How To Maximise The Miles Earned On Big Ticket Spending

Major life events like renovations or weddings can take a big bite out of your wallet, no two ways about it. While many do well to set a budget, far too few stop to consider how they can get the most rebates on their spending by using the right credit cards.

After all, credit cards earn you miles or cashback. If your vendor accepts credit cards and you pay with cash, debit cards or bank transfers, you’re just leaving money on the table.

In this post, we’ll look at how you can maximise the miles you earn from your big ticket spending this year.

Sign-up bonuses are one-time offers for new-to-bank customers, typically defined as those who do not currently hold any principal credit cards with a given bank, and have not cancelled one in the past 12 months.

In their general form, customers who spend S$X within the first Y months of approval will receive Z bonus miles. While there are some exceptions (e.g. insurance premiums, government transactions, utilities bills, certain hospital bills- consult the T&Cs for the full details) you can meet the minimum spend with most types of retail spending including renovation charges and wedding expenses.

Here’s a brief summary of the current offers on the market:

Card	Min. Spend	Bonus Miles	Offer Ends
Citi Prestige	S$800	48,000	31 Mar 23
Citi PremierMiles Card	S$800	30,000	31 Mar 23
Citi Rewards Card	S$800	16,000	31 Mar 23
DBS Altitude AMEX	S$2,000	31,000	30 Jun 23
DBS Altitude Visa	S$2,000	25,000	30 Jun 23
DBS Vantage Card	S$4,000	60,000	30 Jun 23
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card	S$2,000	25,000	30 Apr 23
OCBC Titanium Rewards	S$100	11,520	30 Apr 23

For example, if your renovations involve buying S$5,000 worth of appliances, you could sign up for a DBS Altitude AMEX (Spend S$2,000, get 31,000 bonus miles), KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card (Spend S$2,000, get 25,000 bonus miles) and Citi PremierMiles Card (Spend S$800, get 30,000 bonus miles) and have a total of 86,000 bonus miles to show for it.

A few important points to note.

First, sign-up bonuses are dynamic, and by the time you read this post, the bonuses or terms may have changed. Always refer to the relevant websites for the latest updates before applying.

Second, your new-to-bank status is only valid for the first card you apply for. If you apply for both the Citi PremierMiles and Citi Rewards Cards, for instance, you will only enjoy the bonus on the first approved card (subsequent to which you count as an existing customer).

Third, since sign-up bonuses are generally reserved for new-to-bank customers, you should take stock of the current cards you have, and consider cancelling unused ones. This way, you can “start the clock” on the countdown until you’re considered new-to-bank again.

Fourth, consider the timing of your purchases and apply for cards accordingly. Different sign-up bonuses have different windows for spending- some as little as 30 days, some as much as 90 days. It helps to sit down and plan when each of your payments will take place, and match that period to the relevant card.

Fifth, don’t forget that sign-up bonuses apply on a principal cardholder level. If you and your spouse each apply for a principal card and meet the minimum spend, you can effectively double the bonus miles you earn. On the other hand, if your planned expense is relatively smaller, you can apply for a principal card and give your spouse a supplementary card instead. This way, your combined spending will be taken into account when determining whether the minimum spend has been met.

Unlike sign-up bonuses, category bonuses are recurring offers for cardholders who spend on certain categories.

For example, if you’re planning a wedding and your venue is a hotel, you can consider using the following cards to maximise your miles.

Card	Earn Rate for Hotels	Cap
HSBC Revolution	4 mpd	S$1,000 per month
UOB Lady’s Card	4 mpd*	S$1,000 per month
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card	4 mpd*	S$3,000 per month
*The UOB Lady’s Card requires you to choose a quarterly bonus category. For hotel spending, choose “travel”

Note how each of these cards has a monthly cap- banks can’t afford to give out 4 mpd willy-nilly! Because of this, you should try and work out the payment schedule with the venue such that you can max out each month’s cap nicely.

If you’re planning a wedding and your venue is a restaurant, you can consider using the following cards to maximise your miles:

Card	Earn Rate for Dining	Cap
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature	1.2 mpd^	40,000 TREATS Points (TP) per month
Amaze + Citi Rewards Card	4 mpd#	S$1,000 per month
HSBC Revolution	4 mpd	S$1,000 per month
UOB Lady’s Card	4 mpd*	S$1,000 per month
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card	4 mpd*	S$3,000 per month
^A minimum monthly spend of S$300 is required *The UOB Lady’s Card requires you to choose a quarterly bonus category. For restaurant spending, choose “dining”

Unfortunately, there are no cards offering bonuses for payments to renovation firms, but to the extent that the company has a physical credit card terminal and accepts contactless payments, you can earn bonus miles with the following cards:

Card	Earn Rate for Contactless Spending	Cap
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa	4 mpd*	S$1,110 per month
UOB Visa Signature	4 mpd^	S$2,000 per month
*Must use mobile payments; tapping the physical card will not qualify ^A minimum spend of S$1,000 is required, caps and minimum spend are based on statement month, not calendar month

Obviously, you can use the above two cards for payments at hotels and restaurants for weddings too!

Credit card payments shave precious points off the merchant’s margin, so some vendors may only accept PayNow or bank transfers.

Not all is lost, however. Provided you’re OK with paying a small fee, you can still earn credit card miles on such transactions via bill payment services like CardUp and Citi PayAll.

How this works is you submit your vendor’s details to CardUp/Citi PayAll. Cardup/Citi PayAll will then pay the vendor via bank transfer, and charge your credit card for the amount due plus an admin fee.

For example, CardUp offers a year-round admin fee of 2.25% for one-time general payments (use the code GET225), with even lower fees for rent or recurring payments. Based on this fee, your cost per mile varies as follows:

If your card earns…	Your cost per mile with a 2.25% fee is…
1.6 mpd	1.38 cents
1.5 mpd	1.47 cents
1.4 mpd	1.57 cents
1.3 mpd	1.69 cents
1.2 mpd	1.83 cents

Obviously, the higher your card’s earn rate, the lower the cost per mile. That’s why I’d recommend using the UOB PRVI Miles (1.4 mpd) or DBS Vantage (1.5 mpd) to pay bills via CardUp (there are cards which earn 1.6 mpd, but these are generally reserved for private/privilege banking customers or high income earners).

Citi PayAll charges a flat 2% fee for all payments, which results in the following cost per mile figures.

If you have…	Your cost per mile with a 2% fee is…
Citi ULTIMA (1.6 mpd)	1.25 cents
Citi Prestige (1.3 mpd)	1.54 cents
Citi PremierMiles (1.2 mpd)	1.67 cents
Citi Rewards (0.4 mpd)	5 cents

Citibank runs tier-up promotions throughout the year, which either increase the earn rate or lower the admin fee. Recent offers we’ve seen have upsized the earn rate to as high as 2.5 mpd, or offered Grab and eCapitaVouchers to offset the cost of the admin fees.

While big ticket expenses are hard to swallow, earning a good rebate through your credit card can make it much more palatable.

As always, remember to pay your bills in full and on time, and avoid carrying a balance on your card. We use credit cards to avoid leaving money on the table, not to put even more down!

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