Last updated on 24 November 2024
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What are the Must-Have Miles Cards in Singapore?
I see these 5 cards as the absolute best cards in Singapore, to improve your travel experiences.
Earn miles rapidly, with an accelerated earn rate of 4 miles per dollar on a wide range of spending categories including online shopping, dining, groceries, flights, hotels, in-person shopping. Plus, withdraw cash overseas for free at an exchange rate that is usually better than those at money changers!
Only 2 of these cards come with an annual fee (waived for the first year, ask for a waiver every year after that), making this group of cards perfect for beginners.
1) Earn rates (miles/cashback)
2) Ease of use (spending/income requirements)
3) Miles/Points flexibility (total transfer partners)
4) Miles/Points expiry term
5) Annual fee
6) Other additional benefits
| Amaze + Citi Rewards | 4 mpd • Non-travel spending only (i.e. no flight/hotel bookings) • Up to $1,000 per statement month ✅ Online Shopping ✅ In-Person Shopping (with Amaze linkage) ✅ Dining (with Amaze linkage) ✅ Groceries (with Amaze linkage) ✅ Foreign Currency (with Amaze linkage) ✅ Telco Bills ✅ Fuel (with Amaze linkage) ✅ Ride-Hailing ✅ Food Delivery |
| UOB Preferred Platinum | 4 mpd • Online & Mobile Contactless only (G Pay, Apple Pay) • Up to $1,110 per calendar month ✅ Online Shopping ✅ In-Person Shopping (Mobile Contactless only) ✅ Dining (Mobile Contactless only) ✅ Groceries (Mobile Contactless only) ✅ Foreign Currency ✅ Food Delivery ✅ Hotels (in-person Mobile Contactless only) ✅ Fuel (Mobile Contactless only) |
| Trust Cashback | No foreign currency fee + 1% cashback + Unlimited free overseas ATM withdrawals • No annual fee, ever ✅ Foreign Currency ✅ Hotels (in Foreign Currency only) ✅ Flights (in Foreign Currency only) ✅ Overseas Cash ✅ Large Purchases |
| HSBC Revolution | 4 mpd • Online only • Up to $1,000 per calendar month • No annual fee, ever ✅ Online Shopping ✅ Foreign Currency ✅ Flight Tickets (till 31 Dec 2024) ✅ Ride-Hailing |
💡 Click on the + Card Summary buttons below to view the key details of each card.
Amaze
Turn offline transactions online and minimize foreign transaction fees
🎁 Sign-up bonusGet 225 InstaPoints (worth $2.25) when you sign up as a new cardholder.
More information on the
Amaze is an innovative Debit Card that does not require topping up of an e-wallet to reap great benefits. In fact, this card actually makes some credit cards better.
Good Amaze use cases:
- Link Citi Rewards to this card, for in-person SGD spending on dining, groceries, general shopping and fuel, to turn offline transactions online, up to S$1,000 per statement month
- Link Citi Rewards to this card, for online/offline foreign currency spending on dining, groceries, ride-hailing, food delivery and general shopping, to save ~1% in foreign currency fees, up to S$1,000 per statement month
- Link OCBC Rewards to this card, to save ~1% in foreign currency fees on online/offline shopping (e.g. clothing/shoes, toys, duty free, luggage etc.), up to S$1,000 per calendar month
Key points to note about the Amaze card:
- Link up to 5 Mastercards in the Instarem mobile app
- Choose 1 of those cards before your next Amaze transaction
- All Amaze transactions will be charged in SGD, directly to the linked card
- All Amaze transactions will be seen as online transactions by the linked card
- All Amaze transactions will retain the actual Merchant Category Code (MCC) and will be seen by the linked card
- UOB, DBS/POSB and DCS cards do not award miles/points for Amaze transactions
- Avoid Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) fees (if any)
- Amazes foreign currency spread currently stands at around 2%
- When Amaze is linked to a card, all SGD spending in excess of S$1,000 per month will incur a 1% fee.
