Bank of China Family Card Review | What You Need To Know

Best Used on Dining and Movies Spends

• This card can earn a high cashback rate of 10% on lifestyle spends such as dining and movies. This can be used at any restaurants, cafes, and any movie theater in Singapore

• With the S$25 cashback per category, here is a strategy on how much to spend to hit the minimum spend and earn maximum cashback, yielding a 6.44% cashback with a minimum spend of S$800:

Best Used For Things on Exclusion List (Like Insurance, Taxes) Via Cardup or iPayMy

• This card can be used on commonly excluded spending such as hospitals, just make sure that the transaction is under MCC 8062, or else it will only earn 0.3% cashback. Since BOC Family Card specifically included hospitals on their earning categories, you can use your credit card to pay directly. Alternatively, you can use CardUp and iPayMy on other commonly excluded spendings like insurance or taxes— these platforms let you earn cashback or miles by charging a smaller fee. Basically, they will charge your credit card and help you pay off your insurance or tax payments and you get miles or cashback on your credit card. You can sign up for Cardup using my promo code: PINING,AGNESN515 (including the comma “,”) to get S$30 off your first payment. For iPayMy, you can use my link to get S$30 off of your first payment (if you sign up from the website itself, you only get $20 off as new user).
• Effective 1 January 2026, CardUp and iPayMy, along with commonly excluded MCCs will no longer be earning rewards. Read more below under “Past Buffs/Nerfs”.

Exclusion List:

• payments to government institutions and payments for government related services;
• payments to financial institutions (including banks and brokerages) and payment for financial services;
• utility bill payments;
• any form of donations
• payments of funds to prepaid accounts and merchants who are categorised as “payment service providers”;
• payments for parking lots;
• payments for cleaning, maintenance, and janitorial services;
• payments made via AXS and SAM; and
• any other transactions as determined by BOC from time to time.

Online Spend Exclusions:

Buffs:

• 10% cashback now includes food delivery (not just dining)
• New 3% cashback on:
  
  • Ride-hailing
  • Veterinary & pet expenses
• New 8% travel & entertainment category (e.g. online travel, overseas MYR/IDR spend)
• Insurance now earns 1% cashback
• Overall shift toward more practical, everyday spend categories

Nerfs:

Effective 10 May 2026:

• Movies (10% cashback) removed
• Family Club merchants (5%) removed (e.g. electronics, pharmacy partners)
• Insurance cashback reduced (~3% → 1%)
• Cashback caps (especially travel) remain relatively restrictive

Effective 01 January 2026:

• Cardup and iPayMy will no longer earn any rewards. This is because BOC explicitly stated it to be part of the exclusion list
• Top-ups for SimplyGo and ShopeePay will also be part of the exclusion list. However, note that you can still earn cashback on these two as long as they are direct payments and not top-up.
• Education-related MCCs are added to the exclusion list:
  • MCC 8211 – Elementary and Secondary Schools
  • MCC 8220 – Colleges, Universities, Professional Schools, and Junior Colleges
  • MCC 8241 – Correspondence Schools
  • MCC 8244 – Business and Secretarial Schools
  • MCC 8249 – Trade Schools, Vocational Schools
  • MCC 8299 – Schools and Educational Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)
• Telco transactions are also excluded, specifically MCC 4814
• Lastly, Charitable, religious, and political organisations are also included, specifically:
  • MCC 8398 & 8661 – Charitable/Religious Organizations
  • MCC 8651 – Political Organizations
  • MCC 8699 – Organizations, Membership-Not Elsewhere Classified (Labor Union) 
  • MCC 8999 – Professional Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)

Advantages:

• One of the highest cashback card for hospital bills with MCC 8062
• not too shabby cashback rate of 6.44%
• Able to earn cashback for insurance, tax or rent payments via Cardup or iPayMy – this will be excluded from 01 January 2026

Disadvantages:

• Minimum monthly spend of $800
• Application is archaic – need to print and send form
• CardUp and iPayMy, and more MCCs are excluded— not much for a card marketed to be earning rewards on commonly excluded categories

When is Cashback credited: It will be credited into the card account in the next billing cycle. And will be reflected on the monthly statement.

Read Terms and Conditions here