From now till 31 July 2020, Citibank is offering 1.5 miles per dollar (MPD) for every dollar spent with your Citibank PremierMiles card. This is up from the usual 1.2 MPD.
What is Citi PayAll?
I have yet to write an article about buying miles in Singapore the indirect way. Allow me to summarise it real quick for those who are new to this.
Much like iPayMy, CardUp and RentHero, Citi PayAll is a service to earn miles from spending categories that usually do not give you any. A couple of examples of these categories are taxes and rent. Services like Citi PayAll charge a small fee (usually around 1.8 – 2%). Because of this fee, you will be spending more than what you actually have to. Because you are spending more than what you are supposed to, it simply means that you are “buying” miles (spending more to earn miles).
For example:
Income tax amount: $1,000
Citi PayAll fee: $20 (2%)
Total amount charged to card: $1,020
Citi Miles earned: 1,500 (1.5 x 1,000)
With the above example, you are paying $20 more to earn 1,500 miles. Effectively, buying Citi Miles at $0.013 each (30% below valuation).
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How to do it?
All you have to do is download Citibank Singapore’s mobile app and set up the PayAll feature in a few very simple steps.
Limited to your tax payable
Yes, there is a limit to how many miles you can “buy”. You will be limited to the amount of tax that is payable by you. Click here for the full terms and conditions.
Is it a good deal?
Citi miles and points are the most valuable among all banks in Singapore. There is no contest.
Just as an example, let’s say you plan to transfer your Citi miles to Asia Miles to travel to one of the amazing sweet spots. Because I value Asia Miles at $0.019 and this deal allows me to buy miles at $0.013, it means that I am getting the opportunity to buy Asia Miles at a nice 30% discount.
In that sense, this is a good deal.
Conclusion
Unless if you have huge tax bill of over $16,000, “buying” miles with this deal will not be enough to fly you anywhere in Business Class. But it is a nice option to top up your balance by a little bit at a discounted price.
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