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-   -   The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singapore-airlines-krisflyer/1076196-best-credit-cards-kf-miles-accrual-master-thread.html)

adamantine Mar 1, 2011 10:49 pm


Originally Posted by aster (Post 15958804)
Back in the day DBS Altitude Amex and the DBS Treasures Amex (for those with at least 200k there) had the same high ratio of miles:dollars spent.

Nowadays, with the Altitude card giving the most miles of any card in Singapore for overall spend, I'm surprised they haven't bumped up the Treasures card to equal that (unless I missed info about the "raise"). :)

in terms of mileage accrual, how do the altitude and treasures compare? If they used to be exactly the same, DBS might not have made the treasures as competitive as the altitude so that customers might be more inclined to apply for the altitude if they already hold the treasures?

They might have instead focused on improving the treasures other benefits. However, these are all my guesswork. I don't hold or know the treasures benefits :P

kitsura Mar 2, 2011 4:40 am

Is this treasures amex the same as the treasures black elite amex?

aster Mar 2, 2011 5:37 am

Yes, that would be the same card, though I can't find it on their site and I feel that resorting to Google for that would be a little too much... :)

But there is only one Treasures card (AMEX) and it could well be black.

Mickey4finger Mar 2, 2011 5:40 am

is there a card where you get status miles with? for any FFP?

i know the FB AMEX France card does it, but not sure if that's the only one?

kitsura Mar 2, 2011 6:11 am


Originally Posted by Mickey4finger (Post 15959858)
is there a card where you get status miles with? for any FFP?

i know the FB AMEX France card does it, but not sure if that's the only one?

Not that I know of. All SQ status miles can be earned by flying only.

insigma Mar 2, 2011 6:11 pm

I've been reading that the Citi Rewards card gives a $1 = 4 miles on anything bought in a department store. Can anyone confirm this? I can't seem to find a list of participating dept stores either ...

adamantine Mar 3, 2011 1:26 am


Originally Posted by insigma (Post 15964755)
I've been reading that the Citi Rewards card gives a $1 = 4 miles on anything bought in a department store. Can anyone confirm this? I can't seem to find a list of participating dept stores either ...

it is only for dept stores and stores that sell mainly shoes or bags or clothings.

If the shop falls within these categories, use your rewards card and u get 4 miles per $1. If you don't can raise dispute.

aster Mar 3, 2011 4:16 am


Originally Posted by insigma (Post 15964755)
I've been reading that the Citi Rewards card gives a $1 = 4 miles on anything bought in a department store. Can anyone confirm this? I can't seem to find a list of participating dept stores either ...

As mentioned above there is one for buying shoes/bags so pretty much a ladies card, but this is the one I think you're looking for:

http://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credi...i_platinum.htm

5x Rewards for all spend at department stores and supermarkets:

Department Stores:
Tangs . Isetan . John Little . Marks & Spencer . Metro . OG . Robinsons . BHG . Takashimaya Department Store.

Supermarkets/Hypermarket:
Carrefour . Cold Storage . Giant . Market Place . NTUC Fair Price . Shop N Save . Singapore Meidi-Ya

This is the perfect card to complement the DBS Altitude Amex for someone living in Singapore.

aster Mar 3, 2011 5:05 am

The above card generates 2 miles per S$1 spent. So not entirely mind-boggling, but still very good for all that supermarket (+department store) spend that is inevitable for anyone living in Sing.

adamantine Mar 3, 2011 5:43 am


Originally Posted by aster (Post 15966633)
As mentioned above there is one for buying shoes/bags so pretty much a ladies card, but this is the one I think you're looking for:

http://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credi...i_platinum.htm

5x Rewards for all spend at department stores and supermarkets:

Department Stores:
Tangs . Isetan . John Little . Marks & Spencer . Metro . OG . Robinsons . BHG . Takashimaya Department Store.

