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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 Dec 12, 2013, 1:33 am
  #2401  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,601
Originally Posted by SingaporeDon
If you are not sure, just send an SMS with "citimiles" in main message body to 72484 and you will get an instant response telling you that you are now registered and what promo you have actually got
It doesn't help. My text message is a generic one that says "Thank you for registering for the Citi PremierMiles Visa Card 3 Miles for overseas spend promotion. Please note that promotion terms and conditinos apply."

Doesn't tell you the actual promo and threshold - unless this has changed since 12 Nov when I signed up?
carrotjuice is offline  
Old Dec 12, 2013, 6:57 pm
  #2402  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 106
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
It doesn't help. My text message is a generic one that says "Thank you for registering for the Citi PremierMiles Visa Card 3 Miles for overseas spend promotion. Please note that promotion terms and conditinos apply."

Doesn't tell you the actual promo and threshold - unless this has changed since 12 Nov when I signed up?
Yes my SMS doesn't state actual threshold as well. You need to have the original email that was sent from Citibank.
feizhu is offline  
Old Dec 13, 2013, 9:42 am
  #2403  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,601
Received a mailer from SCB today offering $100 rebate if spend $2000. Problem is, you need to be first 300 cardholders to do so in order to get the rebate.

YAWN.

Hate banks that do this. You never know if the 300 have already been met by the time you receive the mailer. And it excludes EZLINK top ups.

Into the bin, where it deserves.
carrotjuice is offline  
Old Dec 13, 2013, 10:13 am
  #2404  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: SIN
Programs: TK-G | Accor P | SQ-G | Marriott T
Posts: 3,831
Originally Posted by feizhu
Yes confirm mine is $5000!!!

anyway, i found this for Citi PM Amex benefit which is not listed
http://www.shangri-la.com/offers/sha...-express-card/

any idea where I can find the full benefit
lingua101 is offline  
Old Dec 14, 2013, 3:33 am
  #2405  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Singapore, Warsaw, Surfers Paradise
Programs: KrisFlyer Gold>>>Silver>>>Blue, Finnair Silver, Royal Caribbean Diamond
Posts: 5,230
Thinking of checking out UOB's next-day courier delivery service for the Privi card. Is it just the card that arrives, with the PIN to follow, or do you get it all togehter?

Also, will it arrive by 5pm or is it hit and miss?
aster is offline  
Old Dec 14, 2013, 9:50 am
  #2406  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ, UA, Delta, BMI(RIP), Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond (Thanks Amex) Hyatt Discov
Posts: 1,943
Question

Originally Posted by aster
Thinking of checking out UOB's next-day courier delivery service for the Privi card. Is it just the card that arrives, with the PIN to follow, or do you get it all togehter?

Also, will it arrive by 5pm or is it hit and miss?
As far as I recall, it was just the card

I got mine hand delivered by UOB Card Centre staff at 10 pm at night, but that was after they messed up daytime delivery. But they are quite fast
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Dec 15, 2013, 7:04 am
  #2407  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Singapore, Warsaw, Surfers Paradise
Programs: KrisFlyer Gold>>>Silver>>>Blue, Finnair Silver, Royal Caribbean Diamond
Posts: 5,230
Originally Posted by SingaporeDon
As far as I recall, it was just the card

I got mine hand delivered by UOB Card Centre staff at 10 pm at night, but that was after they messed up daytime delivery. But they are quite fast
So the PIN came later via snail mail?