🔗 Great cards that can be linked to Amaze
Citi Rewards (4 mpd)
OCBC Rewards (4 mpd)
💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever
💼 Income requirement
No income requirement
🤑 Foreign currency fee
No foreign currency fee. However, Amaze’s foreign exchange spread currently stands at around 2% more than the Mastercard rate. This is about 1% lower than the ~3.25% fee that most credit cards charge.
⏰ Points expiry
1 year from transaction
💯 Conversion ratio
2,000 InstaPoints = $20
Citi Rewards
Earn 4 mpd on online spending, except travel-related
More information on the
This card gives you a strong earn rate of 4 miles per dollar on online spending, up to $1,000 per statement month. This covers a wide range of spending categories like online shopping, ride-hailing, food delivery and even phone/internet bills.
Cardholders can also earn 4 mpd on in-person shopping at stores that sell shoes and bags and clothes as their main business activity.
Take note that cardholders will only earn 0.4 mpd on travel-related categories (e.g. flights and hotels) and spending above $1,000 per statement month.
Having many transfer partners and up to 5-year expiry term gives you fantastic flexibility. However, take note that your points’ expiry term starts from the date the card is opened (i.e. not from the transaction date).
Pro tip: Link this card to Amaze and use the Amaze card to also earn 4 mpd on general spending categories like online/offline shopping, dining and groceries! This pairing turns all your offline transactions “online” (to earn 4 mpd on some cards) and lowers your foreign currency charges.
💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived)
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%
(Lower this fee by linking this card to Amaze)
⏰ Points expiry
Every 5 years from card opening date (+3 months grace period)
🫱🫲 Transfer partners
Krisflyer, Asia Miles, Miles&Smiles, Privilege Club and more!
💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile
🧮 Transfer block
25,000 points (10,000 miles)
💲 Transfer fee
$27.25 per transfer
🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card cannot be combined with those from other Citi cards and can only be transferred out separately.
❓ How/When points are credited
Earn 1 base point per dollar spent, plus 9 bonus points for online spending (equivalent to 4 mpd in total). Base and bonus points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.
UOB Preferred Platinum
Earn 4 mpd on Mobile Contactless spending
More information on the
This card gives you a strong earn rate of 4 miles per dollar on online and mobile contactless spending (in foreign currency too!) on key spending categories like dining, groceries, hotels, online shopping, in-person shopping and food delivery, up to $1,110 per calendar month.
Take note that cardholders will only earn 0.4 mpd on other categories and spending above $1,110 per calendar month. On top of that, cardholders will not earn any miles/points on SimplyGo transactions (i.e. bus or MRT), even when paid through mobile contactless.
“Mobile contactless” refers to Google Pay, Apply Pay, Samsung Pay and Fitbit Pay. Cardholders will not earn 4 mpd by using the physical card.
💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived)
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%
⏰ Points expiry
2 years from transaction
🫱🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer and Asia Miles
💯 Transfer ratio
1 UNI$ = 2 miles
🧮 Transfer block
5,000 UNI$ (10,000 miles)
💲Transfer fee
$25 per transfer
🤗 Points pooling
UNI$ from this card can be combined with those from other UOB cards and transferred out together at once.
❓How/When points are credited
Earn 1 base UNI$ per $5 dollar spent, plus 9 bonus UNI$ for eligible online and mobile contactless transactions (equivalent to 4 mpd in total). Base and bonus points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.
Trust Cashback
Get great rates, 1% cashback and unlimited free overseas ATM cash withdrawals
🎁 Sign-up bonusUse code V1WB7T8A during the application to get a scratch card worth up to $1,000, and a chance to win 1 million Singapore Dollars.
A one-time spend (any amount) is required. Pro Tip: Adding this card to your Grab app would trigger as first spend, due to the verification hold.
More information on the
This card gives you unlimited 1% cashback, great foreign exchange rates and no foreign currency fees; and it does not come with an annual fee!