Supermarkets/Hypermarket:
Carrefour . Cold Storage . Giant . Market Place . NTUC Fair Price . Shop N Save . Singapore Meidi-Ya

This is the perfect card to complement the DBS Altitude Amex for someone living in Singapore.

the rewards card is much better than the plat card unless u spend at supermarts. the rewards card is basically a replacement for the plat card

nb123 Mar 4, 2011 12:49 am

I currently use my amex for work expenses, citibank platinum for personal and have an ocbc robinsons card to get extra discount there :-)

But I've been thinking... it may be more efficient for me to get a citi premiermiles card and use it as personal cos it's visa as well, could probably earn a lot more miles that way. So then I'll use the dbs altitude for work expenses and citi card for personal, all getting me miles.

What do you guys do? Just funnel all cc expense rewards into miles and get maximum benefit that way? Or keep other cc rewards? Any thoughts on this?

When I purchase using miles, I noticed that I still have to pay e.g. 160 SGD for a flight to Bangkok, + 16000 miles or so... is that what you do?

kitsura Mar 4, 2011 3:21 am


Originally Posted by nb123 (Post 15972778)
I currently use my amex for work expenses, citibank platinum for personal and have an ocbc robinsons card to get extra discount there :-)

But I've been thinking... it may be more efficient for me to get a citi premiermiles card and use it as personal cos it's visa as well, could probably earn a lot more miles that way. So then I'll use the dbs altitude for work expenses and citi card for personal, all getting me miles.

What do you guys do? Just funnel all cc expense rewards into miles and get maximum benefit that way? Or keep other cc rewards? Any thoughts on this?

When I purchase using miles, I noticed that I still have to pay e.g. 160 SGD for a flight to Bangkok, + 16000 miles or so... is that what you do?

I channel overseas spend to Maybank horizon card and local spends to UOB signature.

The 160 redemption charge is for airport and fuel surcharge. Some airlines don't charge fuel surcharge for miles redemption but sq is stingy.

aster Mar 4, 2011 4:31 am

How are the exchange rates when using the Maybank card overseas?

I would skip UOB's cards when it comes to mileage accrual. I haven't seen anything interesting there from that perspective...

It's basically DBS and Citi fighting it out for the best card when it comes to general spend in Singapore, and now that City hasn't extended their bonus after Dec 31, 2010, you could say that DBS Altitude Amex is the king of all cards for us mileage-savvy folk over here. :)

kitsura Mar 6, 2011 7:46 pm

I'm not too sure about the exchange rate on the Maybank cards but I guess there are a few pips difference between the few banks. Anyway $0.50 per mile is too good a deal to give up. Plus with the current ezlink promotion of 10x treats points I'm moving all my grocery shopping to cold storage and giant.

aster Mar 6, 2011 8:59 pm

The DBS Treasures Black Amex gives you 2.4 miles per Dollar on overseas spend. Does the Maybank card generate just 2 miles/$?

chrisksc Mar 7, 2011 4:37 am


Originally Posted by aster (Post 15973227)
It's basically DBS and Citi fighting it out for the best card when it comes to general spend in Singapore, and now that City hasn't extended their bonus after Dec 31, 2010, you could say that DBS Altitude Amex is the king of all cards for us mileage-savvy folk over here. :)

I have to disagree with you. Amex has limitation in terms of acceptance. Visa is more widely used.

As far as Citi Premire Miles is concern, you have a few FFP you can redeem to. Also, Citi PM gives you 10K miles when you pay SGD180 annual fee + if your previous year spend >SGD50K, you get another 10K miles.

DBS Altitude Amex card can only redeem to KF.

I use the cards as follow:

Citi PremireMiles Visa: All purchases in Singapore (except those better eranings);

DBS Altitude Amex: (Reserved for promotional activities);

MayBank Horizon Visa: All overseas/travel related purchases and those merchants in Singapore under the 10x treats points;

ANZ Platinum MasterCard: For all Comfort/CityCab taxi charges in Singapore (service charges wavied whereas others need to incur 10%+GST);

Citi Rewards: All departmental/clothing/shoes stores worldwide;

Amex Platinum Charge Card: All those under 10x points and 10x+10x points merchants in Singapore;

The rest of the other cards I have would only be used when there are promotional activities by the banks.

The most disappointed (on branding) card to ever own is the Amex KrisFlyer card.

