Great news for OCBC Rewards cardholders! From April 1st to June 30th December 31, 2024, you can earn a whopping 6 miles per dollar spent at Watsons, department stores, and duty-free shops. This exciting bonus applies to the first S$1,000 you spend in these categories each month, making it a great way to rack up extra miles on everyday purchases.
Here’s a breakdown of the key details:
- Bonus Period: April 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024
- Bonus Category: Watsons, department stores, and
duty-free shops (MCC 5309& 5311) - Bonus Rate: 6 miles per dollar (capped at S$1,000 spend per month)
Read the Terms and Conditions here
Stacking for Supercharged Miles: Earn 6 Miles Per Dollar Hack via HeyMax
HeyMax is the Miles equivalent of Shopback, earning you miles instead of cashback on your purchases. By using the OCBC Rewards card to purchase vouchers on platforms coded as department stores (e.g., HeyMax coded as MCC 5311), you can potentially earn double rewards. You’ll get the 6 miles per dollar from OCBC plus any bonus miles offered by the platform itself (like HeyMax’s Max Miles). For instance, buying an Amazon gift card (below) on HeyMax could net you a total of 9 miles per dollar (6 OCBC miles + 3 Max miles). You could also buy Best Denki vouchers to get your electric home appliances at 6 miles + 0.5 Max Miles per dollar, which is a great opportunity for new home owners. For example, I’m looking to buy some tour package on Klook, i could easily buy Klook vouchers to receive 6 miles + 1.25 Max Miles per dollar with this.
A glimpse of some vouchers that you could purchase:
New to HeyMax?
You can sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 1,000 Max Miles: 500 upon registration and another 500 after making 3 confirmed purchases and verifying your phone number.
- No conversion fees to worry about, maximizing your reward value.
- No expiry on Max Miles, so you can use them at your own pace.
- Transfer your Max Miles to over 20 airline and hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio (below)
Spending overseas? Use Amaze with OCBC Rewards Card except for Watsons.
Amaze may still be used to earn fantastic FCY rates for MCCs 5309 and 5311 when combined with OCBC Rewards and spent overseas since they’re considered MCC-based bonus. However, using Amaze at Watsons overseas will not be feasible since it is considered as ‘merchant-based’ and Amaze has updated the transaction description in a way that OCBC no longer recognizes it as Watsons.
For your convenience, i’ve included the OCBC Rewards Cheatsheet below.
OCBC Rewards Card Overview:
Local Earn Rate | 0.4 miles per dollar (5 OCBC$ per S$5 spent) |
Foreign Currency Earn Rate | 0.4 miles per dollar (5 OCBC$ per S$5 spent) |
Bonus Earn Rate | 4 miles per dollar (50 OCBC$ per S$5 Spent) |
Foreign Currency Fees | 3.25% (you can use Amaze for List A merchants below to circumvent this) |
Min. Miles Transfer | 25,000 OCBC$ (10,000 miles) |
Transfer Fee | S$25 (before GST) |
Spending Cap for Bonus Earn Rate (Per Calendar Month) | S$1,100 |
Points Pooling | Yes (only with OCBC cards that earn OCBC$)Travel$ and VOYAGE Miles are not included. |
Lounge Access | No |
Airport Limo | No |
Transfer Partners | SIA, Air France KLM, British Airways, Cathay, Etihad, United Accor, IHG, Marriott |
Eligibility & Fees:
- Minimum Age: 21 years old
- Minimum Annual Income: S$30,000 (locals/PRs); S$45,000 (foreigners)
- Annual Fee: S$196.20 (including GST), waived for the first 2 years
- Since minimum income requirement by MAS is S$30,000 per annum, this card is an entry-level card that should be pretty easy to get an annual fee waiver if you have some spending on this card. Most cards have a minimum spend requirement within a year to be eligible for a fee waiver. You can check out my TikTok video on getting annual fee waiver.