The existence of this card also means that the opportunity cost of using Miles cards for foreign currency spending is now over 4%, as those cards come with around 3.25% in FX fees, and no 1% cashback.
To avoid interest charges on overseas ATM cash withdrawals, follow these easy steps:
- Apply for the Trust card with code V1WB7T8A
- Apply for a Trust Savings Account through the Trust app (instant approval). There is no minimum balance, monthly fee or lock-in period to worry about!
- Deposit enough money into your Trust Savings Account
- When withdrawing cash from an overseas ATM, be sure to select Savings Account on the ATM screen (i.e. not Current, not Credit Card), and of course, never let the ATM do any currency conversion for you, as the markups are insane
The card also has a highly-complicated and misleading benefit, claiming to offer “up to 15% cashback” on your chosen spending category:
- Dining (e.g. restaurants, bakeries, food deliveries)
- Shopping (e.g. department, clothing, watch stores)
- Travel (e.g. airlines, hotels, travel agencies)
- Wellness (e.g. beauty shops, spas, gyms, pharmacies)
- Transport (e.g. ride-hailing, car rental, petrol)
- Entertainment (e.g. bars, movies, streaming services)
Why misleading? The cashback cap is a lot lower than the minimum spending requirement. Examples here.
To summarize the cashback mechanics:
To receive “15% cashback” on the chosen category, one would need to spend at least $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive months in a quarter (total of at least $6,000). The cardholder would then be credited with $250 in cashback; that is, IF he/she had spent an average of at least $555 per month, on the chosen category.
This also means that, to unlock the “15% cashback” on $555 worth of spending, one would need to spend $1,445 per month on other things, and only earn 1% cashback on them. So, there’s a huge opportunity cost of not using other superior cards on this amount.
Essentially, this card gives you an effective cashback amount of around 4 to 4.9% on your preferred category, when spending $1,000 or $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive months in a quarter, far lower than the advertised amount.
Cardholders can choose their preferred bonus category in the Trust mobile app.
💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
No foreign currency fee
HSBC Revolution
Earn 4 mpd on selected online spending
More information on the
This card gives you a strong earn rate of 4 miles per dollar on selected online spending categories like:
- Online Shopping
- Flight Tickets (till 31 Dec 2024)
- Ride-Hailing
The 4 mpd earn rate can be enjoyed for eligible spendings of up to $1,000 per calendar month (no minimum spend, foreign currency counts).
Take note that cardholders will only earn 0.4 mpd on other categories and spending above $1,000 per calendar month.
This is a good fuss-free card that offers a great earn rate on online spending, without any annual fee to worry about, and free points conversions (till 31 Jan 2025).
Having many transfer partners gives you fantastic flexibility. For this reason, I recommend using this card over other cards with similar earn rates.
Not into Miles or travel-hacking? Redeem your points for 2.5% cashback instead, on the aforementioned spending categories!
Cardholders also get complimentary access to the ENTERTAINER with HSBC app, where there are over a thousand 1-for-1 deals on dining, entertainment and hotels.
💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%
⏰ Points expiry
3 years from transaction
(37 to 38 months to be exact)
🫱🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Infinity MileageLands, Executive Club and more!
💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile
🧮 Transfer block
25,000 points (10,000 miles)
💲Transfer fee
Free (till 31 jan 2025)
🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other HSBC cards and transferred out together at once.
❓How/When points are credited
Earn 1 base point per dollar spent, plus 9 bonus points for eligible online spending (equivalent to 4 mpd in total). Base points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted, while bonus points are credited by the end of the following calendar month.
Spending categories that are not covered by these amazing suite of cards include:
Cashback only?
Not into miles or travel hacking? Here are the must-have cashback cards to consider.