Years back, OCBC Titanium MasterCard used to have, from time to time, the 10x points for overseas charges. That was the good ole days. Now OCBC has nothing good to offer.

aster Mar 7, 2011 6:37 am

Well, both DBS Altitude Amex and Citi PremierMiles are the same for the first $1,000 that you spend in a month: both give 1.2 miles/$.

But once you cross the $1k threshold, DBS give you 1.6 miles per $ ^ whereas Citi... continue with their 1.2 ratio. :td:

Acceptance is not that much of an issue, it's mainly the small places that hate cards anyway which are allergic to Amex. To sum it up, I would definitely get the Altitude Amex as my main card, and then use the PremierMiles as a backup. Not the other way around.

The Maybank card is good in that the 10x merchants are actually quite useful, not to mention overseas spend. I think we're all in agreement here.

Also, regarding bonus miles, Citi might give them for renewing or spending $50k a year (10k miles bonus), but DBS have similar promos where you get a ton of extra miles. Last year they had a deal where they gave loads of extra miles for purchasing SQ tickets, and then they offered 10k extra miles as long as you spent a total of $10k during the last 3 months of the year (cake easy).

aster Mar 7, 2011 8:51 am


Originally Posted by chrisksc (Post 15988430)
As far as Citi Premire Miles is concern, you have a few FFP you can redeem to.

DBS Altitude Amex card can only redeem to KF.

It all depends on which FFP you want to redeem to. If KF, then both cards are equal.

DBS does give you another option, Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific). So does Citi.

Citi gives you two more, Thai and Delta.

Personally I still want to redeem to KF so it's all the same to me.

kitsura Mar 7, 2011 4:34 pm

Another point to note for overseas spends. DBS and Maybank have 1% forex charge. Citi has 1.5%.

adamantine Mar 7, 2011 6:30 pm

just to check, dbs altitude accrues miles for all transactions including online purchases right?

aster Mar 7, 2011 9:32 pm

Kitsura, you men in addition to quite wide currency buy/sell brackets?

Adamantine, I've never come across any mention of internet transactions being exempt.

aster Mar 7, 2011 10:24 pm

Looking at the Maybank Rewards Infinite scheme they state that the merchants listed are seasonal and that the bonus miles apply until 31 March. I'm curious if they will extend the promo for at least some of these merchants or replace them all entirely...

kitsura Mar 7, 2011 10:35 pm

aster> Yes, if you notice that every bank website has a foreign exchange rate which will vary from bank to bank. But since the actual rate is fixed at point of usage there is no way to actually compare the forex rate. But for fees there is a way to compare. Based on further research I realised my fee posted above is no longer accurate and the latest is:
Maybank: 1.25%
OCBC: 1.5%
DBS: 1.5% for Visa/MC, 2% for AMEX
Citibank: 2.5%
UOB: 2.5% including fees by VISA/MC, 3.25% for Amex (2% by bank and 1.25% by Amex)

Awesom Andy Mar 7, 2011 10:59 pm


Originally Posted by aster (Post 15989485)
DBS does give you another option, Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific). So does Citi.

Just a note that with Citi PM, Asia Miles is redeemed at a very poor ratio of 1 point = 0.4 miles, so if this is your FF program of choice, you wouldn't use Citi PM.

SQKF Mar 8, 2011 4:31 am


Originally Posted by kitsura (Post 15994199)
aster> Yes, if you notice that every bank website has a foreign exchange rate which will vary from bank to bank. But since the actual rate is fixed at point of usage there is no way to actually compare the forex rate. But for fees there is a way to compare. Based on further research I realised my fee posted above is no longer accurate and the latest is:
Maybank: 1.25%
OCBC: 1.5%
DBS: 1.5% for Visa/MC, 2% for AMEX
Citibank: 2.5%
UOB: 2.5% including fees by VISA/MC, 3.25% for Amex (2% by bank and 1.25% by Amex)


Are these fees on top of creditcard companies fees (Amex, Visa & MC)?
Credit card companies exchange rates normally about 2.5% above interbank rates.

SQKF Mar 8, 2011 4:33 am


Originally Posted by Merlion (Post 13837842)
And no limits for Centurion.

On website, it says limit 16.000, but in paper brochure says no limits. I guess this is up for the clarification.


