Most Singapore miles cards charge an annual fee, and each year you face the same question: is it worth paying? It helps to split the cards into two groups.
Premium cards whose fee can’t be waived. Some popular choices include DBS Vantage (S$599.50), Citi Prestige (S$651.82) and OCBC Voyage (S$498). With these, you either pay every year or give up the card.
The “pay the fee, get bonus miles” offer, which is far more common. Most other cards credit you bonus miles if you pay: Citi PremierMiles gives 10,000 for S$196.20, and HSBC TravelOne gives 12,000. Here you have a choice each year — pay and take the miles, or ask the bank to waive the fee and forgo them.
Either way, the test is the same: work out what the fee costs you per mile, then weigh that against what the miles are worth to you. The rest of this guide does exactly that.
Quick Glossary
- Miles — points you swap for flights or cabin upgrades.
- mpd — miles per dollar spent. A 1.4 mpd card gives 1.4 miles for every dollar.
- Annual fee — a yearly charge for holding the card.
- Waive — having the bank cancel the fee, usually after you call and ask.
- Renewal miles — bonus miles for paying the fee rather than waiving it.
- Sign-up bonus — a one-off award of miles for opening a card and meeting a spend target.
- Cost per mile — what you pay for each mile. S$196.20 for 10,000 miles works out to 1.96¢. Lower is better.
- Your ceiling — the most you’re willing to pay for a mile. It’s a personal figure: some people will pay 2¢, others won’t go past 1.25¢. Mine is 1.25¢–1.5¢, the benchmark I use throughout.
How to Work Out Your Cost Per Mile
It comes down to a single figure — your cost per mile:
Cost per mile = Annual fee ÷ Miles you get for paying
Pay S$196.20 for 10,000 renewal miles, for instance, and you’re paying 1.96¢ a mile.
Count only the miles the fee actually buys you. Don’t spread it across the miles you earn from everyday spending, because you’d earn those on almost any card. They don’t make the fee any cheaper.
Bonus Miles for Paying: How the Cards Compare
The table below is a non-exhaustive list that divides each card’s fee by the bonus airline miles it gives you. Sometimes, banks use their own points in their communication (e.g. Citibank – Citi Miles or ThankYou Points). These have been accounted for and converted to miles for better comparison.
| Card Examples | Annual Fee | Bonus Miles for Paying | Cost Per Mile | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citi PremierMiles, DBS Altitude, OCBC 90°N, SC Journey | S$196.20 | 10,000 | 1.96¢ | Usually waive |
| Citi Prestige, DBS Vantage, OCBC Voyage | S$498 – 651.82 (non-waivable) | 15,000-32,000 | 2.04¢-3.32¢ | Only if you value the perks |
My evaluation:
- Every card sits above my own ceiling of 1.25¢–1.5¢ a mile.
- Where the fee can be waived, you usually should. If not, assess the value of the perks to see if it’s worthwhile
What Are the Miles Worth?
Bonus miles only pay off if you redeem them for more than they cost you to acquire — around 1.96¢ here. Whether you clear that bar depends largely on how you fly. Consider Singapore to San Francisco, one-way, on a KrisFlyer Saver award (the cash fares below are typical advance-purchase prices, which move around):
| SIN → SFO, one-way | Cash fare | On miles (Saver) | What the miles cost you* | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | ~S$900 | 44,000 miles + ~S$65 tax | ~S$925 | ~S$0 (may lose) |
| Business | ~S$5,000 | 112,500 miles + ~S$65 tax | ~S$2,270 | ~S$2,730 |
*Miles valued at 1.96¢ each, plus about S$65 in Singapore departure tax.
- Economy: about 1.9¢ a mile. You get back roughly what the miles cost you. At a cheaper ~S$600 fare it’s worse still, around 1.2¢ a mile — an outright loss.
- Business: about 4.4¢ a mile. More than double what the miles cost, and where they earn their keep.
The value trap: paying real money for miles, then redeeming them on economy seats worth about what you paid. You gain nothing. Miles beat cash in premium cabins.
Two caveats on the business figure:
- You need a Saver seat. That space is limited, and since November 2025 some dates offer only the pricier “Access” awards.
- The business class cash fare is inflated. The one-way cash value of a business ticket is usually expensive; book a return (cheaper per leg) and the saving is smaller, though still substantial.
So your ceiling rises with how well you redeem. If you regularly fly business, paying 1.96¢ for miles worth around 4.4¢ is a sound buy.
When It’s Worth Paying
Waiving annual fee is my default. Paying makes sense only when one of the following applies:
- You’ll fly business or first. Your miles are then worth around 4.4¢, which makes the roughly 2¢ you paid for them a clear bargain.
- The perks outweigh the fee. Count only what you’ll genuinely use: lounge access (about US$30 a visit), hotel status, or a sign-up bonus. I’d leave credit-card travel insurance out of it. If the perks come to more than the fee, the miles are a free extra.
- It’s your first year, with a sizeable sign-up bonus. Usually banks offer Welcome miles with annual fee waived in the first year. This is usually a good deal. You can always call them for an annual fee waiver from Year 2 onwards. For example, OCBC 90N and OCBC Rewards are currently offering sizeable miles bonus for new-to-OCBC credit card applicants for waivable annual fee and minimum spend of only S$400 within 30 days of card approval.
Requirements (tap to expand)
- You qualify if: you have no OCBC credit card right now
- Spend min. S$400 within 30 days of card approval
- SingSaver will email you a Rewards Redemption Form — check inbox (and spam folder) after applying. Fill it in within 14 days to claim your gift, or you'll lose it.
Requirements (tap to expand)
- You qualify if: you have no OCBC credit card right now
- Spend min. S$400 within 30 days of card approval
- SingSaver will email you a Rewards Redemption Form — check inbox (and spam folder) after applying. Fill it in within 14 days to claim your gift, or you'll lose it.
Worked Example: Citi PremierMiles Renewal
Suppose your renewal notice offers 10,000 miles if you pay the S$196.20 fee.
- Cost per mile: S$196.20 ÷ 10,000 = 1.96¢, which is above my ceiling.
- Cheaper elsewhere: paying a bill through CardUp/iPayMy on a 1.4 mpd card works out to about 1.26¢ with a 1.79% promotional service fee
- Perks: none worth counting.
The answer: waive. You keep the S$196.20, and you can earn those 10,000 miles elsewhere for around S$126. The same applies to DBS Altitude, OCBC 90°N and SC Journey.
Worked Example: Should You Get DBS Vantage?
The fee comes with 25,000 renewal miles plus the card’s perks.
- Cost of the renewal miles: S$599.50 ÷ 25,000 = 2.40¢ a mile.
- Perks: lounge access, 1-for-1 dining, travel insurance, hotel credits.
The answer: May be worth it if you’ll use the perks or regularly fly business; otherwise a poor trade.
Bottom Line
Paying an annual fee is just another way of buying miles — so price it that way. Across the Singapore cards it works out to 1.96¢–3.32¢ a mile: more than the miles are worth in economy (about 1.9¢), but a clear win if you redeem in business (about 4.4¢). So how you fly decides it. My default is to waive — the renewal miles rarely clear my ceiling, and I can pick the same miles up more cheaply elsewhere. I’ll pay only when premium redemptions, or perks I’ll genuinely use, make the cost worthwhile.
