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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, 2017, 3:46 am
  #7186  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 84
Originally Posted by SQ319
Why would you want to do that?

The short answer is No. ANZ retail banking no longer exists. If you want to keep ANZ points, they are essentially worth nothing now.
Sorry if I wasn't being clear, the ANZ points had been credited to my DBS account, and now that ANZ is no longer operating, I received a new DBS credit card which is a replacement to my old ANZ card.. I checked the points statement on my DBS account and found that the points that were transferred from ANZ went under the new card.. I don't see any benefit for me to activate the new replacement DBS card but I'm not sure what would happen to the points if I don't activate the new replacement card.. Any idea?
Traflying is offline  
Old Aug 11, 2017, 9:51 pm
  #7187  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Singapore
Programs: KF, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 182
Originally Posted by Traflying
Sorry if I wasn't being clear, the ANZ points had been credited to my DBS account, and now that ANZ is no longer operating, I received a new DBS credit card which is a replacement to my old ANZ card.. I checked the points statement on my DBS account and found that the points that were transferred from ANZ went under the new card.. I don't see any benefit for me to activate the new replacement DBS card but I'm not sure what would happen to the points if I don't activate the new replacement card.. Any idea?
If it's an Altitude card, just activate it and keep the points - there's no expiry of points. You can choose to redeem whenever you want and can combine with points from other DBS cards.
spk307 is offline  
Old Aug 11, 2017, 9:54 pm
  #7188  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Singapore
Programs: KF, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 182
Originally Posted by Traflying
Sorry if I wasn't being clear, the ANZ points had been credited to my DBS account, and now that ANZ is no longer operating, I received a new DBS credit card which is a replacement to my old ANZ card.. I checked the points statement on my DBS account and found that the points that were transferred from ANZ went under the new card.. I don't see any benefit for me to activate the new replacement DBS card but I'm not sure what would happen to the points if I don't activate the new replacement card.. Any idea?
I guess you are worried about annual fee? I have 4 DBS cards for 5 years and got the annual fee waived each year. In fact am regretting waiving annual fee on Altitude cards as I missed out on the 10k bonus.
spk307 is offline  
Old Aug 11, 2017, 10:07 pm
  #7189  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Singapore
Programs: KF, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 182
Originally Posted by Kelvin L
Don't ever go with OCBC. They never waive late charges and interests even if they are at fault. Worst bank in the world literally.

Never ever go with OCBC. Their card sucks anyway
I would add HSBC and UOB to that list.

HSBC took 4 months and 10 calls to inform me that my credit card application was rejected. Apparently they charged annual fee on a earlier card that was never activated and the statement was never sent to me. They had no qualms about me closing the advance account.

With UOB, apparently their software was unable to retrieve my credit report, so rejected my card application. This wasn't a problem for other banks like dbs, Amex, Citibank, scb who approved my credit card applications. When I asked to close the UOB accounts, not a single question on why am closing it.

I don't think it's the front end people to blame. The culture flows from the top. If the management is not customer focussed, it's apparent in both the products and service.
spk307 is offline  
Old Aug 12, 2017, 2:02 am
  #7190  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 239
Originally Posted by spk307
I would add HSBC and UOB to that list.

HSBC took 4 months and 10 calls to inform me that my credit card application was rejected. Apparently they charged annual fee on a earlier card that was never activated and the statement was never sent to me. They had no qualms about me closing the advance account.

With UOB, apparently their software was unable to retrieve my credit report, so rejected my card application. This wasn't a problem for other banks like dbs, Amex, Citibank, scb who approved my credit card applications. When I asked to close the UOB accounts, not a single question on why am closing it.

