone that the 10x paywave only works in Singapore.
Yeah saw that as well.

Well, maybe it doesn't work anymore but sometimes you just can't trust the CSOs. Unfortunately I have no real experience at this time, my last experience did get 10x UNI$.
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Old Sep 3, 2015, 12:45 am
  #4648  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by Memphis8
There was a spreadsheet floating around and I remember seeing that Paypal does not get the 10x UNI$. DBS Women's World MC gets paypal points if you're keen.
That is correct, UOB will scrutinize the paypal purchases based on feedback from others.

If your primary transaction is paypal then you might want to consider a general spending card. DBS Woman's still have limits.
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Old Sep 3, 2015, 5:17 am
  #4649  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,575
Originally Posted by percysmith
2. Stop awarding big spends like hospital and jewellery
I don't get this one. Isn't the bank's revenue based on the MDR which is a % of the amount charged... so spending amount shouldn't really matter?
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Old Sep 3, 2015, 6:18 am
  #4650  
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
Posts: 19,798
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
I don't get this one. Isn't the bank's revenue based on the MDR which is a % of the amount charged... so spending amount shouldn't really matter?
I think so. I think they are trying to catch out lazy people.

They rather pay a great percentage on a limited number of transactions than pay a good percentage over everything.

I've number of friends who ask how to maximise earn on a six digit payment their Hongkie mothers insist on doing now, being dogged on by their favourite sales managers wanting to close deals and nail their targets/commissions. Only after I put them in F for a time or two with (their or their childrens' miles) would they consult "how to maximise miles earn on this large purchase".
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