How to receive Cashback and Points for Insurance, Education and Hospital payments

TL;DR: Use AMEX True Cashback to top up your Grab wallet and use your GrabPay Mastercard to make your payments to receive up to 4.2% of your money back in the form of cashback and points.

Transactions like insurance premiums, school fees and hospital bill payments are excluded from cashback or points programs of most banks in Singapore. This prevents you from using a specialised credit card for maximum miles/points/cashback. While these transactions are not excluded for American Express cards in Singapore, some of those organisations mentioned above do not accept American Express cards (only Mastercard and Visa).

These transactions are usually fairly large, even crossing into five-figures. It will be a waste to not receive any cashback or points for them! Now, before you pull out your NETS card, that will give you absolutely nothing in return, check out the workaround below.

How to do it

For most transactions, you will want to use a combination of these two cards.

1. AMEX True Cashback (credit card)
2. GrabPay Mastercard (prepaid debit card)

Using the AMEX True Cashback to top up your GrabPay wallet will get you 1.5% cashback (or 3% on your first $5,000). Once this is done, you will be able to use your GrabPay card to pay for anything you want. The “credit limit” of your GrabPay card is whatever amount that is in your Grab wallet.

If you do not already have a GrabPay Mastercard, check your Grab app for an option to apply for one.

For qualifying payments (not insurance), you will receive 6 Grab points per dollar spent. Hence, a $1,000 payment will get you 6,000 points, which I value at $12. You may simply see this as a 1.2% cashback ($12 / $1,000). Click here to find out ways to use your Grab points for best value.

An extra point to note is, because of MAS regulations, Grab will only allow you to spend a maximum of $5,000 per day. You may need to request whichever organisation that you are paying to for multiple payments over separate days if your bill exceeds this amount. More about this limitation here.

American Express sign-up promotion

If you do not already have the American Express True Cashback card, there is a special promotion going on till 2 November 2020. Apply through this link to receive $160 cash after spending $500 within 1 month (Grab wallet top ups counted!).

You will also receive 3% cashback (instead of 1.5% cashback) on your first $5,000 spend within your first 6 months! This 3% welcome bonus is also applicable to existing American Express cardholders who do not currently hold the True Cashback card.

Which transactions give me cashback/points?

Insurance Premiums
You will not receive Grab points for insurance payments. If your insurance company accepts AMEX cards, you may use your AMEX True Cashback card directly to make your payment. Else, top up your Grab wallet and use your GrabPay card for the payment.

Education
Top up your Grab wallet with AMEX True Cashback and pay for your school fees with your GrabPay card to receive both cashback and points.

Hospital/Medical Payments
Top up your Grab wallet with AMEX True Cashback and pay for your hospital/medical payments with your GrabPay card to receive both cashback and points. You may also use the Health Buddy app to make these payments.

No credit card, no problem

If you do not qualify for the AMEX True Cashback card, you may also top up your Grab wallet through other means (like PayNow) and still earn Grab points for these transactions.

American Express True Cashback

Suitesmile card rating:

Sign-up bonus

Get $160 cash or
Sony headphones

more infoChoose to receive $160 cash or Sony WH-H910N Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (worth $399) if you apply as a new credit card customer of American Express. To receive the sign-up bonus, a minimum spend of $500 is required within 30 days from card approval.

Key benefit

Get up to 3% cashback
on GrabPay top ups

more infoGet 1.5% cashback (or 3% for your first $5,000 in 6 months) on almost everything, including GrabPay top-ups. No minimum spend required. Also receive 21% fuel savings at SPC. Register at amex.co/spcbenefits.

Annual fee

$171.20
(first year waived)

more infoAnnual fee is automatically waived for the first year. Ask for an annual fee waiver every year after that. We do not recommend paying for this card's annual fee as there are other credit cards offering similar benefits. If fee waiver request is not granted, we suggest that you cancel the card.

Min. Income
requirement

$30,000/yr

more infoYou will have to submit prove of income during the application process.

Apply now

Why we like this card

Unlike most other cards, this card offers 1.5% cashback on almost everything. To receive cashback where AMEX cards are not accepted, top up your GrabPay wallet with this card and use your GrabPay card for payment at the merchant.

American Express
+
GrabPay Combo

Sign-up bonus

–

more infoNo sign-up bonus at the moment.

Key benefit

Unlock up to 3% cashback
where you usually can’t

more infoTop up your GrabPay wallet with AMEX True Cashback or UOB Absolute Cashback to receive up to 3% cashback where you usually can't. Even at AXS online and merchants that do not accept American Express cards. Note the GrabPay limits: $5,000 per transaction/day, $10,000 per month, $30,000 per year.

Annual fee

Differs

more info$171.20 annual fee (first year waived) for American Express True Cashback and $192.60 annual fee (first year waived) for UOB Absolute Cashback. No annual fee for GrabPay card.

Min. Income
requirement

Differs

more infoAmerican Express True Cashback and UOB Absolute Cashback require a minimum annual income of $30,000. No income requirement for GrabPay card.

Apply for GrabPay Card on Grab’s mobile app. Apply for AMEX True Cashback here and UOB Absolute Cashback here.

Why we like this card

Although it requires an additional step, having up to 3% cashback for categories that usually get you nothing (insurance premiums, school fees, hospital bills) makes it worth it!

Bottom line

After multiple devaluations and exclusions here, here, here and here, who knows how long more this workaround will remain. AMEX True Cashback is an important card in my wallet right now and I think everyone should milk the benefits while it lasts.

Useful articles about credit cards and the Miles Game

As usual, I recommend reading the following articles if you are new to credit cards:

• Getting Started: Is the Miles Game for you?

• Keeping track of your credit cards

• How to drastically minimize the risk of accumulating credit card debt

• Should you pay your credit card’s annual fee?

• Cashback vs Miles: Which cards are better?