HSBC Revolution
Earn 4 mpd on selected online spending
More information on the
This card gives you a strong earn rate of 4 miles per dollar on selected online spending categories like:
- Online Shopping
- Flight Tickets (till 31 Dec 2024)
- Ride-Hailing
The 4 mpd earn rate can be enjoyed for eligible spendings of up to $1,000 per calendar month (no minimum spend, foreign currency counts).
Take note that cardholders will only earn 0.4 mpd on other categories and spending above $1,000 per calendar month.
This is a good fuss-free card that offers a great earn rate on online spending, without any annual fee to worry about, and free points conversions (till 31 Jan 2025).
Having many transfer partners gives you fantastic flexibility. For this reason, I recommend using this card over other cards with similar earn rates.
Not into Miles or travel-hacking? Redeem your points for 2.5% cashback instead, on the aforementioned spending categories!
Cardholders also get complimentary access to the ENTERTAINER with HSBC app, where there are over a thousand 1-for-1 deals on dining, entertainment and hotels.
💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%
⏰ Points expiry
3 years from transaction
(37 to 38 months to be exact)
🫱🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Infinity MileageLands, Executive Club and more!
💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile
🧮 Transfer block
25,000 points (10,000 miles)
💲Transfer fee
Free (till 31 jan 2025)
🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other HSBC cards and transferred out together at once.
❓How/When points are credited
Earn 1 base point per dollar spent, plus 9 bonus points for eligible online spending (equivalent to 4 mpd in total). Base points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted, while bonus points are credited by the end of the following calendar month.
UOB One
Earn up to 3.33% cashback on almost everything
More information on the
Most specialized cashback cards (offering over 1.7% cashback) require cardholders to meet multiple conditions. The conditions to receive up to 3.33% cashback on the UOB One card, in my opinion, are a little less complicated.
Cardholders can earn up to 3.33% cashback on a wide range of spending categories like online shopping, in-person shopping, dining, groceries, ride-hailing, food delivery, utilities and even phone/internet bills.
Why “up to” 3.33%? Upon meeting certain conditions, cardholders get a fixed cashback amount of $50, $100 or $200 at the end of each quarter.
How to receive up to 3.33% cashback:
- Mandatory: Make at least 5 transactions per statement month
- Get $50 cashback when you spend at least $500 per month, for 3 consecutive statement months in a qualifying quarter
- Get $100 cashback when you spend at least $1,000 per month, for 3 consecutive statement months in a qualifying quarter
- Get $200 cashback when you spend at least $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive statement months in a qualifying quarter
In other words, you will only receive exactly 3.33% cashback when you spend exactly $500, $1,000 or $2,000 for 3 consecutive months in a qualifying quarter. For that reason, cardholders who spend $900/month in that same period would fall under the $500 band, and be rewarded with just $50 cashback (equivalent to 1.85%).
Cardholders who meet the conditions for up to 3.33% cashback described above can earn up to 6.67% additional cashback for spendings at selected merchants like Cold Storage, Giant, Grab and Shopee.
💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived)
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%
❓ When cashback is credited
Receive your cashback in the card by the following statement date after the completion of your qualifying quarter.
DBS yuu
Get up to 18% cash rebate or 10 mpd at selected merchants
More information on the
This card gives you uncapped earn rate of 10 yuu points per dollar at participating yuu merchants, with no minimum spending required. 10 yuu points can be redeemed for 5% cash rebate or 2.78 KrisFlyer miles per dollar.
Spend at least $600 per calendar month to get a bonus 26 yuu points per dollar at those merchants (total 36 yuu points = 18% rebate = 10 mpd), capped at $78 per month ($600 spending). Yes, that’s right, the only way that you’ll get 18% cash rebate or 10 mpd is if you spend exactly $600 at participating merchants every month.
So, should you redeem yuu points for KrisFlyer miles?
By ignoring the opportunity to earn 18% rebate, you’d be “paying” about 1.8 cents per KrisFlyer mile in opportunity cost; and that’s pricey.