There's no limit for normal spending, but there's a 110,000 points limit on 10x10 merchants within the anniversary of the card.

kitsura Mar 8, 2011 8:57 am


Originally Posted by SQKF (Post 15995079)
Are these fees on top of creditcard companies fees (Amex, Visa & MC)?
Credit card companies exchange rates normally about 2.5% above interbank rates.

I've checked with Maybank and they said they aren't sure so I guess yes, the credit card companies fees are probably added in during conversion to USD and back to SGD. These fees are just bank admin fees which are charged on top of the card companies' fees.

aster Mar 8, 2011 9:25 am

Now I'm not sure if this was about my Amex card or one of the others I was considering, but I recall reading that if you do an overseas transaction then the amount will first be converted into USD before then being converted into SGD. So double conversion it seems unless you happen to be doing a purchase in USD...

kitsura Mar 8, 2011 4:27 pm

Read the T&C all cards do a double conversion not just Amex.

aster Mar 9, 2011 9:32 am

Just trying to figure out whether it's worth getting the Citi Platinum card to complement my DBS Altitude one.

I get an average of 1.5 miles per $ from my DBS card and let's just say that I spend $1k per month in supermarkets... or let's make it $1.5k to make the case more compelling.

So when it comes to supermarkets I'd get 2,250 miles per month on my DBS card and 3,000 miles on the Citi Platinum card due to bonus miles for supermarket spend.

So 750 miles/month gives 9,000 miles per annum. Is it worth getting an additional card just for this?

In my case I'm away for a couple of months a year, so I'm not even sure the advantage would be those 9,000 miles, and I might not even qualify for the automatic fee waiver...

nb123 Mar 9, 2011 6:13 pm

I applied for the DBS altitude, but had an afterthought when I received a notice from the krisflyer amex gold card about a large amount of bonus miles that I made in 2010 - just wanted to ask your advise regarding whether the analysis above of DBS Altitude > Krisflyer amex for my situation includes the bonus miles that come the krisflyer amex?

kitsura Mar 9, 2011 7:41 pm

Even with 100% bonus of SQ Amex Gold, it amounts to $0.80 per mile. But with condition of spending $12k per calendar year and limit of 8k bonus miles. Not worth it in my opinion. I just cancelled my SQ Gold card last month after getting billed for annual fees. But then the Amex rewards card is much better as it gives you 10k bonus miles for signing up.

aster Mar 9, 2011 9:58 pm

I once did the calculations for the SQ card and didn't find it as enticing as it promised to be. I would skip it.

nb123 Mar 10, 2011 11:00 pm

Thanks guys will stick with DBS Altitude Amex!

keepinitsimple Mar 22, 2011 3:34 am

Miles transfer charges
 

Originally Posted by nb123 (Post 16013990)
Thanks guys will stick with DBS Altitude Amex!

DBS Altitude has an annual fee of SGD 42 to enable unlimited transfers to Krisflyer. If you value each SQ miles as 2 s$-cents, that is essentially 8400 miles you are paying to convert DBS points to miles.

keepinitsimple Mar 22, 2011 3:37 am

ezlink merchant
 

Originally Posted by aster (Post 15785377)
So this is only for auto-topups, which in turn can only happen when you run out of credit when entering the MRT or boarding a bus.

Burger King now accepts ezlink :-)

aster Mar 22, 2011 6:31 am


Originally Posted by keepinitsimple (Post 16078566)
DBS Altitude has an annual fee of SGD 42 to enable unlimited transfers to Krisflyer. If you value each SQ miles as 2 s$-cents, that is essentially 8400 miles you are paying to convert DBS points to miles.

I think you need to redo your math. :)

kitsura Mar 22, 2011 7:50 am

I think that is closer to 2100 miles.

aster Mar 22, 2011 8:36 am

On a side note, if you use a Nets Flashpay card for MRT/bus travel then are you charged the same as if you were using an EZ-link card?

keepinitsimple Mar 22, 2011 9:42 am


Originally Posted by aster (Post 16079101)
I think you need to redo your math. :)

FISH.... I always had that sixth sense something was wrong in the assumption :)


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