DBS Altitude Amex Card

[9V-JKL]

AMEX Rewards card has a new promo for new cardholders:

Pay $50 annual fee, spend S$500 for first 3 mths and get a total of 24000 pts = 15000miles! (previously was make a charge and get 16000pts = 10000miles)

After calculating, the S$1500 you spend get extra 5000miles, 1 mile = S$0.30 or S$1=3.33miles!

Am Ab(using) it now
Also, for this month, any charge that's $100 & above gets you another 100% bonus

[ginkoka]

argh tried to apply, but got slapped with this length legalese:

Important Information For Existing American Express Credit Cardmembers:
Please note you can hold a maximum of two (2) American Express Credit Cards issued in Singapore.
By choosing to have more than one American Express Credit Card, the overall credit limit assigned to you will be split and assigned to each Basic Credit Card account that you maintain. You have the flexibility to change the limits assigned to each Basic Credit Card account by contacting American Express upon approval of your American Express Rewards Card application.
If you are holding any American Express Blue/Gold Credit Card, it will be automatically cancelled (inclusive of all Supplementary Card(s)) upon approval of your American Express Rewards Card. Fees paid on the cancelled Credit Card(s) will be pro-rated, where applicable.
For Gold Credit Cardmember: Any Cash Back accrued will be forfeited.
If you hold any Singapore issued American Express Card, you will be charged the annual fee on your existing Card in addition to the annual fee on the American Express Rewards Card.
Any charges and/or outstanding balance will be transferred to the American Express Rewards Card at our prevailing interest rate applicable to the American Express Rewards Card. If you were enjoying a promotional rate on your Credit Card balance, the interest rate charged after transfer to the American Express Rewards Card may be higher than the promotional rate.

[Kyo]

Don't know how I have three Amex cards in SIN then...

[ginkoka]

lol am i the only one who cares abt T&C when even the companies don't track? sheesh...

[Savage25]

Don't know how I have three Amex cards in SIN then...

Either one of them is a charge card or issued by a bank other than Amex.

[Kyo]

Either one of them is a charge card or issued by a bank other than Amex.

Thanks for the clarification mate

[hjerapa]

Wow, so is the Amex Rewards card the best for miles now then ? it's even better than the DBS Insignia ? I saw it has $1 to 1.6 miles ? i wonder how they do it....

[vsepr]

Breaking news!!

Just learnt that Citibank does not issue the Citi Platinum VISA/MasterCard anymore. The one that earn 5x Citidollars at supermarkets!! (S$1 = 2 miles)

http://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credi...erCode=SGCPCWA

Those who have it can continue to earn the 5x Citidollars at supermarkets. The next best card at supermarket for those who cannot get the card would be the Citi Premiermiles card, S$1 = 1.2miles! Or use the AMEX Rewards card or other AMEX cards on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays for 5x points at Cold Storage/Marketplace! (Rewards card- S$1 = 3.125mile or 3.438mile for favourite 5, other AMEX Cards- S$1 = 1.9531mile)

https://www.americanexpress.com/sg/p....shtml?page=PR

[vsepr]

Wow, so is the Amex Rewards card the best for miles now then ? it's even better than the DBS Insignia ? I saw it has $1 to 1.6 miles ? i wonder how they do it....

No, AMEX Rewards card's earning rate is every $1.60 spent = 1 mile (S$1 = 0.625mile). At your selected favourite 5 merchants, you get 50% more points, so that becomes $1.067 = 1 mile (S$1 = 0.937 mile). For the first 3 months, you get 100% more points, so that becomes $0.80 = 1 mile (S$1 = 1.25 mile). The calculation is somewhat similar to AMEX KrisFlyer Gold card. If during the first 3 months you charge at your selected favourite 5 merchants, that becomes $0.64 = 1 mile (S$1 = 1.5625 mile). But that's only for the first 3 months.

Citi Premiermiles is still the best for all transactions (S$1 = 1.2 mile or $0.83 = 1 mile, except for Asia Miles: S$1 = 0.48 mile or $2.083 = 1 mile) other than at selected merchants for Citi Rewards card (10x, $1 = 4 miles or $0.25 = 1 mile), platinum visa (discontinued), clear platinum and Maybank Horizon Visa platinum (5x, $1 = 2 miles or $0.50 = 1 mile).

[hjerapa]

$1 = 2 miles ? For maybank, is it for all merchants ? or just selected ones ?

[vsepr]

KrisFlyer & Malaysia Airlines (Enrich):

Maybank Horizon Platinum Visa Card: (free conversion to KrisFlyer)

Earn 5x tr'eats Points (redeemable for 2 air miles) with every S$1 charged for air ticket / travel packages (Airlines eg: Singapore Airlines, Tiger Airways, Jetstar etc & travel agent charges eg: Chan Brothers, Nam Ho Travel, ASA Holidays), purchases at Perfumes & Cosmetics outlets at Singapore Changi Airport, and overseas foreign transactions.

