Best Credit Cards For Overseas Spending (Miles Vs Cashback)

Last updated on 8 April 2026

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Best Credit Cards for Overseas Spending (Miles vs Cashback)

At a glance: Best credit cards for Overseas spending

Choose from a number of great miles and cashback credit cards for overseas or online spending in foreign currencies to earn up to 4 miles per dollar or 8% cashback. Due to hefty FX fees on most credit cards, pay close attention to the cost-per-mile (for miles cards) and net gain (for cashback cards) values.

Top Miles credit card for Overseas spending

As each miles chaser values their miles/points differently, this is always a complicated spending category to analyze.

Whichever way you look at it, the facts remain:

Most Singapore credit cards charge 3 – 3.5% in FX junk fees, so, using a miles credit card for foreign currency spending means paying more to earn miles and your cost-per-mile matters.
Using a Miles credit card for foreign currency spending also comes with an opportunity cost of at least 0.5%, as an effortless card that awards uncapped 0.5% cashback + zero FX fee exists. Hence, you’re technically paying at least 3.75% more to earn miles.
By linking a Mastercard to Amaze, you can save ~1.1% in FX fees, while still earning miles/cashback on some cards.

All things considered, the Citi Rewards Card (via Amaze) is easily the top miles card for foreign currency spending. This combo earns 4 mpd, saves you about 1.1% in FX fees and gives you ultra-flexible miles. Just don’t use it for travel-related spending (e.g. flights, hotels).

⚠️ Miles are not priceless. I suggest only using miles cards that earn 4 mpd for foreign currency spending, and, once you’ve maxed out the bonus caps, switch to an effortless cashback card to earn 0.5 – 1.5% cashback with zero FX fee.

Top Cashback credit card for Overseas spending

The Mari Credit Card is the best effortless cashback card for foreign currency spending as it doesn’t come with any FX fee and awards 1.5% cashback. Reached the monthly cashback cap? Simply switch to the Trust Cashback Card for a lower cashback rate of 0.5%. Both cards have no annual fee for life.

If you forsee spending at least S$500 per month, the Maybank XL Cashback Card offers a slightly better net gain of 1.75%, without MCC restriction.

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Credit card foreign transaction fees

The majority of Singapore credit card providers have been charging over 3% in foreign transaction junk fees for years, which eats away a lot of value from the advertised credit card rewards (miles/cashback) that cardholders receive from their spending.

Due to these FX fees, using most miles or cashback credit cards overseas (instead of a card with zero foreign transaction fee) comes at a price. Here’s a simple way to look at it:

Using Miles credit cards with FX fees:
You are paying more to earn miles; calculate your cost per mile to find out if it’s worth it.
Using Cashback credit cards with FX fees:
The cashback amount needs to at least offset the FX fee completely.

Here are the foreign transaction fees charged by credit card providers in Singapore at the moment:

Credit Card Provider	Foreign Transaction Fee
Trust Bank	0%
MariBank	0%
GXS Bank	0%
ICBC	2.5%
CIMB	3%
BOC	3%
DBS	AMEX: 3% Others: 3.25%
UOB	EVOL/Singtel-UOB: 0% Others: 3.25%
OCBC	3.25%
Citibank	3.25%
HSBC	3.25%
Maybank	3.25%
DCS	3.25%
American Express	3.25%
Standard Chartered	3.5%

Opportunity cost of using Miles credit cards Overseas

If the FX fees on miles cards are not bad enough, you should also consider the opportunity cost of not using a cashback card for foreign currency spending instead, especially the easy-to-use ones.

For example, when using a miles card (with 3.25% FX fee), you are paying 4.75% more than Mari Credit Cardholders, as the latter awards 1.5% cashback with zero FX fee. This effectively raises your cost per mile from 0.8 to 1.2 cents when using a 4 mpd card, and of course, it gets much worse when using miles cards with lower earn rates.

How to calculate cost per mile?

