how did the call go? are they strict with the spending qualification?

i'm afraid they'll laugh their heads off when I ask for an invite - I still have some way to go to reach the spending qualification.

Has anyone tried out the Kaligo 10 miles/$ promo via either DBS Altitude or UOB PRVI Amex?

I noticed that in the T&Cs DBS mentions that the extra points will be credited within 60 days of the end of each quarter (qualifying period). So any transactions now will have to wait for up to 60 days counting from April 1 before all points are credited.

What is UOB's stance on this? I haven't seen them post anything about the remaining points being credited well into the future. Could they be posting full points for each transaction without delay?

I had a look the other day for the DBS one, but it really depends what rates they offer. In my case Kaligo was quite uncompetitive rates wise with non-refundable rates excl. Breakfast costing more than the direct booking flex rate. I like my miles, but that as a bit too much to overpay.

YMMV depending on property and all and there may be some decent deals, but it is quite time consuming to figure it out and compare across.

I view Kaligo as akin to - perhaps slightly over simplistically - buying miles by "overpaying".

UOB call me and said the invitation condition if annual income is more than $500K or cc spending is more than 150K.

The perks including 100K miles upon renewal, free hotel stay, access to tower club & china club, able to pay for tax bill and still earn miles, mileage earning rate is 1.6 miles per $1 local spending or 2 miles to $1 for spending overseas, and many more.....

They will email m a detailed benefits shortly.

[B][U]Here is the requirement for DBS Insignia[B][U]

The DBS Insignia Visa Infinite membership is exclusively by-invitation only, it is the only card in town that offers up to a million dollar credit limit (subject to bank’s discretion).

To qualify for an invitation, there is a minimum annual income of S$500,000 (we have noted your annual income range) and a non-waivable annual membership fee of S$3,000 (before GST).

One of the key features of the DBS Insignia card is the attractive miles conversion rate of S$1 = 1.6 air miles for local spending and S$1 = 2 air miles for overseas spent.

The following are the core welcome privileges for DBS Insignia card members:

v Metal Card first in the world! (Metal plus contactless/pay-wave function)

v Club at the Hyatt membership which gives exclusive dining and accommodation privileges at Grand Hyatt Singapore and other Hyatt properties worldwide.

v Complimentary 100,000 air miles in the form of 50,000 Bonus DBS points (non-expiring) credited into main member’s card account which can be redeemed in exchange for air miles, dining and/or shopping vouchers

v Complimentary 2 nights’ stay for the principal card member at selected premium hotel properties such as Anantara Hotels & Resorts, Six Senses Resorts, COMO Hotels & Resorts, YTL Hotels, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces, Alila Hotels & Resorts, and Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts.

v Priority Pass membership that allows card members to enjoy complimentary access to 600 airport VIP lounges in 100 countries

v Speed Pass access for fast-track immigration

v Access to the Damai Spa (Grand Hyatt) - Relaxation with fitness classes, spa treatment, pool, gym, tennis and badminton court amenities

v Yachting privileges at One Degree 15 (Sentosa Cove) –exclusive yacht access for Insignia card members that charters minimum 4-hours on weekdays for only S$500+gst and weekends at S$800+ gst (weekends: Fri, Sat, Sun, Eve of PH and PH)

v Dedicated team of DBS Insignia Service Ambassadors, available 24 hours through a hotline especially for DBS Insignia card members to serve your lifestyle needs.

We would like to know you more, perhaps you can share with us the updated information that we can include in your profile for the invitation review:

1. Name of Company, Length of service and Designation
2. Professional achievements/roles (i.e. Chairman of Singapore Chamber of Commerce etc.)
3. Premium credit cards, cars, yacht and country club memberships (i.e. Amex Centurion, Porsche, One15 member, Exotic car club member etc.)

To proceed with the application, please furnish us with the applicable income document for invitation review:


Kindly note that all applications are subject to bank’s approval.

my friend bought from Kaligo and said points were credited in 2 days.

I spent quite some time yesterday looking for a hotel, and luck had it that I found a good offer that was better than booking direct or through any of the other, popular booking engines. Hopefully there will be no surprises when I get there as this is my first booking with them, but so far so good.

Navigation-wise they could be better and a map view would have been ideal, but I take it they're a relatively new company so improvements will come with time.