I don't think it's the front end people to blame. The culture flows from the top. If the management is not customer focussed, it's apparent in both the products and service.
Yes I have to agree for UOB.. I had a super hard time applying for their credit cards.. No idea why they want to reject me time and again Spent months trying to get the Visa Signature approved last year without reasons.
behyx is offline  
Old Aug 12, 2017, 6:16 pm
  #7191  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 84
Originally Posted by spk307
If it's an Altitude card, just activate it and keep the points - there's no expiry of points. You can choose to redeem whenever you want and can combine with points from other DBS cards.
Originally Posted by spk307
I guess you are worried about annual fee? I have 4 DBS cards for 5 years and got the annual fee waived each year. In fact am regretting waiving annual fee on Altitude cards as I missed out on the 10k bonus.
Yep exactly, allright, thanks for the info!
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Old Aug 13, 2017, 7:25 pm
  #7192  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: HH Diamond, GHA Titanium
Posts: 1,961
I have a generic random question for credit cards charging DCC on "SGD-denominated transactions charged overseas" (basically Uber and all that).

Are we supposed to earn 1.2-1.4mpd, or 2.0mpd?

Disclaimer: This question just randomly popped into my head and I haven't done any research or checked on my own cards whether I earned local or foreign spend mpd.
shuigao is offline  
Old Aug 13, 2017, 11:25 pm
  #7193  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Asia
Programs: FB Platinum
Posts: 186
it will earn local-currency earning rates
natcin is offline  
Old Aug 14, 2017, 1:12 am
  #7194  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 84
Anyone knows whether I would get full points if I'm using my DBS Woman's World Card to pay for a 6-month instalment on Qoo10 purchase?
Traflying is offline  
Old Aug 14, 2017, 2:49 am
  #7195  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SIN and wandering.
Posts: 1,549
Originally Posted by Traflying
Anyone knows whether I would get full points if I'm using my DBS Woman's World Card to pay for a 6-month instalment on Qoo10 purchase?
Installments/Payment plans are usually not included for any points accumulation, ie. zero points.

These applies to most, if not all credit cards.
SQ319 is offline  
Old Aug 14, 2017, 2:52 am
  #7196  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SIN and wandering.
Posts: 1,549
Originally Posted by shuigao
I have a generic random question for credit cards charging DCC on "SGD-denominated transactions charged overseas" (basically Uber and all that).

Are we supposed to earn 1.2-1.4mpd, or 2.0mpd?

Disclaimer: This question just randomly popped into my head and I haven't done any research or checked on my own cards whether I earned local or foreign spend mpd.
Once it's a DCC, it's considered a local spend.
SQ319 is offline  
Old Aug 14, 2017, 10:40 pm
  #7197  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: HH Diamond, GHA Titanium
Posts: 1,961
Originally Posted by natcin
it will earn local-currency earning rates
Originally Posted by SQ319
Once it's a DCC, it's considered a local spend.
Oh

A bit of a short stick for us then, seems like we're getting hit with that 0.8% DCC for nothing.
shuigao is offline  
Old Aug 15, 2017, 2:12 am
  #7198  
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: SIA Solitaire PPS, IHG Royal Amb, Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Hhonor Gold
Posts: 2,207
For those who just need a little more miles, you may wish to consider opening the UOB KrisFlyer Account and earn 5K miles for min spend of S$500 a month and maintaining a monthly average balance of S$5K a month:

http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/depos...unt/index.html

To qualify, SMS KFUOB<space>NRIC/Passport no. to 77862.

This is not the best promotion around. But just sharing for those who needs that little bit more miles in their account and have maxed out the other credit card acquisition promotions.
hclee01 is offline  
Old Aug 15, 2017, 4:26 am
  #7199  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Singapore
Programs: SQ KF Gold, HHonors Gold, SPG Plat
Posts: 300
Originally Posted by shuigao
Oh

A bit of a short stick for us then, seems like we're getting hit with that 0.8% DCC for nothing.
DCC is bad all round and should die a horrible death.
SQ319, Ex-SIN, lcpteck and 1 others like this.
elleana is offline  
Old Aug 15, 2017, 4:31 am
  #7200  
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: SIA Solitaire PPS, IHG Royal Amb, Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Hhonor Gold
Posts: 2,207
Originally Posted by elleana
DCC is bad all round and should die a horrible death.
There is a newspaper article on this recently which you may wish to refer to it for details:

Source: The Straits Times

hclee01 is offline  


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