Key Benefits:
- With the bonus earn rate of 4 miles per dollar, you can earn by spending in these categories:
Eligible Spending MCCs (List A):
MCC and Description | Examples (Not Exhaustive) |
MCC 5309 (Duty Free Stores) | DFS Singapore Changi |
MCC 5311 (Department Stores (will earn 6 mpd until December 31, 2024) | BHG, Isetan, Metro |
MCC 5611 (Men’s and Boys’ Clothing and Accessories Stores) | Benjamin Barker |
MCC 5621 (Women’s Ready to Wear Stores) | Love, Bonito |
MCC 5631 (Women’s Accessory and Speciality Stores) | Pandora, Swarovski |
MCC 5641 (Children’s and Infants’ Wear Stores) | Mothercare, Kiddy Palace |
MCC 5651 (Family Clothing Stores) | Uniqlo, H&M, Cotton On |
MCC 5655 (Sports and Riding Apparel Stores) | Decathlon, Lululemon |
MCC 5661 (Shoe Stores) | Aldo, Charles & Keith |
MCC 5691 (Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores) | Zara, Topshop, Muji |
MCC 5699 (Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessory Shops) | Typo, Miniso, Daiso |
MCC 5941 (Sporting Goods Stores) | Royal Sporting House |
MCC 5948 (Luggage or Leather Goods Stores) | Samsonite, Tumi |
Eligible Retailers (List B) – not to be used with Amaze:
Alibaba | Guardian | *Shopee (exclude Shopee Pay) |
AliExpress | Lazada | Taobao |
**Amazon | **Mustafa Centre | TikTok Shop |
Daigou | NTUC Unity | Watsons |
Ezbuy | Qoo10 | |
*Shopee Pay transactions under MCC 5262 are not eligible to earn any OCBC$ **Transactions under MCC 5411 (Groceries, Supermarket) is not eligible to earn any Bonus OCBC$ | ||
*Transactions under MCC 5411 (Grocery stores, Supermarkets) are not eligible to earn any Bonus OCBC$
- Earn 4 miles per dollar for every S$5 spent on qualifying online and in-store purchases at the merchants under List A and List B above.
- 0.4 miles per dollar (5 OCBC$ per S$5) on every other purchase that qualifies
- Protection of E-Commerce
- Fee waiver for the first two years for both the primary card (S$194.40 annually) and the supplemental card (S$97.20 annually)
Where Can I Use it:
- Previously known as OCBC Rewards Card, this is a great shopping credit card to use since it has the potential to earn you 4 miles per dollar (15 OCBC$ for every S$5) spent at online and offline retailers under the above List A and List B. It has a monthly spending cap of S$1,100 which could be beneficial as part of your arsenal of miles credit cards.
Is it Worth it:
- Advantages
- Able to own the blue and pink version of the card which hold its own cap (which means if you have both blue and pink card, you have a S$1,110 x 2 = S$2,220 cap to earn 4 miles per dollar in total) per calendar month
- Can pair with OCBC 360 account to fulfill S$500 per month SPEND criteria and earn extra interest on your savings.
- Able to use with Amaze for overseas shopping transactions
- Disadvantages
- It used to be a yearly spending cap, now it is a monthly spending cap like Citi Rewards, HSBC Revolution. It would rank below these cards in terms of versatility
- Depending on your spending pattern, it might be difficult for one to spend S$500 per month on OCBC Rewards to hit the OCBC 360 account SPEND criteria consistently.
- You do incur a slightly fx spread of 1-2% when using Amaze + OCBC Rewards on List A merchants overseas
Frequently Asked Questions:
- When are the OCBC$ credited: The base points usually credits when the transaction is posted, usually takes 24 hrs or in some, it could take 2-3 days. While the bonus points are transferred by the end of the next calendar month
- How long are OCBC$ valid for: OCBC$ expires every 2 years and can pool across cards that earn OCBC$, but not with OCBC’s other rewards currencies (Travel$, VOYAGE Miles) – This means if you have other OCBC$ earning cards (eg. OCBC Rewards Blue and Pink), you can transfer the miles together from both card at one shot with a single transfer fee.
- How are OCBC$ calculated:
- Since it is now being awarded in blocks of S$5, this could be a slight dilemma for small spendings. For example you have a transaction worth S$14.99, since it will only be credited in increments of S$5 therefore, you are only awarded points for S$10 of that transaction.
Final Thoughts:
- This card will be my third or fourth option if i burst the caps for my other cards. I would use it to shop for electronics/furnitures from places like Taobao Lazada, Shopee (do not use Shopee Pay), Amazon
- This card is useful to do overseas spending at Department stores, factory outlets with Amaze card, without incurring bank foreign currency fees of 3.25% but now, we just need to watch the monthly spending cap.