I recall you writing about the story of how they delivered the card by hand (wow!) after messing up earlier. This is one of the classic stories in this thread - definitely one to remember! ^

In my case I have an evening flight so I am actually hoping that the courier will get the card to me before I head out to Changi.
aster is offline  
Old Dec 15, 2013, 5:47 pm
  #2408  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,601
The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread

Have a quick question regarding the ANZ Christmas promo. I'd be away from Singapore for the last 2 weeks. Understand I can charge my foreign currency spends and find out the settled amount of each transaction above S$100 by calling ANZ directly. But how do I send a text message from overseas to register my transactions for the draw and bonus rebate? Has anyone sent the text message to 77288 from OVERSEAS and successful?
carrotjuice is offline  
Old Dec 15, 2013, 10:28 pm
  #2409  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SIN
Programs: KrisFlyer, Asia Miles
Posts: 60
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
Have a quick question regarding the ANZ Christmas promo. I'd be away from Singapore for the last 2 weeks. Understand I can charge my foreign currency spends and find out the settled amount of each transaction above S$100 by calling ANZ directly. But how do I send a text message from overseas to register my transactions for the draw and bonus rebate? Has anyone sent the text message to 77288 from OVERSEAS and successful?
You can get someone in Singapore to text it on your behalf. However, your call to ANZ to check the S$ equivalent of your spend may cost a few dollars. Not sure, how attractive a $5 rebate is in such a circumstance.
chrispstan is offline  
Old Dec 16, 2013, 6:00 am
  #2410  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Singapore, Warsaw, Surfers Paradise
Programs: KrisFlyer Gold>>>Silver>>>Blue, Finnair Silver, Royal Caribbean Diamond
Posts: 5,230
Is the 2.8 ratio for tix using ANZ Travel Visa something they keep renewing, or is this more like a one-time promo that will disappear end of March?
aster is offline  
Old Dec 16, 2013, 6:33 pm
  #2411  
formerly Fly-Swiss
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ
Posts: 878
The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread

I have ordered the anz card to try. Worth to say that their customer service is really bad compared to others such as uob or citi.
Volasia is offline  
Old Dec 18, 2013, 9:05 am
  #2412  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ, UA, Delta, BMI(RIP), Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond (Thanks Amex) Hyatt Discov
Posts: 1,943
Originally Posted by Fly-Swiss
I have ordered the anz card to try. Worth to say that their customer service is really bad compared to others such as uob or citi.
I filled in the online application for call back, uploaded my CPF statement, but am yet to get call back from them after 3 days!!

Was thinking of using their card as back up ( to replace the newly demoted DBS Altitude Visa) for the UOB Amex Platinum, but am now wondering about their customer service too.
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Dec 18, 2013, 10:04 am
  #2413  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SIN and wandering.
Posts: 1,549
Quick Question as I have not booked tickets on Singaporeair.com for a while now - which is the best card to use?

I have the old KF Amex Gold card, UOB PRVI Miles, Preferred Platinum Amex and Visa, Maybank Horizon Platinum.

Last edited by SQ319; Dec 18, 2013 at 6:44 pm Reason: New card just arrived at my desk this morning.
SQ319 is offline  
Old Dec 18, 2013, 6:17 pm
  #2414  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ, UA, Delta, BMI(RIP), Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond (Thanks Amex) Hyatt Discov
Posts: 1,943
Originally Posted by SQ319
Quick Question as I have not booked tickets on Singaporeair.com for a while now - which is the best card to use?

I have the old KF Amex Gold card, UOB Preferred Platinum Amex and Visa, Maybank Horizon Platinum. I juz applied UOB PRVI miles recently which may or may not reach before my ticketing deadline...
I don't have the Maybank, but of the remaining ones you have, I would use UOB PPAmex for most miles. KF Amex Gold is a gimmick, the actual number of extra miles you get for your $spend is not that much as far as I recall, unless you have some signup promo with KF Amex Gold
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Dec 18, 2013, 7:27 pm
  #2415  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,820
Originally Posted by SingaporeDon
I don't have the Maybank, but of the remaining ones you have, I would use UOB PPAmex for most miles. KF Amex Gold is a gimmick, the actual number of extra miles you get for your $spend is not that much as far as I recall, unless you have some signup promo with KF Amex Gold
UOB really have good cards. I carry PP Amex, PP Visa, and Prvi Miles Amex.
lcpteck is offline  


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