Overview:
Managing finances and bills can feel overwhelming. But did you know you can pay insurance with a credit card and earn cashback or miles in the process? This guide will show you direct and indirect methods to simplify your payments while maximizing your rewards.
👉 More guides on credit card benefits and financial tips
There are two methods:
- Direct Payment
- Indirect Payment
1. Direct Payment Method
After the recent nerf, you can now only earn a maximum of 100 miles per month on bill payments
Chocolate Visa Debit Card
Earn 1 mile per dollar on almost everything — including Insurance, Utilities, & Hospital Bills.
Only Bill Payments are capped at 100 miles per month, everything else earns uncapped.
2. Indirect Payment Method – Using CardUp or iPayMy to Earn Rewards
Even though you should always use the Choc Visa Debit Card first, you can only spend up to S$1,000 per calendar month to earn 2 miles per dollar. This is where we need this method.
As almost all credit cards exclude insurance payments to be eligible for any cashback or miles, or insurance providers do not accept credit card payments, there are ways to earn some rewards indirectly.
CardUp/iPayMy, a third-party service, is one such service that allows you to pay insurance (except NTUC income) with your credit card and earn rewards like cashback or miles by paying a small fee.
Who is this for:
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- Those who want to claim business class flights because it will not worth it for economy flights
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💡 Related Guide: Best Credit Card for EV Charging
How CardUp Works:
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- CardUp charges your credit card for the tax amount + a fee.
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- They handle the bank transfer to the company’s business account for you.
Sample Computation:
Say, you pay for a S$1,000 transaction, if there is a 2% admin fee charged by Cardup, and you are using the OCBC 90N Visa with earn rate of 1.3 miles per dollar.
To get the cost per mile:
(amount x admin fee) / [amount x (1 + admin fee) x earn rate]
S$1,000 x 0.02 = S$20 service fee
S$1,000 x (1+0.02) x 1.3 miles per dollar = 1,326 miles
= 20/1,326 = 0.015 cost per mile
You will be getting 1,326 miles with a S$20 service fee payment, on top of your original S$1,000 transaction.
Beyond 1.50 cents per mile, it might not be worth using Cardup, in my humble opinion.
Maximize Rewards as a First-Time User:
Maximise your first transaction with these promo codes:
For example, if your transaction is S$3,000, break the payment into two via each platform.
- Cardup: Use NICHOLASN116 (including the comma “,”) for S$30 off your first payment (optimal payment: S$1154). Alternatively, if you have large payments, use code “LOBANGSIS” to get discounted 1.79% fee on up to S$5K on your first payment with a Visa card
- iPayMy: Sign up with ipaymy for an account to get S$30 off (optimal payment: S$1,250)
Afterwhich, you can leverage on the existing time-sensitive promotions which i will share in my telegram channel if there is a good deal.
UOB PRVI Card
Earn 1.4 miles per dollar on local spend and up to 3 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
4 Priority Pass visits per calendar year
Citi Prestige Card
Earn 1.3 miles per dollar on local spend and 2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
12 Priority Pass visits per calendar year
DBS Vantage Card
Earn 1.5 miles per dollar (or 1.5% cashback) on local spend, 2.2 miles per dollar (or 2.2% cashback) on foreign currency spend
10 Priority Pass visits per membership year
DBS Altitude Card
Earn 1.3 miles per dollar on local spend and 2.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
2 Priority Pass visits per membership year (Visa version only)
Citi PremierMiles Card
Earn 1.2 miles per dollar on local spend and 2.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
2 Priority Pass visits per calendar year
OCBC 90N Card
Earn 1.3 miles per dollar on local spend and 2.1 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
How to Pay Insurance via CardUp:
- Sign Up for an account
2. Schedule a payment by selecting Insurance category
3. Select the recipient, you have two options:
- pre-loaded providers – if your insurance provider is on the list, click them directly
- add new recipient – if your insurance provider is not liste
4. Fill out details such as payment amount, choose the card and select “Standard payment”
5. Make a monthly recurring payment or one-time payment.
6. Key in your policy reference number, enter promo code below and click “Continue“
• For new users, use code: NICHOLASN116 for S$30 off your first payment to maximise your rewards, or if you have large payments, use code “LOBANGSIS” to get discounted 1.79% fee on up to S$5K on your first payment with a Visa card
7. Submit your documents to verify payment
After all that, you’re good to go!
*Some photos and Information are from cardup.co
How to pay your insurance with your credit card via iPayMy:
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Sign Up for an account on iPayMy to get S$30 off
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On the dashboard’s upper right, click “Make a Payment”, then select “Insurance”
3. Enter the details for your insurance bill
4. Choose the Schedule Type whether One-Time or Recurring
5. Choose your Payment Date based on the day your provider needs to receive your payment
6. On the Payment Details screen, you’ll choose the saved credit card you’d like to use, and the standard ipaymy fee will be shown.
7. If you signed up via my referral link, you should have an email (check spam/junk mail) that looks like this, with the promo code that you should enter.
8. Once you applied the code, you should see S$30 deducted off the service fee. And, you’re done!
*Some photos and Information are from ipaymy.com
Final Thoughts:
For best value, use your Chocolate Finance card for payments up to S$100 if the merchant accepts Visa. Otherwise, CardUp or iPayMy are your go-to options. You can make use of iPayMy’s new user promotions and earn miles.
If you are a miles chaser, you can go for the UOB PRVI Miles Card via CardUp because this is an entry level miles card with waivable annual fee with the lowest cost per mile.
💳 Credit cards change their T&Cs every so often and it is difficult to stay updated. That’s why I created a Telegram Broadcast where you can receive timely bite-sized updates to get the most out of your spending.
💡 We believe in always paying our credit card bills on time and in full. It is only by doing that, can we fully maximise our credit card benefits.
