How Buy Now Pay Later Works
Buy Now Pay Later platforms pay the full amount to the merchant upfront. You pay the platform back in instalments (e.g. 3 months). This payment is then charged to your credit card.
But there’s a catch: many banks exclude recurring payments or in-house instalments from rewards. Since BNPLs are third-party platforms, they often escape that rule—if you trigger the payments manually.
Different BNPL Platforms have different ways of working and different MCC, therefore these are the most recommended ones that have been tried and tested.
Pro Tips to Maximise Rewards
Check MCC (Merchant Category Code)
Atome usually codes as MCC 5999 (Misc. & Specialty Retail). Some banks allow points for this, others don’t.
Manual Payment = Better Rewards
Avoid auto-deductions—trigger each payment via app to avoid being flagged as “recurring.”
Track Your Caps
Most rewards cards have monthly limits on bonus categories. Use BNPL platforms for high-ticket items within your cap.
Best Cards to Use with Atome
Miles Cards
Best Practice: Manual Payment – Especially with Atome, manually trigger your 2nd and 3rd payments via the app. Auto-payments might be flagged as recurring bills and won’t earn rewards.
You would want to choose to “Pay in 3” as longer installment plans would incur extra charges. There are often vouchers on the app that you can use to offset the cost further.
A quick heads-up for those using these cards: Citi Rewards can be unpredictable — some users report that even after manually triggering their payments, the rewards don’t always get credited, while others have had no issues at all.
Meanwhile, for the DBS Woman’s World Card, even when payments are manually triggered, the transactions might first show up as recurring, but they typically update to online after some time.
HSBC Revolution Card
Earn 4 miles per dollar on selected online and contactless spend (until 31 March 2026)
Citi Rewards Card
Earn 4 miles per dollar on online spend and selected retail
UOB Krisflyer Card
Earn uncapped 3 miles per dollar on SIA group spend and 2.4 miles per dollar on dining, online shopping, transport & select travel with min. S$1,000 SIA spend/year.
Cashback Cards
UOB Evol Card
Earn max possible 6.36% cashback on all online and mobile contactless spend and gym, telco, and streaming services
AMEX True Cashback Card
Earn 1.5% unlimited cashback on almost everything
Best Card to Use with Grab PayLater
Grab PayLater gives you two main ways to manage your spending: you can either pay the full amount the following month or split your purchase into instalments of 4, 8, or 12 months. The 4-month plan is interest-free, while the longer 8- and 12-month plans come with a small processing fee. Therefore, choose the interest free option. All transactions are tagged under MCC 6540, which is excluded by almost every credit card.
The big catch with Grab PayLater is that payments must go through your GrabPay Wallet balance. This means you’ll need to top up your wallet first, and since credit card top-ups to GrabPay generally don’t earn rewards, you miss out on miles, cashback, or points. In contrast to platforms like Atome, Grab PayLater isn’t ideal for stacking credit card rewards — it works better as a cashflow management tool.
For this, UOB Absolute Cashback Card is on of the very few that offers anything on GrabPay top-ups, though you can only earn 0.3% cashback.
Best Card to Use with Shopee PayLater
As mentioned earlier, Citi Rewards can be a bit unreliable and inconsistent. When using it with Shopee PayLater, it’s best to manually pay your balance before the due date — avoid letting the auto payment go through on its own. Just keep in mind that Shopee PayLater adds an extra S$1 fee for each manual payment.
Also, for OCBC Rewards— the 6 miles per dollar promo for Shopee transactions run only until 31 December 2025, so make sure to use it while it’s still around.
Update: It was reported on my Telegram channel that Shopee PayLater transactions may have been changed under a different MCC (MCC 6540). If this is accurate, the cards mentioned below would no longer be eligible for rewards on such transactions.
Final Thoughts
When used wisely, BNPL platforms like Atome, Shopee PayLater and Grab PayLater can stretch your cashflow and rack up credit card rewards, while keeping it interest free. The key is knowing which card to use and how to pay.
However, as usual, it is very important to check the Merchant Category Code for every transaction.