• Flexibility to covert tr'eats Points to frequent flyer miles for Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) or Malaysia Airlines (Enrich)
o Attractive conversion rates – 1,250 tr'eats Points = 500 KrisFlyer miles
– 2,500 tr'eats Points = 1000 Enrich miles
• Free conversion fee of tr'eats Points to KrisFlyer miles and Enrich miles for Maybank MasterCard Platinum and Maybank Horizon Platinum Visa Card;
Sign up for REWARDS INFINITE VALUE (1st year free, 2nd year onwards $10.70 annual fee)

Application form at:
http://info.maybank2u.com.sg/pdf/car..._enrolment.pdf



10x tr’eats Points ▪ Petrol & EZ-link auto top up

▪ F&B outlets
▪ Ben & Jerry’s
▪ Breeks! Café
▪ Crystal Jade
▪ Dian Xiao Er
▪ Din Tai Fung
▪ Ichiban Boshi
▪ Jack’s Place
▪ Kuishin-Bo
▪ Sakura International Buffet
▪ Seoul Garden
▪ Soup Restaurant
▪ Sushi Tei
▪ Thai Express

• Fashion outlets
o Bossini
o Fox Fashion
o G2000
o Giordano
o Hang Ten
o Mango
o ZARA
o Topshop/Topman


10x treats point => S$1 spent= 4 miles!!

[hjerapa]

Ohh, so which would be the best card in general, without all the extra 10x points, 5x points, its quite mind boggling to remember...thanks !

[vsepr]

Ohh, so which would be the best card in general, without all the extra 10x points, 5x points, its quite mind boggling to remember...thanks !

U mean just to carry only 1 card?

Citi Premiermiles. Miles earned are for every $1 spent. ($1 = 1.2 miles or $0.83/mile or 3x points, where 1x = $2.50). Transfer in any amount greater than 500 miles, eg 12346miles. Transfer fee S$25 per transfer.

OR DBS Altitude Card if you spent more than $1000 a month (otherwise its 3x, same as Citi Premiermiles). From the $1001 onwards, you earn 4x points, $0.625/mile or $1 = 1.6mile. BUT TAKE NOTE: Points earned are converted to miles. Points are earned for every S$5 spent. If you spend $9.90, you will lose out the points for the S$4.90 part. Miles are transferred in blocks of 2000 miles. If you need 9500 miles to do a redemption, you need to spend more to make up to 5000 points = 10000 miles to do a transfer, so end up you waste $$ and points. Pay annual transfer fee of $42.80, where you can transfer unlimited times in a year. But do you need to transfer monthly to create a deadline for your miles? NO!! Transfer only when you need to use them! Hope you see what I mean.

[vsepr]

But if you notice the charges you make and the final amount of miles you actually earn and use after redemption, Citi Premiermiles may be more useful for 2 good reasons:

1. DBS Altitude card award points for every $5 spent. How many of your charges in a month are exactly in multiples of $5? I'm sure most of them are like $18.90, $37.80 etc...so all this residue part ($3.90, $2.80) all are wasted. Even if Altitude card awards you 4x, the total amount of points & miles you actually earn is not much different if you charge entirely to Citi Premiermiles or sometimes even more if your charges are like $39.90. You can take a month's statement and do some calculation on the miles you earn by calculating the number of miles earn if charged entirely to Citi Premiermiles compared to DBS Altitude Card. Only if you can make all your charges in multiples of $5, you will get more miles for the 4x points compared to Citi Premiermiles. Have you ever wondered why does DBS Altitude Card never highlight the clause "Points are earned for every $5 spent?" in their advertisements? And only $1 spent = 1.6miles?

2. DBS points are transferred in blocks of 1000 DBS Points = 2000 miles (They also never highlight this in their advertisements). Compared to ANZ, Maybank, original AMEX where miles are transferred in blocks of 500 miles and Citibank is best, any amount greater than 500 miles. (UOB is the WORST...transfer in blocks of 10000 miles, most of the cardholders now boycott UOB Cards because their redemption levels are too high) Most of the time, you will not able to use up completely the entire miles transferred. Let's say you have 15555miles in your KF account, you need another say 7188 miles to do a redemption. Hence you need to transfer 4000 DBS Points = 8000 miles to KrisFlyer, where only 7188 miles will be used up. So the balance 812 miles or $508 spent (based on 4x points) are wasted. This is where Citi Premiermiles is better. You just need to transfer EXACTLY 7188 miles over to KrisFlyer, and none of your precious, hardearned miles are wasted!

Many cardholders do not see all these blindspots. They just think that "earn more miles ah? good lo, use this card". The right way is that you must also see the redemption part of it and how the miles are earned too.

[eriond]

So for example UOB cards that award X points for every S$10 spent, the points awarded is based on the expenditure per transaction instead of the final expenditure at the end of the month?