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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):
============

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 Oct 8, 2015, 4:25 pm
  #4726  
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
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I have yet to received mine.
tboons is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 1:53 am
  #4727  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 106
Just got my bonus points as well.
feizhu is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 3:16 am
  #4728  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 61
Slightly off topic but since everybody's mentioning their CitiPM.

Does anyone has troubles logging into citibank online? I keep having to reset my password every time I want to log in and heard of a friend that is facing the same issue. Wondering if this is common and if anyone managed to fix this. Have to call citi again..
Wadexis is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 7:07 am
  #4729  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Singapore
Programs: SQ Gold, SPG Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 47
Just seen that Redmart is back on Krisflyer Spree
UK_Ship is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 8:45 am
  #4730  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by Wadexis
Slightly off topic but since everybody's mentioning their CitiPM.

Does anyone has troubles logging into citibank online? I keep having to reset my password every time I want to log in and heard of a friend that is facing the same issue. Wondering if this is common and if anyone managed to fix this. Have to call citi again..
Never had this problem before.
lcpteck is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 8:46 am
  #4731  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by UK_Ship
Just seen that Redmart is back on Krisflyer Spree
It's back on Shopback as well it seems.
lcpteck is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 8:59 am
  #4732  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: SIN
Programs: TK-G | Accor P | SQ-G | Marriott T
Posts: 3,828
Originally Posted by Wadexis
Slightly off topic but since everybody's mentioning their CitiPM.

Does anyone has troubles logging into citibank online? I keep having to reset my password every time I want to log in and heard of a friend that is facing the same issue. Wondering if this is common and if anyone managed to fix this. Have to call citi again..
Are you refering to your browser keep asking for updating a password? If this one, yes but you can ignore it
lingua101 is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 9:41 am
  #4733  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: SIN (LEJ once a year)
Programs: SQ, LH, BA, IHG Diamond AMB, HH Gold, SLH Indulged, Accor Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,726
Originally Posted by UK_Ship
Just seen that Redmart is back on Krisflyer Spree
Thanks, that's good news. Apparently RedMart was updating its affiliate program.
demue is online now  
Old Oct 12, 2015, 7:59 am
  #4734  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 819
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...visa_card.html

The 10X UNI$ for online and Visa payWave transactions is capped at UNI$24,000 for both
categories per calendar year. After which, 1X UNI$ will be awarded for every $5 spent.

Just found out from UOB this is based on the posting date of transactions. So transactions made on 30 or 31 Dec 2014 but posted on 02 Jan 2015 are considered 2015's quota.
vsepr is offline  
Old Oct 15, 2015, 6:51 pm
  #4735  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,567
AIA insurance premium - which card to use?

I have an AIA insurance premium (not first year) that is due by next week... a bit confused which card to use that still earns miles these days. Appreciate some guidance.
carrotjuice is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2015, 1:27 am
  #4736  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: ZRH
Programs: LH
Posts: 414
Does anybody know what Citibank's (PremierMiles) cross currency exchange fee is? Couldn't find anything on the website.
flo-e is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2015, 2:24 am
  #4737  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 61
Originally Posted by flo-e
Does anybody know what Citibank's (PremierMiles) cross currency exchange fee is? Couldn't find anything on the website.
I think it is 2.5% but I might be wrong. I am interested in having confirmation as well.
Wadexis is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2015, 3:23 am
  #4738  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: QF LTG, SQ EGTP, Bonvoy LTG
Posts: 4,844
Originally Posted by Wadexis
I think it is 2.5% but I might be wrong. I am interested in having confirmation as well.
I think you are right, they do impose a 2.5% fee, but what it ends up being ... well pick a random number.

I was just comparing some recent foreign spend. Compared to xe.com midrate I was getting ~2.7-2.8% on GBP and AUD, but 3.2-3.3% on CHF & EUR.

With one notable exception a purchase I made in SQ AU website in AUD - the difference was only 0.5% - although maybe I hit a brief lowpoint of the AUD that only lasted 3 or 4 hours not reflected in midrate that day.
lokijuh is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2015, 5:14 am
  #4739  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 61
Originally Posted by lokijuh
I think you are right, they do impose a 2.5% fee, but what it ends up being ... well pick a random number.

I was just comparing some recent foreign spend. Compared to xe.com midrate I was getting ~2.7-2.8% on GBP and AUD, but 3.2-3.3% on CHF & EUR.

With one notable exception a purchase I made in SQ AU website in AUD - the difference was only 0.5% - although maybe I hit a brief lowpoint of the AUD that only lasted 3 or 4 hours not reflected in midrate that day.
Yes it could end up being more than 2.5%. I compared some transactions in EUR made in September and I am at about 3% above xe.com. I was once told that the bank takes the best rate (to them) over a period of a few days (3?) around transaction date. So depending on volatility it could indeed me more than 2.5% fee.

I changed money in town once and got rates of about +2.52% above xe.com so I personally use the CC as often as possible. Unless you speculate and foresee a significant change.
Wadexis is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2015, 6:29 am
  #4740  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: QF LTG, SQ EGTP, Bonvoy LTG
Posts: 4,844
Originally Posted by Wadexis
I changed money in town once and got rates of about +2.52% above xe.com so I personally use the CC as often as possible. Unless you speculate and foresee a significant change.
I usually get a bit of cash before travelling at Mustafa's. They tend to be around 1% over for most major currencies. But for me it's only a short walk there.

There is a fair bit of variability in the Citibank exchange rates, sometimes even on the same day.

Last edited by lokijuh; Oct 16, 2015 at 6:43 am
lokijuh is offline  


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