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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 Aug 11, 2015, 10:36 pm
  #4531  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
UOB is darn sneaky!
First time poster, long time lurker =)

I don't think the effect is as bad as it looks, someone correct me if I am wrong.

Eg. $95 = 132 miles based on the above. That's 1.389 miles per dollar spent, which is better than the DBS Altitude and Citi Premier Visa (both 1.2 miles per $ on local spend).

UOB does get a bad rep for clawbacks and it's rather high foreign currency fees of 3.25%, while DBS and Citi seem to be pretty good from a customer service perspective and their coversion fees are lower.
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Old Aug 11, 2015, 11:40 pm
  #4532  
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
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Originally Posted by Memphis8
Eg. $95 = 132 miles based on the above. That's 1.389 miles per dollar spent, which is better than the DBS Altitude and Citi Premier Visa (both 1.2 miles per $ on local spend).
This is how I've understood it to be too. Anyone disagree?
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 2:41 am
  #4533  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
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The sneaky part is referring to small ticket transactions above $5 to below $10.
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 3:48 am
  #4534  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
The sneaky part is referring to small ticket transactions above $5 to below $10.
If it's small value purchases ($5-$10), what kills you is not the UNI$ rounding but the minimum dollar spend required i.e. in multiples of $5.

So $5 spend = UNI$ 3.5, $9.99 spend is also UNI$ 3.5. If you make a lot of these small purchases, it's probably better to get Citibank Premiermiles and ANZ Travel.
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 5:11 am
  #4535  
formerly Fly-Swiss
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Originally Posted by Memphis8
First time poster, long time lurker =)

I don't think the effect is as bad as it looks, someone correct me if I am wrong.

Eg. $95 = 132 miles based on the above. That's 1.389 miles per dollar spent, which is better than the DBS Altitude and Citi Premier Visa (both 1.2 miles per $ on local spend).

UOB does get a bad rep for clawbacks and it's rather high foreign currency fees of 3.25%, while DBS and Citi seem to be pretty good from a customer service perspective and their coversion fees are lower.
Locally, ANZ is much better, plain and simple.
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 6:26 am
  #4536  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 819
Originally Posted by Fly-Swiss
Locally, ANZ is much better, plain and simple.
ANZ Travel Card is better for S$ transactions compared to UOB PRVI Miles.

UOB PRVI Miles is better for foreign transactions any amount >S$20, compared to Citi PM.

UOB Preferred Platinum VISA is best for payWave transactions >S$5 even for S$9.99 because of 10x UNI$. Same for UOB Preferred Platinum AMEX.
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 10:24 am
  #4537  
 
Join Date: May 2004
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UOB PPV is fine as long as the merchant does not fall into the Smart$ category.
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 7:48 pm
  #4538  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 62
Hi

has anybody experienced fraud/illegal transaction on DBS credit card before ?

my DBS Visa altitude card has been hacked and it shown transaction on unbilled statement for AEROFLOT Flight NY about 3000 SGD (in USD amount) and at almost same time my DBS Woman MasterCard also charged almost 5000 SGD (in USD amount ).
I already called DBS and they closed/blocked the card immediately but the charge put under dispute and under investigation (they said 21-40 days). Now i will be crazy if i need to pay that 8000 SGD .

Can anybody share what normally the process will be for this fraud/hack case ? The statement this month show this transaction, if i not pay (DBS already put under dispute), will i still be charged for interest fee ?
laurent_rio is offline  
Old Aug 12, 2015, 8:14 pm
  #4539  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by demue
UOB PPV is fine as long as the merchant does not fall into the Smart$ category.
Agreed, I use it extensively for Paywave merchants not belonging to SMART$ category.

Frankly speaking, UOB's suite of cards is very versatile if you can get pass the exceptions.
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Old Aug 12, 2015, 8:16 pm
  #4540  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: HH Diamond, GHA Titanium
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Originally Posted by laurent_rio
Can anybody share what normally the process will be for this fraud/hack case ? The statement this month show this transaction, if i not pay (DBS already put under dispute), will i still be charged for interest fee ?
I can't comment on DBS, but for my other Singapore card that got fraud'ed (specifically, StanChart) I didn't pay the dispute amount and they later waived off the interest.
shuigao is offline  
Old Aug 12, 2015, 10:38 pm
  #4541  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by vsepr
ANZ Travel Card is better for S$ transactions compared to UOB PRVI Miles.

UOB PRVI Miles is better for foreign transactions any amount >S$20, compared to Citi PM.
Other than the fact that ANZ Travel can get points per dollar and cents, is there a reason why ANZ card would better? I'm genuinely curious since I already have the UOB Miles and other than bill payments and normal financial charges, the UOB card should get miles for eveything else right?

I don't quite understand the foreign spend over $20 statement. Can you explain this please?
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Old Aug 13, 2015, 2:03 am
  #4542  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa

Question on the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa.

If I buy a laptop online from Dell Australia, does this count under the 10X UNI$?
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Old Aug 13, 2015, 2:08 am
  #4543  
 
Join Date: May 2004
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Posts: 7,739
Originally Posted by Memphis8
Question on the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa.

If I buy a laptop online from Dell Australia, does this count under the 10X UNI$?
Unless someone has done such a purchase before with that card only trial and error will work. Suggestion would be to buy some smaller item, e.g. an accessory and wait for the transaction to post. Either you track your balance exactly and figure it out that way or call UOB CS and ask on the specific transaction if it got 10x UNI$. Bit of effort, but that way you will be sure.

I did this with Microsoft online store here in SIN when I bought a Surface 3 Pro. I basically bought a mouse first and it got 10x so then I pulled the trigger on the big purchase.
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Old Aug 13, 2015, 2:40 am
  #4544  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by demue
Unless someone has done such a purchase before with that card only trial and error will work.
Thanks for the feedback demue. How knowledgeable are their customer service officers? Is it worth my time to call in and ask?

Seriously, this is the single thing that drives me insane about UOB. For all their great earning rate, these Bermuda Triangle transactions make it such a risky card to use.

Another question - does paywave 10x UNI$ work overseas as well?
Memphis8 is offline  
Old Aug 13, 2015, 3:06 am
  #4545  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
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Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by Memphis8
Seriously, this is the single thing that drives me insane about UOB. For all their great earning rate, these Bermuda Triangle transactions make it such a risky card to use.
True, just need to use it on those verified transactions.

Originally Posted by Memphis8
Another question - does paywave 10x UNI$ work overseas as well?
Yes it does.
lcpteck is online now  


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