Here’s the formula to calculate your cost per mile (in cents), when using miles credit cards for foreign currency spending:

(FX fee + opportunity cost) / earn rate = cost per mile

For example: (3.25% FX fee + 1.5% opp. cost) / 4 mpd = 1.188 cents

For your quick reference, here are the costs per mile with a 3.25% FX fee, without taking opportunity costs into consideration:

Earn Rate	Example Cards	Cost per Mile ^{(with 3.25% FX fee)}
4 mpd	Citi Rewards UOB Preferred Visa Maybank XL Rewards HSBC Revolution UOB Lady’s …and more	0.81 cents
3.2 mpd	Maybank World ^{(min. spend S$4,000)}	1.02 cents
3 mpd	UOB PRVI Miles ^{(MYR, IDR, THB, VND only)}	1.08 cents
2.8 mpd	Maybank Horizon Maybank World ^{(min. spend S$800)}	1.16 cents
2.4 mpd	HSBC TravelOne UOB PRVI Miles	1.35 cents
2.2 mpd	Citi PremierMiles DBS Altitude DBS Vantage	1.48 cents
2.1 mpd	OCBC 90°N	1.55 cents
2 mpd	Citi Prestige StanChart Journey	1.63 cents
1.2 mpd	AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	2.71 cents
1.1 mpd	AMEX KrisFlyer	2.95 cents
0.63 mpd	AMEX Platinum Charge	5.16 cents
0.57 mpd	AMEX Platinum Credit	5.70 cents

What’s a good price to pay for miles?

Firstly, understand that there is no “correct” valuation of miles, as all miles currencies have different pros and cons, and each traveller has different wants and needs.

For example, some Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) requires over 100k miles to fly Business Class to Europe, while others require as little as 62.5k. And, some travellers don’t even want to visit Europe!

If you don’t have your own valuation of miles yet, I suggest using miles cards for foreign currency spending only when the earn rate is 4 miles per dollar.

It hardly makes sense to go through the trouble of picking the right cards for your spending, just to pay over 1 cent per mile (before opportunity cost), especially as award rates for flight redemptions are increasing.

Remember: You don’t have to spend to accumulate miles. You can buy millions of miles when there’s a good promotion, plus, earn even more miles/cashback by transacting with the right cards.

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Best Miles credit cards for Overseas spending

Compare and browse reviews of the best Miles credit cards for overseas and online spending in foreign currencies to earn up to 4 miles per dollar, and pay as little as 0.53 cents per mile after taking foreign transaction fees into consideration.

As mentioned earlier, there’s also an opportunity cost for not using an easy Cashback card. To keep things simple, I’ve left it out of the cost-per-mile calculations below.

How are these cards chosen and ranked?

These cards are picked and ranked based on how they compare against other cards, based on these key factors:

1) Earn rates (miles/cashback)
2) Accessibility (min. income/age requirements)
3) Ease of use (min. spending, conditions to receive max. miles/cashback)
4) Miles/Points flexibility (expiry term, transfer partners)
5) Annual fee
6) Foreign transaction fee
7) Other additional benefits

Citi Rewards Card

Earn 4 mpd and save ~1% FX fee on overseas and online spending in foreign currencies with Amaze linkage.

FX spread: 2.1% ^{FX spread via Amaze.}
Cost per mile: 0.5 cents ^{By using this card combo to earn miles, you are paying about 2.1% more than cards with no FX fees. This is how much you're paying per mile; a great price for ultra-flexible Citi miles/points.}

⚠️ Travel-related spending excluded (e.g. hotels, cruises, travel agencies)

At a glance: Best credit cards for Overseas spending

Top Miles credit card for Overseas spending

Top Cashback credit card for Overseas spending

Credit card foreign transaction fees

Opportunity cost of using Miles credit cards Overseas

How to calculate cost per mile?

What’s a good price to pay for miles?

Best Miles credit cards for Overseas spending

Key details of the Citi Rewards Card

Key details of the HSBC Revolution Card

Key details of the Maybank XL Rewards Card

Key details of the UOB Preferred Visa Card

Key details of the UOB Visa Signature Card

Key details of the DBS Woman’s World Card

Key details of the UOB Lady’s Card

Key details of the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card

Key details of the Maybank World Mastercard

Key details of the Maybank Visa Infinite Card

Key details of the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Card

Key details of the UOB PRVI Miles Card

Key details of the Citi PremierMiles Card

Key details of the HSBC TravelOne Card

Best Cashback credit cards for Overseas spending

Key details of the Maybank XL Cashback Card

Key details of the Mari Credit Card

Key details of the Citi SMRT Card

Key details of the UOB EVOL Card

Key details of the Trust Cashback Card

Key details of the Citi Cash Back Card

Key details of the Trust Link Card

Key details of the YouTrip Card

Key details of the HSBC Live+ Card

Key details of the Maybank Family & Friends Card