Tip: Redeem yuu points for excluded Giant or Cold Storage items like magazines, infant milk formula, sushi or tobacco products to lower/eliminate your opportunity cost.
If you’re looking to top-up small amounts of KrisFlyer miles for an award redemption, this is a great way to do so, as conversions are free and instantaneous.
- Giant
- Cold Storage
- Gojek
- 7-Eleven
- foodpanda
- Singtel
- Guardian
- Breadtalk
- Food Republic (till 26 Oct 2024)
- Food Junction (till 26 Oct 2024)
Cardholders can also earn 35 yuu points per dollar when purchasing Dairy Farm supermarket vouchers from Giant or Cold Storage outlets, and when paying Singtel bills at Singtel kiosks in Singtel shops.
Get just 0.5% cash rebate at other merchants.
💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived)
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%
🫱🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer only
💯 Conversion ratio
1 yuu point = 0.5% cash rebate
3.6 yuu points = 1 KrisFlyer mile
🧮 Transfer block
200 points (56 miles)
💲Transfer fee
Free
❓How/When points are credited
Earn 1 yuu point per $1 dollar spent, plus 9 bonus yuu points for eligible online transactions (equivalent to 5% cash rebate in total). Earn a further 26 yuu points per $1 at yuu partners if you spend at least $600 in a calendar month. Base points are credited within 14 days, while bonus points are credited within 60 days.
Trust Cashback
Get great rates, 1% cashback and unlimited free overseas ATM cash withdrawals
🎁 Sign-up bonusUse code V1WB7T8A during the application to get a scratch card worth up to $1,000, and a chance to win 1 million Singapore Dollars.
A one-time spend (any amount) is required. Pro Tip: Adding this card to your Grab app would trigger as first spend, due to the verification hold.
More information on the
This card gives you unlimited 1% cashback, great foreign exchange rates and no foreign currency fees; and it does not come with an annual fee!
The existence of this card also means that the opportunity cost of using Miles cards for foreign currency spending is now over 4%, as those cards come with around 3.25% in FX fees, and no 1% cashback.
To avoid interest charges on overseas ATM cash withdrawals, follow these easy steps:
- Apply for the Trust card with code V1WB7T8A
- Apply for a Trust Savings Account through the Trust app (instant approval). There is no minimum balance, monthly fee or lock-in period to worry about!
- Deposit enough money into your Trust Savings Account
- When withdrawing cash from an overseas ATM, be sure to select Savings Account on the ATM screen (i.e. not Current, not Credit Card), and of course, never let the ATM do any currency conversion for you, as the markups are insane
The card also has a highly-complicated and misleading benefit, claiming to offer “up to 15% cashback” on your chosen spending category:
- Dining (e.g. restaurants, bakeries, food deliveries)
- Shopping (e.g. department, clothing, watch stores)
- Travel (e.g. airlines, hotels, travel agencies)
- Wellness (e.g. beauty shops, spas, gyms, pharmacies)
- Transport (e.g. ride-hailing, car rental, petrol)
- Entertainment (e.g. bars, movies, streaming services)
Why misleading? The cashback cap is a lot lower than the minimum spending requirement. Examples here.
To summarize the cashback mechanics:
To receive “15% cashback” on the chosen category, one would need to spend at least $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive months in a quarter (total of at least $6,000). The cardholder would then be credited with $250 in cashback; that is, IF he/she had spent an average of at least $555 per month, on the chosen category.
This also means that, to unlock the “15% cashback” on $555 worth of spending, one would need to spend $1,445 per month on other things, and only earn 1% cashback on them. So, there’s a huge opportunity cost of not using other superior cards on this amount.
Essentially, this card gives you an effective cashback amount of around 4 to 4.9% on your preferred category, when spending $1,000 or $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive months in a quarter, far lower than the advertised amount.
Cardholders can choose their preferred bonus category in the Trust mobile app.
💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever
💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year
🤑 Foreign currency fee
No foreign currency fee