It was only during the booking phase that the site mentioned that the points will be credited within 4 weeks. If I get them by this weekend that will be even better. :) The good thing is that on the site, when you look up your booking, it actually shows the UOB cards logo and a calculation of how many miles will be coming your way, so this is a nice integration between UOB and Kaligo to show that you have made the booking correctly and that the miles will follow.

10 miles/$ is huge and with the promo valid at both UOB and DBS (PRVI and Altitude respectively) until the end of the year, I just hope that it doesn't get pulled early for some reason.

On a side note I have to give praise to UOB on how they handle the Expedia 6 miles/$ promo. For some reason I was expecting the bonus miles to be credited some time down the road (I didn't read the terms beforehand), but to my surprise they were credited straight away, even before my current statement is due!

Have to give a thumbs up to DBS then. I called their customer service this afternoon to report missing points on my last statement. The CSO who answered was local (yay!), and she promised to look into it and get back to me within 3-5 days. An hour ago, she called me back saying that they did their calculations and the missing points have already been credited into my account and it would be reflected in my next statement.

This is how customer service should be ^

... as opposed to Citibank. I called to cancel a credit card and to remove the GIRO arrangement that settles the full bill against my Citibank account. The CSO now says the GIRO delinkage cannot be done by phone - that I now have to write in or go visit a branch to provide a written instruction!

Absolutely ridiculous. The GIRO arrangement is between a Citibank account and a Citibank credit card, no other bank is involved. They know me as a customer. When I call, I had been authenticated through voice biometrics and a onetime PIN sent to my mobile. The phone conversation is recorded. Yet to do something so bloody basic I have to go to a branch??

No wonder people now think that banking is still needed but banks are starting to get irrelevant - and it's not just for the millennials!

Well, my experiences with Citi are decent, though not stellar and I agree that they got some weird, nonsensical processes in place.

The latest one here seems that somehow, for no logical reason I can see, when they trigger a new credit card to a customer due to expiry of current validity period they now seem to block your existing, still valid CC for online POS transactions. Physical swiping of the CC still works fine, but online doesn't. I wanted to buy a SQ ticket yesterday and couldn't even though my Citi PM is still valid for two months. Reason given was that a new card with new expiry and CCV had been triggered and was pending activation. Well I haven't received it yet so how can I activate it? Then they block the online transactions of the current valid card? Nonsense. I'm now getting a new card couriered to my apartment in under 24hrs while they raise an issue with the payment processing team. Got to say, Contact Center Mgr called me back and handled it as well as he could, but still annoying and especially unnecessary.

On the other hand, one huge thumbs up for Citi to being the only bank in SIN that I know off which offers a comprehensive, line by line mileage / points earning debit / credit history. That is a big plus and while getting to that section is a bit cumbersome (too many clicks), no other bank comes close here amd it avoids a whole lot of pain like we have with UOB or even DBS when verifying or challenging points accruals.


DBS for me at least is also a mixed bag with CSRs at times talking plain rubbish not knowing processes, products, promotions or T&Cs, promised call backs are never made 50% of the time. Though on average they are still okay.

UOB and Maybank are pretty much rubbish, expect nothing and you may still get disappointed. ;)

Would you mind sharing how to get to this section please?

You just need to go to the rewards section of the website after you login to Internet banking. It will list transaction points earned. Citibank has the most friendly system I have ever known (though sometimes needs a bit of calculation as they lump a few transactions together for bonuses).

This is crazy.

Just to add it's not just Citibank Singapore - but HK is just as bad. Citibank HK decided that to perform online functions, users need to have a token (similar to that Citibank Singapore has been using for years). Problem is, they didn't automatically dispatch the tokens or even communicate this to their account holders!

So one day I had to make an urgent payment from my Citibank HK account. Naturally I couldn't proceed. Called their Customer Service and guess what - they advised me of this new requirement, said they'd need to take 7 to 10 business days to dispatch a token to a Singapore address!! Surely this is another basic common sense - if you need customers to use a token, then you need to give them to your customers beforehand and not wait till the customer needs to execute an urgent transaction only to be told a token will now be requested for you, which can only arrive days later even by courier.

My 15 month stint in Singapore is coming to an end next week and, while I love the place, these sorts of illogical, nonsensical occurrences (which seem to occur quite frequently, especially with banks) will be something I'm pleased to leave behind.